'Frisky' MP now doesn't want ABC sell-off

The cabinet minister responsible for the ABC insists he doesn't believe the national broadcaster should be privatised.

But he could have raised the idea when he was a self-described "frisky backbencher".

Senator Mitch Fifield confirmed he gave a lecture in 2008 to the Australian Adam Smith Club entitled 'Fiscal contraception: Erecting barriers to impulsive spending'.

"I was a slightly frisky backbencher in those days," he told a Senate committee on Wednesday.

But these days he's a minister.

"You are at a point where you have a different role in the political firmament," he said.

A copy of the speech on his website shows he once saw merit in proposals to privatise the ABC and Australia Post.

But it is not a view he has now.

Senator Fifield confirmed he is still a member of the Institute of Public Affairs, but said Australians can trust him with the ABC.

Senior fellows at the IPA have penned a book calling on the government to privatise the broadcaster, to be released later this month.

"I don't see myself as a delegate of the IPA in this place as I know some members of your caucus see themselves when it comes to the trade unions that they're members of," Senator Fifield said to Labor senator Kristina Keneally.