Maurice Newman demands ABC apologise over Tex Perkins obscene gesture at NY Eve performance

Former ABC chair Maurice Newman demands the broadcaster apologise over vision­ of Tex Perkins’ obscene gesture at the PM | WATCH

Tex Perkins gestures towards Kirribilli House during his New Year’s Eve performance broadcast on the ABC.

Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman has demanded the nation­al broadcaster apologise and accused it of breaching its charter after it aired “absolutely appalling and unacceptable” vision­ of singer Tex Perkins making­ an obscene gesture toward­s Scott Morrison.

During an appearance on the ABC’s New Year’s Eve coverage, the former frontman of The Cruel Sea dedicated one of his songs, The Honeymoon Is Over, shouting “this one’s for the Prime Minister” and raising his middle finger in the direction of Kirribilli House.

Mr Newman, who chaired the ABC from 2007 to 2012, said he was disgusted by the action­, describing it as “inapprop­riate” and dis­respectful to the office­ of prime minister, insisting Mr Morrison “deserves respect for his office even if you don’t like the person”.

“It’s fine for the commercial networks to be broadcasting that kind of stuff but it’s not for (the public broadcaster) to be running programs that are so politically insensitive­ and disrespectful,” Mr Newman told The Australian.

“If that is what is considered to be upholding Australian values, which is one of the tenets of the charter of the act that brought the ABC into being, it seems to me that it is past redemption. ’’

Mr Newman questioned the decision to allow the moment to be broadcast, calling on the ABC to review its handling of the incident.

“One has to wonder who is in charge of the programming and who in management allows this to go to air,” he said. “They were completely­ culturally tone deaf.”

Perkins’s actions won sup­por­t among some on social media, but others were offended. One said: “So over this bs. I used to be a huge cruel sea/tex Perkins fan .. until now. Leave your politics out of it.”

Despite the outburst, Perkins, 55 — who was paid by the ABC for his appearance — returned to the stage about 90 minutes later.

Former ABC journalist and 7.30 host Quentin Dempster said the ABC had processes in place to deal with such matters. “Any ABC content is subject to editorial policies and accountabil­ities that are entailed in the applic­ation of ABC editorial policies,” Dempster said. “So (Perkins) will have to be held to account for his actions for sure.”

Liberal senator Eric Abetz said Perkins’s gesture was “completely unacceptable”.

“Both the ABC and Tex Perkins need to apologise for this un­reservedly,” he said. “To have allowe­d him back on stage after he had behaved in that manner is indicati­ve of no oversight.

“Whoever was in charge and in control needs to apologise for allowing­ Tex back on.”

Senator Abetz said “giving the middle-finger salute” to the Prime Minister was “out of touch with the sentiment of the vast bulk of Australians, who are the ones that fund the ABC”.

Mr Morrison’s office shrugged off the incident.

“Tex is still high up in the Prime Minister’s playlist,’’ a spokesman said on Wednesday.

An ABC spokesman defended the handling of the incident and pointed out that the 3½-hour New Year’s Eve special had helped raise more than $2m to support bushfire-affected communities.

“We weren’t aware Tex was going to do that and have not received­ any complaints via our switchboard for what was clearly his personal opinion and not that of the ABC,” the spokesman said.