Pederasty (radio program)

"Pederasty" was a program broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National network on 14 July 1975, at the time known as ABC Radio 2. The recording was unavailable to the general public until October 2025, where the broadcast tape was published to Twitter, YouTube and Rumble.

Radio host Richard Neville introduced the program by distinguishing between pederasty and pedophilia, and spoke of "consenting boys":

Tonight’s program is about pederasty, which means the act of sodomy between men. Tonight we’re using the term as explicitly defined by the Penguin English dictionary; that is, a homosexual relationship between a man with a boy. It is not to be confused with pedophilia […] In this studio are three pederasts. Men in the thirties who involve themselves in sexual relationships with consenting boys. With them is a teenager, who since the age of 12, has enjoyed sex with men.

The program was produced by Allan Ashbolt as an episode of Lateline (unrelated to the later ABC TV series). One letter to the editor published in The Sydney Morning Herald described the adult men interviewed as "chuckling" as they described "waiting outside playgrounds to seduce young boys". The broadcast proved controversial, with a tape of the program being sent to police by the politician and ordained Christian minister Fred Nile, who objected to the content. Peter Nixon of the then-National Country Party, called for a public inquiry into the ABC in the program's aftermath.

Allan Ashbolt, the program's producer, told The National Times that "we can discuss on Lateline ideas that three years ago would have been regarded not only as heretical but subversive." Asked about the program, ABC chairman Richard Downing initially commented that he had not heard the broadcast himself, but that the ABC's general intention is to "try to inform people about what (is) happening so that they might be forewarned and forearmed". Later, he added: "In general, men will sleep with young boys and that's the sort of thing the community ought to know about". The ABC's ultimate response was to introduce guidelines around the use of "four-letter words" and "crude expressions" while rejecting any new guidelines on program content, with Downing commenting that he wanted ABC staff to be "adventurous and imaginative (but not) titillating".

In 2016, Liberal senator Eric Abetz asked the ABC in Parliament if they were considering an apology for "Pederasty". Their response was: "No. The ABC considers child abuse is a legitimate news and current affairs subject and it will continue to cover it where relevant in accordance with its Editorial and Charter responsibilities."