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Journalists from public broadcaster jump ship for Labor

Australia
Nick Squires

Sydney

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation prides itself on its impartiality and inclusiveness. Slick graphics and happy, smiling faces on its programme promos remind viewers that the national broadcaster is 'their' ABC.

But the corporation's objectivity has been brought into question recently by the number of journalists who have jumped ship to the opposition Labor Party as electoral candidates.

The latest recruit from 'Aunty', as the ABC is affectionately known, came this week. Mike Bailey, a mild-mannered TV weatherman familiar to millions of Sydney viewers, announced that he'll contest the federal seat of North Sydney for Labor.

He will be up against a government minister, Joe Hockey, and will need a 10 per cent swing in the vote in order to win office.

It may be a tall order for a man who has no political experience and is best known for predicting heat waves, hailstorms and high seas.

It is not the first time that a respected ABC presenter has been parachuted into a Labor preselection - some say, with indecent haste.

Veteran TV presenter Maxine McKew announced in February that she will run against Prime Minister John Howard in his Sydney electorate at the next federal election, expected by the end of the year.

Mr Howard has held the blue-ribbon seat of Bennelong, on Sydney's North Shore, since 1974 and McKew has acknowledged that she faces a tough battle.

But it may not be beyond her reach - after electoral boundaries were redrawn, Mr Howard holds the seat by a margin of just four per cent. Analysts say that puts him at risk of becoming the first prime minister since 1929 to lose his seat in a federal election.

Labor first approached McKew to run for parliament in 2004 but she turned them down. Her acceptance three years later, under new Labor leader Kevin Rudd, prompted critics to question her journalistic objectivity in the intervening time.

McKew followed in the footsteps of former Labor state premier Bob Carr, who once worked for ABC's respected morning radio programme AM.

It is not only in New South Wales that there appears to be a cosy relationship between Labor and the ABC. The current head of the Northern Territory government, Clare Martin, is also a former ABC star.

All of which serves to bolster longstanding perceptions among some Australians that the ABC is skewed towards the left.

'The essential problem with ABC is that it has far too few conservative presenters,' said Gerard Henderson, the head of the Sydney Institute think-tank.

'Having so many people move so readily between the ABC and Labor is not a good look for the broadcaster.'

Others, however, maintain that ABC journalists are professional enough to quarantine their personal political opinions from their duties in the newsroom.

Even if ABC journalists do have a left-of-centre outlook, that is counter-balanced by the corporation's board, which is packed with government appointees.

The three free-to-air TV stations, which have never been accused of a surfeit of political correctness, also act as a counterweight.

'The media environment in Australia is overwhelmingly biased towards the conservative side,' said Anne Dunn, the head of the media department at Sydney University. 'Studies have shown over the years that ABC journalists are more committed to balance and impartiality than party politics.'

When Labor was last in power, under prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, it too accused the ABC of unfair bias.

Receiving criticisms of partiality is proof positive for most journalists that they are doing their job right - as long as it comes from both sides of the political spectrum.

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