Senator BROWN (5:09 PM) —The first thing I can say is that Senator Santoro, by attacking Mr Uechtritz—who I do not know—for apparently stratifying the horrors of terrorism that were seen around the world, falls immediately into that trap himself. One might say: how dare he relegate Srebrenica! I, for one, spent all night awake, knowing what was going on there. What about the events in Congo or Rwanda, which Senator Santoro does not mention but the ABC has brought us news of in all their terrifying, inhumane and disgusting dimensions?

I think Senator Cherry has given us a very good exposition. Because time is limited, I want to reiterate his point that it is the private media in this country that has been found to be most biased, most loaded and most lethal when it comes to making representations to the public which simply do not stand the test of scrutiny. It is not good enough to say, `The private media is one thing. We pay for the ABC.' All Australians pay for that private media. We pay for it through advertising and in other ways. The money comes straight out of our pockets. It is not just magically there; we pay for it by the goods we buy. Therefore, in a democracy it has to be accountable too.

In a democracy, the fourth estate has to be based on truthful representation, as far as that is possible. It is the private media that has been found out time and time again, as compared to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. That said, seeing as the government has declared open season for whingeing, carping and discriminatory comments about the ABC, let me look at this from another point of view—the Green's point of view. I woke up recently to ABC News Radio declaring North Korea as the eastern end of the axis of evil. Who told them that? How dare they come up with a fact like that—straight from the Pentagon, straight out of the rose garden! But it is not a fact and it should have been qualified as such.

What about the Insiders program that we are treated to every Sunday morning with Andrew Bolt or, variously, Piers Akerman? These are right-wing ideologues—neoconservatives who long ago lost any pretence of balance, or having a handle on the truth even. I know that Andrew Bolt has said that he lives on the street, but he certainly has not got the wisdom that comes with it. His loaded, biased and, very often, childish descent into the realms of imaginary plotting by almost everybody that he disagrees with—the same goes for Piers Akerman—is not balanced on that program.

We hear Radio National Breakfast. Each week we are treated to Gerard Henderson on Peter Thompson's program. Where is the balance to that? I do not hear it. Will I write and complain? No, I will not. But then you get to the Greens in Tasmania in the last state election campaign. Guess who they brought onto the panel? No Green was allowed. In fact, the ABC made the very biased decision that Peg Putt, the leader of the Greens in the Tasmanian parliament, would not be represented in the leaders' debate. Tell that to a European jurisdiction or to British Columbia for that matter, which has a representation of more than two, but not to our ABC. Then on election night, who do they bring onto their panel? Robin Gray, to spout forth his anti-Green invective on election night.

Then we moved onto plastic bags just last week. You would swear that the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Dr Kemp, was leading the campaign. There was no mention of the Greens, the Democrats or the community organisations. And what about the Meander Dam on Sunday and reporter Pip Courtney on Landline? The report was biased, loaded and anticommunity because it represented a special sectional point of interest to the detriment of the rest. I can go into the specifics but I do not have time to do that. What about the economic analysis? It was almost frivolously left out of that program. So on it goes. But you expect that; you expect to hear things you do not agree with. What would it be otherwise? Congratulations to the ABC. It is a great and much loved institution, and thank the Lord it is there. (Time expired)