ABC chair Kim Williams, addressing the Nationwide Press Membership on Wednesday, has known as for higher funding within the nationwide broadcaster as the most effective technique of preventing misinformation.
Williams mentioned that “as our nation has turn into richer, our nation’s broadcaster has turn into a lot poorer”, noting the $150 million annual discount within the ABC’s funds over the previous decade.
“In all places you look: down, down, down the numbers go,” he mentioned.
Forward of the federal election, Williams pitched the case for a better-funded nationwide broadcaster as a bulwark towards the rising “waters of misinformation and disinformation”, arguing that “the persevering with existence of the ABC as a trusted supply of the reality will assist save our democracy from the populist injury happening elsewhere”.
Williams outlined a imaginative and prescient of the ABC as showcasing Australian tradition, attracting youth and enhancing “social cohesion” by “listening to everybody and telling everybody’s tales”.
Williams’ name for a revitalised ABC comes because the radio division of which he spoke so glowingly was shaken by the exit of the much-loved Sarah Macdonald and Simon Marnie in Sydney, alongside a number of adjustments to the broadcaster’s audio lineup in 2025.
Journalists then grilled Williams on the ABC’s conduct underneath his management, with The Nightly’s Ellen Ransley asking whether or not the ABC, in mild of the Heston Russell assessment findings, had contributed to a misinformation atmosphere and the way public belief within the broadcaster might be reestablished.
The Mandarin’s Daniel Holmes then requested if the ABC’s govt was appropriately discharging its statutory duties in its dealing with of the Antoinette Lattouf dismissal. Regardless of the Honest Work Fee findings that the broadcaster had dismissed Lattouf over a social media put up regarding Israel’s warfare in Gaza, Williams insisted she was not sacked.
Williams mentioned he hoped for a “wise, constructive, respectful” decision with Lattouf, although he acknowledged, “Ms Lattouf was not dismissed. Ms Lattouf had a five-day contract, and underneath that contract, the contract was dropped at an in depth on the finish of the third day.” Holmes pushed again, noting the FWC’s findings.
The ABC’s Jane Norman inquired about how the ABC might seize the “bro” market given the latest recognition of Joe Rogan in the US, as evidenced within the 2024 presidential elections. Williams railed towards the likes of Rogan, saying they “prey on individuals’s vulnerabilities”.
“They prey on nervousness, they prey on the entire parts that contribute to uncertainty in society, and so they entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a standard a part of social narratives. I personally discover it deeply repulsive, and to suppose that somebody has such outstanding energy in the US is one thing that I have a look at in disbelief,” he mentioned.
Crikey requested whether or not Williams’ extra outspoken tenure as chair was an try and “reinvent” the function, however was batted away with a response that he had remained firmly inside the confines of the ABC Act, sections 6 and eight of which he recited.
The ABC’s David Speers requested Williams’ ideas on the federal government’s teen social media ban proposal, and the chair mentioned he counseled the federal government for appearing with “fortitude” on a problem that causes widespread and “authentic” nervousness amongst mother and father. Williams mentioned he had met with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and her opposition counterpart the day before today, that the pair seemed to be in “alignment” and that he anticipated progress on the invoice quickly.
