The Albanese government must establish an urgent independent inquiry into the ABC’s impartiality failures following its deeply offensive, one-sided coverage of the Iran war.
The ABC’s statutory obligation to disseminate news and information impartially and accurately is critical to public trust in the national broadcaster.
Senior America’s reporter, John Lyons, has shockingly failed that test.
In response to a government statement that “Australia stands with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression,” Mr Lyons labelled this as ‘political propaganda’ claiming if the Prime Minister was telling the truth, he should have said ‘Australia stands with Israel and the US in their new war on Iran’.
This is a disgraceful distortion of the facts, given Iran’s brutal regime has massacred many thousands of its own citizens, backed terror proxies to menace democracies around the world and sponsored terror attacks on Australian soil.
Mr Lyons improperly claimed the attack on Iran had nothing to do with its nuclear program and was deeply critical of President Trump, accusing him of blindly following Israel’s agenda, invoking an antisemitic trope at a time when Australia’s antisemitism crisis is at an all-time high.
Despite such concerning conduct from the ABC, Communications minister Anika Wells has been missing in action demonstrating, once again, she is not up to the job.
It is extraordinary the Opposition is defending the government while the responsible minister puts her head in the sand.
The minister must also explain the highly improper comments by ABC chair Kim Williams who claimed in a recent interview that Benjamin Netanyahu, was an “aberrant creature”.
Given the ABC board’s responsibility to oversee impartiality and accuracy standards, these comments reflect a deeply entrenched anti-Israel attitude and a serious failure of leadership by Mr Williams which the minister must address.
Australia’s way of life depends on social cohesion, mutual respect and confidence in the institutions which inform our national debate and underpin our democracy.
When the national broadcaster abandons impartiality and when its own chair strays into inflammatory commentary about world leaders, it risks undermining that cohesion and eroding public trust.
The ABC’s role is to inform Australians with balance and accuracy, not to amplify activist narratives or personalise geopolitical conflicts in ways which divide our community.
BACKGROUND
In November 2025, Senator Henderson proposed a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s impartiality and accuracy obligations which was opposed by Labor and the Greens – see https://sarahhenderson.com.au/reference-to-environment-and-communications-references-committee-inquiry-into-australian-broadcasting-corporation-25-november-2025/