CANBERRA -- Perpetually outraged Liberal senator Eric Abetz has taken aim at the ABC's Snapchat account, criticising the public broadcaster for publishing a series of snaps on libido in promotion of a report on the same topic.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Snapchat account, @abcnewsau, posted a story of 21 snaps on Sunday linking to an article on the ABC website titled 'Sex drive: Understanding why low libido is a common problem in middle-aged women'. The article, part of the ABC's health and wellbeing section, features expert contributions from a sex therapist, relationship counsellor and doctor on libido.
The Snapchat story included a series of photos and images featuring key points from the article, plus tips on methods to turn around a low libido, with additional links to the article in question.
On Monday, Tasmanian senator Abetz claimed the Snapchat story was "inappropriate taxpayer-funded sex ed", saying its publication was "highly questionable and requires a full explanation."
"The judgement of using taxpayers' money to promote this kind of content specifically to a younger audience is highly questionable and requires a full explanation," Abetz said in a statement.
"The long-suffering taxpayer funds the ABC to the tune of almost a billion dollars a year and in return we have repeated examples of an inappropriate focus on sexualised content."
Abetz also criticised the publication of an article titled "a beginner's guide to blowies" which was posted on Triple J's website in July.
"I call on the management of the ABC to provide a full and detailed explanation to the Australian people on how this content is appropriate, what checks and balances the ABC has to ensure underage people don't see the content and why it decided to focus alleged scarce resources on this."