Extract from The Guardian
Prime minister tells ABC’s Insiders that if board doesn’t clean up its act ‘they can expect a bit more attention from me’
Scott Morrison has put the ABC board
on notice, telling it to “do better” or “expect a bit more attention
from me”, while simultaneously telling the whole organisation to “stop
talking about itself and get back to work”.
The prime minister used an interview with the ABC program Insiders to give his view on the crisis which hit the ABC board last week, after its former chair, Justin Milne, sacked managing director Michelle Guthrie, setting off a series of dominoes which led to his own resignation just days later.
The government nominated board member Dr Kirstin Ferguson as the acting chair on Friday.
Questions remain over what the board – which had been made aware of Guthrie’s allegations against Milne regarding political interference in editorial matters ahead of her sacking – knew and how they responded.
But the prime minister said if the board did not improve, he would become more involved.
“Now, I can’t begin to imagine what was in the [former] chairman’s mind, but the chairman is no longer there,” he said.
“And I expect the ABC board to do better. And if they don’t, well they can expect a bit more attention from me.”
Morrison did not expand on how he would apply that attention, given the legislation which deliberately separates the board from the government of a day, as a guard against political interference.
Morrison, a senior member of the government when it cancelled parliament last year during the section 44 crisis and again, during the leadership crisis which led to his elevation to prime minister, reiterated his call that it was time for the broadcaster to “get back to work”.
“Dr Ferguson needs to get on and settle the ship down and make sure that they get back to doing what they should do in an independent and an unbiased way,” he said.
“To get the facts right and to ensure that they perform the duties that the Australian people pay them to do.”
On the question of whether appointing friends to government boards was a fraught process, Morrison said it was a “loaded question”.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the way you’ve sought to editorialise it ... you’re assuming that Malcolm Turnbull gave a job to a mate,” he said.
Reminded Milne was a friend and former business associate of the previous prime minister, Morrison said that “doesn’t mean that he wasn’t competent for the job”.
“I think that was an implication. If we’re fair and direct about it, I like to be direct. I’ll call it out if I think you’re editorialising. He made that judgment and he made that appointment. And it’s not turned out well,” he said of Turnbull’s decision.
Allegations Milne had demanded Guthrie sack journalists who had upset the government sparked a firestorm of controversy over what was seen as the ABC board chair facilitating political interference of the independent broadcaster.
Milne denied the allegations of political interference and said he had never taken a phone call from Turnbull, or other ministers demanding a reporter be sacked.
But he admitted he saw his role as more of a “conduit” between the broadcaster and the government which funded it, rather than a “wall”.
“It would be naive not to understand that the relationship between the government and the ABC is a difficult one,” he said in the interview with 7.30 following his resignation.
“You can’t go around irritating the person who’s going to give you funding again and again and again if it’s over matters of accuracy and impartiality.”
The prime minister used an interview with the ABC program Insiders to give his view on the crisis which hit the ABC board last week, after its former chair, Justin Milne, sacked managing director Michelle Guthrie, setting off a series of dominoes which led to his own resignation just days later.
The government nominated board member Dr Kirstin Ferguson as the acting chair on Friday.
Questions remain over what the board – which had been made aware of Guthrie’s allegations against Milne regarding political interference in editorial matters ahead of her sacking – knew and how they responded.
But the prime minister said if the board did not improve, he would become more involved.
“Now, I can’t begin to imagine what was in the [former] chairman’s mind, but the chairman is no longer there,” he said.
“And I expect the ABC board to do better. And if they don’t, well they can expect a bit more attention from me.”
Morrison did not expand on how he would apply that attention, given the legislation which deliberately separates the board from the government of a day, as a guard against political interference.
Morrison, a senior member of the government when it cancelled parliament last year during the section 44 crisis and again, during the leadership crisis which led to his elevation to prime minister, reiterated his call that it was time for the broadcaster to “get back to work”.
“Dr Ferguson needs to get on and settle the ship down and make sure that they get back to doing what they should do in an independent and an unbiased way,” he said.
“To get the facts right and to ensure that they perform the duties that the Australian people pay them to do.”
On the question of whether appointing friends to government boards was a fraught process, Morrison said it was a “loaded question”.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the way you’ve sought to editorialise it ... you’re assuming that Malcolm Turnbull gave a job to a mate,” he said.
Reminded Milne was a friend and former business associate of the previous prime minister, Morrison said that “doesn’t mean that he wasn’t competent for the job”.
“I think that was an implication. If we’re fair and direct about it, I like to be direct. I’ll call it out if I think you’re editorialising. He made that judgment and he made that appointment. And it’s not turned out well,” he said of Turnbull’s decision.
Allegations Milne had demanded Guthrie sack journalists who had upset the government sparked a firestorm of controversy over what was seen as the ABC board chair facilitating political interference of the independent broadcaster.
Milne denied the allegations of political interference and said he had never taken a phone call from Turnbull, or other ministers demanding a reporter be sacked.
But he admitted he saw his role as more of a “conduit” between the broadcaster and the government which funded it, rather than a “wall”.
“It would be naive not to understand that the relationship between the government and the ABC is a difficult one,” he said in the interview with 7.30 following his resignation.
“You can’t go around irritating the person who’s going to give you funding again and again and again if it’s over matters of accuracy and impartiality.”
No comments:
Post a Comment