ABC’s Patricia Karvelas cautioned over tweet about Indigenous Affairs minister Linda Burney

High-profile radio host Patricia Karvelas has been cautioned by ABC management about her social media use after describing Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney as a ‘legend’.

ABC Radio National host ­Patricia Karvelas. Picture: Aaron Francis

ABC Radio National host ­Patricia Karvelas has been “cautioned” over a social media post that included a selfie with the federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, whom she described as a “legend”.

On the night of last year’s federal election on May 21, Karvelas posted a selfie alongside Ms Burney and wrote: “This woman is a legend and looks like she will be the next Indigenous affairs minister #UluruStatement”.

On Sunday, the post ­remained on Karvelas’ Twitter account with more than 300 ­retweets and 5700 likes.

In November, ABC managing director David Anderson was questioned by Liberal senator Sarah Henderson about the ­appropriateness of the post and whether it breached the ABC’s personal use of social media code, which requires that employees “do not damage the ABC’s reputation for impartiality and independence”.

This woman is a legend and looks like she will be the next Indigenous affairs minister #UluruStatementpic.twitter.com/l0UtPZUjLQ

— Patricia Karvelas (@PatsKarvelas) May 21, 2022

In a recently published response to a question on notice about the matter the ABC said: “We can disclose that Ms Karvelas was cautioned following the social media post in question.”

However, the ABC said due to “privacy considerations” it did not “disclose the detail of confidential staff reviews of investigations”.

The response is at odds with Mr Anderson’s comments at the Senate Estimates hearing in ­November where he said: “I don’t think it (the post) suggests that there was political bias there at all.”

He added that he did not see it as a breach of the ABC’s personal use of social media.

Senator Henderson was ­critical of the ABC’s response on Sunday and said the public broadcaster “refused to confirm if it stands by Mr Anderson’s ­evidence that this tweet does not breach the ABC’s social media code”.

“The ABC is clearly trying to cover up what happened here,” she said.

“If there’s no issue with Ms Karvelas’ tweet as Mr Anderson claimed, why was she cautioned?”

The ABC and Karvelas would not comment.

In 2021, ABC staff were given a stern warning about their use of social media after Mr Anderson said in an email the public broadcaster had been forced to deal with a “few high-profile defamation cases” involving senior journalists.

This included Four Corners’ reporter Louise Milligan, who defamed former federal Liberal MP Andrew Laming in a social media post on her Twitter ­account, falsely accusing him of taking an “upskirting” photograph of a woman.

The ABC agreed to pay Milligan’s legal costs which amounted to more than $200,000, ­including court-ordered damages to Dr Laming.