Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has launched a fierce attack on the ABC, accusing its leadership of encouraging racism and breaching its charter after the national broadcaster aired a provocative Australia Day–period program, Always Was Tonight.
In a Facebook post following a tense Senate Estimates hearing, Senator Price said she had put ABC executives “on notice” over what she described as serious failures of impartiality and editorial judgement.
Senator Price argued it was unacceptable for taxpayer-funded television to broadcast content that “racialises Australians, distorts history and deliberately drives division”, dismissing claims the material was merely satire. “Let’s be clear: this was not harmless comedy,” she wrote.
“It was ideological activism, aired on government-funded TV. Public money should never be used to fund racism or political activism.”
During the hearing, Senator Price cited a series of on-screen text lines from the show that she said amounted to attacks on white Australians, including references to dispossession and jokes about “white saviour complex”.
The senator directed her questioning at ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks, asking why the broadcaster was, in her view, heightening racial tensions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Marks rejected the accusation, saying the program was not intended to promote racism but to raise awareness of difficult and important issues. “I don’t think we are encouraging racism,” he told the committee, adding that audiences were entitled to judge for themselves whether the show had achieved its aims.
Senator Price pushed back, demanding an explanation of how what she called “attacks on white Australians” could be justified as public interest content. When Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young interjected to label the program satire, Senator Price retorted that offensive commentary could not be excused simply by calling it a joke.
The show, hosted by former AFL player Tony Armstrong, also drew criticism for its closing monologue, in which Armstrong allegedly addressed January 26 and told viewers not to be a “dog”.
Senator Price argued that such remarks went beyond satire and amounted to denigration, questioning whether the ABC’s intent was to shame Australians who did not share the program’s perspective on the national day.
She also linked the content to earlier remarks made by Marks at the National Press Club, where he emphasised the ABC’s role in social cohesion and its obligation to take no editorial stand. Quoting further lines from the program, Senator Price said the broadcast vilified British settlement and oversimplified Australia’s history, leaving “no nuance”. “I’m personally offended,” she told the hearing, referencing her own family history.
“We’re told to venerate one part of our history and hate the rest.”
Marks defended the ABC’s broader Australia Day programming, pointing to events such as the Australian of the Year Awards and the Australia Day Concert as evidence of balance. While acknowledging some viewers would find Always Was Tonight distasteful or confronting, he said the broadcaster believed there were important conversations to be had.
The ABC has faced a series of recent criticisms over its coverage of domestic and international issues, prompting renewed scrutiny of whether it is meeting its charter obligations of accuracy and impartiality. Senator Price warned that, in a highly charged environment, the public broadcaster had a responsibility to lower temperatures rather than inflame them.
“The ABC should be doing its best to unite Australians,” Senator Price said, “not to teach our children to see each other through the lens of blame and division.”
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