NewsBite

ABC roasts Labor HQ over Dutton-linked Mediscare attempt

A ripper ABC yarn has uncovered a shocking distortion of the truth in an ad authorised by ALP head office. It featured a 2014 clip of the then health minister declaring ‘Medicare is dead’. Damaging? Yes. True? No. | WATCH

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and, inset, during his time as health minister in 2024.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and, inset, during his time as health minister in 2024.

Melbourne-based ABC reporter Pat McGrath and his colleagues Kevin Nguyen and Michael Workman rolled out a ripper yarn last week that was largely ignored by the rest of the mainstream media. The trio uncovered a shocking distortion of the truth in a campaign ad authorised by federal Labor’s head office.

The attack ad targeting Peter Dutton was edited in such a way to suggest the Opposition Leader had declared unequivocally that “Medicare is dead”.

It was pushed out across the ALP’s social media accounts, and according to the ABC, was also placed as a paid ad on Facebook.

Damaging? Yes. True? No.

@abcnewsaus

Labor has been accused of reigniting its "Mediscare" campaign ahead of the federal election. The ALP authorised and published a misleading attack ad featuring Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. The video was made using a 2014 press conference with Mr Dutton, then health minister, with Labor accused of selectively editing his statement about the future of Medicare. #ABCNews#ABCVerify#PeterDutton#anthonyalbanese

♬ original sound - ABC News Australia - ABC News Australia

The audio was actually clipped up from a Dutton press conference in 2014, when he was the health minister in the Abbott government.

Dutton was responding to then prime minister Tony Abbott’s plans to introduce a co-payment for bulk-billed medical consultations (which was about as popular with the electorate as a knighthood for Prince Philip) and was asked if the policy would be dumped because of crossbench opposition.

He said: “We’re very clear about this. Medicare is dead if we can’t make it sustainable today. The Labor Party will kill Medicare by offering everything to everybody for free and the government is determined to make Medicare sustainable (and) strong, not just for today, these are plans that will set up Medicare for the next decade or two.

“So, the Labor Party can pretend to the Australian public that things are for free, they can’t be for free, we have to pay for a world-class medical system.”

Mediscare, anyone?

PVO puts kiss of death on early election date

Diary can exclusively reveal that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won’t be calling an early election.

How do we know this?

Because the Daily Mail Australia’s political editor Peter van Onselen has declared that an early poll in March is a dead-cert. And if PVO says it’s in March, you can safely assume it won’t be.

On Sunday, under the headline, Four Words give away the election date: PVO, the Daily Mail’s seasoned political observer wrote: “Did Albo accidentally give away his plans to call the federal election next weekend, after the Reserve Bank hands down its decision on interest rates?

“I think so, if an off-handed remark he made in question time on Thursday is anything to go by.”

Explaining his theory, van Onselen said Albanese’s “off-handed remark”– when he quipped that it was a bit rough for retiring Labor MP Graham Perrett to be ejected from the chamber “on his last day”– was a sure sign that the nation should brace for a March election.

“Last week wasn’t the end of parliamentary sittings before the election, and Thursday wasn’t therefore Perrett’s last day in the chamber,” van Onselen wrote.

“MPs are due to return in late March for budget week … unless Albo calls the election between now and then, that is.”

Of course, it’s possible that PVO is on the money about a March election, and that Albo’s throwaway line about Perrett is the critical piece of evidence that shows the PM is about to send us to the polls.

It’s also possible that PVO – who was once a columnist for The Australian, and also had stints with Ten News, and The Project – is massively overthinking the Prime Minister’s “bombshell” four-word aside in question time last week.

But are we being a bit unfair on our former colleague? Let’s check the PVO form guide.

Last July, van Onselen wrote in the Daily Mail: “Anthony Albanese is looking to call an early election in the hope of securing himself a second term before the economy gets worse and to avoid the risk of another interest rate rise in September. The date he is looking at is Saturday, August 31.”

Hmm, that prediction has aged about as well as a bottle of Yellowglen that’s been left in the car boot all summer.

And who could forget this ripper from PVO just one month out from the 2019 federal election, which saw the Scott Morrison-led Coalition crush Bill Shorten’s Labor?

“There’s no way that Scott Morrison can win it and I’m happy to have that replayed time and time again to my shame if he does win it,” van Onselen said on Ten in April 2019.

For what it’s worth, last week PVO also predicted the outcome of this year’s election, be it early or otherwise.

“I’m calling it. It’s time – I’m calling the Australian election result. Labor will win and Albo will be returned as Prime Minister. I’m expecting it to be a minority government,” van Onselen wrote, thus effectively declaring Peter Dutton to be the 32nd prime minister of Australia.

To be fair, at least the Daily Mail columnist isn’t afraid to put his predictions out there – no one could accuse him of being a fence-sitter!

Glasgow glow

The Seven network is close to inking a deal to broadcast the 2026 Commonwealth Games, but a few final hurdles need to be cleared before the contract is signed.

With neither Nine nor Ten understood to have shown any genuine interest in covering the Glasgow event, discussions between Seven and the London-based Commonwealth Games Foundation are reaching the pointy end.

Former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: ABC
Former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: ABC

Diary understands that Seven isn’t keen to pay overs to secure the rights to the Games, and fair enough too, given that the event has been somewhat stripped back thanks to the 2023 decision by the Victorian government to ditch the sporting spectacle due to spiralling costs.

Victoria was subsequently forced to pay $380m in compensation to the CGF, of which $200m has been directed to Scotland to assist with the re-homing of next year’s event.

Nice work, Dan Andrews. Why don’t we honour that man with a $100,000 bronze statue? Oh, wait …

As a guide, Seven reportedly paid $40m to secure the TV rights to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, but that was obviously in Australia’s time zone whereas in Glasgow our athletes will mostly be swimming, running, diving and wrestling while we’re asleep, or getting ready for work.

Anyway, Seven must be carefully weighing up whether it’s worth dumping a whole lot of dosh on the Glasgow event, given that the Comm Games, like the Olympics, rarely turn a profit for the host broadcaster.

If Seven does sign on to cover next year’s Comm Games, expect to hear Seven execs wax lyrical about the “halo effect” of the event – that is, the deep trust that broadcasters are able to generate with viewers when aligning themselves with such hoopla.

Is that still a thing?

Guess we’ll find out in Glasgow!

The Games will run from July 23 to August 2, 2026.

Nine edges Seven

The first week of TV surveys for 2025 saw Nine creep ahead in the all-important 6pm news ratings battle.

Nine News claimed victory with its weekday 6pm news across the five city metro markets, pulling a total TV average audience of 871,000 viewers per bulletin.

Seven director of news Anthony De Ceglie.
Seven director of news Anthony De Ceglie.

That’s not something that happens a lot, although the surprise success of Nine’s Tipping Point has been a factor, as it also was ­several times towards the end of 2024.

It’s not a great result for Seven’s director of news Anthony De Ceglie, who made the crazy-brave decision last year to insert an astrologer and a comedian into his network’s bulletins.

Both the stargazer and the funnyman have since been removed, but it seems some viewers may have left Seven too.

However, when it comes to national performance – metro plus regional – VOZ figures indicate Seven kept its lead.

Seven had a national Total TV average audience of 1,296,000 Monday to Friday, with Nine 139,000 viewers behind on 1,157,000.

TV troubles

A board meeting on Tuesday will help shape the future of free-to-air TV marketing body Think TV now that founding chief executive Kim Portrate has departed.

It is expected that new Seven commercial director Henry Tajer will join the board, as will Nine’s acting chief sales officer Matt James.

There should not be too much trouble finding a meeting room big enough, as there is only one remaining full-time Think TV employee, head of customer experience Danielle McWilliam. Departing Think TV before Portrate left were other battle-hardened media veterans Rowena Newman (former head of marketing at Publicis) and Steve Weaver (former Nine and Think TV director of research now also with Publicis, in media intelligence).

Kim Portrate. Picture: George Fetting
Kim Portrate. Picture: George Fetting

It’s understood the new-look board is also reaching out to Network 10 owner Paramount via its chief sales officer Rod Prosser to see if there is any chance it might reverse its 2024 decision to step away from the industry body.

When Portrate launched the organisation in 2016 with chair and then Network 10 executive Russel Howcroft, its members were Seven, Nine, 10 and Foxtel. Portrate for a time also steered the Premium Content Alliance which proved to be an ambitious body made up of ThinkTV, ThinkNewsBrands, and Think Premium Digital which included the original members plus News Corp Australia.

ThinkNewsBrands is one of the survivors from that industry marketing group and is now run by chief executive Vanessa Lyons.

The Portrate departure also coincides with FTA networks jointly reviewing their industry bodies, which include ratings agency OzTAM and Free TV.

Paramount has confirmed that it is committed to both those bodies for their work with audience measurement and regulatory changes impacting the sector. Paramount is a shareholder of OzTAM alongside Seven and Nine. Those three are also members of Free TV, represented on the board by their CEOs, alongside the CEO of Imparja Amy Graham, and regional TV broadcasters Andrew Lancaster (WIN) and John Kelly (SCA).

If SCA can continue offloading its regional licences, Kelly and the company might no longer be Free TV members.

If securing ad revenue is a core activity of Think TV, it could be needed now more than ever.

The Total TV advertising market, which includes metropolitan free-to-air, regional free-to-air and BVOD and excludes SBS, recorded combined revenue of $3.3bn for the year to June 2024, down 8.1 per cent compared to the same period ending June 2023.

Major agency spend on TV advertising, as tracked by SMI, reported a year-on-year drop of 9.5 per cent for calendar 2024.

Moving on

Alison Hurbert-Burns, Foxtel Group’s commissioner and executive director of entertainment content is departing the company. Just days after representing the platform at the AACTA Festival on the Gold Coast, Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany and CEO of Foxtel retail Hilary Perchard announced to staff that Hurbert-Burns was moving on after six years.

Hurbert-Burns worked closely with Foxtel’s Brian Walsh for a number of years and looked after commissions, in addition to working as executive director of streaming platform Binge. Before Foxtel, she spent seven years in different roles at Nine, including content acquisition at Stan.

Hurbert-Burns also worked alongside Nine’s incoming director of television Amanda Laing at both Nine and Foxtel, so there’s been some speculation she will be headed back to the streaming business to replace recently departed chief executive Martin Kugeler.

Her Foxtel CV boasts hits series including Colin From Accounts, The Twelve and the movie How To Make Gravy.

Hurbert-Burns’ exit from Foxtel means expanded roles for Wendy Moore, now executive director of entertainment content (and the clever designer on Selling Houses Australia). The Foxtel content team of Lana Greenhalgh, Howard Myers Rifai and Chris Hearn will now report through to Moore.

Looking after Foxtel content and commercial partnerships is Stephanie Quinn who works with Fleur Fahey, now into her third decade with the business.

Big gig

Chris Taylor has been an off-the-radar yet powerful TV executive in Australia and this week he was promoted to run all of the Asia Pacific region for NBCUniversal, part of the world’s third-biggest media group, Comcast. Taylor keeps his remit across Australia and New Zealand, but now also oversees a staggering list of territories including China, Japan, Korea, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.

Unlike some of its competitors, NBCU prefers to partner with local operators rather than launch its own platforms. Some of the brands it represents include NBC, NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports, Telemundo, NBC Local Stations, Bravo, USA Network, the Peacock streaming service and Universal Filmed Entertainment and Universal Studios.

Taylor’s previous roles include running Nine Brisbane, Prime NZ, and one time Netflix competition Quickflix. He was travelling between his new territories in Asia this week, but he told The Australian: “NBCUniversal has a longstanding, robust presence across Asia Pacific and I’m enthusiastic about the opportunity to continue evolving our business – along with our talented teams – throughout this incredibly diverse and dynamic region.”

Nick Tabakoff is on leave

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/peter-van-onselen-puts-kiss-of-death-on-early-election-date/news-story/13eb5302efd0a6d54fc5f495ab8b02ad