The ABC has called for legislation to ensure it hosts and broadcasts at least one leaders’ debate during a federal election campaign.
The public broadcaster made the case for a mandated ABC election debate in a submission to the inquiry into the 2022 federal election, which continues its public hearings in Canberra on Tuesday.
The parliamentary committee is examining the conduct of this year’s election on issues including political donation laws and voting rules.
The ABC’s outgoing editorial director, Craig McMurtrie, will appear before the committee on Tuesday.
During the election campaign then-prime minister Scott Morrison accepted invitations to debate Anthony Albanese on two commercial TV networks and Rupert Murdoch’s pay TV platform, but refused to appear on the ABC.
The proposed debate would have been broadcast live across multiple ABC platforms “to provide a broad and diverse audience within and beyond Australia the opportunity to hear both leaders express in their own words their views on the issues and policies that matter most to voters”, the submission said.
“Despite the ABC attracting a large national audience across all platforms with Australia’s largest broadcast footprint with market research showing the ABC as the most trusted media brand in Australia, as well as its statutory obligations to cover Parliament, no debate was hosted by the ABC.”
The first leaders’ debate, on Sky News Australia, had members of the audience ask the leaders questions and the second, on Nine News, had a facilitator in Sarah Abo and a panel of three journalists asking questions. But Nine’s debate was roundly criticised for the lack of moderation which led to the two men shouting and talking over each other – leaving viewers unable to hear what they were saying.
Seven’s debate had a single moderator, Mark Riley, asking the questions in a more traditional format and was well received. But due to commercial considerations it was aired on Channel Seven after Big Brother finished at 9.10pm.
The ABC said it would welcome the creation of an Australian debates commission independent of both political and commercial interests.
“The ABC notes that the Australian public invests in the ABC to have free access to an election coverage that adheres to the highest journalistic standards, is accurate and impartial, and offers a variety of perspectives,” the submission said.
“The fact that the ABC was the number one channel in primetime on election night, the number one digital publisher over the election weekend and posted record audiences on ABC iview and across social media platforms, demonstrates broad community support for the ABC and its election coverage.”
Debates are decided by the federal director of the Liberal party and the national secretary of the Australian Labor party and it is “implausible to expect that this decision is made independently of the parties’ political interests”, the ABC said.
The ABC 7.30 political editor, Laura Tingle, took a swipe at Morrison for turning down an invitation to address the National Press Club and an ABC debate.
“If politicians don’t want to speak to the ABC, that’s fine,” she said. “That’s really fine. But they think that they’re somehow punishing the ABC journalists for that. Whereas my view is they are actually accountable.”
