Political correctness is out of control.  

You know it, I know it… and, it seems, even ABC diehards know it.  

According to the skewed Australia Talks National Survey (we dismembered its methodology here), two-thirds of Australians agree that political correctness has gone too far.  

The majority of men agree. 

And the majority of women agree. 

Men and women of all ages agree, and that applies across white and non-white Australians in all states and territories. 

Among people born in this country, 68 per cent say political correctness has gone too far.  

Considering that Australia Talks is essentially the ABC surveying 54,000 of its own audience to confirm the views they already hold, this one’s proving tricky for them to handle.  

It’s interesting watching them try to make this a political football. 

“Among One Nation voters, 98 per cent agree that political correctness has gone too far. Among Greens voters, only 29 per cent agree,” the ABC reports as it tries to explain away the devastating finding. “The sentiment has the support of a narrow majority – 52 per cent – of Labor voters, while 88 per cent of those who voted LNP at the last election agree.” 

We saw very clearly in the latest federal election that the majority of people aren’t Labor or Greens voters; that’s why Morrison won.  

Yet, the ABC’s new guidelines, released this week, are full of identity politics which sit of the very heart of political correctness debate. 

These new guidelines have banned the use of the word “us”.  

Ironically, this is one of the most inclusive words in the English language. 

The ABC charter requires the broadcaster to air views that contribute to a sense of national identity. However, the new guidelines appear to have a convenient get–out clause.  

The guidelines state, “Electoral success does confer some legitimacy in a democracy – it is hard to argue that support sufficient to elect politicians to federal parliament does not represent a significant perspective in the community. However, it does not exempt politicians from being vigorously challenged, nor does it oblige the ABC to broadcast hate speech. However, fringe political players should not be elevated simply because they create controversy.” 

Hilarious! 

This is a 100 per cent judgement call.  

Who is to decide what “hate speech” is? 

I would certainly suggest that extremist feminist ideology is “hate speech”, yet it has seeped into every corner of our national broadcaster and appears on every panel.  

Just take a look at the recent hateful Q&A, which the ABC was forced to remove from iView (but still sneakily kept up online), for proof of that.  

People saying political correctness has gone too far are essentially asserting that they are sick of tribalism.  

Surely, the most important role of our national broadcaster should be to ensure sensible balance, which is the only remedy to the raging tribalism fuelling the culture wars? 

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