The ABC’s news director, Justin Stevens, says Laura Tingle’s remarks at the Sydney writers’ festival did not meet the ABC’s editorial standards and she has been counselled.
But in a lengthy statement, Tingle, the chief political correspondent of 7.30, stood by her comments, while acknowledging they lacked context and nuance in a “free-flowing” panel discussion.
“I wasn’t saying every Australian is a racist,” Tingle said in the 1,400-word statement published on the ABC’s corporate website. “But we clearly have an issue with racism. For some months now, for example, The Australian newspaper has been devoting considerable space to its alarm about a rise in Anti-Semitism in Australia.
“I regret that when I was making these observations at the Writers’ Festival the nature of the free-flowing panel discussion means they were not surrounded by every quote substantiating them which would have – and had – been included in what I had said earlier on the ABC.”
On Sunday, while discussing the Coalition’s plans to cut immigration, Tingle said: “We are a racist country, let’s face it. We always have been, and it’s very depressing.”
Murdoch outlets pounced on the comments, with The Australian newspaper claiming on its front page on Tuesday that the ABC was holding an emergency board meeting, which the broadcaster denied.
In a statement, Stevens said Tingle had been reminded to abide by ABC editorial standards at external events.
“Laura Tingle’s remarks at the Sydney Writers’ Festival at the weekend lacked the context, balance and supporting information of her work for the ABC and would not have met the ABC’s editorial standards,” he said.
“Although the remarks were conversational, and not made in her work capacity, the ABC and its employees have unique obligations in the Australian media.
“Laura has been reminded of their application at external events as well as in her work and I have counselled her over the remarks.”
In her statement, Tingle said since the budget was delivered the political debate had focused on the opposition’s budget reply and Peter Dutton’s pledge to cut migration to deal with the housing crisis.
“In my writing and broadcasts over the past two weeks I have observed on several occasions that there were considerable dangers for the way our political discourse would unfold – and for social harmony – in linking migration to the housing crisis,” she said.
“As the alternative Prime Minister, with an election approaching within a year, Mr Dutton’s comments deserve rigorous scrutiny and examination.”
Tingle said her reference to Dutton blaming everything that’s going wrong in this country on migrants was an attempt to summarise and was not intended to imply he had said that verbatim.
“If I had been speaking on an ABC platform, or not in a five-way discussion, I would have provided all that context, as I do in my stories for the ABC,” she said.
“Without even going into the historic record, there is also ample evidence that racism remains a particular problem in our legal and policing systems,” Tingle said. “A coronial inquest underway in the Northern Territory has become mired in an expose of racism in the NT’s elite policing unit. Racism and racial profiling repeatedly show up as an issue of concern in our policing and justice systems.
“Political leaders, by their comments, give licence to others to express opinions they may not otherwise express,” Tingle added.
“That does not make them racist.
“But it has real world implications for many Australians.”
Tingle said her remarks had created the opportunity for “yet another anti-ABC pile-on”, which was not “helpful to me or to the ABC”.
Stevens said Tingle was “one of Australia’s most experienced, knowledgeable and accomplished journalists” and has “always sought to better inform Australians by cutting through the politics that often alienates them”.
The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, will appear before Senate estimates on Thursday.
