One of the most overused words in modern parlance is “excited”. So it came as no surprise when ABC news director Justin Stevens said he was “excited about being able to produce additional high-impact, premium news documentary programs to complement the ABC’s strong factual slate”. There is no doubt, as ABC chair Kim Williams has pointed out since he took up the position in March 2024, that the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster has performed poorly in this area over the years – with a few notable exceptions.
However, the promised advent of documentaries should not hide the fact that ABC TV has an appalling record with respect to news and current affairs over the past couple of decades. In succession, such one-time key programs as Lateline, The Drum and now Q+A have been junked. And replaced by … nothing much really.
On Wednesday, the ABC announced the demise of Q+A. Stevens declared: “We’re very proud of Q+A’s great achievements over the years. The team has done a terrific job, including a strong performance during the federal election campaign. Discontinuing the program at this point is no reflection on anyone on the show.”
Which raises the question: If Q+A was so successful, why drop it? Especially since whatever the program’s faults, it improved somewhat since it resumed in February. According to Stevens, “the world has changed” and “it’s time to rethink how audiences want to interact and to evolve how we can engage with the public to include as many Australians as possible in national conversations”.
A look back at Greg Sheridan’s most memorable Q+A moments — sharp debates, unexpected humour, and 21 appearances that made him one of the show’s most distinctive voices.
Groan. The word “conversation” is as much a one-word cliche as “excited”. According to Stevens, during the federal election campaign, ABC Your Say received almost 30,000 online submissions, plus hundreds of calls on ABC Radio. Well done, and so on. But the ABC reporting the views of ABC watchers/listeners/readers does not news and current affairs make. Australians, young and old, tell me they do not watch the ABC because it is just boring. Former John Howard staffer Grahame Morris used to describe the ABC as “our political enemies talking to our political friends”. Today he might say the ABC is “our political enemies talking to our political enemies”.
The ABC is a conservative-free zone without one political conservative as a presenter, producer or editor for any of its main TV, radio or online news and current affairs outlets. How boring is that? ABC management and many senior journalists deny this. But no one in management or staff has been able to name a conservative in this context. That’s why the ABC has lost so many of its one-time conservative audience. Where does ABC management believe subscription TV network Sky News got much of its audience from?
As to the young, with all the news and current affairs open to them on social media, the more boring the ABC becomes, the less appeal it will have to younger audiences. As documented in my Media Watch Dog blog, the ABC recycles its on-air comedians – which, with some exceptions, are not funny – until they reach middle age. For the most part, younger comedians do not get a gig – especially if they have any conservative views.
The central problem with the ABC is the lack of viewpoint diversity – a term that seems to have been popularised by former National Public Radio senior business editor Uri Berliner. Formerly a left-liberal in the American sense of the term, he wrote in April last year that the left-of-centre NPR no longer has “an audience that reflects America”. Berliner soon departed NPR.
Sky News host Chris Kenny has reacted to the news of Australia’s national broadcaster axing its long-running program Q+A. The ABC is set to pull its flagship current affairs program Q+A just days after it was announced it would be taking a break over winter. Mr Kenny labelled the program’s cancellation as “a pity” and has called for the ABC to find a replacement program with “differing points of view”.
There is more viewpoint diversity on Sky News than there is on the ABC. Last Wednesday, Cameron Milner, a chief of staff to one-time Labor leader Bill Shorten of the ALP Right faction, had this to say about the ABC on Sky News’ The Bolt Report: “Look, you know, anything after the Antiques Roadshow on the ABC is leftie-witching hour these days. Q+A was just one of a long list of programs which taxpayers pay for lefties to take the megaphone and shout back at us.”
Quite so. Milner understands ABC journalists tend to fang both the Coalition and the Labor Party – from a left-wing perspective. The Labor Left, the Greens and the independent teals invariably receive a soft run. The teals in particular get much more coverage than their minority status in the House of Representatives warrants. Their support base is well-off tertiary-educated leftist types of the kind who love the ABC.
On Sky News on Wednesday, presenter Chris Kenny commented that after a significant absence, in June 2022 he was invited on Q+A to discuss the voice. It turned out there were six panellists, himself included, with Stan Grant as presenter. All seven supported the voice. Kenny said on air he “would have liked to have seen a little more of it (diversity) here”. Grant said, “Well, we’ll try better next time”. Whatever the merit of the Yes case, the ABC should have been able to accommodate three considered No advocates. Individually, the seven were interesting. However, with everyone essentially agreeing with everyone else, it was a boring outcome.
Q+A is dead. It was modelled on the BBC’s Question Time, which began in 1979 and is extant. The BBC is rife with left-wing types but is more pluralistic than its Australian equivalent. Q+A invariably had one political conservative facing a panel of four left-of-centre types and an invariably left-of-centre presenter. Some conservatives declined invitations, believing they would not get a fair hearing and/or would be mocked by the left-wing audience. For the most part, however, conservatives were not invited; many have been effectively cancelled and no longer receive invitations from the ABC.
And so it has come to pass that, following viewer resistance, the ABC no longer has an evening current affairs program focused on discussion. Lateline died in 2017. The Drum was put down in 2023. And now Q+A is beyond rigor mortis. Until ABC management prevails over the ABC staff collective (or soviet), expect more of the same – despite the promise of future excitement.