Motherhood statements? SBS picks three anti-abortion advocates for ‘challenging conversation’ on fertility

SBS’s The Feed will feature (from left) Elspeth McKellar, George Mamalis, Stephanie Bastiaan, Andrew Lewis, Ellie Gonsalves, Dita. Photograph: supplied by SBSView image in fullscreenSBS’s The Feed will feature (from left) Elspeth McKellar, George Mamalis, Stephanie Bastiaan, Andrew Lewis, Ellie Gonsalves, Dita. Photograph: supplied by SBSMotherhood statements? SBS picks three anti-abortion advocates for ‘challenging conversation’ on fertility Tory ShepherdThe six-member panel on The Feed will feature three people closely linked to anti-abortion activist’s network. Plus: remembering Richard Morecroft

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SBS is staying true to its commitment to diversity and inclusion in an upcoming episode of The Feed about falling fertility rates.

The show next Wednesday will feature George Mamalis, the South Australian head of Turning Point Australia, an offshoot of the late far-right influencer Charlie Kirk’s organisation. Mamalis describes feminism as a “death cult” because it gives women reproductive choice. He says falling fertility rates lead “to stupid things like mass immigration”, and worries about western culture being “replaced”.

In a recent podcast he concedes that some migration was needed because “no one’s having kids”.

“Anglo-Saxons, come on, start having kids,” he says.

Read moreThen there’s content creator Elspeth McKellar, from Bird Flip, an organisation that wants to “end abortion”. She specialises in posting videos of herself confronting people on the street about abortion.

Joining them is Steph Bastiaan from Women’s Forum Australia (WFA) – which describes itself as “pro-woman” and posts predominantly anti-trans content.

They are all close associates of the anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe.

View image in fullscreenAnti-abortion activist Joanna Howe. Photograph: Matt Turner/AAPMamalis regularly appears with Howe and reposts her content. Most recently the pair debated whether women should have the vote. Mamalis speculated that the world would be more “pragmatic” – and would end abortion – if men were the only ones to vote (he later posted in relation to the conversation that “discussing an idea does not necessarily mean either of us endorses it”).

Howe founded Bird Flip, and McKellar called her and her husband, James Howe, “heroes” in the wake of controversy over a podcast on consent education in which James Howe said he didn’t “do consent”, and in which Joanna Howe said not much could go wrong if women “stay public, stay vertical”.

Howe used to be on the WFA’s research committee, and WFA is a vocal supporter of her anti-abortion advocacy.

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On The Feed the trio are joined by content creator Dita, who speaks out against racism and domestic violence; Andrew Lewis, who describes himself as “bringing logic back” and is a critic of One Nation; and Ellie Gonsalves, a model and actor who recently listed 117 reasons for not wanting children.

“Can’t wait to see this,” Howe said in response to a post from Bastiaan about the show.

An SBS spokesperson said The Feed “invites content creators with a significant following, who have different viewpoints on a topical issue”, facilitates “challenging conversations”, and will be factchecked.

“The format takes common online conversations away from the influence of polarising algorithms into a space where diverse views are challenged.”

Pro-Palestine vigils held on 7 October, as Jewish people commemorated the third anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, were sharply criticised by many, including the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, who said the vigils were “obscene”.

Read moreThe Daily Telegraph went much further on its front page on Wednesday, labelling those who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations immediately after the 2023 attack and on the anniversary “subhuman ghouls” and “primitive”.

The paper also quoted Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, as saying the rallies were “a celebration of a death cult” and the Tele’s editor, Ben English, said in a video he agreed with Newman that it was “utterly reprehensible to allow a death cult on Sydney streets”.

The Telegraph did not respond to a request for comment on its language.

ABC Friends has joined a (somewhat muted) chorus calling for media companies to boycott One Nation press conferences as long as the party keeps banning the ones it doesn’t like.

“This action is a direct attack on the Australian public’s right to know and an attempt by One Nation to avoid scrutiny,” the group wrote in a letter to major news outlets.

View image in fullscreenOne Nation’s Pauline Hanson (left) and James Ashby: ‘Who the fuck let the Guardian in?’ Photograph: Darren England/AAPOne Nation first banned the ABC during the South Australian election campaign in March. Its staff also tried to bar Guardian Australia from its election night party, mistakenly believing the reporter was from the ABC, then letting her (OK, me) in after mistakenly thinking I was from the Advertiser. “Who the fuck let the Guardian in?” James Ashby, One Nation’s national director, asked upon learning of the kerfuffle’s outcome.

But this week Hanson’s daughter and the putative future leader of the party, Lee Hanson, said it was “a pretty sad place when someone’s political beliefs determine whether their presence or their custom is considered acceptable”.

OK, so she was talking about her local coffee shop’s decision to donate any cash that comes from One Nation wallets to the Greens, but maybe it’s the first sign of a change of heart.

The former ABC presenter and lover of flying foxes Richard Morecroft was widely and deeply mourned this week, after his death at the age of 70.

He was celebrated as an intelligent and warm broadcaster who was utterly professional. Then there are the moments the professional facade dropped.

Read moreMorecroft began his career in Adelaide, where he worked with another former ABC newsreader, Keith Conlon. Conlon told ABC Radio Adelaide Morecroft was a perfectionist, but didn’t always get it right.

“He did get the giggles one night [on television] … completely lost it,” Conlon said.

View image in fullscreenFormer ABC news presenter Richard Morecroft. Photograph: ABC newsMorecroft later made a brilliant appearance on The Chaser’s War on Everything, when he had to follow a teleprompter live and was pelted with words such as “acetylcholinesterase”, “erythropoiesis”, and “juxtaglomerula epithelioids”.

He made 11 mistakes but beat Jacinta Tynan from Sky News, earning him the title of “the best newsreader in the world”.

In a tribute to Morecroft years before he died, someone compiled a video solely of his slight, split-second intake of breath before announcing the death of a prominent figure. It goes for four-and-a-half minutes.

The chief reporter at the West Australian, Ben Harvey, has apologised for parts of a column he wrote about his love of the Perth Royal Show, in which he complained about the price of parking, of rides and of dagwood dogs (made of the “unmentionable parts of animals”).

So far, so inoffensive. But he went on to talk about “salad dodgers” needing mobility scooters and complained about visitors to the show with NDIS carers who “should be spending the money on Ozempic”.

View image in fullscreenWest Australian journalist Ben Harvey. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAPThe average showgoer’s body mass index was about 60 (severely obese), he wrote. A “salad dodger” won a raffle with the number 48D, which “could have been his bra size”.

People with Disabilities WA described Harvey’s column as “ableist BS” and said people “don’t have a ‘serious need for Ozempic’”, they have a “serious need for respect”. Greens WA called it “openly fat-phobic and ableist” and called for an apology – which they got.

“I made a mistake in a column published in The Sunday Times on the weekend and I am sorry for it,” Harvey wrote at the top of an amended column.

“I used a handful of poorly worded sentences that offended a lot of people.”

One reader on Facebook pointed out the similarities to a column Harvey had written almost exactly four years earlier in which he also complained about the cost of rides, parking and the dagwood dogs made of “unmentionable parts of a farm animal”, and called for a “salad-dodging competition”.

“I reckon the average body mass index of a show visitor is about 200,” he wrote in 2022.

Asked about his self-plagiarism, Harvey did at least respond with good grace.

“That my journalism is that forgettable does give me pause for thought about my career decisions,” he said.