Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman calls for formal ACMA inquiry into the ABC

A former ABC chairman has called for a formal, independent investigation into the public broadcaster for airing a video calling for sexualised violence against billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart.

Maurice Newman, who served as chairman from 2007 to 2012, said the Australian Communications and Media Authority needed to formally investigate the ABC for an episode of Race Around The World where contestant Kate McGuinness joked about committing physical harm to Australia’s richest woman.

The ABC has, so far, refused to apologise for that July 12 episode and has declined to answer The Nightly’s media enquiry about an apparently satirical relaxation video describing a revolution where a stick is shoved “right up Gina Rinehart’s butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth, making her into one big, sausage roll”.

“I would have thought ACMA have to do something about this because this is, without any question, counter to what we are expecting in respectable discourse from a properly regulated broadcaster,” Mr Newman told The Nightly.

“The original clip or sketch which I saw, goes out under the heading of ‘satiricial’ — under any decent measurement, disgusting, and it was actually inciting violence against this woman.”

Ms McGuinness in April 2021 also made an Instagram video where she did a slow bum dance on a roof to a solemn tune traditionally played on Anzac Day to remember the fallen and those who gave their lives fighting for Australia in battle.

“In memory of those fallen. Rip the diggers and thanks heaps for your service xxx,” she said in a sarcastic message next to that video.

Mr Newman said the selection of someone mocking the Anzacs for an ABC program showed the $1.3 billion-a-year public broadcaster was “becoming increasingly far left”.

“Anything that stands for the Australian culture, that we all grew up with, anything that will bring that down whether that be our fighting men and women in uniform or previously so, when it comes to Anzac Day, when it comes to Australia Day, they’re about denigration,” he said.

Tom Switzer, a former ABC Radio National broadcaster, said choosing someone for Race Around The World with a history of extreme-left social media posts showed a lack of editorial quality control at the ABC.

“I think it says everything about ABC vetting and editorial standards,” he said.

The Race Around The World episode was broadcast a week before Insiders broadcast Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young mocking the appearance of Mrs Rinehart in a Sicilian pool, without being criticised.

“If a conservative woman or a lady of a centre-right party mocked a left-wing woman’s looks, I don’t think the ABC’s Insiders would have put that to air,” Mr Switzer said.

“And if they did, they would have overwhelmingly condemned the Liberal or the National Party politician.

“I think what’s happening here is a double standard.”

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable has written a formal letter of complaint to the ABC, accusing it of breaching its own editorial standards with that episode of Race Around The World.

“As a taxpayer-funded media outlet with national reach including throughout regional Australia, the ABC has a responsibility to be a role model especially when it comes to taking a stand against violence towards women,” she said.

“It has failed miserably in its obligations to be a role model, and is in clear breach of its own editorial policies.”

Ms McGuinness’s Instagram page has been flooded with critical comments during the past 24 hours with one man scathing of her mocking soldiers.

“This is an absolute disgrace. I don’t understand why there is a group of people that continuously punch down on our Diggers and hate their country,” he said.

Ms McGuinness, who has a degree in visual arts from the University of Sydney and another degree in fine arts in digital media from the University of New South Wales, has travelled to India and Ireland for Race Around The World.