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ABC 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson and Liberal senator Sarah Henderson clashed in the corridors of parliament late last month, amid heightened tensions between the broadcaster and the opposition figure over a 2021 documentary about the January 6 insurrection.
Henderson, a former ABC 7.30 reporter and an ardent critic of the broadcaster, has pursued claims that the ABC had deliberately doctored Donald Trump’s January 6 Capitol speech in a Four Corners program titled Downfall (aired in 2021) directly after claims brought down two senior BBC executives over a documentary in November.
ABC 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson (left) and Victorian Liberal senator Sarah Henderson.Credit: SMH
The complaints against the ABC’s documentary were initially raised on Sky News Australia on November 10 and followed up in The Australian, with Henderson calling for an inquiry on November 11, leading to a rebuke by ABC managing director Hugh Marks and News boss Justin Stevens.
Henderson introduced the motion to the Senate two weeks later, on November 25, citing repeated breaches of impartiality. It was debated and subsequently voted down by a margin of 34-20 the following day.
On the day of the debate, and the same day the ABC held an annual showcase for politicians, the pair crossed paths with Ferguson – who fronted Downfall – telling Senator Henderson to “get her facts right” over the allegations of doctored editing, said sources with knowledge of the encounter, who were not authorised to speak publicly.
Both Marks and Stevens backed the program, and when approached by this masthead, Ferguson declined to comment on the interaction directly but defended the program, saying that her “Four Corners stories speak for themselves”.
Henderson, meanwhile, criticised the nature of Ferguson’s approach, saying that while Parliament House is a place of robust debate, it “doesn’t ordinarily happen in the public corridors”.
“I take no issue with Sarah Ferguson disagreeing with my concerns about the editing of Downfall, but I was surprised by the vigorous nature of her representations.
“As I made clear, my door is always open to discuss the ABC’s statutory obligation to disseminate news and information impartially and accurately.”
Allegations of a misrepresentative edit were aired by Sky “After Dark” host Chris Kenny after a similar crisis tore through the BBC.
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Henderson’s motives behind the motion were questioned by the former chair of the environment and communications Senate committee, Labor senator Karen Grogan, during its debate in the Senate.
Grogan said it was a “kneejerk attack” and part of an “ideological game” played by members of the opposition, and that while the ABC should be held to account, it must be in line with what is appropriate within the expectations of the Senate committee, on which Henderson sits.
ABC activist group ABC Friends also said the motion for an inquiry “calls into question” Henderson’s motivations in an email to its members, arguing that there is ample public information about the broadcaster’s complaints handling, including an independent Ombudsman, which was established after a 2022 inquiry.
The next day, the ABC received a $50 million boost to its funding as part of a deal with the Greens to secure passage of its streaming quotas bill.
The following week, Henderson continued to question the impartiality of the ABC in supplementary Senate estimates hearings alongside fellow Liberal Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Henderson and Price shifted focus to other ABC content, also questioning ABC executives over Ferguson’s “aggressive” interview with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley last month, in which she claimed Ley was interrupted 35 times.
Two of the BBC’s most senior executives, director general Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness resigned over its own scandal, after an internal memo citing editorial failings was published in the press.
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