The ABC has severed ties with ACON following The Australian’s explosive revelations that the group influenced its news coverage and programming for years.
The ABC has abandoned its partnership with ACON following revelations by The Australian that the broadcaster’s news and programming had been heavily influenced by the radical agenda of the trans lobby group.
The move comes four months after this masthead exposed a string of cases in which the broadcaster’s independence was compromised by its membership of ACON’s Pride in Diversity and workplace benchmarking schemes, with the ABC winning points and awards for “positive programming”.
Further documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws last month showed how the ABC won platinum status with ACON after pledging to use its unique position to push the advocacy group’s agenda in its on-air journalism and programming.
Former ABC’s managing director David Anderson had already won Pride in Diversity’s “CEO of the Year” award.
The Australian is still seeking more than a dozen documents submitted by the ABC to score points in ACON’s “workplace equality” scheme that it has refused to hand over, despite its obligations under FOI legislation.
In an internal newsletter circulated to some staff this week, the ABC said it had conducted an assessment of its external partnerships and concluded some were “no longer providing sufficient value” to the organisation.
ABC management was also ending relationships with the Australian Disability Network and the Diversity Council of Australia and reviewing other partnerships, the circular said, thereby “ensuring that our standards of independence are maintained”.
Asked whether the ABC now acknowledged that its relationship with ACON had damaged its editorial and programming integrity, the ABC told The Australian on Wednesday that the review of workplace partnerships had “affirmed we are meeting our obligations of editorial independence and impartiality”.
The ABC “remains committed to diversity and inclusion and will redirect funding to internal initiatives”, the spokesperson said.
The withdrawal from ACON follows an acknowledgment by ABC managing director Hugh Mr Marks that The Australian’s revelations had raised serious issues.
“I think the article (in The Australian) asked the right question,” he said in December. “And the right question is, in case of that (links with ACON) or any relationship that we have with an organisation, has there been any impact on our editorial process?”
Mr Marks confirmed at a Senate inquiry in December that the ABC’s relationship with ACON would be reviewed following multiple complaints by women’s groups and gay and lesbian groups that ABC coverage of trans issues had been infected by bias.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson welcomed the decision on Wednesday but said it was “regrettable” it took reporting by The Australian and repeated questioning by the Coalition in Senate estimates “for common sense to prevail”.
“It is extraordinary that Australia’s most prominent trans lobby group was allowed to permeate the ABC with its radical gender ideology agenda,” Senator Henderson said.
“The national broadcaster should not be making deals with any activist group or cause which only serves to undermine editorial independence and create an indefensible perception of bias.”
Particularly worrying for critics was a failure of ABC news and current affairs programs to report on the growing scientific and medical challenges to “gender-affirming” medical intervention for children and teens.
Several prominent ABC journalists, including those who have reported favourably on gender-affirming medical care, have hosted ACON’s Pride events.
In Britain, the BBC withdrew from a similar partnership with charity Stonewall in 2021 over concerns that the relationship had damaged its integrity.
Previously known as the AIDS Council of NSW, ACON changed direction under a plan by its then director of community health, Teddy Cook, switching its focus from gay health to trans rights.
As the nation’s self-appointed arbiter of “workplace inclusion” for trans employees, ACON boasts that more than 500 member employers –including Australia’s largest government agencies, public and private companies, universities and research organisations – had signed up to its trans rights agenda.
Like other Pride in Diversity members, the ABC has spent tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of staff time implementing ACON’s workplace demands, changing computer systems to allow non-binary titles like Mx, building all-gender bathrooms and offering “gender affirmation leave”.
Documents obtained under FOI showed how the ABC scored extra points in ACON’s Australian Workplace Equality Index because its journalists and content-makers would often reach out to the broadcaster’s ACON-supported Pride Network advisory group.
The journalists wanted to “gain guidance on a piece of content they are working on and ensure they address any questions associated with language and their approach to matters associated with LGBTQIA+”, the ABC submitted in its bid for extra points.
The Pride committee was there to “ensure that LGBTQIA+ inclusion is achieved within our workforce but also in our content,” the ABC said. It won points and awards for developing “positive programming” streams for trans issues, like the Instagram channel ABCQueer and the podcast Innies and Outies.
The broadcaster inched closer to its ultimate goal of Platinum status every time it put trans-friendly content to air.
A spokesperson for ACON told The Australian: “Through our Pride in Diversity program, we work with employers to build more inclusive workplaces for all Australians. We do not seek to … have any influence over the way media outlets, who are members of Pride in Diversity, report issues – including the ABC.”
by Stephen Rice
Source: The Australian
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