Liberal senators have accused the ABC of “grooming children” and allowing employees to “run rogue” on social media in a fiery and at times chaotic Senate estimates hearing.
South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic made the claim about grooming over a Play School segment that featured drag queen Courtney Act reading a story about dressing up.
The claim was rejected by ABC management.
“Why is the ABC grooming children with this sort of adult content?” Antic told the Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Antic’s language was “deeply, deeply offensive”.
“Grooming is a really serious matter. It is not for being played with by conservative senators to make headlines.”
The ABC’s managing director David Anderson denied the accusation, saying “we are not grooming Australian children”.
“What we are doing, that is about dressing up,” he said.
Also during the hearing, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said the ABC’s social media policy was “broken” after Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan and radio producer Katie Hamann live-tweeted their responses to Henderson’s claims in the Senate.
Haven't had time to see if @SenSHenderson has corrected the record after suggested we had 9 producers working on @RNDrive because I've been too busy prepping an interview for tonight's show, two hours before my rostered start time. Suffice to say she's wrong #AusPol
— Katie Hamann (@katiehamann) November 8, 2022
“This is why your social media guidelines are a complete joke,” Henderson, the shadow minister for communications, said to Anderson.
“This is why they are broken, because you are letting your employees run rogue on social media.”
Hamann, the acting executive producer of RN Drive, was responding to a claim by Henderson that at one stage the program hosted by Andy Park had nine producers.
The ABC told Guardian Australia this claim was incorrect. RN Drive, which produces 95 minutes of current affairs each weekday, has four producers and two of them job share.
Anderson, who said staff’s Twitter accounts are personal and the ABC takes no responsibility for them, responded: “It’s not a joke”.
I challenge Senator Henderson to repeat these false claims outside parliament.
— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) November 7, 2022
Henderson also asked Anderson about a speech Milligan gave to a women’s legal event in Canberra last month, which has been the subject of several articles in the Australian newspaper.
Milligan’s speech to the ACT Bar Association, which has not been released publicly, reflected on the impact of traumatic cross-examination on vulnerable complainants of sexual crimes.
Stories in the Australian and Henderson claimed it upset some of the female lawyers who attended.
Milligan also posted several tweets disputing what Henderson said about her, claiming it was “completely fictitious”. “And the opposite of what I said in my speech”.
“This is the second time she has told something to parliament about me that is completely inaccurate.”
When Henderson was made aware of Milligan’s tweets she asked Anderson to comment on them, but he refused.
The ABC backed Milligan by releasing a statement listing examples of her journalism and a raft of awards, including I Am That Girl, a Four Corners report which led to changes in NSW consent laws.
“Louise Milligan is one of Australia’s most experienced and awarded journalists and her work has added enormously to the public good of this nation,” a spokesperson said. “The ABC’s journalists are held to the highest standards and subjected to the closest scrutiny of any in this country.
“The ABC feels it’s necessary to put this information on the record as it’s so often overlooked in the commentary and reporting on Ms Milligan.”
The estimates hearing had to be suspended twice because senators were shouting over each other.
Liberal Senator Alex Antic at ABC Estimates actually asked "Why does having a diverse workforce improve the output of the ABC?"
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) November 8, 2022
Anderson earlier refused to provide the pay details of the organisation’s highest-paid staff, claiming public interest immunity.
Henderson said there were no grounds for the ABC to make a public interest immunity claim and a similar claim from Australia Post had been rejected.
Henderson claimed there is “a lot of concern within the ABC about the inequitable allocation of resources”.
“There are some programs and divisions that are completely impoverished and others that are overflowing with staff”, and she cited RN Drive as an example.
“I don’t think there are areas at the ABC that are overflowing with staff,” Anderson replied.
The committee stopped broadcasting to hold a private hearing to consider the public interest immunity claim but failed to resolve the issue.
The hearing continues.
