Miners lash ABC ‘climate injustice’

Minerals Council of Australia chief Tania Constable has lashed the ABC after it aired an 11-minute report criticising the mining lobby group without a right of reply.

Minerals Council Chief Tania Constable in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable has lashed the ABC after the public broadcaster aired an 11-minute report that heavily criticised the mining lobby group without a right of reply.

ABC’s The Business program ran an interview with UK-based climate think-tank director Edward Collins last Wednesday where he named the MCA, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and NSW Minerals Council as the “three organisations most responsible for undermining climate policy in Australia”.

The story, which also ran online, published the findings of Mr Collins’s report, which said the MCA was the “single largest negative influence on Australian climate-related policy”, with the Business Council of Australia listed as the “fourth-biggest drag”.

The Business report said Mr Collins’s group InfluenceMap, funded by environment-focused charities and the European Union Fund, had cited as its evidence the MCA’s “recent advocacy for reduced taxes and faster project approval for mining” and “opposition to strong inter­national climate commitments”.

ABC managing director David Anderson appears at a Senate estimates hearing alongside defence minister Linda Reynnolds at Parliament House in Canberra in February 2020. Picture: AAP

In its complaint lodged with the ABC, the MCA said despite the “report prominently naming the Minerals Council of Australia and numerous references to the MCA in the body of the articles, the MCA was never ­approached for comment”.

Ms Constable said the report breached the ABC’s editorial policies in relation to “impartiality and diversity of perspectives and “fair and honest dealing”.

The MCA also said the report was a “clear breach” of the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics to “do your utmost to give a fair opportunity for reply” and strive “for accuracy, fairness and disclosure of all essential facts”.

Ms Constable, in an e-mail to ABC managing director David Anderson, said she was “deeply disappointed that the ABC would permit such a one-sided report to go to air without offering an organisation which is ­criticised an opportunity to respond … Australians expect better from their publicly funded broadcaster.

“In light of these breaches of your own editorial policies and the MEAA Code of Ethics, the MCA has requested an apology from the ABC and a clear commitment that such breaches will not be repeated in the future.”

An ABC spokesman told The Australian the MCA complaint had been referred to its Audience and Consumer Affairs unit.