ABC Patricia Karvelas ‘cautioned’ for calling Indigenous Affairs Ministers Linda Burney a ‘legend’

An ABC radio host is being ‘cautioned’ for bias over an old social media post which labelled Indigenous Affairs minister a ‘legend’. 

ABC Radio National host ­Patricia Karvelas shared a selfie to Twitter alongside Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney on the night of last year’s federal election on May 21. 

‘This woman is a legend and looks like she will be the next Indigenous Affairs minister #UluruStatement,’ Ms Karvelas wrote. 

The post remains on the radio host’s Twitter account and as of Sunday has received over 300 retweets and more than 5,700 likes.

Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson questioned ABC’s Managing Director David Anderson in November about whether the post breached the network’s personal use of social media code. 

The ABC’s code requires employees not to ‘damage the ABC’s reputation for impartiality and independence’ when using social media. 

Mr Anderson told the Senate Estimates hearing that he did not believe the post breached the ABC’s code. 

”I don’t think it (the post) suggests that there was political bias there at all,’ Mr Anderson said. 

However, the ABC revealed it has ‘cautioned’  Ms Karvelas following her Twitter post but due to ‘privacy considerations’ did not ‘disclose the detail of confidential staff reviews of investigations’, according to The Australian. 

Senator Henderson on Sunday criticised the ABC’s response and claimed the network did not confirm whether it agreed with Mr Anderson’s evidence.  

 ‘[The ABC] refused to confirm if it stands by Mr Anderson’s ­evidence that this tweet does not breach the ABC’s social media code,’ Ms Henderson said. 

‘The ABC is clearly trying to cover up what happened here. If there’s no issue with Ms Karvelas’ tweet as Mr Anderson claimed, why was she cautioned?’

 The ABC gave staff stern warning about the use of social media in 2021 after the public broadcaster faced several defamation cases involving senior journalists. 

It comes after Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney was called out for her ‘outright lie’ after making the extraordinary claim on the ABC that the Voice to Parliament would have prevented Alice Springs’ crime wave.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indigenous minister Linda Burney were forced to fly to Alice Springs on January 24 and introduce an alcohol sales ban after heavy criticism from the Opposition and locals about a 300 per cent surge in crime since Labor dropped alcohol sales bans in remote communities. 

Ms Burney told Ms Karvelas that if a Voice to Parliament had been established earlier ‘the situation in Alice Springs wouldn’t be what it is’. 

Karvelas then pressed Ms Burney on whether she or the PM had been tough enough on alcohol bans in the Northern Territory, the minister said of their flying visit: ‘The most important thing is we made enormous gains yesterday.

‘I’ve been thinking about this very deeply and it was expressed yesterday, that if the Voice to Parliament had been established previously, I don’t think we would be where we are in terms of where Alice Springs is at the moment,’ she said.

However, on January 26, 2GB host Ben Fordham slammed Ms Burney comments as not only ‘disgraceful’ but an ‘outright lie’. 

‘Linda Burney has had a shocker. She is living in fantasy land,’ Fordham said.

‘I hope you’re not using using what’s happening in Alice Springs to build a case for the Voice, because it sure sounds like it.

‘Really I mean Linda, you don’t believe that. You’re either telling fibs or living in cuckoo land.’

He also gave Ms Burney a massive spray for her reasoning why this would be so when she said, ‘because we would have been getting practical advice from people who are representative of the community in relation to these social issues’

‘Minister you’ve already had that. The people of Alice Springs have been banging down the door pleading for your help,’ Fordham said.