Seriously, Aunty, your handling of complaints is a joke

ABC journalist Louise Milligan. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

There is one simple and immediate fix the ABC board could make to prevent more weeks such as this one, where our public broadcaster has embarrassed itself num­erous times: overhaul the complaints process and give it teeth.

In the past seven days alone, the ABC has been ridiculed for the Wran-Luna Park matter, the alleged US-Fox News election conspiracy, the Sally Neighbour investigation of Louise Milligan, biased reporting on the Special Air Service and a failure to respond to complaints within stated time frames.

Accountability and transparency should be paramount at our billion-dollar taxpayer-funded public broadcaster, and if there were a proper complaints process, with strict timelines, and actual consequences for staff and programs found to have breached the ABC’s code of practice, journalists and their producers would start to follow the rules.

At first glance, the ABC’s complaint handling procedures look detailed and comprehensive. But the devil is in the detail, and the detail reveals a convoluted and complicated list of loop­holes that gives no confidence claims will be handled efficiently, let alone independently, and with sanctions for successful complaints.

The most glaring and concerning loophole relates to bias. Complaints of ABC bias are common, given the broadcaster’s left-leaning approach and its regular failure to adhere to the ABC code of practice that requires impartiality, balance and a diversity of perspectives.

Bias, among other serious issues, was clearly evident in the ABC’s Luna Park ghost train fire documentary, which was found by a board-ordered external review to be inaccurate, unfair and deficient. Notably, the ABC director of news remains “proud” of the program because there are no consequences that might encourage a different response or outcome. This hints at the reason most claims of bias never succeed, because under the ABC’s complaint handling procedures general claims of bias “will usually be referred back to the content divisions for handling” rather than the ABC’s separate audience and consumer affairs unit.

That’s right, where a complaint of bias is made, the creators of the program then rule on whether they were biased.

We might therefore assume the complaint I lodged about the ABC’s biased representation of the SAS in Afghanistan, particularly in last week’s 7.30 segment, will be judged by the news division and the journalist involved, Mark Willacy.

Willacy’s ABC bio records that the past 24 of his 25 reports have been anti-SAS, including last week’s claims by an anonymous source that the SAS unofficial theme song, Getting Away With It by the British band James, represents the SAS getting away with murder in Afghanistan.

These claims are completely contrary to subsequent reporting by News Corp that the song initially became popular to remember a soldier who died in a car crash, and later came to acknowledge the SAS troops who made it home, and remembered their mates who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

Whether this demonstrates a lack of balance will probably be a matter for the news division, and Willacy, to decide.

This is not the only loophole that permits self-assessment instead of independent review. The separate audience and consumer affairs unit regularly handballs breach of standards complaints to news divisions or individual staff for adjudication. This is what happened with a serious complaint that Milligan had revealed the identity of a source, which saw the ABC’s audience and consumer affairs unit refer the matter to news management, and resulted in Neighbour clearing her colleague Milligan. The only good thing that can be said about this is that at least the response was received within the 30 days the ABC promises to respond.

That has not been the case for separate complaints lodged by me, and former senator Cory Bernardi, over serious allegations made against Bernardi and former Labor treasurer John Dawkins in Annabel Crabb’s ABC TV program Ms Represented.

Both men utterly refute the respective allegations, which were not put to them before the program went to air, in clear breach of the ABC policy that “where allegations are made against a person … make reasonable efforts in the circumstances to provide a fair opportunity to respond”. Given this breach, you would assume a quick response within the 30 days and serious sanctions. Don’t hold your breath.

The whole ABC complaints system is a smokescreen for dismissing legitimate concerns, including the catch-all loophole that simply states “these procedures are subject to the discretion of the ABC managing director, to intervene and determine any matter at any time by any process the managing director thinks fit”.

There is no excuse for these pitiful rules because there are plenty of best-practice systems for the ABC to follow. Commercial TV stations and the publicly funded SBS manage to have independent, robust and transparent complaints processes. Commercial stations agree their policy, present it for public consultation, then have the Australian Communications and Media Authority sign off on it. SBS has a properly independent ombudsman, with additional oversight if necessary provided by a committee of senior SBS employees.

Imagine, just imagine, having an ABC complaints handling process that was independent, transparent, responsive and reliable, ensuring truly unbiased content for the taxpayers of Australia who provide more than $1bn of funding for the ABC each year.

Nicolle Flint is the Liberal member for the federal seat of Boothby in South Australia.