News & Media

The nation’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, is threatening to sue the ABC’s top bosses, including chairman Kim Williams and managing director Hugh Marks, after they refused to remove a “disgusting” video depicting her being “sodomised and tortured in a manner that would kill her”.

In a short film that screened on the ABC’s Race Around the World program on July 12, Kate McGuinness acted out a sketch featuring an offensive doomsday scenario in which the billionaire mining magnate would be violently assaulted.

“When the revolution comes, will you hide under your bed or will you know exactly how to shove a stick right up Gina Rinehart’s butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth, making her into one big sausage roll, to make something outta nothing,” McGuinness said in the piece.

The ABC’s decision to air the video has since attracted widespread condemnation from both sides of politics, as well as the wider community, prompting McGuinness to apologise publicly for the sketch.

The taxpayer-funded broadcaster has refused to do likewise or remove the clip from its digital platforms, instead defending the clip as “satirical in tone” before eventually relenting and sending the vision to its internal ombudsman for review following audience complaints.

Mrs Rinehart has clearly been appalled by not only the content but also the ABC’s lack of action, with her privately owned, multibillion-dollar mining business, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd, issuing a statement late on Friday afternoon “regarding ABC legal action”.

The company noted it had written to the ABC on July 23 “regarding the publication and continued publication of material concerning its Executive Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart AO”, demanding immediate action be taken.

“Hancock called upon the ABC to immediately remove the material from all ABC platforms, publicly apologise to Mrs Rinehart, and undertake a comprehensive investigation into how the material came to be commissioned, approved and published, together with full accountability for those responsible,” the statement said.

“One week has now elapsed. The ABC’s Board and senior management have provided no substantive public response, nor any substantive response to Hancock or Mrs Rinehart, and have taken no steps to remove the material from ABC platforms, despite widespread public condemnation and the serious risks its publication and continued publication pose to Mrs Rinehart.

“Hancock has now formally placed ABC chair Kim Williams AM, deputy chair Lisa Caffery and managing director Hugh Marks on notice of detailed allegations of serious contraventions of multiple Australian criminal and civil laws arising from the ABC’s publication and continued publication of the material.”

Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said she was astonished by the ABC’s dismal response to its “sickening error of judgement” in airing the video.

“The ABC’s failure to apologise and remove from its platforms this deeply offensive and violent content about Gina Rinehart is shocking,” the senator told The Australian.

“Not only is this disgusting attack on Mrs Rinehart a clear breach of the ABC’s Code of Practice and editorial policies, it demonstrates an ongoing failure to combat deeply entrenched left-wing activism at the national broadcaster.

“As editor-in-chief, Hugh Marks should have acted immediately to remedy the ABC’s sickening error of judgment, compounded by the nonsensical argument the segment was ‘intended to be satirical in tone’.

“In the face of these failings, it is no surprise Mrs Rinehart is threatening to throw the book at the ABC.”

The ABC confirmed it had “received correspondence from lawyers acting for Ms Rinehart and will respond to it in due course”.

“The ABC Ombudsman is independently reviewing audience complaints in relation to the 12 July Race Around the World episode in accordance with the ABC’s complaints handling process,” a spokesperson said.

The latest developments come after a spokesperson for Hancock Prospecting spoke out about the clip last weekend, saying the ABC owed the businesswoman a public apology and querying how the video made it to air in the first place.

“This appalling material, presented by the taxpayer-funded ABC as ‘entertainment’, illustrated and graphically described Mrs Rinehart being sodomised and tortured in a manner that would kill her,” the spokesman said.

“It is nothing short of disgusting that the ABC would encourage and normalise violence and murder by broadcasting, publishing and continuing to distribute this content. This was not an unscripted live comment; it passed through production, editorial and broadcast processes.

“If the ABC believes it can hide behind the false shield of ‘satire’ to glorify sexualised and political violence and murder, it has completely lost sight of its editorial responsibilities. Surely this is outside its charter? A public apology would be the minimum appropriate response, but more importantly, a light must be shone on who let this go to air in prime time, and action taken.”