The Australian Broadcasting Company has shut down two channels aimed at children, saying that the government had not funded the broadcaster sufficiently and that cuts needed to be made. “ABC managing director Russell Balding told a Senate estimates committee in Canberra that apart from the children’s channels, up to $25 million in programming or jobs would be be cut by mid-year. “I don’t cry wolf. This is very serious. The ABC needs to be properly funded, and when we put the arguments to the Government that we needed additional funding for content it was not a matter of crying wolf – it was serious.”