Issues raised by ACON Exposed reported in the media.
December 2025
The Australian: National broadcaster admits it ‘should have’ covered court’s gender clinic findings
Rachel Baxendale, 29 December 2025
The ABC has made a rare admission of failure following complaints about its non-existent coverage of court findings that exposed serious flaws at Australia’s leading pediatric gender clinic.
Link (Archive)
The Australian: Managing director Hugh Marks on activism at the ABC: ‘It’s not something I see a lot of’
James Madden, 15 December 2025
In an exclusive interview, Hugh Marks says he doesn’t believe activist journalism is rife at the government-funded ABC even as it faces calls for a Senate inquiry into its editorial standards.
Link (Archive)
The Australian: How firms are seduced into backing a radical agenda
Janet Albrechtsen, 12 December 2025
China’s social credit system raises an instinctive sense of revulsion among Australians. These systems, used in different ways and to different extents in different parts of China, award points to individuals depending on whether they engage in what authorities regard as socially desirable behaviour.
Link (Archive)
The Daily Declaration: ACON or A CON? — How the Trans Lobby Took Australia Hostage and Highjacked the ABC
Kurt Mahlburg, 12 December 2025
Meet ACON, the trans activist outfit that has infiltrated workplaces, governments, universities and even the national broadcaster to quietly remake Australian society in its own image.
Link
MediaNet: Family First calls for investigation into ABC’s ideological capture by ACON
Family First Party, 9 December 2025
Family First is calling for an urgent, independent investigation into whether the ABC has breached its statutory charter, following revelations in The Australian that the taxpayer-funded broadcaster has become deeply entangled with the radical gender-ideology lobby group ACON.
Link (Archive)
The Australian: How trans activism took over corporate Australia
9 December 2025
After phenomenal success in reducing HIV transmissions, the former AIDS Council of NSW – ACON – pivoted to become a hugely influential lobby group with a new focus: trans rights. Today – the deep concerns of lesbian and LGBT groups about how ACON wields its power. The Australian’s New South Wales Editor Stephen Rice explains the story. Read more about this story, plus see photos, videos and additional reporting, on the website or on The Australian’s app.
This episode of The Front is presented by Kristen Amiet, produced by Stephanie Coombes and edited by Lia Tsamoglou. Our regular host is Claire Harvey and our team includes Tiffany Dimmack, Joshua Burton, and Jasper Leak, who also composed our music.
Link (Archive)
The Australian: In sport, trans guidelines deny women a chance
Stassja Frei, 9 December 2025
The Australian Human Rights Commission’s trans sports guidelines are an activist document, designed by and for the transgender lobby.
Link (Archive)
The Australian: How the ABC’s pursuit of platinum status with ACON put it’s integrity on the line
Stephen Rice, 8 December 2025
The ABC has achieved platinum status from trans rights lobby group ACON, but critics say the national broadcaster has compromised its editorial independence by paying for ideological approval
—Link (Archive)
The Australian: Inside ACON: The lobby group driving Australia’s trans rights revolution
Stephen Rice, 6 December 2025
A little-known former AIDS council is working to re-shape the way Australians think about sex and gender, sparking fierce backlash from the gay and lesbian communities it once served.
— Link (Archive)
November 2025
The Women’s Advocate: Question at National Press Club
Dr Megan Poore, 29 November 2025
Media Week: Henderson seeks ABC inquiry
Natasha Lee, 25 November 2025
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has moved to trigger a Senate inquiry into the ABC, arguing its editorial division has drifted from its mandate.
Link (Archive)
See Senator Henderson’s full speech here (13 min 45 sec).
ABC Managing Director says ACON relationship is “new to me this week”: Board must now commission independent audit
21 November 2025, Women’s Advocate
On 19 November 2025 at the National Press Club, we asked ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks about the ABC’s relationship with ACON, the LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation that operates the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI), an accreditation program first publicly mentioned by the ABC in its 2019–20 annual report. Mr Marks’s response revealed that this significant governance matter – one that carries risks for public trust and perceptions of influence – is only now coming to his attention. A welcome recognition, if it leads to meaningful review.
Link (Archive)
ABC Media Watch: “BBC backlash”
17 November 2025
Relevant content begins at approximately 10 minutes into the recording.
But as for that third major criticism that the ABC, like the BBC, is failing to report critically on transgender issues, we fear there may indeed be grounds for concern.
Because despite some coverage in recent years, like this Four Corners, about the debate over youth gender care and these online stories – all of which have included criticisms of the gender-affirming approach to care – there have also been significant gaps, beginning three years ago with dramatic news that the prominent Tavistock Clinic in London was to be shuttered.
Despite Australian physicians mirroring some of Tavistock’s gender-affirming approach, this news was not reported by the ABC for three weeks after the event. Since then, a number of significant developments have played out…
Link (Archive)
Australian Financial Review: “ABC’s got an activism problem like the BBC’s”
Claire Rowe, 14 November 2025
Imagine if the ABC paid a conservative religious organisation to assess its “family values” inclusion score. The outrage would be immediate. Yet when the ideological direction runs the other way, silence prevails.
ACON’s reach extends far beyond the ABC. Its programs operate within the Department of Education and other government agencies, police forces and major corporations. To achieve “gold” or “platinum” status, organisations pay annual fees (about $12,000 for principal partners) and adopt recommended policies and training modules – effectively outsourcing internal culture to a political lobby group.
December 2022
Forum: The Australian Workplace Equality Index and Trans inclusion
ABC Broadcast, 1 December 2022
Presented by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, at University of Melbourne, October 4, 2022.
Speakers:
Dr Julie Peters – Trans woman and activist, who works for the ABC.
Alan Davison – Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
Linda Gale – Trade union industrial officer, active in the Australian Greens.
(moderator) Jon Faine — lawyer, ex-ABC broadcaster, writer, Vice Chancellors Fellow, University of Melbourne.
(Link)
November 2022
Concerns raised about government relationship with LGBTQ group
Judy Skatsssoon, Government News, 17 November 2022
But while ACON says its programs are about promoting inclusive workplaces, critics say initiatives like Pride in Diversity (PID) and the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) are about embedding the ideology of an interest group in what are supposed to be impartial public institutions.
(Link)
Note: ACON Exposed is not mentioned, but issues of concern to us are explored.
How AIDS charities are erasing gay men
Edie Wyatt, The Spectator, 10 November 2022
An HIV+ gay man claims to have been denied counselling by an AIDS charity because he openly refuses to include females in his dating life.
(Link)
The ABC, Playschool, and drag queen story hour
Katherine Deves, The Spectator, 9 November 2022
[The AWEI] scheme grades organisations on their compliance with embedding and prioritising a LGBTQ+ centric worldview, and directly conflicts with the rights of women. Platforming LGBTQ+ identified people and pushing their agenda earns an organisation points on the Index, it remains to be seen if featuring ‘Courtney Act’ on Playschool will earn the ABC points in their annual submission to AWEI.
(Link)
Media Watch complicit in transphobia
GreenLeft Weekly, 3 November 2022
This platforming of TERFs and other transphobic figures in state and corporate media, including in programs such as Media Watch, which claim to be balanced, has real-world harmful consequences for transgender and non-binary people.
(Link)
October 2022
Editorial: ABC MANAGEMENT IN NO-COMMENT MODE ABOUT THE ABC’s RELATIONSHIP WITH ACON
The Australian, 24 October 2022
Media Watch said that the ABC’s relationship between ACON and the public broadcaster “raises questions about the ABC’s impartiality”. Barry also covered ABC chair Ita Buttrose’s expression of regret for “serious editorial lapses” in an April 2022 “misleading” ABC story re transgender sport which failed to report a study that athletes born male were 12 per cent faster than those born female. This was covered in the previous issue of Media Watch Dog – which detailed Ms Buttrose’s correspondence with Liberal Party Senator Claire Chandler on this matter.
(Link)(Archive link)
Paul Barry watching his back after criticising ABC
Nick Tabakoff, The Australian, 23 October 2022
Diary now hears that in the wake of the segment [criticising ABC’s relationship with ACON], there were big dramas within the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney. We’re told ABC Pride, Aunty’s staff-led group for those who identify as LGBTQIA+, held an extraordinary meeting the morning after the segment ran to air their grievances.
(Link) (Archive link)
Media Watch: “perceptions of bias… or to bias itself”
Destiny Rogers, QNews, 22 October 2022 (Link)
ABC news staff hit back at Media Watch over coverage of trans issues
Amanda Meade, Guardian Australia, 21 October 2022, (Link)
Stop Everything! Podcast
ABC, 21 October 2022
Benjamin Law and Beverley Wang discuss ACON’s involvement with the ABC. Starts at 12 minutes. (Link)
Trans rights or dangerous ‘agency capture’?
Edit Wyatt, The Spectator, 21 October 2022
Under the voluntary AWEI system, organisations gain ‘points’ for being compliant to the particular ideology of ‘diversity and inclusion’ that ACON promotes. The points are gained for participating in things like Wear it Purple day, hiring LGBTQ+ advocates, holding pride events, and using approved forms of language. The AWEI is essentially a competitive ranking system where organisations are invited to ‘game’ for free. Players are, of course, welcome to pay ACON for seminars where they can learn how to compete for the ‘gold stars’ more successfully.
(Link)
‘Disgraceful’: ACON’s editorial tips for ABC are ‘appalling’
Sky News Australia, 21 October 2022
How Alan Joyce is the patron of a lobby group that wants to stop workplaces from using the word MOTHER
Daily Mail Australia, 21 October 2022
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is patron of controversial not-for-profit LGBTQI group
The organisation pushing to remove terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ at work
It wants words to be replaced by ‘primary and secondary caregiver’
Mr Joyce was named co-patron to ACON’s Pride in Diversity campaign in 2018
(Link)
Taxpayers funding group pushing for mother, father ban
2GB, 19 October 2022
‘Raises questions’: Media Watch pins ABC over partnership with LGBT group Acon
news.com.au, 18 October 2022
This is a good round-up of the situation, bringing in Kenny’s segment, the Media Watch segment, tweets from ABC journalists and statements from the ABC.
ABC reporters have responded to a recent Media Watch segment taking aim at the national broadcaster over its partnership with an LGBT group.
(Link)
Media Watch provided a ‘useful report’ into an ‘obvious case of ABC bias’
Chris Kenny, Sky News, 19 October 2022
Reporting on the Media Watch segment and the revelations about ACON’s advice to exclude gendered terms from maternity leave policies.
ACON: Trans lobby group advises removing ‘mum’, ‘dad’, from work policy to be more inclusive
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph, 18 October 2022
Exclusive: The words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ should be replaced with ‘primary caregiver’ and ‘secondary caregiver’ in the workplace, according to a trans lobby group influencing a slew of Government departments and the ABC.
ACON – which stands for AIDS Council of NSW, but has diversified into national workplace policy – describes in a training video that the term ‘women becoming pregnant’ is a “traditional” view.
And, it warns HR staff to “be really careful” not to have any gendered language in their work policies.
(Link)(Archive link)
Media Watch: ACON & the ABC
ABC Media Watch, 17 October 2022 (Link)
ABC Media Watch uses the content and arguments supplied to them by ACON Exposed to mount the case that the ABC should review its relationship with ACON.
It is a point of irritation that Media Watch relied almost exclusively on ACON Exposed as a source of evidence without giving due credit. They agreed with the arguments presented on this site, but then labelled ACON Exposed ‘a women’s anti-trans group’.
When the ABC called ACON Exposed an anti-trans group, they implied that ACON Exposed attacks the rights of transgender individuals to live freely and equally. This is not true. ACON Exposed disagrees with the premise that internally-felt gender identity trumps protections required for biological sex.
In the coming days, a number of individuals and organisations will claim credit for the work presented on this site. That is because that our work is pains-taking, and our conclusions are solid.
We look at the relationship between the ABC and ACON, which runs the Workplace Equality Index Awards — a national benchmark on LGBTQ inclusion.
Can the ABC remain impartial when it partners with a lobby group and gets ranked in a competitive index?
Link
ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose regrets ‘serious editorial lapses’ in trans sport story
Clarissa Bye, Daily Telegraph, 14 October 2022
ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose said she regrets “serious editorial lapses” in an ABC story that was the subject of complaints for not including research that “trans women can retain physical advantages”. …
She also responded to a concern raised by the senator about whether the ABC’s “affiliations with lobby groups and participation in award programs influenced the framing” of the article.
Ms Buttrose said the ABC participates in the ACON-run Pride Inclusion program AWEI index but “they have no bearing on editorial processes”.
But blogger and IT specialist Kit Kowalski, who writes for the website ACON Exposed, says that ACON-approved training is now mandatory for all new ABC starters including journos and editors.
(Link)(Archive link)
Related on Sky News: ABC ‘owes an apology’ to Australians for ‘misleading them’: Katherine Deves (14 October)
September 2022
ACON pride in diversity scheme changing workplace culture for the worse: Clarissa Bye
Clarissa Bye, Daily Telegraph, 28 September 2022
It’s not a coincidence that government bureaucracies everywhere have suddenly started creating Pride networks and clubs. That they are bringing in paid “affirmation”, or transitioning leave, on top of the usual entitlements everyone else gets. Or inserting pronouns into work email tags.
(Link)(Archive link)
…
And it’s not just some Zeitgeist moment of synchronicity that Diversity Officers are being hired where their “job description, performance appraisal or work plan includes specific and detailed LGBTQI inclusion objectives/targets”. Every one of those initiatives is spelt out clearly as a requirement under a scheme being run by ACON, the AIDS Council of NSW. Funded by taxpayers with millions of dollars to be a health service, ACON has branched into its own version of workforce training.
August 2022
ACON is giving advice to Prime Minister’s Office, ABC, government departments, universities, police
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph, 24 August 2022
Exclusive: Dozens of Government departments and institutions, such as the ABC, are seeking advice from a controversial trans lobby group that claims “birth mother” is an outdated term and workplaces should have “all gender toilets”.
Just last month, Services Australia – a paying member of the group ACON, a self-appointed expert on LGBTQ equality – was blasted for trialling the phrase “birthing parent” on Medicare forms instead of “birthing mother”. It reversed the decision after a public outcry.
(Link) (Archive link)
Woke Loos A Wee For All
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph (print), 24 August 2022
ABC gay pride support falls flat
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph, 24 August 2022
ABC managing director David Anderson has worked hard, including dancing on a Mardi Gras parade float, in an effort to win the corporation points on ACON’s equality index.
(Link) (Archive Link)
ACON Response to Daily Telegraph Articles
David Alexander, ACON Media and Communications, 24 August 2022
Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash
You must be logged in to post a comment.