By Vera Figner
In RMIT ABC Fact Check, published 11 November 2022, the ABC falsely claimed that Binary Australia had
asserted, in an election campaign flyer, that it’s Victorian government policy to allow school children access to ‘gender-affirming’ medical treatment without parental consent. Binary Australia asserted no such thing.
The factual material in the flyer was mostly a straight three-paragraph copy-and-paste from the Victorian
Govt’s own ‘Parental consent’ policy, under which – in certain circumstances – students can undertake
‘gender transition’ without parental consent. The text explicitly said that ‘gender transition’ could be
achieved in the school setting ‘without consulting medical practitioners’. What Binary said was dead
accurate, and they rightly roasted the ABC for its inaccuracies.
After receiving complaints, the ABC amended the article on 23 November, ie nearly two weeks later.
However the graphic still carries the text ‘Debunked’ and the caption to the graphic still asserts the original information about Binary that the ABC has supposedly accepted was inaccurate. What’s more, Aunty’s amended version now blames Binary for the ABC’s own inaccurate reporting, claiming that the flyer is ‘missing important context’ and ‘contained little information’ and ‘could lead readers to surmise …’ etc.
Talk about blaming the victim! Aunty, just pull the whole article, and issue – as Binary requests – a
retraction and apology.
How did the article get published in the first place? Easy to see how it happened: A case of the blind leading the blind. For the Fact Check project, the ABC partners with RMIT, which is even deeper in the ACON trans-extremist lobby quagmire than the ABC itself.
Aunty, you’ve done it again: First with Kath Deves, now with Kirralie Smith of Binary Australia. When will you learn: Just because somebody’s a right-winger it doesn’t mean you can tell lies about her. Or her organisation. Stop listening to the kid-transing lobby. Do your own research. Assert your independence.
Come back to us, Aunty!
Update!
FEBRUARY 2024
The ABC has announced it’ll be ending its fact-checking partnership with the RMIT FactLab when the current agreement expires on 30 June 2024. The reason seems to be the RMIT lads and lasses annoyed No advocates by doing too much proper fact-checking during the Voice campaign. The ABC is going to set up its own internal fact-checking team, to be known as ‘ABC News Verify’. Likely to be same old same old where gender-identity ideology is concerned, as long as Aunty remains in thrall to ACON/AWEI.