ABC Hobart host Ryk Goddard breached editorial standards over comments

An ABC Hobart radio presenter made several comments on air about billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart and her father Lang Hancock that were incorrect. Find out what he said.

Gina Rinehart has never publicly commented about her late father’s comments made 37 years ago.

An ABC breakfast radio host who made comments about billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart and her late father Lang Hancock, breached the public broadcaster’s editorial standards.

The station’s Hobart breakfast host, Ryk Goddard, made several comments on October 24 amid the fallout from the $15 million sponsorship debacle involving Mrs Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting.

Diamonds netball players decided not to wear the company’s logo on their guernseys to show their support of indigenous player Donnell Wallam over remarks made by Mr Hancock in 1984.

On Monday, the ABC published a correction on their website outlining that several comments made by Goddard were wrong.

“On 24 October presenter Ryk Goddard, when referring to the late mining magnate Lang Hancock, stated that, “He wanted to euthanize the whole of the Aboriginal people…”,” the statement said.

Ryk Goddard breached ABC’s editorial standards.

“What Lang Hancock actually said was, “The ones that are no good to themselves, can’t accept things, the half-castes and this is where most of the trouble comes, I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in future and that would solve the problem.”

Goddard – who has been breakfast presenter at ABC Hobart since 2011 – went on to also say on air that Mrs Rinehart was “still defending that comment” made by her late father, however the ABC said this too was wrong.

“Mrs Rinehart has never defended her father’s comment and Ryk Goddard’s statement is a breach of the ABC’s editorial standards for accuracy (2.1),” the ABC said in a statement published on their corrections page.

Under the ABC’s standards, it states that employees must, “Make reasonable efforts to ensure that material facts are accurate and presented in context”.

Mrs Rinehart has never publicly commented about her late father’s comments made 37 years ago.

It is understood complaints about Goddard’s comments did not come from Hancock Prospecting.

The ABC declined to comment any further on the matter and a Hancock Prospecting spokesman also declined to comment.

The matter comes just days after the ABC’s Dr Norman Swan also breached editorial standards over comments he made falsely linking the heart attack deaths of cricketer Shane Warne and Labor senator Kimberley Kitching to Covid-19 infections.

In a statement the ABC said, “the comments did not meet the ABC’s editorial standards”.

Dr Swan later apologised for his comments.

Originally published as ABC Hobart host Ryk Goddard breached editorial standards over comments