Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Haven taken some interest in the ABC during my time in this place, I have looked at ABC annual reports. The thing that really concerns me is that, yet again, this report contains the usual concerns in relation to the ABC and, most importantly, the legal issues that the ABC has been involved in. As a consequence, it does not surprise me to see comments like those that Maurice Newman made recently. Fancy the chairman of the ABC board having to castigate his journalists and tell them at their briefing that they have to introduce more balance to the ABC, particularly in relation to the climate change debate, which has been absolutely appalling. Do these people not realise their charter? How often do we have to talk about it in this place for the ABC to work out that its charter requires it to deliver to the Australian public a balanced and non-biased service, for the benefit of all Australians, not just for the left-wing component of Australia?

Since Senator Farrell was given so much latitude to speak about what he watches on the ABC, I would like to raise concerns about what we have seen in recent years on the ABC. We have seen the expose on Brendan Nelson; we saw the expose on Malcolm Turnbull; we saw the expose on the Howard years; and, of course, last week we saw Liz Jackson, who has been churning out the usual left-wing line for 13 or 14 years, with a partisan dump on Tony Abbott. I would like to know: when is the ABC going to do an expose on Kevin Rudd and the Labor government? That is what I would like to see. If the ABC is really non-biased and balanced, like its charter—