Review of the public broadcaster’s coverage of the 2014 budget had found the interview with the treasurer may have breached bias guidelines

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The ABC has defended Sarah Ferguson, one of its most prominent journalists, after a review it commissioned found she might have broken guidelines on bias during a heated interview with the treasurer Joe Hockey.



The review of the ABC’s coverage of the 2014 budget was critical of elements of the interview, aired on the 7.30 program in May, which gained Ferguson a Walkley nomination.

The ABC-commissioned review, written by former Fairfax journalist Colleen Ryan, praised Ferguson as an “intelligent and incisive” interviewer and called the Hockey interview “compelling television”.

But Ryan said the “tone” used by Ferguson towards a “rattled” Hockey “could have been interpreted by some viewers to be a potential breach of the ABC’s impartiality guidelines”.

Ryan noted that ABC guidelines call on interviewers to treat subjects with “civility and respect unless there’s a compelling reason not to do so”. She said Ferguson’s opening question to Hockey was “emotive” and would lead to the average viewer thinking the treasurer “was not treated with sufficient respect by the interviewer”.

Ferguson’s opening gambit to Hockey was: “It’s a budget with a new tax, with levies, with co-payments. Is it liberating for a politician to decide election promises don’t matter?”

Ferguson, who pressed an uncomfortable-looking Hockey on the fairness of the budget and its reversal of pre-election promises, homed in on the deficit levy and Medicare co-payment, which Hockey referred to as “tax adjustments”.

“They’re still taxes,” Ferguson said. “I don’t need to teach you, treasurer, what a tax is. You know that a co-payment, a levy and a tax are all taxes by any other name. Am I correct?”

Ryan said this, and another exchange in which Ferguson demanded a “yes or no” answer from Hockey, did “not meet the impartiality guidelines” on treating guests with respect.

Ryan added that Ferguson was equally tough on Chris Bowen, Labor’s treasury spokesman, and that the overall quality of the ABC’s budget coverage was “excellent”.

Of the 76 news and current affairs items analysed, Ryan found problems with three. She criticised the ABC for a lack of business reporters during its budget coverage and said a piece on welfare cuts in Tasmania was unduly negative towards the government.

The ABC periodically invites external sources to conduct reviews, and previous audits examined its handling of the 2013 federal election and its coverage of asylum seekers.

The broadcaster has stressed that Ferguson was not found to have breached any ABC editorial policy.

“As a political interviewer, Ms Ferguson is tough but demonstrates a consistently civil and objective approach,” said Kate Torney, director of ABC News.

“She is insistent that those she interviews do not evade important questions and often focuses on contradictions either within policy positions or in the responses of interviewees.

“The fact that this may make interviewees ‘uncomfortable’ does not necessarily mean that the interviewer is either aggressive or is failing to demonstrate due impartiality.”

Torney said the ABC “does not believe Ms Ferguson’s questions were hostile or unbalanced; rather they were astute and prescient”.

An ABC spokesman would not comment further on the review, stating that it “speaks for itself”. However, it is understood that ABC staff, including senior management, strongly support Ferguson and the quality of her interview with Hockey.

“It was easily one of the best interviews of last year and the criticism of it is wrong,” said an ABC staff member, who did not want to be named.

The veteran Channel Nine broadcaster Laurie Oakes said on Twitter it was a “stupid ruling” about an “excellent interview”.

LaurieOakes (@LaurieOakes) Sarah Ferguson interview 'breached ABC bias guidelines' http://t.co/KtXwdwqQ7T a Stupid ruling.It was an excellent interview.

The editor of the Sunday Age, Duska Sulicich, said any suggestion the interview breached bias guidelines was “bollocks”.

Duska Sulicich (@DuskaSulicich) Review finds @Fergusonnews interview with Treasurer 'breached bias guidelines'. Bollocks. Great interview http://t.co/67D3LjcMXi via @theage

Glenys Stradijot, spokeswoman for ABC Friends, said: “I am concerned that this kind of review could lead to a lessening of the capacity of the ABC to do its job. It’s something to be worried about.”

Asked on Tuesday whether he believed Ferguson had treated him unfairly, Hockey said: “I’ll leave that to others.”

He added: “My feelings don’t really matter. I’ll leave that to the ABC.”