“With Pauline Hanson riding high in the polls, and with known adversity to the ABC, now is not the time for such incandescently stupid own-goals” Political columnist  ROBERT McMAHON  says Aunty needs to get our trust back.

We’ve all had a favourite aunty; that trusted presence in our life; someone who could always be relied upon to unfailingly send a birthday card with a banknote therein and bestow a warm hug.

It is perhaps for this familial connection, this constancy, that Australians have always called our national broadcaster, the ABC, “Aunty”.

There was a time in Australian broadcasting that Aunty played a major role in our lives. It broadcast agenda-setting and richly entertaining content, and held to account politicians from both sides who were practised in “feeding the chooks” and repelling unsavoury questions. The ABC’s forensic journalism was often an antidote for such political resistance.

But over the last decade, the ABC’s broadcast audience has substantially declined. From the year 2015-16 until 2023-24, ABC metro TV audience has gone from 9.2 million (55 per cent) to 6.6 million (36 per cent).

How is consumption measured? Five – yes five – continuous minutes of viewing within a 24-hour period. Now, of course, the ABC would quite rightly say that such figures are limited as many have changed their media consumption patterns from watching broadcast TV to on-demand streaming and podcasts. 

But such an explanation would too blithely ignore the broader issues at play here. And that is, that something is seemingly happening in the relationship between our national broadcaster and its audience – between Aunty and her nephews and nieces – and it is damaging our trust in the ABC.

To this point, the ABC did something recently that caught my attention. In a broadcast TV show, Race Around the World, it featured a participant’s self-made skit within which mining magnate, Gina Reinhardt, was raped, tortured and killed “making her into one big sausage roll, to make something outta nothing”. 

Following a torrent of complaint, the ABC did what the modern ABC seemingly does best. It obfuscated and hid behind the veil of editorial guidelines.

Asked whether the skit was acceptable, Communications Minister Anneka Wells said while she personally found it “unacceptable”, the ABC had “editorial independence” and was satisfied the broadcaster had referred the matter to its so-called independent ABC Ombudsman.

After the Ombudsman found the “clearly satirical” piece “did not breach the ABC’s editorial policies”, Reinhardt not unreasonably threatened legal action, naming the ABC chairman and MD as potential respondents.

After further reflection, in which senior ABC mandarins may well have engaged in introspection involving thoughts of prolonged cross-examination by a KC, the ABC issued a curt apology to Reinhardt “and to anyone else affected or upset” acknowledging the program “failed to meet community standards”.

You think?!

“Failed to meet community standards”! In what world would content, based on the rape, torture and murder of a known and named woman be deemed anywhere close to meeting editorial guidelines? And what sort of judgment was applied by the “independent” ABC Ombudsman to have originally found the skit to satisfy those guidelines?

In circumstances where the ABC has clearly got it so very wrong, it is all too easy for it, and indeed the government, to hide behind the veil of “editorial independence”. With independence also comes responsibility; and for too long, the ABC has enjoyed the former without commensurately bearing the latter. 

At this point, it’s worth noting that while the ABC’s originating legislation requires its board to “maintain the independence and integrity of the Corporation”, the ABC is also an almost fully publicly-funded entity, a “material organisation”, under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act. Section 25 imposes on entities’ personnel a “duty” to “exercise his or her powers, perform his or her functions and discharge his or her duties with the degree of care and diligence that a reasonable person would exercise” in the official’s place.

While ABC management have been keen to trot out the first bit of the statutory equation – the ABC’s statutory independence – they’ve seemingly been a bit loath to also acknowledge its statutory duties of care – including those of their staff as “officials of a Commonwealth entity”. 

And the result of this one-sided instinct to resist, repel and defend has all too frequently been serious editorial missteps in content that have undermined the community’s confidence.

With Pauline Hanson riding high in the polls, and with known adversity to the ABC, now is not the time for such incandescently stupid own-goals. Rather, the ABC needs to re-discover its mojo quickly to re-build confidence with the Australian public. A good start would surely not be broadcasting programs featuring ideation of the rape and murder of named Australian women.

Dr Robert McMahon PSM is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, adjunct professor at the University of Canberra, and a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

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