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ABC seeking mandated Leaders’ Debate in elections

After 2022 debates were on SKY News, Nine and Seven, the public broadcaster is proposing to host at least one in future elections.

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After failing to host any leader’s debate during the 2022 federal election, the ABC is calling for legislation to ensure it hosts and broadcasts at least one in future campaigns.

ABC has made a submission to a review into the 2022 federal election, with outgoing ABC editorial director, Craig McMurtrie, to appear before the committee on Tuesday.

Guardian Australia reports ABC is proposing a debate broadcast live across multiple ABC platforms.

“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.”

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.

2022 debates were screend on SKY News Australia, Nine and Seven, with Scott Morrison refusing to appear on ABC.

“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,” said ABC.

5 Responses

  1. There should be a leader’s debate on the ABC, but it shows that it wasn’t trusted by the LNP at least. And can you blame them with examples from ABC news and current affairs, like the dodgy editing of the Navy’s launch event for HMAS Supply with the 101 Doll Squadron, or editing Scott Morrison’s press conference on the Aged Care Royal Commission to make it appear as though he walked off mid-questioning when he continued his answer and answered further questions from other journalists.

    1. Admittedly these examples were brought up Sky News Australia, though Media Watch ignored these examples.

      I remember Jonathan Holmes would at least look into any issues put to Media Watch, and would at least reply with an explanation back when ABC had website forums, but the current Media Watch seems to ignore these issues.

    2. Agreed ABC needs to be impartial which is something that just can not be said of the current ABC. Anthony Green is the only reason election coverage on the ABC is so popular.

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