This week’s Four Corners investigation into political lobbying is a great example of what good public interest journalism actually requires: time, resources, and the independence to ask powerful people uncomfortable questions on camera. And of course, it needs funding to do it.
Public interest journalism means hard work
Journalist Mark Willacy and his team built this story from the ground up. They cross-referenced lobbying registers against ministerial diaries and analysed political donations from 93 federally registered lobbying firms going back to 1998. They tracked a former Army Major General’s move into a defence contractor job within a week of leaving the military and put the timeline directly to Lockheed Martin for a response. They persuaded four rival lobbying firm bosses from a normally camera-shy trade to explain on the record how access is bought and sold in Parliament House.
Readers may recall earlier news stories featuring David Pocock and the parliamentary sports club quietly sponsored by the gambling lobby. Most reporting ended there.
Without this deep dive, we may never have heard advocate Kate Seselja’s account of being metres from the industry’s chief lobbyist while fielding a father’s desperate call about his son. This gives weight not only to the gambling angle, but to the inequity of access to decision makers.
5 Four Corners moments that changed the country
1. Australia’s Shame (2016) — Caro Meldrum-Hanna’s footage from inside Don Dale prompted a federal Royal Commission into youth detention within hours of airing.
2. A Bloody Business (2011) — Sarah Ferguson’s exposé of cattle mistreatment in Indonesian abattoirs led to a temporary suspension of the live export trade.
3. The Moonlight State (1987) — an investigation into Queensland police corruption triggered the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which ultimately toppled a government.
4. The RSL Exposé (1963) — Four Corners’ first major run-in with a sitting PM, after reporting on the returned servicemen’s league’s outsized political sway so angered Robert Menzies.
5. Betrayal of Trust (2025) — Adele Ferguson’s childcare investigation won the Gold Walkley and forced a state inquiry and federal safety reforms.
Why independence matters as much as resourcing
Four Corners could put those questions to a chief of navy, a former defence minister turned lobbyist, and a sitting government MP because it isn’t beholden to advertisers (notably gambling, in this case), owners with commercial interests, or even the ministers whose diaries it was asking to see.
That is what a fearless, independent ABC that is free for all Australians is for: holding power to account.
Feeding the fifth estate
This journalism doesn’t stop working once it airs. Commentators, independent outlets, bloggers and influencers, sometimes called the “fifth estate”, pick up findings like these and carry them further: cross-referencing them against their own data, writing analysis, and pushing the story into public debate long after broadcast.
None of that second-wave analysis exists without the original piece. An online commentator can vlog about the revolving door and cite Four Corners; a podcaster can discuss a Queensland minister’s diary because our public broadcaster had the standing and resources to obtain it.
Fund the ABC properly, and you’re funding the evidence base the rest of the public conversation runs on.
The bottom line
Investigations like this are slow and expensive, and they only happen when a broadcaster has the funding and the political independence to back reporters for months without a guaranteed story at the end. That’s the case for properly funding the ABC: not a nice-to-have, but the thing that makes journalism like this possible.
Best of all, it’s free for everyone to access. Just the way information should be in a democracy.
Want to go deeper?
Our friends at the Australian Democracy Network have released a report, The Invisible Hand, and are calling for lobbying reforms mentioned in the show. You can find out more here.