'Warping the news': Internal documents reveal how ABC News pushes diversity, equity and inclusion quota system

Sky News AU

2 days ago

A Freedom of Information investigation has uncovered documents which reveal the extraordinary steps ABC journalists must take to hit 'woke' diversity targets which are altering the structure of stories going to air.
The FOI probe has also uncovered documents which show the project is being spearheaded by the ABC's powerful news boss Justin Stevens, with one email suggesting he had accused staff of committing acts of racism in 2022.
The DEI push is detailed in a document titled '50:50 Equality Project' which sets out the framework for how journalists collect sensitive racial data and even disability status of voices used in news reports.
READ THE EQUALITY PROJECT DOCUMENT IN FULL
The ABC has been pushed to achieve diversity of 50 per cent women, 15 per cent cultural and linguistic diversity, 3.4 per cent indigenous and 8 per cent disabled representation.
These identity data points are then discussed at weekly editorial meetings.
Language used by the authors of the internal policy document paints a picture of the bureaucratic challenges that journalists face when attempting to choose which contacts they can put in a story.
To track the details of story subjects, the national broadcaster has implemented a system asking reporters to enter identity data into a centralised application.
That sensitive data is then shared with entire teams who have been instructed to hold meetings discussing the findings.
The document even provides talking points for how the journalists should use that personal data to trigger conversations.
While the ABC stresses journalists should never sacrifice news report quality, critics of the scheme have labelled it woke, and a waste of resourcing.
In the last few years as the ABC was ramping up its diversity push, news bosses have overseen a litany of failures, including millions of dollars of taxpayer funds squandered on failed court cases, and major editorial errors.
Earlier this year Mr Stevens was forced to apologise to former special forces commando Heston Russell after his newsroom edited fake gunshots into footage, giving the impression the soldier was firing shots at civilians.
Mr Russell was also awarded more than $400,000 after successfully suing the ABC for defamation in October, 2023.
In April, The Australian War Memorial lodged a formal complaint that separate footage in an ABC Four Corners episode gave a 'false impression' the Last Post was being disrupted by the work of construction.
And yesterday, the ABC lost a high-profile unfair dismissal case after illegally sacking former ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf.
The journalist was awarded $70,000 and the ABC is expected to be left with more than $1 million in legal bills, which will ultimately be paid for by the taxpayer. What must ABC journalists do to satisfy DEI targets?
The 50:50 policy document tells ABC journalists they can assess the diversity status of potential talent by a combination of personal cues — including 'how they look' and 'how they sound'.
'The ABC must ensure it equitably represents the perspectives and the lived experience people of different genders, ages, sexual orientations, social and geographic backgrounds, and those with disabilities,' the document says.
'This is not about being tokenistic to meet diversity targets – it is about diversifying and expanding our contacts to find excellent new contributors to include in our stories.'
Another metric is the amount of 'CALD' (culturally and linguistically diverse) people included in news stories.
Staff are instructed to make a 'reasonable assessment' of whether talent is CALD based on 'how they look', 'how they sound', '(if) they openly identify with a particular group or community' and 'their name'.
People are considered to be diverse only if they are from non-Anglo-Celtic countries which do not speak English.
'The ABC defines CALD (for workforce calculation purposes) as people who are from countries in which the main language spoken is not English. European languages are included in the calculation of CALD.
'Anglo-Celtic backgrounds (where English is the main language spoken) is not, so we do not count people of Anglo heritage from the UK, NZ, Canada or the US.'
In regular daily or weekly editorial meetings, the amount of diversity is then used to 'prompt a discussion about the diversity' of stories. Inside the ABC News boss' email accusing staff of 'racist behaviour'
The DEI push is being led by ABC News Director Justin Stevens, a highly paid news executive who says staff have experienced racism at the ABC in an email obtained in full by Sky News.
'Six months ago I emailed you about issues around diversity and inclusion in (ABC) News and talked about the experiences of some of our colleagues with discriminatory, non-inclusive and at times racist behaviour,' he wrote in December, 2022.
The email did not detail Mr Stevens' evidence or whether his own staff had committed racist acts but came six months after he publicly apologised to anyone at the ABC who 'has ever experienced racism or bigotry in our workplace'.
His apology at the time related to an internal investigation which alleged racist acts had taken place in ABC newsrooms.
In the same email, Mr Stevens pushed for everyone to get on board with the new 'Talent Diversity Tracking' initiative.
READ JUSTIN STEVENS' ALL STAFF EMAIL ON DEI TRACKING
Mr Stevens conceded the changes could be 'awkward and uncomfortable' but would improve the representation of marginalised groups in Australia.
'Talking about these issues can be awkward and uncomfortable – but it's vital we do in order to make the workplace positive for everyone,' he said.
'A key message from our people is that while we're improving the diversity of our workforce. We have a way to go to create a truly inclusive environment for all our people. Every one of us has a role to play in that. Everything we do in this area improves our journalism, making it more accurate and authentic, ensuring we're delivering for all Australians.'
Mr Stevens wrote about the ABC's internal diversity tracking system, revealing that 'almost all news teams' had been storing sensitive data as early as 2022.
'Building on the 50:50 project, almost all News teams have now moved to the new talent diversity tracking system, designed to measure the representation of people with disability, women, Indigenous and culturally and linguistic diverse Australians,' he wrote.
'To help continue to increase the diversity of voices and faces in our coverage, the ABC is inviting all Australians to become part of our new Your Voice database.
'Teams across News and R&L will use Your Voice to source and store as many new diverse contacts as possible.'
He also revealed that ABC journalists have been 'pilot testing' a new shared contact system known internally as the 'Your Voice' database which allowed journalists to easily find talent and voices for news stories in order to hit their diversity tracking KPIs.
'Already during the pilot testing phase more than 1500 people of many different backgrounds, locations and professional/lived experiences have made themselves available as experts and case studies,' he wrote. 'Every kind of diversity except viewpoint diversity'
The ABC's diversity push has been criticised as being simply a woke waste of money, according to Scott Hargreaves, Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs.
'ABC management simply do not get it, warping the news the ABC presents to meet woke DEI goals is completely inconsistent with its Charter. Kim Williams and the Board should shut this down immediately,' he told Sky News.
'DEI is a cancer that eats out organisations from within by distracting it from its actual purpose and tying up staff with pointless tasks.
'The definition of news is what is of interest to the public and what is important. DEI goals for representation have nothing to do with achieving this aim.'
Mr Hargreaves said the 'DEI warriors' at the ABC were interested in all kinds of diversity except for viewpoint diversity, which has led the broadcaster to sound like the 'Green-Left Weekly'.
'The ABC is no longer an institution of cultural importance in Australia as it once was. Too often the ABC fails to represent the diverse views of the community,' he said.
'While the ABC's taxpayer funding increases every year, its ratings continue to fall. It demonstrates the deep structural and cultural problems at the taxpayer funded broadcaster.
'Given the declining relevance and audience of the ABC, it is time the federal government review its funding levels and ensure it is commensurate with performance and viewership. Maybe then Australians might see some balance return to the taxpayer funded broadcaster.' 'Not quotas, just representation targets'
The ABC's diversity guidelines insisted that these DEI requirements were not 'quotas' but instead were being used to 'effect real change'.
This is despite the fact its internal language repeatedly refers to targets, benchmarks, and representation levels that should be measured, reported, and built upon.
Sky News contacted the ABC to enquire about the document, and was directed to a report which said the broadcaster has accepted 15 recommendations from an independent review into ABC systems.
The recommendations include that the ABC 'commit to being proactively anti-racist', 'create culturally safe support systems' and 'improve diverse representation'.
It comes after Sky News revealed that staff were ordered to avoid commonplace phrases such as 'no can do', 'Chinese whispers' and 'gone walkabout' because they can be racially offensive.
The advice was part of the new diversity and inclusion measures at the public broadcaster which came out of its internal racism review.
The 4000-strong workforce at the ABC was told they must complete the compulsory 75-minute Building an Inclusive Culture training course by the end of the month.
In that course was a section on avoiding 'language with racial connotations', with staff advised the following phrases can be offensive to people from 'those races' and provided with 'inclusive alternatives'.
Instead of 'Chinese whispers', employees are told to use the term 'misinformation'.
Rather than say someone has 'gone walkabout', it's suggested they use the word 'absent'.
Staff are also told to avoid the phrase 'no can do' and instead say 'I can't help'.
The ABC launched its new Inclusive Team Planning project in July 2024, as a response to an internal racism review prompted by the departure of former Q&A host Stan Grant, who accused the broadcaster of failing to support him in the wake of racial abuse stemming from his coverage of King Charles' coronation.
Mr Grant called the issue an 'institutional failure' and the subsequent review found racism was 'systemic' in the ABC's ranks.
Of 120 staff interviewed, only one said they had not personally experienced racism and that person was still aware of it happening at the ABC.