On the anniversary of The Voice referendum, it is worth reflecting on why the referendum did so poorly in regional Australia. Brian Burkett challenges claims the ABC is a left-wing monolith.
For those wondering why the Yes vote in The Voice referendum did so poorly in regional Australia the ABC’s rural programs provide many clues. It has been argued that The Voice referendum, steered by right wing think-tanks and the Murdoch press, brought about a cultural counter-revolution, transporting Australia back to the assimilation era.
However, after a listening in to rural radio programs of the ABC to see how well The Voice referendum was reported it became clear that this arm of the broadcaster has never really moved on from the 1950s.
The Voice debate went almost completely unreported during hundreds of editions of midday Country Hour and morning Regional Reports. (This level of reporting was consistent with previous findings on the nature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander representation on ABC rural programs.)
one out of over a thousand stories
For the two week period before The Voice referendum, and for a week afterwards, the state editions of Country Hour and local Regional Reports broadcast well over a thousand stories. However, there was only one story on The Voice counted in all these programs – one out of over a thousand.
As far as The Voice was concerned, ABC rural programs were ‘rural nullius’.
Western Australia Country Hour was the only rural program where a full story on The Voice was counted. It broadcast a procession of four prominent speakers for the No case, including Warren Mundine and Peter Dutton, at the Pastoralists and Graziers Association annual convention. There were no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander speakers heard putting the Yes case in this story or in the stories counted anywhere in Australia.
No balance in ABC Rural coverage
A former Governor of WA, Malcolm McCusker spoke at the pastoralist’s convention and his reactionary views which appear to question the basis of Native Title as well as The Voice were summarised by a Country Hour reporter: “It’s a myth that Aboriginal people don’t currently have a voice in parliament or in government around Australia and he thinks the majority of Aboriginal people aren’t in need of the sort of assistance that The Voice is claiming to offer:
“If, on the farm, a farmer decides that there is some chance that his soils are phosphate deficient so you need to treat them with phosphate, you don’t put phosphate on the entire farm, you only treat the areas that are in need of phosphate … so to give a special right to all Aboriginal people makes a permanent division on all Australians based on racial ancestry, not on need …
“If you’re an Aboriginal person or have Aboriginal ancestry then you’re part of this special group”. (Malcolm McCusker, WA Country Hour 5 October 2023).
Tony Seabrook, President of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association aired his negative views about The Voice proposal on another edition of Country Hour on 28 September 2023. Seabrook’s conspiratorial discourse is used by the program presenter to introduce the story – “… Tony Seabrook says if Australia votes ‘yes’ in the upcoming referendum, it will be like putting WA’s cultural heritage laws on steroids”.
They’re stealing our land
“Their agenda is this is their country, we stole it, they want reparations, they want to charge for people to go to beaches and into parks and use public lands. Some of the people that will pop out of the woodwork once this Voice comes into play are not very nice people … it’s all there it’s all on paper you can look it up any time you like …”
Examination of stories in the study period showed that, even though The Voice was ruled out as ‘rural news’, other seemingly ad hoc stories abounded :
- Concern for the low levels of support for ‘country music’ – Country music is booming in the US, “why isn’t it all the rage in Australia?”
- The death toll in the Israel-Gaza war is rising…and it’s also taking a terrible toll on agriculture.
The voices of lobby groups and industry associations and their governance matters are reported but not the governance potential of The Voice in rural Australia:
- Cattle Australia members vote in favour of changes to constitution.
- Women are underrepresented on agriculture boards
- The Federal Agriculture Minister has dismissed the findings of a survey done by the National Farmers Federation which shows the majority of farmers think Labor is harming agriculture. (What many would perceive as push-polling is broadcast as news on the rural programs)
Even apart from The Voice issue, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were routinely ignored on ABC rural programs in the count period. Listeners will hear of sales of pastoral stations with comments from the vendor, the buyer, the property agent, the conservation group but not the traditional owners.
- Bullo River Station (on the WA/NT border) is now owned by rich-listers Julian and Alexandra Burt from WA who have struck up a partnership with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Joe Atkin speaks about what’s going on at Bullo – the three pillars of pastoral, tourism and conservation
- A large aggregation of livestock properties in WA’s Kimberley, covering almost 3 million hectares, is expected to fetch over $250 million … both previously held by Hui Wing Mau, founder of Hong Kong property developer Shimao Group, with projects in Asia and Australia.
Just a case of bias?
ABC rural reporters ran stories across the nation which allowed country singers to speak about the low levels of popular support for their genre. In countless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities old people worry about the loss of music, language and dance. Yet these concerns are not reported on the rural programs.
The conservative farmer think-tank the Page Research Centre (“we work closely with The Nationals“) has sponsored research recommending even tighter control of how the story of the rural sector is to be imagined and told by “giving Regional Australia a separate but complimentary (sic) ABC Regional organisation, with its own charter and infrastructure, dedication (sic) to serving Australia’s regions”.
Before any change can occur at the ABC the political and organisational leadership, as part of their duties, would do well to listen more closely to the rural programs and their segregated discourse and consider whether that is consistent with the ABC charter.
Brian Burkett is an independent researcher and writer who has published critical analysis of the ABC’s long running Country Hour program. His research and interests are currently directed towards examining how public media serves the interests of powerful elites in the rural space in Australia.