An ABC election night panellist has hit out at the broadcaster for its ‘woeful’ coverage despite being a part of it.
Tony Barry, the Liberals’ ex-deputy director in Victoria, blasted ABC after spending election night delivering expert analysis for the channel.
The broadcaster’s coverage, hosted by David Speers and Sarah Ferguson, saw a series of commentators analyse the election results throughout the night.
The expert panel in the studio included Mr Barry, former Victorian Labor strategist Kos Samaras and ABC’s Patricia Karvelas.
Mr Barry took to Facebook following election night to share a series of snaps on set with his co-panellists.
Alongside a smiley picture with Karvelas, he wrote: ‘The ABC’s coverage was beyond woeful, just six hours of shallow analysis.’
In another comment he said: ‘The ABC was the only telecast of six hours of no data, analysis and insight – just six endless “what I reckon” journalism. Unwatchable drivel.
‘They should burn the ABC down to the ground and then salt the earth under it.’
ABC’s election night panel included Liberals’ ex-deputy director in Victoria Tony Barry, former Victorian Labor strategist Kos Samaras and ABC’s Patricia Karvelas (pictured)
Mr Barry (pictured) blasted ABC’s election coverage and branded it ‘woeful’
Former NSW premier Morris Iemma took also took aim at Karvelas in the comments of Mr Barry’s post.
‘Even smarter if no PK,’ he said.
Mr Iemma told The Sydney Morning Herald he didn’t have a problem with Karvelas, but had wanted ABC’s chief election analyst Antony Green to have more airtime in his final ever election night.
Despite his comments, ABC’s coverage outperformed its competitors with an average audience of 2.4million throughout the night.
However, the broadcast was plagued by technical issues – most notably, election Green’s results screen was down for over 50 minutes.
Forced to rely on the Australian Electoral Commission’s website for information, Green used a scribbled notepad to deliver updates instead of his usual interactive display.
With no live data or updates available, the ABC’s panel of experts had to fill the airtime with commentary.
The technical malfunction also appeared to halt the live results on the ABC website.
