EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Sydney employees of SBS TV will face an unusual protest when they turn up for work tomorrow. They'll be confronted by a picket line of garbage trucks following the public broadcaster's decision to air Struggle Street, a controversial new documentary which portrays the lives of people living in the working class suburb of Mount Druitt. The Mayor of Blacktown, Stephen Bali, is sending the council's rubbish trucks to SBS as a symbolic protest. He thinks the show is a pile of garbage. A number of residents who took part in the three-part series say they were misled by the filmmakers, who they claim promised to present the community with the depth and complexity, not as stereotypes.

Here's part of the promo for the show that's made Mount Druitt and welfare groups furious.

(Excerpt from Struggle Street trailer)

MALE VOICEOVER: Sparkling Sydney Harbour. Gateway to a sun-bronzed Aussie lifestyle. ...

... Mount Druitt, it's also Sydney.

WOMAN: It's just been trashed.

MALE VOICEOVER: Just not the one in the tourist brochures.

MAN: This is (audio deleted) that's going to get us smashed.

MAN II: Anybody gives any of my kids any (audio deleted) drugs, I'm going to tear them to pieces! I don't give a (audio deleted) if he's a bikie! I don't give a (audio deleted) if he's God!

(End of excerpt)

EMMA ALBERICI: Ashley Kennedy, that gentleman there seen breaking wind in the trailer, says he was duped by the filmmakers.

ASHLEY KENNEDY, MT DRUITT RESIDENT: They violated us in a way where we couldn't have imagined, because what it was, it was supposed to be a documentary on our struggles in life and the accidents and the sickness and that and the dealings we've got with one of my sons that's on drugs. Not putting us up there breaking wind and carrying on and swearing, because that's not part of the documentary, you know, so, why was it put up there? That was the promo. And now we want to see the rest of the show, they won't let us see it.

EMMA ALBERICI: The Mayor of Blacktown, Stephen Bali, has described the program as publicly-funded poverty porn. SBS's chief content officer Helen Kellie says viewers should watch the entire series before leaping to judgment. They both join us now in the studio.

I understand you've just had a two-hour meeting. Helen Kellie, have you come to any agreement about the broadcast?

HELEN KELLIE, SBS CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER: I think we had a really constructive discussion this afternoon and we talked about lots of issues around the program and so on. And we really stick to the same points that we've made earlier, which is I think this is an important topic. We think it's a topic that we rarely see on our screens in Australia and we want to show the real lives of real people and how they live doing it tough. And this documentary takes - we took a lot of time filming with these individuals. We spent six months living with them, seeing the ups and downs of their daily lives and we think it's important for that whole story to be told.

EMMA ALBERICI: Stephen Bali, what did you make of the two-hour meeting? Are you more comforted now than you were before?

STEPHEN BALI, MAYOR OF BLACKTOWN: No. It was a robust discussion that we had. We have put a whole range of allegations on the table that SBS must look at. As far as living in the living rooms of these people, that's fine, but at the same time, there was a lot of trust issues. As far as we understand, no-one was given any independent advice before they entered in when they signed the waivers. Lots of them have - most of them haven't received a copy of the waivers. A lot of them were induced during the programming.

EMMA ALBERICI: Induced in what way?

STEPHEN BALI: Well people would be taken out for coffees and would sit around for hours, they would be actually coming up with storylines which were totally false.

EMMA ALBERICI: Was anyone paid?

STEPHEN BALI: No, but they were given in kind, from our understanding. So no-one has received actual dollar amounts and that's currently being investigated as well. But as far as sporting clubs and everybody else that's associated with it, no-one signed waivers and the outcome of the documentary does not live up to what the participants were informed at the time. So, in the end, it's not a documentary, it's not analysis that we would expect of a high standard that SBS has set and we're very concerned that the image that this incorrect view is going to tarnish the reputation, not only of Mount Druitt, the city, and right across Western Sydney.

EMMA ALBERICI: Helen Kellie, the chief accusation against you is that you betrayed the trust of these people. In the end, it's your choice or the producer's choice what gets edited in and what gets edited out. Do you accept that you quite deliberately humiliated these people?

HELEN KELLIE: I absolutely think there's no deliberate humiliation or exploitation of these individuals. We were very careful in the duty of care. We worked with a really experienced program-making organisation, Keo, who've made similar films in the UK and are very experienced in this space, and indeed, the executive producer from the UK came over to work with the Australian team. And so, that was an important part for us of when we go into this type of provocative, difficult documentary-making, you work with experienced teams. So I think that was the first part. We put in place a very clear protocol and duty of care to make sure that the permissions and the legals were really worked through very carefully. Um, ...

EMMA ALBERICI: Did the participants have independent advice?

HELEN KELLIE: They were suggested, as we do on any of those waivers, they were talked through carefully with it, they were offered to go and discuss that with other people, etc. So we went through a duty of care, as we would do in situations. We also actually put in place in addition support of a psychologist to support the participants, both through the filming process and also up to the transmission and indeed that's offered to continue. I mean, I think for us, one of the primary things is the duty of care for the participants is really, really important. As a public service broadcaster, I'm sure you recognise that - you know, we go above and beyond in those situations. I mean, during the meeting this afternoon, the councillor made a number of accusations around and allegations around behaviour of the production company and obviously we are looking into that immediately, but I really want to make sure that there's a clear understanding that those we take extremely seriously. But equally, we're still waiting for confirmation of the exact points made and I don't want to - you know, I don't want to prejudge that because we have to make sure we're acting on real evidence and so on.

EMMA ALBERICI: Stephen Bali, if people swear, break wind and take drugs in front of a camera, don't they have only themselves to blame to an extent?

STEPHEN BALI: The production crew sat with them for six hours a day for about six to eight-month period. They offered them coffees, they were trying to be their best friends. The people let their guards down. We all have, as I refer to, "Oops" moments in our lives on a day-to-day basis. If you start to trust the broadcaster, given the backing of SBS, you would assume that when you say to them, "I hope you don't actually have that on TV," or, "That's not going to make the film," you expect the follow-through. As far as giving independent advice, we had two participants there today in the meeting and both of them said they were just given a sheet of paper, asked to sign and there was no explanation. There was no follow-through, they weren't really told to get independent advice and when SBS went out or Keo Productions went out there, they didn't allow them to have independent people to sit in to watch the parts of the first episode. There are a lot of accusations as far as the legitimacy of this program and all we're asking is just defer it until it's all worked out.

EMMA ALBERICI: Helen Kellie, were hidden cameras used? Were people filmed without their consent?

HELEN KELLIE: No, people were filmed with consent throughout.

STEPHEN BALI: That's because of the written sheet, but often they said, "Please don't film," and they continued filming.

EMMA ALBERICI: But there were also accusations I heard today of people saying they didn't know they were being filmed?

STEPHEN BALI: Yes, from time to time. How would they know when the cameras are one and when they're off?

EMMA ALBERICI: They're rather large these cameras, I assume.

HELEN KELLIE: They were aware of the filming all the way through. All the participants knew that we were filming. Indeed, there's a moment in the first episode where someone says actually, "Can we turn off the cameras?" We turn off the cameras. And we haven't included footage where during the filming process there are moments when people ask the filming to stop. As is normal practice, we stopped. I mean, actually, in the case of the participants seeing the film, you know, it's not normal practice in these types of documentaries to pre-show to the participants because obviously you're trying to show the whole of the story arc and not edit in retrospect what one wished had been said or wished had been done. You're trying to show, in a fair and balanced way, the ups and downs. And particularly when you're filming over such a long period of time and you're taking six months to do this, it's quite important to make sure that there's balance of what we show. And one thing we wanted to be really careful of in the three hours is make sure that it's reflective of all of that six months of filming. And there's lots of stuff on the cutting room floor that doesn't make it, either because it's an exaggeration or if it feels gratuitous. We're very conscious of that and we've taken a lot of those things out and put them on the floor.

EMMA ALBERICI: So breaking wind, is that not gratuitous?

HELEN KELLIE: So, I mean, actually that's a really good example. To be really clear, we've said about this before, we showed that to the participants on Friday, they were uncomfortable about it, absolutely agreed, we've taken it out.

EMMA ALBERICI: So why is it in the promo?

HELEN KELLIE: So that was actually in a pre-title that was pre-released and it's no longer released and we've taken it out and that won't be airing on the program.

EMMA ALBERICI: What about all the swearing? Did that need to be kept in?

HELEN KELLIE: I think where it's part of a scene that's covering a topic that's important to a narrative that then carries on in the storyline - we haven't included swearing where it's gratuitous, but sometimes that's part of daily conversation. And to cut out all of the swearing, you wouldn't follow the narrative of the story, but there's no swearing in there that's been put in just for the sake of causing shock or without real reason, without making sense in the narrative.

EMMA ALBERICI: Stephen Bali.

STEPHEN BALI: Well to a large extent there's a scene in there which was presented today as far as they went shopping, they spent the whole day trying to find a few pieces of tin and got it all melted down. I think they raised $60, turned up at the service station and the narrative over the top says, "Here they are, spent hours in getting the $60 and then they throw it away within a few minutes on themselves, eating lollies, junk food, etc." Turns out it was the camera crew that actually paid for it and they took the money home. They actually bought bread and milk and everything else for the family. If we got examples of this ...

EMMA ALBERICI: So that was a misrepresentation of what actually happened.

STEPHEN BALI: Completely.

EMMA ALBERICI: Do you accept that?

HELEN KELLIE: No, we actually have asked for where there are these examples of accusations of misrepresentation. We're looking at all of those. I asked the team and we've already started looking at that and we take those very seriously. If there's misrepresentation, then clearly, we take that very seriously.

EMMA ALBERICI: And just a very quick final question. A million dollars or so of taxpayers' money's been paid to produce this. Value for money, Stephen Bali?

STEPHEN BALI: Well with all the funding cuts in the local area with domestic violence and Eagle RAPS and the whole heap of great education facilities that are losing funding, to spend $1 million on this crap, it shouldn't happen and that's why we're taking the garbage trucks there.

EMMA ALBERICI: Helen Kellie, how do you measure the value for taxpayers?

HELEN KELLIE: Well, as you know, all of us have to look at the kind of efficiency of our program making. We've spent no more on this or no less on this than we would in any major documentary series. At the end of the day, we hope to be able to inform large numbers of Australians about the lives of these people. And if you look at that in the context of the number of people you're informing, actually we believe we deliver very good value in the program making that we offer.

EMMA ALBERICI: OK, thank you very much, both of you, for coming in for us.