Senator TIERNEY (3:13 PM) —I do not think Senator Schacht actually established his case in that tirade. It is a pretty difficult case he is trying to establish if he is trying to say that the media—any media, let alone the ABC—is even-handed in its treatment in this country.

I think it has been very obvious over the last two years not only how biased the media has been against this government but, in particular, how biased the ABC has been. This came home very clearly to me, Senator Schacht, in this particular case of the waterfront and the treatment of it by the ABC and by other media.

Let me give you two examples from my own area which I actually eye witnessed. John Howard, our Prime Minister, came to Maitland about five weeks ago. We really had a great day. He was out in the community; he was out in the rural areas. There were some great stories to report. He spoke to a huge public gathering in the Maitland Town Hall. But was there any evidence of this on the media that night, on the ABC or anywhere else? No.

What did they report? They reported that the waterside workers were out the front of Maitland Town Hall and, as John Howard swept in, they took that particular footage, which was about one minute out of a full day. What appeared on that night's news broadcasts—the ABC included—was that footage. None of the good news was reported. The reporting was biased against the government, particularly on this waterfront issue.

To move on one week: Tim Fischer came to the Hunter Valley to launch a new ship at ADI in Carrington. This was showpiece technology for this country. It was a great story. A huge crowd was there in the pouring rain to help launch this great ship. Outside the entrance to the shipyards was a very small band of protesters—a little under 30 people. Some of them were protesting about educational issues, but the great majority of those 30 were waterside workers protesting against the Prime Minister. This very small group was in a tent, in the rain, outside the shipyard.

What did the media—and the ABC in particular—report on that night? They reported on the small group of protesters. They took very sharp-angled shots of the protesters so they looked like a crowd, but there was not a crowd there at all. There was a really good news story there, but they did not report it, they reported on this small group of protesters. The ABC is not the only one that does that; all the media does that.

To try to establish a case for one branch of the media like the ABC and say that it is even-handed is nonsense. None of the media is even-handed, particularly the ABC. We see it time and time again in the reporting on this government. The ABC takes minor points, distorts them and blows them up. Probably the worst example in two years was the reporting of the waterfront dispute. The ABC reported it in such a way as to try make the government look bad. This government is trying to reform the waterfront. The previous government wasted $480 million and did not achieve any real workplace reform.

We have started. We have had the guts to do it. The ABC should be reporting in an even-handed way that this government has had the courage to reform the waterfront, which is one of the main ways in which we will get the economy in this country back on track. We have to do it, but it must be reported properly. We have not seen proper reporting from the media generally, and we certainly have not seen it from the ABC.