Election 2022: Old guard’s crusade to save ABC from sale that never was

A group of high-profile ex-ABC journalists is campaigning against the Coalition, launching a scare campaign over the possible privatisation of the broadcaster.

Former ABC journalist Jonathan Holmes.

A group of high-profile former ABC journalists, spearheaded by one-time Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes, is actively campaigning against the Coalition, launching a scare campaign over the possible privatisation of the public broadcaster despite the Morrison government’s long-held opposition to the idea.

In a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, Holmes, who is chairman of the ABC Alumni, urges Australians to “support candidates who back a better-funded ABC”.

“The video is not friendly to the Coalition,” Holmes admitted to The Australian. The four-minute clip – complete with ominous background music – includes the suggestion that the federal Liberal Party lied in 2018 when it declared it had no intention of privatising the ABC.

The claim is based on a long-forgotten motion – which was put forward by a single delegate at a Liberal Party national council meeting four years ago – calling for the privatisation of the ABC.

Since it came to power in September 2013, the Coalition government has never supported the idea of privatising the public broadcaster.

But the group’s partisan attack on Wednesday on the federal Liberal Party has drawn further attention to the de facto anti-government campaign involving high-profile ex-ABC journalists such as Holmes, Quentin Dempster, Emma Alberici and Kerry O’Brien, all of whom have associated with non-government candidates in the lead-up to polling day.

Earlier this month, O’Brien and Dempster appeared alongside ­independent candidate Allegra Spender at a “Truth + Trust” event in the crucial seat of Wentworth, in Sydney’s east, while Alberici was MC at the launch of Ms Spender’s campaign.

Dempster and O’Brien are members of the ABC Alumni. ­Alberici is not.

ABC Alumni, which is registered as a charity, operates a “training and mentoring” program for young journalists at the public broadcaster, although both the ex-staff group and the ABC itself deny any “formal affiliation” between the two bodies.

But the ABC Alumni’s website plainly states it “trains and mentors current ABC staff”, and promises that a “dedicated program co-ordinator from ABC People and Culture team will be available to answer any questions and guide you through the process”.

Holmes rejected the idea that the mentoring program repres­ented an “affiliation” between the ABC Alumni and the ABC.

“Some of our members mentor some people at the ABC. If you want to call that affiliation, I can’t stop you, but it’s not an affiliation in my mind, and it’s not an affiliation in the ABC’s mind,” he said.

With regards to the anti-­Coalition YouTube video, Holmes denied that the clip gives the misleading impression that if re-elected, a Morrison government might sell off the public broadcaster.

“Who knows if it (privatisation) will ever happen, but it’s still on the Liberal Party’s platform,” Holmes told The Australian.

“My understanding is that the motion was never repealed.”

Emma Alberici.

Retired ABC journalist Kerry O'Brien.

Holmes also argues that the ABC has been left more than a half a billion dollars worse off under the past eight years of ­Coalition rule.

The former Media Watch frontman noted in the video that while Prime Minister Scott Morrison had announced the federal government’s intention to lift the freeze on indexation to the ABC’s funding from July 1, the decision was by no means guaranteed.

“If he’s safely re-elected, can we trust him?” Holmes asked.

“Make your vote count; support candidates who back a better-funded ABC.”

Holmes’ video drew a stinging response from Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, who on Wednesday told The Australian: “The Coalition is fully committed to the ABC in public ownership. The Coalition has provided secure and growing funding for the ABC over the triennium commencing July 1, 2022.

“It is deeply disappointing that Jonathan Holmes is engaging in a partisan political campaign against the Coalition, with no basis in fact.

“I call on the ABC to publicly confirm that so-called ‘ABC Alumni’ has no connection with the ABC.

“It is extremely important in our democracy that the national broadcaster is scrupulously politically neutral, and indeed its statute specifically requires it to be so.”