ABC can make a statement on diversity with move from Left

Chris Kenny and ABC piece

Rudderless and leaderless as the ABC is at the moment — it has no permanent managing director or chairman — it faces one of its more crucial staffing decisions. On past performance we can expect it to make the wrong choice, again.

After more than two decades in the influential morning slot on Melbourne’s ABC local radio, Jon Faine has announced this will be his final year. He has become an institution for the ideological Left in Victoria, and an important player in the political/media debate in that state and, to some degree, nationally.

Faine has had an impact partly simply because of the real estate he occupies — all ABC and leading commercial breakfast and morning radio presenters have an unrivalled opportunity to shape and contribute to the public affairs debate. But he has been an engaging, informed and dynamic broadcaster, so he has more than made his mark.

Already talk has turned to who will replace him. Will it be Virginia Trioli, who hosts breakfast television for the ABC or will be it be Rafael Epstein who hosts afternoon radio, or someone fresh?

Identity politics is bound to play a role. We know many ABC insiders and supporters will be thinking about gender quotas, ethnic backgrounds and possibly even sexuality as they narrow down a list of contenders.

Faine, after all, is a middle-aged white man. He is part of that cohort that Gillette (and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews) seem to blame for the ills of the world. Surely they wouldn’t replace him with another white male? Imagine the disappointment.

The virtue-signallers in the gender wars are right about one thing; the key point is diversity. That is why this appointment provides such an important opportunity.

The ABC charter demands that it reflect the “cultural diversity” of the nation. Culture, by any definition, relates to ideas. The national broadcaster must learn to reflect the diversity of ideas in this country rather than project a green Left or so-called progressive monoculture.

As is all too common in the hallways of the ABC’s Melbourne citadel at Southbank, Trioli, Faine and Epstein would likely disagree mostly about football. Think of an ABC presenter who might argue a pragmatic and cautious approach on climate policy or the primacy of affordability and reliability in energy settings. Try to think of an ABC voice who would argue for winding back immigration numbers and boosting efforts at integration for migrants. Name one prominent ABC commentator in the past two decades has publicly supported Australia’s tough and successful border protection policies. Then think of all those who have railed against them.

On these and other signature issues the ABC is dramatically out of the step with the population it serves. And flagrantly in breach of its charter.

Imagine if Faine were replaced by someone who was more in step with mainstream opinion, someone who was not of the cultural Left. Just one non-left presenter, in one slot, on one of its many radio stations in one city. That such a fair and honest use of taxpayers’ money is too much to expect says all we need to know about how the culture wars are run and funded in our nation.