It’s not an ABC journalist who should do better. It’s the prime minister himself

September 9, 2026 — 3:32pm

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Last week a letter writer to this publication suggested that Anthony Albanese’s political cynicism and duplicity knew no bounds.

In this instance, it was prompted by the distance between his statements and actions in dealing with Pacific Island leaders when it came to climate change. But it could have been written about many topics.

Indeed, over recent months, readers have returned to the same theme again and again: the widening gap between what this prime minister says and what his government actually does.

It’s a common theme emerging from voters who took Albanese at his word that his government would be more open, transparent and honest than the last.

What they’ve been given in return is the opposite. Time and time again, the public have been gaslighted by a prime minister who constantly accused his predecessor of having a loose relationship with the truth.

For Albanese to stand in front of a camera this morning declaring the ABC “should do better” after exposing blatant hypocrisy in the Labor government’s attitude toward dishing out taxpayer funds was verging on Trumpian.

Albanese wrote in his ministerial code of conduct that his government would adhere to the highest standards of integrity, honesty, and accountability. Instead, he behaves as indignantly as those he claims are damaging democracy.

Let’s look briefly at his outrageous response on Wednesday to a genuine news story by the ABC’s Jake Evans.

To catch you up, a Centre of Integrity report named Public money, political advantage? this week found Labor has used a $500 million Commonwealth fund to pork-barrel. Marginal, ALP-competitive seats received $66.5 million more than a proportional distribution would produce, whereas marginal ALP-non-competitive seats and safe/fairly safe non-ALP seats received a combined $116.6 million less than expected.

This, of course, triggered memories of the Morrison government’s so-called sports rort fund, which was condemned by the Auditor-General and led to then sports minister Bridget McKenzie losing her job over an undeclared conflict of interest.

The report into the Labor grants, conducted by eminent and non-partisan professionals, found that for every $1 spent in a Coalition-held seat, more than $3.20 was spent in an ALP-held seat.

Then came the news that the prime minister’s local golf course, where he holds an undeclared honorary membership, received a grant. It is not an exact carbon copy of the McKenzie case, but there’s an equal whiff of sloppiness.

Indeed, the code of conduct he authored spells out that all interests by ministers, pecuniary or otherwise, should be declared.

Instead of acknowledging an oversight, he played the man, not the ball.

“The ABC were told information they chose not to publish appropriately,” he said. The ABC later refuted his claims, pointing out much of the information he claimed they had ignored in fact, had been reported the day before – the upgrades to sewerage and stormwater systems at the Marrickville Golf Course and the costs of a membership.

There’s also a dangerous and worrisome element of “they all do it” developing here, which is cynical and misses the point. As voters flock to One Nation, this is another hammer blow for trust in government.

It’s important to remember Albanese’s public comments in 2020 at the height of the sports rorts affair when he said McKenzie has “got to go”.

“This is just a rort. It fails the pub test. It fails every test,” he told Adelaide radio station FIVEaa. “If [Prime Minister] Scott Morrison doesn’t take action here, this goes to fundamental integrity and faith in politics.

“A whole lot of grants … were given to some clubs, and I’m sure that many of them are worthwhile, but the problem is that, in order to get those grants, clubs that should have received the money, that in good faith went through processes, spent hundreds of hours doing applications, getting close, they missed out.”

The disconnect between what this prime minister says and does is doing damage to his own standing, the standing of his government and the trust in an institution he vowed to restore and respect.

It’s not an ABC journalist who should do better. It’s the prime minister himself.

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Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.AdvertisementAdvertisement