ABC faces censure over campaigns on nuclear plants and retirement villages

The ABC is facing accusations of airing misleading and ‘activist-led’ journalism, with both its flagship current affairs programs, Four Corners and 7.30, at the centre of the storm.

7.30 host Sarah Ferguson. Picture: ABC

The ABC is facing accusations of airing misleading and “activist-led” journalism on two separate issues over the past fortnight, with both its flagship current affairs programs, Four Corners and 7.30, at the centre of the storm.

Lobby group Nuclear for Australia, which boasts 75,000 members, sent a formal complaint to the ABC on Friday in response to last week’s Four Corners episode titled ‘The Future of Nuclear Power in Australia’, arguing the program was deliberately misleading, failed to disclose conflicts of interests of interviewees, and omitted pertinent facts about the nuclear industry.

As part of its investigation, Four Corners sent a crew to the US state of Georgia, which has two nuclear reactors. ABC reporter Eric Campbell quoted a local nuclear industry expert who said completion of the plants cost more than double the budgeted costs, and spoke to residents who complained of soaring power bills.

The investigation was set against the backdrop of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to build Australia’s first advanced nuclear reactors. Campbell also interviewed former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said Mr Dutton’s nuclear policy was “recklessly stupid and dangerously stupid”, and Ted O’Brien, the Coalition’s leading advocate for nuclear technology.

“I think there are power plants the world over where there have been lessons to be learned … I think on the Vogtle plant (in Georgia), there are lessons there that we have learned for our own policy,” Mr O’Brien said.

ABC journalist Adele Ferguson.

In a formal complaint to the ABC, Nuclear for Australia said Four Corners’ “central assertion of the episode that Vogtle … was the sole reason power bills increased in Georgia is false”.

“Instead, there were many factors that Four Corners didn’t mention including gas price increases due to the Ukrainian war, the cost of upgrading hundreds of transformers around the state due to storm damage, and the cost of grid infrastructure to support solar arrays in the middle of Southern Georgia,” the lobby group’s complaint to the ABC ombudsman reads.

Nuclear for Australia has called for the Four Corners episode to be removed from the ABC’s various platforms. An ABC spokesman said: “Any complaint will be dealt with according to the ABC’s usual processes.”

The public broadcaster has also drawn criticism over its recent reporting on retirement villages.

The 7.30 program has run two stories by investigative journalist Adele Ferguson over the past fortnight, in addition to a couple of online articles, all of which have been highly critical of the retirement village industry. At least three residents from different villages have been interviewed about their negative experiences, but not a single resident in favour of such villages has been featured.

One example was a 90-year-old woman who refused to stop smoking in the village despite the implementation of a ban after her fellow residents voted on the matter. The operators of the village in question, Pinnacle Living, had no control over the ban – a fact not mentioned in one of the ABC’s stories on the issue.

Geoff Reeve, the chief executive of Pinnacle Living, told The Australian: “I think trial by media is driven by time frames that are too short for small businesses to respond to and the whole process can be intimidating. As a result, the media coverage can be one-sided and not present an accurate picture of what happened.”

Last Wednesday, 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson invited Adele Ferguson on to the program for a brief interview. The journalist issued a call to arms to any other parties who might be aggrieved by dubious practices within the retirement village industry, and who might be willing to be part of a “concerted push” to bring about policy reform in the area.

There was no call out for people who might hold a different view to the one being pushed by the ABC.

Asked by The Australian if the ABC’s coverage of the issue had been even-handed, an ABC spokesman said: “It is the legitimate role of all journalism, including objective and impartial journalism, and particularly investigative journalism, to identify and call out malpractice, maladministration and disfunction (sic) where the evidence clearly demonstrates it. It is implicit in all this journalism that action should be taken.

“The stories and the interview with Sarah Ferguson were completely in accord with the ABC’s editorial policies in relation to impartiality.”