Who Knew Two Hours Of Parliament Could Be So Incredibly Cooked

    "Do they tick a box, saying they're Aboriginal?"

    by Mark Di Stefano, Lane Sainty, Alice Workman

    Every few months the ABC head honchos are brought before a Senate committee to answer questions. On Wednesday night things got ridiculous.

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    Nationals senator John Williams kicked off proceedings, asking about a recent article claiming the ABC's kids news program Behind The News was sympathetic to ISIS.

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    Yes, ISIS! A Daily Telegraph column from Miranda Devine told the story of a former teacher who resigned after Behind The News allegedly brainwashed her students and left them pumping the air yelling "I hope ISIS kills them all!".

    ABC Behind The News

    The ABC's head of editorial Alan Sunderland stepped forward to reject the arguments made in the article, saying no, Behind The News is not sympathetic to ISIS.

    Greens senator Scott Ludlam replied, "Well that’s absolutely mental and thanks for dismissing it out of hand".

    Williams also brought up the ABC's employment of Indigenous people in regional areas.

    ABC News

    The Nationals senator was very concerned people who aren't Indigenous can't apply for Indigenous positions, which are advertised in order to fill the broadcaster's quota of Indigenous staff.

    Greens senator Scott Ludlam was concerned about the large amount of British content on the ABC, pointing specifically at the Antiques Roadshow program.

    BBC

    There was a bit of banter about who liked the TV show and it turned out One Nation senator Pauline Hanson is a stan for Antiques Roadshow.

    That's right, Pauline Hanson rocked up.

    Despite having a key party staffer arrested earlier in the day, Senator Hanson started her questions to the committee by saying the ABC's reputation was "not real good".

    Mick Tsikas / AAPIMAGE

    Hanson jumped all over the idea that the ABC was sending out job alerts for Indigenous people, asking whether people applying "just tick a box".

    Here's the incredible exchange:

    Hanson: Just following on on Senator Williams’ question about Aboriginality and you know, your 3% [target] there. Can you define what is a person of Aboriginality applying for the job, what is the definition?

    (ABC managing director Michelle) Guthrie: Uh, Senator Hanson, we, we have guidelines around how our employees identify themselves as from Aboriginaility or Torres Strait Islander descent, um so we don’t have guidelines to say-

    Hanson: Do they tick a box, saying they’re aboriginal?

    Heard off camera: You don’t tick a box.

    Hanson: You do, on a lot of forms. There are people listening to this who might want to apply for this, a job working at the ABC, so how do you define that person as Aboriginal?

    Guthrie: Senator, I don’t … I’m not entirely sure what the question is.

    The senator also brought up the recent ABC Four Corners episode about her party organisation. Watch the video. It's magnificent.

    🔥 Chris Duckett 🔥 @dobes

    Here is @SenatorLudlam with that SLAMMER talk #estimates

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    Ludlam, looking a little tired and cooked, interrupted Hanson's questions to suggest the Four Corners story was investigating her party "because it looked like you broke the law".

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    Ludlum was done. The faces of Australia in 2017.

    Richard Tuffin @RichardTuffin

    The full array of @SenatorLudlam's facial expressions during Sen. Hanson's #estimates questioning...

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    Conservative Senator Eric Abetz was next up, spending the majority of his time talking about the deleted seven-word Facebook post from ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

    Mick Tsikas / AAPIMAGE

    There was a lot said. None of it was really noteworthy or newsworthy or funny or- you get it.

    Heading into the home stretch, One Nation senator and climate skeptic Malcolm Roberts wanted to know which scientists the ABC listens to on climate change.

    Mick Tsikas / AAPIMAGE

    The ABC's Alan Sunderland was like WTF. Labor senator Sam Dastyari decided to troll the situation.

    Alice Workman @workmanalice

    Roberts- "On whose science does your organisation rely?" ABC- "that question makes no sense" Dastyari- "what IS science?" #estimates

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    It was getting late, and communications minister Mitch Fifield was ready to go home. He even got out his fish-themed esky!

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    At 10:56pm AEST the sweet sweet release of an adjournment came, and the ABC executives were dismissed... at least until the next Senate estimates.

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