Better Australia accuses ABC of bias over election abuse claims

A grassroots organisation has accused the ABC’s 7:30 program of refusing to report on alleged antisemitic abuse at polling stations during the recent federal election, claiming the broadcaster has “reversed victim and offender”.

Better Australia spokesperson Sophie Calland said the organisation provided video evidence of racist incidents to 7:30 but the program declined to cover them. “It was traumatic for our volunteers to experience such levels of racism and antisemitism at polling stations,” Calland said.

“All accounts including video evidence were provided to the ABC’s 7:30 when Better Australia was contacted. The ABC declined to report on these horrific instances of abuse and ran with an extremely one-sided third party campaign wrap up.”

Calland accused the broadcaster of having “reversed victim and offender, which is all we have seen from their coverage on Australia’s antisemitism crisis”.

The non-partisan organisation, which campaigned against the Greens and Teal candidates across multiple seats, has made five formal complaints to the Australian Electoral Commission about volunteer behaviour and said it called police three times during the election period.