Australian Polity, Volume 9 Number 3 - Digital Version

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