Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 6:22:06 to 6:24:39
Senator Roberts questions the ABC on a satirical cartoon involving Gina Rinehart and a video discussing kink culture, questioning the use of taxpayer funds.
Topics: Integrity, Workplace culture
Speakers: Senator Malcolm Roberts, Hugh Marks, Senator Varun Ghosh, Unknown Speaker
On the 12th of July this year, your show race around the world aired a for four-minute animation, a cartoon titled A Very Relaxing Video. Which included a graphic fantasy of assaulting Gina Reinhardt and turning her body into a sausage role. After more than one thousand complaints. The ABC pulled the show, removed the offending cartoon and published an apology from the author which you endorsed. Which said in part, quote, the sense of humour featured as farcical. In no way was it my intention to promote violence. My writing is cartoonish and always satirical. End of quote. So it's okay for you to produce a violent satirical cartoon and only pulled it after legal threats from Gina Reinhardt. You actually said cartoons are satire, yet still used your insider to show to try and denigrate one nation cartoons for doing the same thing last week. On this matter, was the APC being hip hypocritical or dishonest or politically biased?
No, Senator. I think that particular program you refer to. Um we received complaints about the programme. We went through a complaint process to understand whether the programme uh was in breach of guidelines or not. The Ombudsman found that it was not in breach of our guidelines. Um but I made the decision uh subsequent to that that um the guidelines didn't sufficiently reflect community standards on the issue, and we've changed our community standards as a result, so it's a matter we take very seriously, and we took appropriate action.
Thank you. Last question, let's talk about kink. In September this year, ABC News released a three-minute magazine video titled Let's Talk About Kink, which was most positive about Kinks, including furries, sex workers, BDSM, and a constructive discussion around consenting to safe joking. This is the second time the ABC has spent taxpayers' money on this topic. Yumi Stein did an episode of ABC podcast, ladies we need to talk in 2023 on the same subject. Are you using your budget for what matters to you, not taxpayers?
Um Senator, I'm not aware of the particular programme that you refer to. Um if if you're happy to provide us the details, we'll we will have a a look at uh how it meets our editorial standards.
Thank you. Thanks, Chair.
Thank you, Senator Roberts. Um Senator Henderson to the break at 315.