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REDFLAG.ORG.AU PUBLICATION OF SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE 14 JUNE 2021 | REDFLAG

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Leigh Sales: the ABC’s

anti-lockdown campaigner

Meg Hill

nti-lockdown lunacy isn’t the exclu-
sive preserve of right-wing commer-
cial media. Since the coronavirus
first hit Australia last year, the ABC
A has been keen to get in on the act.
Take the example of Leigh Sales, one of Australia’s
most prominent journalists and an important
public representative for the ABC as host of the
primetime current affairs program 7.30. Sales
has wielded that influence to undermine public
health, campaigning for Australia to move away
from Covid-19 elimination.
“Next time you hear a Premier claim a
short term lockdown for a handful of cases has
‘crushed’ the virus – remember that the data so
far shows they’re pointless”, Sales tweeted on 24
May, the day four mystery cases were detected
in Melbourne. The tweet linked to an analysis by
the Sydney Morning Herald of previous outbreaks Illustration by
around the country. Daniel Taylor
Hundreds of people responded online to refute
the claim. Patience may have run thin, given the sometimes truly disgusting’”, the piece read. Anti-lockdown lunacy
memory of Sales repeatedly questioning the value “As anchor of the program Leigh does much of
of lockdowns in February, during the last Victorian the heavy lifting ... her job is to question and chal-
outbreak. And it was clear that her “questioning” lenge decisions taken by people. Asking questions isn’t the exclusive
was on behalf of the economic interests of bosses, isn’t expressing a point of view, it’s doing her job
not the health and wellbeing of workers: “If snap as a journalist”, Stevens told the Age. preserve of right-wing
lockdowns are going to continue to be a tool, an op- “This seems to be misunderstood by some in
tion, for a small number of cases, how can Victorian the audience. Would the public prefer us to go with commercial media.
businesses make any regular planning, let alone the flow, not ask any questions and be subservient
investment planning?”, she asked the premier. to every decision taken? Of course not, and that Since the coronavirus
Sales’ program aired a typical interview with isn’t our job as journalists.”
Melbourne restaurant owner Caterina Borsato But the article provides no evidence that Sales first hit Australia last
on 7.30 this week, after Melbourne’s most recent has been “bullied” or “trolled”. Rather, the online
lockdown had been extended. This is how Sales responses are a small sign of the sanity of ordi- year, the ABC has
introduced it: “The Victorian government’s deci- nary people and the popularity of public health
sion to keep Melbourne under lockdown comes at measures among them. been keen to get in on
a heavy cost for its residents, particularly those “There’s a difference between asking the ques-
trying to run businesses”. She then invited the tions that need to be asked, and asking questions the act.
business owner to comment on matters of public that either promote an anti-health expert perspec-
health: what did she think of the elimination tive, or overlook what we actually have accepted
strategy espoused by the Victorian chief health as fact (eg it’s not just deaths we’re protecting close to the attitude of the UK government, which
officer earlier that day, and would people in Mel- against) without calling it such”, one person re- uses mass vaccination of the vulnerable to justify
bourne be comfortable with a more Sydney-like sponded on Twitter. reopening the economy while cases are spiking
strategy, with “a degree of virus circulating”? Sales and her colleagues were so insulted by rapidly and a new, more dangerous, virus variant
Why would a business owner be treated as an “the public’s” expression of opinions and dis- has become dominant.
expert on this topic, if not to suggest that health agreements on the internet that they considered It’s the logic that weighs profits against health
policy should be subordinated to the economic it a form of unacceptable personal abuse. But that and decides in favour of the former, of letting
needs of bosses? makes sense: the capitalist media, including the “the bodies pile high” to protect business, as Boris
That same day Sales tweeted: “Suggested state broadcaster, act as a gatekeeper. A select few Johnson argued in Britain. Even with mass vacci-
Q for tmrw – since covid deaths for under 60s are entitled to decide which ideas society should nation in the UK, thousands of people are falling
in Australia are minuscule, why not reject lock- discuss and how. Elite journalists and business ill with a serious illness every day, with unknown
downs once you have 75% vaccination of over 50s owners are among those few. long-term consequences. And more people will die
+ vulnerable people?” The ABC is far from exempt. Its top journalists as a result. In Australia, if Sales’ position were to
Unsurprisingly, Sales has faced plenty of display the same kind of affinity with business prevail now—while we’re largely unvaccinated—
criticism for her pro-business, anti-health ad- owners that many have come to expect of the it would mean death on a much larger scale.
vocacy. Sales and her industry colleagues have Herald Sun. Why doesn’t Sales ask about the tens Meanwhile, after Melbourne’s lockdown was
responded to online criticism by labelling it of thousands of casual workers in Melbourne who extended, we learnt there was a second and un-
“trolling” and “bullying”. The Age published a went without an income, due not to the lockdown known source of infection in the city. If the state
piece titled “Leigh Sales versus the trolls: How but the inhumanity of Australia’s welfare system? government had listened to Sales on 24 May, we’d
the 7.30 host handles the COVID hot seat”: “Sales Sale proposes to drop lockdowns once we’ve almost certainly be facing a much bigger health
declined to comment for this story. But her exec- vaccinated the most vulnerable. That’s easy to crisis than we are now. But that is exactly the
utive producer Justin Stevens said the abuse she dismiss given the state of Australia’s vaccine point: Sales is part of a chorus that demands we
is subjected to online was ‘unacceptable [and] rollout, but the logic is still worth addressing. It’s learn to live with the virus, and its human cost.