Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 7:11:25 to 7:13:21
The committee asks about the frequency of external reviews for ABC editorial policies and the independence of the complaints process managed by the Ombudsman.
Topics: Integrity, Government spending
Speakers: Senator Dean Smith, Gavin Fang, Unknown Speaker, Senator Varun Ghosh
That's publicly scrutinised. It's not the same as publicly reviewed.
I'm not sure, Senator, when the last time there was a full external review, I'd have to have to find out about that. But obviously, as you have indicated, these are a need to be living documents, and we are on continuous review around our guidance and policies.
No, I don't I'm not so sure that is true, Mr. Fang, given the evidence of Mr Marks. I mean given given we we've had a lot of incidents of violence in this country took this particular episode on the 12th of July for there to be a review. You know, Mr. Marks, that is something that you might like to um I might write. I'm asking you to consciously decide to think about that and also to convey that to the board. And I might choose to write to the board uh independently of that uh myself. When was the last time the complaints process at the ABC was independently reviewed? I'm thinking from the Australian National Audit Office perspective, yeah.
Yeah, so the that was the creation of the Ombudsman, which was uh now three and a half years old, I believe, was as the result of an independent review of the complaints process, and I was going to actually add that as part of that review um there was obviously uh examination or uh a look at the editorial policies or how they apply. Um and that review involved some eminent uh Australians are involved in having a look at that.
I recall that now that you say, yeah. Um okay, thanks very much. Thanks for your cooperation.
Thank you. I'm just going to ask you briefly.