Brian Burston and James Ashby accuse ABC of leftwing bias – and Ashby says SBS has too much multicultural and ‘gay-related’ content

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has stared down a threat from Senator Brian Burston that One Nation will “reconsider” savings bills if the government doesn’t cut $600m from the ABC in the May budget.

Burston and James Ashby, Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff and party secretary, have savaged the public broadcasters, accusing the ABC of leftwing bias after a Four Corners special on One Nation and SBS of having too much multicultural and LGBTI content.

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It comes after Hanson celebrated One Nation’s 20th anniversary by declaring a boycott on appearing on ABC programs.

On Wednesday Burston told Guardian Australia he had contacted Cormann asking for $600m in cuts to the ABC over four years because the station was “overfunded” and “not utilising money effectively”.



“It’s attacking mainstream and right-of-centre political parties instead of being balanced,” he said, adding that the government “doesn’t have the guts” to cut its funding for allegedly barracking for Labor and the Greens.

Burston said if the government “doesn’t consider savings at the ABC, then I don’t think they’re serious about any of [their savings]”. He warned that One Nation would “very seriously” consider other proposed savings but stopped short of promising to block them.

On Wednesday Cormann said MPs and senators were “entitled to their views and to express them” but non-government parties “do not speak for the government”.

“Any budget-repair measures will be developed, as always, based on the government’s judgment of what is in the public interest,” he said. “That is the only consideration for the government when developing budget-repair measures.”

He did not rule cuts to the ABC in or out, noting any “judgments about the right way forward” would be contained in the May budget.

Burston cited the Four Corners episode about One Nation as evidence of alleged “leftwing bias”, as well as Andrew Probyn, ABC 7.30’s political correspondent, revealing on Insiders on 26 March that Hanson was due to travel with other parliamentarians to Afghanistan.

Probyn questioned how Hanson was “going to go when she visits Afghanistan” after her comments that Australians needed to “vaccinate” themselves against Islam.

Asked if One Nation was threatening the ABC’s editorial independence, Burston first said he didn’t believe it was, then said politicians “should interfere with their Marxist leftwing propaganda” and he had “no problem” with that perception.



Ashby said Burston had been calling for cuts at the ABC since his inaugural speech in the Senate, and that ABC “stitch-ups” of the party were retaliation.

He cited the Four Corners episode and Hanson’s appearance on Insiders, in which she backed penalty rate cuts, reasserted her respect for Vladimir Putin and described successive governments’ vaccination policies as blackmail.

After the Insiders episode, Hanson retracted her claim there was a test to evaluate the safety of vaccinations and backflipped to oppose penalty rate cuts.

Ashby broadened the criticism of public broadcasting to include SBS, which he said was “more about voyeurism and multiculturalism” than its founding purpose, which was to “help people assimilate into the country”.

“We want one culture because people come to Australia to become Australian,” he said. “If you want to find out about life in your home country you can do that online. There’s decent enough internet at libraries and at home – it’s not expensive.”

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Ashby queried why “half of SBS’s content is gay-related” and why SBS supported the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Asked if the funding threat and comments about editorial content would be seen as political interference in public broadcasting, Ashby replied: “The perception will be what you put out there – you create that reality.”

A spokeswoman for SBS said: “As Australia’s cultural complexity increases, the need for SBS has never been more important.

“SBS is a unique media organisation that explores issues impacting all Australians, helps migrants understand our Australian way of life, culture and values, whilst encouraging a greater understanding and appreciation of the diversity that makes up our society today.”

ABC and Probyn declined to comment.