Family First is calling for an urgent, independent investigation into whether the ABC has breached its statutory charter, following revelations in The Australian that the taxpayer-funded broadcaster has become deeply entangled with the radical gender-ideology lobby group ACON.
Family First National Director and NSW Upper House candidate Lyle Shelton said the ABC’s pursuit of ideological approval from ACON — including paying for assessment, hiring specialised “Queer content” staff, and altering editorial culture to win awards — represents a profound threat to editorial independence.
Mr Shelton said this involved promoting the medical experimentation on children including imagery on an ABC Instagram account of a young woman displaying scars on her chest where her breasts once were, all in the name of gender fluid ideology.
“The Australian has revealed that the ABC has spent years actively seeking ACON’s ‘platinum status’ by producing content that aligns with the lobby group’s views on gender identity. If a broadcaster is earning points from an activist organisation based on the type of stories it runs, then impartiality has already been compromised,” Mr Shelton said.
According to The Australian, the ABC:
- Paid ACON for membership and benchmarking, with the broadcaster “jumping through every hoop set for it” by the lobby group.
- Created a dedicated ‘Queer Content Lead’ role to manage trans-themed programming and maintain compliance with ACON’s scoring system.
- Won points for programming such as ABCQueer and the podcast “Innies and Outies”, which one commentator quoted by the newspaper said targeted young people with uncritical gender-identity messaging.
- Received guidance from ACON staff on editorial content, with FOI-released emails showing ACON advising that certain broadcast decisions were “AWEI-worthy” — referring to ACON’s Workplace Equality Index points system.
- Allowed the internal Pride Network to ‘guide’ journalists on correcting content, according to material cited from the ABC’s own submissions.
- Neglected to cover major international developments, including the closure of the UK Tavistock clinic, with critics telling the newspaper that the ABC gave only “limited and one-sided treatment” to the final Cass Review.
Mr Shelton said this raises obvious and serious questions about compliance with the ABC Charter.
“The Charter requires the ABC to be accurate, balanced and independent. Yet The Australian reports that journalists felt it was ‘almost impossible’ to cover stories questioning gender-affirming treatments without being accused of violating inclusivity rules. This is precisely the kind of cultural capture the BBC identified before terminating its own relationship with Stonewall.”
Mr Shelton said taxpayers should not be funding ACON, nor should the ABC be funding a “Queer service” targeted at young people.
“It is wrong for a public broadcaster to pay an activist group whose ideology it then amplifies. It is even worse when, as The Australian reports, ABCQueer publishes claims such as ‘some women have penises’ and celebrates teenagers displaying mastectomy scars as ‘self-love’. No public money should be used to promote radical gender ideology to minors.”
Mr Shelton said an independent audit — not an internal review — is essential.
“The British experience shows that once editorial culture is captured, internal assurances mean nothing. Australians deserve to know whether the ABC has allowed a political lobby group to influence, shape or distort its journalism.”
Family First is calling on the federal government to immediately appoint an external investigator to review the ABC’s relationship with ACON and its compliance with the ABC Charter.
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