UPDATE ... Nearly 500 signatures already! The pressure is working - the Australian government says they will look at the cut in the New Year. Keep momentum going - keep sharing this petition. ... NEWS Australian Foreign Affairs minister Julie Bishop has confirmed awareness of concerns over a planned cut to radio shortwave signal to the island region. “I am aware of concerns regarding more remote parts of the Pacific where alternative services may not be readily available,” Bishop said in a statement to SBS. “These concerns have been shared with the ABC and the Australian Government will seek an update in the New Year.” Bishop's confirmation comes after a pressure group, Friends of the ABC, reported this petition being signed by Cook Islands Prime Minister, Henry Puna, among nearly 500 others. Another notable voice from the Pacific was that of the Vanuatu Trade Commissioner to Australia, Donald Pelam, who termed the decision to cut shortwave broadcasts a "disaster". Meanwhile, That decision is still prompting widespread debate, not just in the Pacific, or the northern territory of Australia which is also losing shortwave service, but among radio supporters worldwide. One enthusiast, Rob Wagner, questioned whether an ABC appointment of a former executive from the Murdoch media empire showed government showed hostility to public radio. "The pressure is mounting but we are not convinced that the ABC is listening, or listening with any understanding," says Wagner. "Could it be that Michelle Guthrie, as a former employee at Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation group of companies, just doesn't think that the little people in society really matter?" MORE Bishop presses ABC on Pacific ‘concerns’ over shortwave radio cut http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/12/22/bishop-presses-abc-pacific-concerns-over-shortwave-radio-cut Pacific leaders join shortwave fight https://www.abcfriends.org.au/index.php/2016/12/20/pacific-leaders-join-shortwave-fight/ Youtube pleas to save ABC shortwave https://medxr.blogspot.co.nz/2016/12/youtube-pleas-to-abc-save-shortwave.html?view=classic . . .