Silent treatment: Why the ABC is staying quiet on One Nation’s lockout

May 15, 2026 — 5:00am

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In this week’s On Background, the ABC goes quiet on One Nation’s decision to put it in the freezer, The Real Housewives of Melbourne to ride again under British stewardship, and Crikey loses three key people.

Aunty’s silence speaks volumes

This week, the ABC was uncharacteristically silent after its journalists were barred from several One Nation events while on the campaign trail in the federal byelection for the rural NSW seat of Farrer.

As we later found out, the spat is part of a wider feud between the ABC and Pauline Hanson’s party, which dates back to a mid-March investigation into one of the party’s South Australian state candidates, and the use and attribution of quotes from a party spokesperson.

That, at least, is the surface reason for the ABC’s exclusion. But it’s not the first time One Nation has locked out Aunty, which it also barred from the minor party’s West Australian state election night function in 2017.

The difference? Nine years ago, the ABC called the move both an attack on the broadcaster, and on “the fundamental role of the media in a democracy”.

“We will continue, as we always have, to report without fear or favour,” said Alan Sunderland, its then head of editorial policy.

Back then, One Nation was polling at just 8 per cent. Now it’s polling at 21 per cent of first preferences, according to this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor. So it’s easy to see why the ABC might not want to risk further inflaming things, despite receiving no shortage of comment requests. But in an absence of any response, it also risks entrenching a selective approach to the media from political parties.

It was left to the ABC’s Media Watch this week, which sits outside the ABC’s News division, to criticise the actions of the hard right party, with host Linton Besser saying “alarm bells should be ringing”.

Former 7.30........

© Brisbane Times