The ABC and its former ‘independent’ frontline talent are deeply involved in promoting The Voice. Among other roles with the national broadcaster, Leigh Sales and Kerry O’Brien have both worn the privileged crown as hosts of the ABC’s 7.30 Report. Both are now heavily ensconced in promoting the Yes case for the Voice Referendum.
It is their choice to do so as individuals.
However, they err in either the use of public money to support their activism, as is the case for Mr O’Brien, or in Ms Sales’ case, the instruction of ABC journalists to insist, within their work, that the Uluru Statement From The Heart is just a one-page document.
It is a 26-page document which the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, admits he has not read.
Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, said the debate is the most important the nation has faced and deserves higher standards.
“Kerry O’Brien recently spoke at a Yes campaign meeting organised by the Borough of Queenscliffe.
“The first error was the $4,000 of ratepayers’ funds spent by the Council on arguing only one side of the Voice debate.
“The second error was paying $1,300 of that to fly Mr O’Brien to the event.
“If Mr O’Brien, the co-author of the Voice to Parliament Handbook, wants to promote the Yes vote – he should either pay for it himself or tap into the tens of millions of dollars donated to the Yes campaign – and leave the funds of Queenscliff ratepayers well alone,” Mrs McArthur said.
On the matter of Ms Sales, Mrs McArthur said the ABC need not look to their former journalist for advice, but to the ABC Charter which requires the organisation to be independent.
“If the ABC were independent, it would look at the facts – the very simple facts – and see that the Uluru Statement From The Heart is a 26-page document, effectively minimised to a one-page cover note”, Mrs McArthur adds.
It is an open secret that on Federal election night last year, Mr Albanese committed his government to implementing the Statement From The Heart in full.
In full can only mean all 26 pages of grievance and victimhood statements with all roads leading to Treaty, ‘Truth Telling’, reparations and an evergreen portion of
GDP directed towards the Indigenous population: ‘Paying the Rent’ is the activists’ colloquial term.
It is also public knowledge and in the public domain that many of the lead protagonists in the Yes campaign, including Megan Davis, have previously said that the Uluru Statement is not a one-page document. Pat Anderson, the co-chair of the Referendum Council has stated similarly.
“These are the people who have been part of writing the Statement. They know exactly what it is – and for Ms Sales to blot-out an uncomfortable truth, is rather shameful and certainly not ‘independent’,” adds Mrs McArthur.
It is significant to mention that the ABC’s own Media Watch has supported Peta Credlin’s argument that the Statement is a multi-page document.
The ABC is a government funded organization, taking Australian tax payers’ hard-earned money. It should not be spent on partisan – political issues in complete dereliction of their duty to present the truth as it is.
“I condemn the politically motivated waste of ratepayer money by Queenscliff’s Council, but at least residents there can vote out the councillors. Perhaps it is time we moved to a system where taxpayers had the same option with the ABC, namely, those who wish to watch this stuff foot the bill, not the rest of us.
“If you love it, pay for it. “In the meantime, public money should be spent judiciously,” Mrs McArthur said.