On 7th April 2026, The Guardian quietly published an exclusive article announcing”ABC drops sponsorship of LGBTQ+, disability and diversity groups including Acon“.
What!? Have all our dreams come true?
Women’s Cooee have been pointing out the link between ACON and the ABC since our very first post in 2021.
Over the years, the ABC have had multiple wake-up calls. Even calls that are coming from inside the building. Famously, in 2022, Paul Barry’s Media Watch episode ACON and the ABC criticised the relationship between the national broadcaster and the lobby group. Since then, Media Watch has criticised the ABC’s reporting several more times.
We have often featured links to material published by Kit Kowalski and ACON Exposed, pointing to ACON’s to the ABC’s editorial decisions on sensitive topics such as puberty blockers, men in women’s sports, and fair reporting.
In 2025, Dr Megan Poore confronted ABC CEO Hugh Marks directly with questions over the ABC’s partiality. Hugh stumbled over his answers. But it seems he did his homework, and now ACON’s close relationship with the ABC is formally at an end.
Many others have raised the alarm, written letters of complaint, raised questions in parliament, published extensive features in the national press, and taken to the streets with placards and chalk.
Not So Fast
Here at Women’s Cooee, we tend to be ones for equine dentistry. We dive deep into the analysis. That is to say, before the champagne is cracked, we are going to have to look this gift horse in the mouth. What does this change mean, if anything?
The Good
Officially, the ABC have ended their financial sponsorship of ACON’s Pride in Diversity scheme. Huzzah! No detail is available, but this probably means that they will no longer pay the $6000-$10000 annual membership fee. It may also mean that they will be wary of releasing highly remunerated staff to host awards nights, staff booths at fairs, and chair panel discussions at the annual Pride in Practice Conference. They will probably stop paying thousands of dollars for staff to attend the annual ACON LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Awards nights.
We hope this means that Aunty will also rethink participation in the Australian Workplace Equality Index scheme, where the ABC receives points from ACON on their performance in workplace initiatives devised by ACON.
We hope that this change signals a release on the pressure valve that has seen the ABC marching in lock-step with ACON’s agenda for so long.
The Bad
The bad news is that we don’t actually know how far the ABC are going to go to repair the damage that ACON’s advice has done. Will they dismantle the influential “ABC Pride Network” that held an emergency meeting the day after Paul Barry criticised ABC’s relationship with ACON? Will they review and repeal the policies put in place on ACON’s advice? Will they issue corrections to the many, many biased reports issued over the years championing kid-transing and men in women’s sport? Will they continue to use ACON’s training services to advise new starters that “trans women” (men) have the right to use women’s toilets?
Will they axe that factory of disinformation, ABC Queer?
While the formal relationship with ACON may be at an end, ABC staffers Mon Schafter (head of ABC Queer) and Ben Law are still closely involved with ACON through their patronage of Twenty-10.
The Ugly
The unfortunate, ugly reality is that the ABC is the tip of a very large iceberg.
ABC is only one of dozens of publicly funded organisations supporting ACON’s Pride in Diversity scheme. Looking at the list of the highest AWEI performers from 2025 in the LGBTIQ+ Awards, we see CSIRO, ATO, Services Australia, Department of Agriculture, and many others listed. These are only those who have reached the highest levels of compliance with ACON’s agenda. Many others aren’t publicly listed.
The Future
The pressure needs to be kept on the ABC to not just drop ACON, but to restore balance in reporting.
We hope that the ABC is the first in a long line of dominoes to fall!