ABC chief Mark Scott says the corporation will continue to negotiate with staff over planned cuts to Radio National's programming.
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The cuts have enraged the Community and Public Sector Union, which says they threaten to undermine the ABC's commitment to its charter.
CPSU public broadcasting lead organiser Sinddy Ealy said that during the past 18 months, 16 arts positions in TV and 12 at Radio National had been cut.
The union says that since Art Nation was cut from ABC TV, there are no longer any programs focused purely on the arts, despite the charter committing the network ''to encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia''.
''It's our view that they're not meeting their arts commitment under the charter,'' Ms Ealy said. ''It's the death by 1000 cuts scenario.''
Last month the ABC announced it would cut 11 staff and seven programs from Radio National, saving $1 million a year.
But Mr Scott told a Senate inquiry yesterday the ABC continued to negotiate with staff about cuts.
''We're only going out to a consultative process now and I assure you that there's been a very extensive consultation that's been taking place with staff this year.''
Mr Scott said that in the long term, staffing levels in 2013 would be ''much the same'' as previous years.
The hearing was told public broadcasters should not have to strive for equal air time of views when reporting issues where consensus was overwhelming.
For example, Labor Senator Doug Cameron said when broadcasters were canvassing issues such as global warming, where scientific consensus was overwhelming, they should not have to offer equal air time to global warming deniers.
''The first thing is we do follow the weight of evidence,'' Mr Scott said, adding that the ABC strove for balance in all it did.
But Liberal Senator Eric Abetz accused the ABC of allowing its staff to pursue bias, and with fellow Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald called for ''soft interviews of Julia Gillard'' to end.
Senator Abetz called for senior ABC foreign correspondent Eric Campbell to be subject to ''swift'' action over a Twitter joke, which referred to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's chief of staff: ''Complete this joke: Tony Abbott's COS and a mussel walk into a bar,'' Campbell wrote. '''Ouch! That hurt' said the mussel. 'Why didn't you duck?' said the chief of staff.''
Mr Scott said he would look into the matter.
