On Monday, Media Watch revealed state-based current affairs programs would be scrapped after an additional $50 million in cuts a year – on top of a $9 million cut in the federal budget – likely to result in the loss of up to 500 jobs by Christmas and tighter budgets for Lateline.

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said it was a "really sad day" and local content would suffer should the program be cancelled.

"We have watched the ABC have expenditure cuts over the last year and now we're seeing further cuts that will impact on loved local programming and local content," she said.

"The national capital has been well served by the local ABC particularly through programs like 7.30 where you get local content ... specifically focused on local issues and exploring them to a greater degree."

Ms Gallagher expected Canberrans to "rally strongly behind the ABC" and attend demonstrations in support of the public broadcaster through the week.

"When I started in politics we had three commercial news stations running nightly news and the ABC and obviously The Canberra Times," she said.

"Overtime we've seen decisions – usually expenditure related – that have cut that local content. I don't think it's enhanced local reporting at all."

In late October, an ABC source said the staff –reporter and presenter Chris Kimball, reporter Adrienne Francis and long-time producer Patricia Barraclough – were pessimistic about the show returning after the summer break.

The staff, who are supported by camera and editor crews on rotation from the newsroom, were said to be frustrated that after 14 years their show would be axed when it enjoyed the best audience share of all the state-based programs.

Catherine Garrett, a former Canberra-based reporter for ABC Stateline and current affairs programs, said the decision to axe the program was a "huge loss for broadcasting and Canberra".

"Credit really needs to be given to Patricia [Barraclough] who is an absolute giant of broadcast – she was one of Kerry O'Brien's producers and one of the co-creators of Australian Story," she said.

"She produced those shows on the smell of an oily rag and really listened to the community – giving the people without a voice a say.

"To have had the opportunity to work with someone of her calibre and talent and generosity of spirit was a privilege"

According to Media Watch, ABC radio budgets will also be cut $6 million, with television production in South Australia to be ceased and news bureaus in Tokyo, Bangkok, New Delhi and New Zealand scaled back.

But Mr Turnbull has said the cuts – which would average about 5 per cent over five years, or almost $50 million a year – were reasonable and part of a government-wide savings program.

"I've gone to considerable pains to ensure that the ABC is well able to deliver these savings without cutting into the resources available for programming," he told an ABC Q&A audience.

"Anyone here who is in business, who has been in business, particularly anyone who has been in the media business, in the private sector, that could not manage to find 5 per cent out of efficiencies is not even trying."

ACT opposition leader Jeremy Hanson encouraged ABC management to "look for savings elsewhere rather than cutting local news programs like 7.30".

"The local ACT 7.30 program has been a wonderful and unique part of Canberra's media landscape and it would be a tragedy to see go," he said.

"Chris Kimball and the 7.30 team have done an excellent job."

Dr Caroline Fisher, a journalism lecturer at the University of Canberra and former ABC reporter in Canberra, said the funding cuts would be "disastrous for the supply of quality in-depth television coverage of local issues in the ACT".

"It isn't clear whether there will be any job losses from the Northbourne studio at this point," she said.

"Local staff are hoping their colleagues in 7.30 might be absorbed into the news operation, but that is still uncertain.

"If they are not accommodated in the newsroom, the ABC will lose a number of senior talented journalists, editors and producers who have dedicated themselves to providing quality coverage of issues important to the ACT region."

Professor Brian McNair, a journalism academic at the University of Queensland, said cancelling state-based 7.30 programs could undermine the public broadcaster's strong reputation.

"The ABC is extremely valued in Australia for its regional news and current affairs coverage and in many regional places, it's the only organisation providing substantive coverage," he said.

"The ABC makes a huge impact and contribution to these areas so cutting that element of its news and current affairs coverage seems to be flying in the face of what the ABC's strengths are.

"Australia needs strong regional journalism and anything that damages that has to be looked at very carefully."

The ABC's Northbourne compound has 46 local editorial staff working across radio, TV, and online for ABC News and 666 ABC Canberra seven days a week.

A public rally will be held outside the ABC's office on Northbourne Avenue at 8.30am on Thursday and Fraser Labor MP Andrew Leigh will address the crowd.