Matt Cunningham opinion: ABC should let locals do the reporting

The ABC’s metro-centric focus has again riled many Territorians this week, writes Matt Cunningham.

The recent blow-up about the ABC’s $150,000 cost to cover this year’s Garma Festival missed an important point.

In Senate estimates it was revealed Aunty sent 37 staff to Northeast Arnhem Land to cover this year’s festival.

It’s an event that deserved significant coverage, especially in the year the Government was holding a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

But what was most interesting about the ABC’s Garma contingent was not how many people it had there, but who they were.

For among the more than three dozen staff sent to Garma, there was just one junior reporter sent from its Northern Territory bureaus. (Some other production staff were sent from Darwin).

Anthony Albanese speaks on Garma Key Note at the Garma Festival 2023. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

This was actually one more journalist than the ABC often sends to Garma.

But in some ways it is emblematic of the Sydney/Melbourne/Canberra-centric focus of the national broadcaster that has again riled many Territorians this week.

Why the ABC doesn’t rely on its Darwin bureau to provide much of its Garma coverage is a mystery.

The bureau includes experienced senior journalists who would know more about Aboriginal Affairs in the Northern Territory than any of their southern counterparts.

Darwin reporter Jane Bardon has worked in the Territory for two decades and has extensive contacts in Aboriginal communities.

And fellow Darwin reporter Matt Garrick used to live in Northeast Arnhem Land and was trusted to write the authorised biography of the band Yothu Yindi.

But instead of sending Bardon, Garrick and others – who could have driven to Gove from Darwin – the ABC flew in its reporters from down south.

Much of its coverage was then made up of those interstate journalists interviewing the same interstate politicians and activists they had been speaking to for most of the year, just with a slightly more spectacular backdrop.

This week, the ABC’s chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor wrote to staff saying the broadcaster needed to take greater action to ensure diversity is made a priority.

“It’s an absolute priority for us to ensure that our workforce and content reflects modern Australia,” he wrote.

Sky Snews Darwin bureau chief and North Australia correspondent Matt Cunningham. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin.

But there is one part of modern Australia that seems under-represented in the ABC’s national coverage.

It’s those of us who live outside the inner suburbs of our biggest cities.

This inner-city Sydney/Melbourne/Canberra bias was again on display with this week’s episode of Four Corners.

The program focused on the Northern Territory Government’s use of private security guards to patrol the streets of Darwin.

It’s an issue that warrants thorough examination.

But rather than use the local expertise of those in its Darwin bureau, the ABC flew in a reporter and crew from interstate.

The result was a program tailored for the sensibilities of an inner-city southern audience, that omitted much of the context that would have made for a more balanced report.

The program clearly infuriated many Darwin business owners who were not interviewed as part of the story.

Four Corners.

Darwin councillor and Mad Snake Café owner Sam Weston wrote on Facebook: “I can’t wait for the second part of that Four Corners episode on Darwin next week. Hopefully in part 2 they interview CBD businesses and community members that have suffered at the hands of anti-social behaviour.”

Fellow Darwin business owner Jason Hanna wrote: “What a shame the Four Corners didn’t show or ask about the kindness and protection that the TPS Security Service that patrol the city show the many vulnerable that they deal with on a nightly basis. Not that I expected much considering the last hatchet job they did on Darwin and the NT.”

Darwin artist Carol Phayer wrote: “What a one-sided, naïve story, by someone who does not have to put up with dealing with drunks bashing into each other every day and all the collateral damage that comes with it. Sure, there are some bad security people but on the whole I always see them being pretty respectful. We do not have the resources for that many trained police. Very disappointing story.”

It’s hard to imagine a reporting team based in Darwin – having witnessed the deterioration in public safety over the past five years – presenting the same story without including more of these voices.