ABC apologises for Race Around the World episode featuring Gina Rinehart reference

The ABC has apologised for a Race Around the World episode containing remarks about mining magnate Gina Rinehart AO, despite the broadcaster’s formal complaints handling process finding it did not breach editorial standards.

The ABC Ombudsman has found that the episode, which aired on July 12, did not breach the ABC Editorial Standards relating to harm and offence.

The episode featured contestant Kate McGuinness describing a fictional scenario that involved a violent attack on Mrs Rinehart, including mixing her “guts” to “make one big sausage roll”.

In apologising to Mrs Rinehart, ABC managing director Hugh Marks said the segment fell short of community expectations.

Speaking to ABC local radio in Mt Isa, Marks said, while the film did not breach the ABC’s editorial policies: “When you see the piece and certainly if you watch it a second time and when you hear it, when you hear about it and other people talking about it, doesn’t meet the pub test, right?

The ABC boss said an apology was appropriate in the circumstances.

“Ultimately, we felt the treatment of Mrs Rinehart was not fair, and so we apologised and we’ve edited it and changed the program,” Marks said.

Mrs Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, wrote to the ABC Board on July 23 calling on the ABC to immediately remove the material from all ABC platforms, publicly apologise to Mrs Rinehart, and for a comprehensive investigation into how the material came to be commissioned, approved and published, together with full accountability for those responsible, a company statement said.

A spokesperson for Hancock Prospecting today criticised the ABC for leaving the “violent torture-until-death content” published for 25 days.

“The content shown on the ABC normalised violent torture against a woman till death, and dehumanised an Australian, such that she was worthless and OK to be sexually tortured, should not be and must not be acceptable in our country,” they said.

They said it was a concept “practised by terrorists … and must never be regarded as art, or acceptable in our country, even by the ABC”.

“The internal ABC Ombudsman’s decision that the ABC did not breach ABC Editorial Standards fails all Australian women and the millions of taxpayers who fund the ABC.”

The spokesperson said they were waiting on details of who approved the piece to be aired and delayed its removal.

“The buck stops with the heads of the ABC,” they said.

“We wait to see the long overdue changes to the ABC’s editorial standards. 

“Such editorial standards need to stop sexual violence and torture-until-death episodes being shown or depicted in any form against any woman on the ABC, including under the pretence of satire or art or any other cloak.”

Audience ‘unlikely to interpret remarks as genuine call for violence’

Following complaints, the matter was referred to the ABC Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman said the question it considered was not “whether the remarks were offensive or in good taste but whether any likely offence was justified by the editorial context”.

“Having regard to the program format, the filmmaker’s established creative style, the surreal and hyperbolic nature of the film, the absences of any visual depiction of violence, and the criticism expressed by the judging panel,” the Ombudsman found that a reasonable audience member “would be unlikely to interpret the remarks as a genuine call for, endorsement of, or encouragement of violence.”

McGuinness released a statement through the ABC last week, apologising to anyone she offended and saying the sense of humour featured in her films on Race Around the World was “farcical”.

“In no way was it my intention to promote violence,” she said.

“My writing is cartoonish and always satirical.

“Unfortunately, jokes do not land with everyone. Its purpose was never to be taken literally.”

McGuinness shot A Very Relaxing Video in Scotland, using a monotone voice-over to make a satirical film featuring a Scottish “forest warrior ninja” and tips on how to “make something out of nothing”.

The judges, John Safran, David Michôd and Leigh Sales, gave McGuinness feedback on the film, none of it glowing.

Sales said she liked the film, except for the change in tone towards the end.

“You backed it in with a very easy, kinda nasty gag about Gina Rinehart, so what you were saying to the viewer was, ‘We’re all in this together, unless you don’t share my politics,'” Sales said.

On Tuesday, acting Prime Minister Richard Marles described the sketch as “completely inappropriate and unacceptable” but stopped short of calling for the video to be removed from ABC sites.

“We do think that it is appropriate that the ABC has referred this to the Ombudsman and I’m surprised that this video is still on its site,” Mr Marles said.

The Greens communications spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young called the segment “disgusting” and urged the ABC to apologise.

‘We got this wrong’, guidance to change

In an earlier statement, Hugh Marks said: “As part of our review of this matter, we have considered whether the guidance in the ABC Editorial Policies adequately reflects current community expectations.

“We have also considered whether the relevant guidance sufficiently distinguishes between news and non-news content.”

As a result, the ABC will amend its guidance as it applies to violence.

“The change, I think, will reflect the fact that no individual should be the subject of comedy that is violent in its description in our programming, and I think the ABC has to hold itself to a higher standard and I think it’s really important we make that change,” Marks said.

“It’s also important that we acknowledge we got this wrong.

The film has been removed from the ABC’s platforms and will be replaced with an edited video without the material subject to the complaint.