Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

State-owned and funded by the Australian government on a triennial basis, with small additional revenue received from its retail outlets. It received base funding of AU$2.5 billion (US$1.8 billion) over three years from 2013-14. However, in 2014, the Abbott government — which often criticized ABC’s coverage — cut the broadcaster’s funding by AU$254 million over five years.

The broadcaster also runs a profit-making arm of the business, known as ABC Commercial, but in the last accounting year it brought in measly profits of just AU$1.5 million, and this year the company has ordered the closures of over 50 bricks-and-mortar shops, where ABC products could be bought.

ABC is a national public broadcaster. With its four TV channels and multiple radio stations, it operates throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas through Australia Plus and Radio Australia.

The ABC calls itself a "truly independent media organization for all Australians."

Governments have tried to influence its political coverage in the past, particularly the conservative Liberal Party governments in the 1960s and 1970s, which threatened to reduce funding for its news and current affairs division. The Hawke Labor government also unsuccessfully proposed to merge it with the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

ABC and politics have a close connection, with a number of former journalists moving from news positions to politics. A 2012 report stated that at least 28 former employees had moved to politics.

The managing director of ABC since 2006, the Australian-American previously held a senior role at Fairfax Media, where he was responsible for the editorial content of the group’s major newspapers, including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Sun-Herald, and the Sunday Age. Scott also worked for the New South Wales Greiner Liberal government as chief of staff to the Education Minister Virginia Chadwick, and as a senior adviser to Education Minister Terry Metherell. His tenure at the ABC has seen much change, including the creation of ABC3 — a digital TV channel for children — and the 24-hour news channel ABC News 24, along with major expansion into digital and online technology. In September 2015, Scott announced he would be leaving the ABC in mid-2016.

In June 2015, Scott defended the ABC against comments from then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in which the leader said that "heads should roll" over a controversial Q&A program that featured Zaky Mallah, a former terror suspect. After Mallah’s appearance, Abbott questioned "whose side" the ABC was on — to which Scott replied: "The ABC is clearly Australian, it’s on the side of Australia." Scott also stressed the organization’s independence, saying that "I hope no one seriously wants the ABC to be a state broadcaster."

Scott has, however, been accused of being too close to the government under both the Howard and Rudd/Gillard governments. But the MD has stated that the closeness is only a problem "if the ABC ends up doing things that we don’t want to do. And that doesn’t happen. But making it clear how our objectives match with national priorities — I see no problem with that."

One of Australia’s most well-known journalists, Jones hosts ABC’s Q&A political panel discussion show. He has also hosted Lateline, a news and current affairs program, since 1999. Jones has won several awards, including four of Australia’s leading journalism award — the Walkleys. In 1990, Jones went to London to serve as ABC’s current affairs correspondent. During this role, he covered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the Gulf War, the war in the former Yugoslavia, the fall of Kabul to Mujahideen, and the collapse of apartheid. He was also stationed as a correspondent in Washington DC from 1994 to 1996.

Jones’ Q&A program was recently the center of a scandal, as it gave airtime to former terror suspect Zaky Mallah. The episode prompted a board review, the conclusion being that the decision to allow Mallah to speak on the live program was wrong, as ABC was not prepared to manage unpredictable moments.

Jones defended Mallah’s appearance on the program, but did admit that had the Q&A team known that he had tweeted messages about "gangbanging" two female journalists, the show would have "rejected his participation."

In July 2015, it was announced that Jones would be scrutinized as part of the ABC’s independent editorial review of the program conducted by TV veteran Ray Martin and former SBS managing director Shaun Brown. The review was scheduled to take up to 12 weeks to complete, and terms of reference stated that it would not be released for a "reasonable period" after that.

In September 2015, Jones announced the fall of Prime Minister Tony Abbott live on TV, just as the results came in. As he asked the panel questions on whether Abbott should step down, he interrupted the conversation at the 13 minute mark, saying: "I’m going to interrupt you right now because we’ve just got the result and we do in fact have a new prime minister." The announcement was met with applause from the audience.

Cassidy is regarded as one of Australia’s best and most experienced political journalists and highly-praised for his interviewing and analytical skills. Host of the Sunday morning political discussion show Insiders since 2001, Cassidy started working as ABC’s federal political correspondent in 1979. He was approached in 1986 to become then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s (of the Labor Party) press secretary and held that position until 1991. Cassidy then moved to Washington and was a correspondent for the Australian newspaper during the Clinton Administration, and then a European correspondent for the ABC, based in Brussels.

Following the Zaky Mallah incident, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull accused Cassidy of "losing the plot" over Mallah’s appearance on Q&A. During a discussion on Mallah’s participation in the program, Turnbull asked Cassidy if he was "pulling his leg" when Cassidy asked what the difference was between Mallah walking into a shopping center and going on a live TV show.

In June 2015, ABC’s Q&A program allowed Zaky Mallah — an audience member who had been cleared of terrorism allegations in 2005 — to ask a question to Parliamentary Secretary Steven Ciobo regarding terrorism laws. Mallah’s airtime triggered outrage among politicians, including then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and prompted hundreds of complaints to ABC. Abbott accused the ABC of giving the "disgraceful" Mallah a platform, adding that the broadcaster had let down and betrayed millions of Australians, and posed the question "Whose side are you on?"

The ABC admitted that it had made an "error of judgment" in allowing Mallah to participate. It added that Mallah had previously attended Q&A as an audience member and his background had been checked, but his offensive tweets posted in 2015 were missed.

A separate Q&A episode in August showed a question from a Twitter user on live TV, which happened to have the handle ‘@AbbottLovesAnal.’ Then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott did not find the incident amusing, stating that Q&A was "a bit out of control." Mark Scott apologized to the leader over the tweet, noting that it had not been displayed on purpose.

What a disgraceful Twitter handle for @QandA to broadcast! #auspol pic.twitter.com/jOToWwVq28

— Fiona Scott (@FionaScottMP) August 24, 2015

The ABC is often accused of left-wing bias by conservative members of Parliament, and commentators including Andrew Bolt and Gerard Henderson. A number of former ABC journalists and presenters have moved from the organization into politics, mostly for the Labor Party and Liberal Party. During a May 2015 Senate estimates hearing, Liberal National Party senator James McGrath said there is a widespread view within Coalition that ABC’s Q&A program is biased against the conservative viewpoint: "If you spoke to any Coalition MP — even those appear on it — they’d admit the program does lean to the left." Mark Scott responded by saying it wasn’t the first time he had heard that depiction, and that he believed Q&A was serving its purpose by airing a diverse range of views and issues.

In 2014, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott criticized the ABC for being unpatriotic in its reporting on the documents leaked by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, whom Abbott called a "traitor."

"I was very worried and concerned a few months back when the ABC seemed to delight in broadcasting allegations by a traitor, this gentleman Snowden, or this individual Snowden, who has betrayed his country and in the process has badly damaged other countries that are friends with the United States. Of course, the ABC didn’t just report what he said; they took the lead in advertising what he said," Abbott said. One month prior, he said in a statement that ABC was being an "advertiser for a left-wing British newspaper," referring to the Guardian, which published the initial Snowden leaks.

Mark Scott defended ABC’s decision to reveal Australia’s tapping of the Indonesian president’s mobile phone and said it was in the public interest.


Responding to the Abbott government’s budget cuts, ABC laid off around 400 employees. But amid the sackings came controversy, with allegations having been made that Scott and his management team were moving to replace experienced, loyal employees with younger and cheaper ones. Scott said those claims were false, stating that many new hires would be senior roles. It was also reported that some staff were being made to compete with others in order to keep their paychecks, in a so-called "Hunger Games" model.

In an email to staff, Scott said the changes were "vital," but did acknowledge that such reasoning is "no comfort to those who may lose their positions."