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Australian Polity, Volume 9 Number 3 - Digital Version

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MEDIA

MAKING THE ABC

ACCOUNTABLE

/ KEVIN ANDREWS

The lack of transparency, the inadequacy of

its complaints system and the absence of

accountability by the ABC has been highlighted

in a series of cases over past years.

The main legislation applying to broadcasting is the

Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA). Section 4 of

the BSA, on ‘regulatory policy’, includes the following:

The Parliament also intends that broadcasting services

and datacasting services in Australia be regulated in a

manner that, in the opinion of the ACMA:

for an independent Commissioner of Complaints.

There was a change of government (in March 1983)

between the introduction of that Bill and the final passage

of the ABC Act in 1983, and the clauses establishing the

Commissioner for Complaints did not appear in the Act

as passed by Parliament.

Rather, section 79 appeared in its current form (with

reference to the then in force broadcasting legislation).

The Explanatory Memorandum for the 1983 Bill does not

explain why this approach was taken.

(a) enables public interest considerations to be addressed

in a way that does not impose unnecessary financial and

administrative burdens on providers of broadcasting

services and datacasting services […]

Section 5 of the BSA states that:

(1) In order to achieve the objects of this Act in a way

that is consistent with the regulatory policy referred to

in section 4, the Parliament:

(a) charges the ACMA with responsibility for

monitoring the broadcasting industry […]

However, specific sections in both the ABC Act (section

79) and the SBS Act (section 70) generally preclude those

organisations from coverage of the BSA, and thus from

being monitored by ACMA.

Commissioner of Complaints

In 1982 the Fraser Government introduced a Bill, which

was a forerunner of the ABC Act. It contained a provision

Similarly, the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill which

became the SBS Act does not explain why the exclusion

from the BSA occurred.

Other jurisdictions

Overseas jurisdictions that are similar in nature to

Australia have several different approaches to complaints

policies for their national broadcasters.

In the UK, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)—

as well as commercial broadcasters—is ultimately

regulated by Ofcom, which is an approximate equivalent

to Australia’s ACMA.

Ofcom’s broadcasting codes cover all radio and television

broadcasts (other than the BBC World Service, which

is, by its nature, not an internal broadcaster in the UK).

Section 56(3) of the BBC Charter requires the BBC to

have ‘a framework for handling and resolving complaints

to provide transparent, accessible, effective, timely

and proportionate methods of securing that the BBC

16 Australian Polity

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