Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Politics is not for the faint of heart. We in this chamber are no strangers to criticism, be it criticism from the public or criticism from the media. There's nothing wrong with the eye of constructive scrutiny descending upon any one of us, though, I should say.

The member for Boothby in the other place is an incredibly hardworking member of parliament and a passionate advocate for her local community. She's strong willed and not someone who shies away from constructive criticism. During last year's federal election campaign she showed that she was strong. She was subjected to sexual harassment and stalked, and her electorate and campaign offices were vandalised with vicious slurs. She received little protection, but she forged on. When she appeared on the ABC's Q&A program post-election, former journalist Mike Carlton live-tweeted that another guest, singer Jimmy Barnes, showed 'great restraint by not leaping from his seat and strangling' her.

Sadly, the personal attacks didn't end there. Peter Goers, for those who haven't heard of him—which is likely to be everyone—is the host of an ABC radio show in Adelaide in the evenings. He also works as a columnist in the Sunday Mail in South Australia. Like many South Australians, I don't tune into his show, because I find it to be the entertainment equivalent of waiting in a transit lounge at a major airport with nothing more to do than watch the arrivals board tick over. I also rarely read his columns. However, on 26 June Mr Goers wrote an appalling article in the Sunday Mail critiquing the way the member for Boothby looks. He wrote:

Nicolle wears pearl earrings and a pearly smile. She favours a vast wardrobe of blazers, coats and tight, black, ankle-freezing trousers and stiletto heels. She presents herself in her own newsletter, 23 times as a fashion plate. She has blazers and coats in black, blue, pink, red, beige, green, white, cream, floral and two in grey.

His weekly column has proven to be largely a rehash of things that irritate him, a bit like Peter Griffin in Family Guy when he started a TV show called 'What really grinds my gears'.

While Mr Goers's comments were published in a News Ltd newspaper and didn't feature in an ABC publication, one would expect that the ABC, as his employer, would be extremely uncomfortable with those comments and how they reflect upon the taxpayer funded national broadcaster. After all, the ABC touts their editorial guidelines, in the form of their policy on external work and editorial conflicts, which states at clause 1.4:

External activities of individuals undertaking work for the ABC must not undermine the independence and integrity of the ABC’s editorial content.

Further, the ABC editorial style guide warns employees not to 'make gratuitous references to a woman's physical appearance if you wouldn't do the same for a man'. Furthermore, the comments offend the spirit of the ABC's Code of Practice, which highlights that the content should be 'respectful towards audiences' and 'mindful of community standards in areas like harm and offence'.

I wonder whether or not the ABC considers that these comments were in keeping with community standards. After all, the ABC board is well stocked with women. Chair Ita Buttrose is a founding member and former president of Chief Executive Women. The deputy chair, Dr Kirstin Ferguson, is the ex-director of SheStarts and Women's Agenda Leadership Awards. And board member Donny Walford is a member of the International Women's Forum Australia. So where was the fierce defence from the broader sisterhood of a fellow female under attack? Once again, there was none—nothing but crickets, nothing but a figurative tumbleweed rolling down the airwaves, nothing more than a metaphoric wolf howling in the distance. But who's surprised? As we know, there is one set of rules for conservatives and another set of rules for the Left.

On 31 July I wrote to Ita Buttrose, the chair of the ABC, to express my disappointment regarding Mr Goers's article and to ask her what action she was planning to take. I await a response. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept, and surely our national broadcaster wouldn't ignore this behaviour. Surely this is not the standard our national broadcaster is willing to accept. All I can say is: over to you, Ita.