Liberal senator Sarah Henderson is demanding an urgent Senate inquiry into the ABC, claiming the public broadcaster’s editorial division has been allowed to run wild and is no longer “fit for purpose” as a taxpayer-funded source of trusted news and current affairs.
Senator Henderson – a Walkley Award-winning former ABC journalist – gave notice in the upper house in Canberra on Monday that she intended to push ahead with calls for an investigation into the public broadcaster and refer the matter to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee this week.
“There have been too many times when the ABC has failed the impartiality test,” Senator Henderson told The Australian.
“The ABC’s editorial independence is subject to its statutory obligation to disseminate news and information impartially and accurately.
“The Albanese government has shown no interest in holding our national broadcaster to account when it falls short of the highest standards of journalism.
“It is clear the ABC Act is not fit for purpose which is why a Senate inquiry into these matters is so important.”
Senator Henderson said a string of successive controversies engulfing the ABC’s news division had threatened to irrevocably erode the public’s confidence in the once-trusted outlet.
“Just in recent weeks, we’ve seen the doctoring of a photograph featuring Jane Hume on Insiders and the hectoring of Sussan Ley in an interview on the 7.30 program,” she said.
“Four Corners has not explained why it deleted key lines of President Trump’s speech in a program on the Capitol riots, the same editing decision made by the BBC which led to the demise of two executives.
Read the article by Steve Jackson and James Madden in The Australian.