Swimming legend Dawn Fraser has called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a "spineless imbecile" for refusing to say a single public word about the ABC segment that described Gina Rinehart being sodomised and killed, and it's not the first time the Olympic great has unloaded on him.
Fraser, a winner of four Olympic gold medals and eight Olympic medals in all, posted the attack on Facebook, where it has drawn more than 10,000 likes, News24 reported on the weekend.
"I am sick to my stomach to think we have a government funded network ABC showing vile pieces to air about one of Australia's greatest supporters Gina Rinehart and our vile Prime Minister has not come out and condemned the content," Fraser wrote.
"You are a spineless imbecile Albanese and you get more disgusting as the days gone on. To let this vile crap on ABC go to air and not come out and say anything against it shows the insipid little degenerate you are."
Fraser's charge lands because the record backs it. When a woman on his own side cops a slur, this Prime Minister has no trouble finding the words. He found them five weeks before the ABC aired the Rinehart film.
A witch billboard aimed at Jacinta Allan was condemned on the spot. A televised murder fantasy got nothing
On 8 June, asked about a billboard truck circling Melbourne that called Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan a witch, Albanese told reporters in Canberra the "sexist" campaign was "totally unacceptable and has no place in public life".
"We want to encourage women to enter public life and it should be a contest of ideas, not personal attacks. You don't have to denigrate people in such a personal way. It has got to stop."
That was a slogan on a truck, aimed at a Labor premier, and he condemned it the day he was asked. Five weeks later the broadcaster his government funds put a film to air describing a named Australian woman being violated and killed, and the man who said "it has got to stop" hasn't started.
Albanese has said nothing, and his ministers won't ask the ABC to apologise
The Race Around the World episode aired on 12 July and told viewers to be ready, "when the revolution comes", to assault and kill the Hancock Prospecting executive chairman. The ABC called the film "editorially justifiable" and has refused to remove it, as we reported when the broadcaster dug in.
Three weeks on, the Prime Minister hasn't commented publicly on it, and no senior minister has asked the national broadcaster to apologise.
Communications Minister Anika Wells conceded the segment was "unacceptable" but fell back on the ABC's "editorial independence", a formula we examined when she finally spoke. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has also declined to call for an apology, according to News24.
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles told News24 the segment sounded "completely unacceptable", while admitting he hadn't watched it.
"I haven't seen this vision or this video, so I want to make that clear," Marles said. "But certainly, as it's been described to me, you know, from my perspective, this sounds completely unacceptable and I'd want to make that clear."
Marles called the ABC's referral of the segment to its own Ombudsman "a good step". The Ombudsman is an internal office that reports to the ABC board, the same board Rinehart's company has now put on notice.
The "mean girls" of Labor got his outrage. Kimberley Kitching's treatment got none
The pattern stretches back years. In March 2022, The Australian reported claims from supporters of the late senator Kimberley Kitching that Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally had ostracised her, under the "mean girls" label Kitching's camp used. Albanese hit back the same day.
He called the term "extraordinarily disrespectful" as a description of "strong, articulate, principled women", and observed that he and his male colleagues had "never been described as mean boys, and people should think about that".
Asked whether the claims about how Kitching was treated warranted an investigation, he said: "Seriously, have a bit of respect. The funeral is on Monday." No inquiry was ever held.
Two years on, at a Canberra rally against violence against women, Albanese told the crowd organisers had knocked back his request to speak. Rally organiser Sarah Williams, the founder of What Were You Wearing, was heard telling him "that's a lie, that's a flat-out lie". He stood by his version and declined to apologise to her.
Rinehart handed swimmers $1.2 million the same week the PM stayed mute
Fraser's post landed as Rinehart and Hancock Prospecting paid out more than $1.2 million in medal bonuses to Australian swimmers at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where the team took 75 of the 103 swimming medals on offer. By Thursday the tally stood at 36 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze.
The money goes straight to the athletes, paid into their accounts within two weeks of the Games ending. Hancock pays $20,000 for an individual gold, $15,000 for a silver and $10,000 for a bronze, with another $30,000 for a world record in an individual event. Relay medals earn $5,000, $3,750 and $2,500 a swimmer, and every medal counts, so a swimmer who won three individual golds and broke a world record would bank $90,000.
"I'm pleased to be able once again to provide financial rewards to our medal winners in the sports where I'm Patron," Rinehart said. "It's a way of saying thank you and showing appreciation for their dedication and achievements, the pride they make Australians feel, right across our country, and for being the inspiring young ambassadors that they truly are."
The bonuses sit on top of a patronage of Australian sport that runs past $100 million and has earned Rinehart an Order of Merit from the Australian Olympic Committee, an honour rarely given to anyone who never competed at a Games.
Swimmers were warned not to thank her, on pain of breach of contract
Correspondence obtained by News24 shows Glasgow swimmers were briefed not to thank Rinehart or discuss the medal payments in media interviews, and were warned that ignoring the direction would put them in breach of contract.
The gag sits in the Australian team membership agreement athletes signed for the Games. Clause 4.8 stops an athlete appearing in or promoting any reward scheme without approval from Commonwealth Games Australia, and another clause blocks paid media comment without permission. The restrictions apply to all athletes and aren't aimed at Rinehart's payments specifically, but the effect in Glasgow is the same: the swimmers can take the patron's money, they just can't mention her name.
Fraser, who signed no such agreement, said the Glasgow team had "done very, very well with the many years of support from Gina Rinehart".
She'd already defended the mining boss in an earlier post, writing that she was "disgusted and embarrassed to think that anyone that chooses to support our athletes can be ridiculed, denigrated and shown no respect".
"Gina Rinehart if only you were around when I was swimming I would have been absolutely unbelievably grateful for your generosity," she wrote, adding, "What happen to freedom of speech in this country ????"
Hancock has put Kim Williams, Lisa Caffery and Hugh Marks on notice
Rinehart has launched legal action against the ABC and its three most senior figures, with Hancock Prospecting formally placing Chair Kim Williams, Deputy Chair Lisa Caffery and Managing Director Hugh Marks on notice of what it describes as detailed allegations of serious breaches of Australian criminal and civil law. No proceedings have been filed and none of the allegations has been tested.
The ABC says it will respond to the correspondence "in due course". The only apology so far has come from Kate McGuinness, the filmmaker behind the segment, who said sorry to "anyone I've offended" but never to Rinehart by name.
Sall Grover and Kirralie Smith lost in court. His government called it a distraction
And while the Prime Minister's sympathy runs on party lines, the women fighting for female only spaces and women's sport keep losing.
In May, the Full Federal Court found Giggle for Girls founder Sall Grover directly discriminated against Roxanne Tickle, who was born male and identifies as a woman, by removing Tickle from the app Grover ran as a space for women only. The court doubled Grover's damages bill to $20,000. She's preparing a High Court appeal.
Liberal leader Angus Taylor responded by promising to define biological sex in the Sex Discrimination Act and protect spaces reserved for women and girls, and he put a direct question to the Prime Minister: "Does he believe women and girls deserve protections based on biological sex?"
The answer came from a government spokesperson, who said all people deserve "respect, dignity and the opportunity to participate in society, free from discrimination", then accused the Liberals of choosing "to demonise migrants and focus on this matter" days after the budget. Albanese himself never answered the question.
In July, Binary Australia's Kirralie Smith lost her NSW Supreme Court appeal against findings she unlawfully vilified two players in women's football who were born male, leaving her facing $95,000 in damages and an order to publish a public apology. Smith warned on News24 that the ruling will silence women. It's a state case under NSW law, but it drew the same response from the Prime Minister as everything else on this list: nothing.
Fraser already called Albanese weak once, over the Bondi royal commission
Fraser has form here. When Albanese was still resisting a royal commission into the 14 December Bondi Beach attack, she told News24 the government's response had been "very weak" and that the Prime Minister needed to move.
"[Mr Albanese's] got to get off his high horse and come down and look into it," she said at the time. "The whole country is asking him to look into it."
"I just think that there's something there that somebody wants to hide and we need to get to the bottom of it," she told News24.
Fraser was one of 62 elite Australian athletes who signed an open letter to the Prime Minister urging a commission, back when the government was offering only a departmental review headed by former public servant and intelligence chief Dennis Richardson. A royal commission was eventually established. The swimmer read the public mood before the Prime Minister did.
On the ABC's Rinehart film, Albanese still hasn't said a word. The segment remains on ABC platforms.
