Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

I almost feel sorry for those who have to come in here and respond to take note motions on behalf of their ministers because that answer given by Minister McAllister didn't even last to the end of question time before she had to come in and clarify it. I've got to ask the question: what kind of lack of moral compass is held by those opposite? It is clear that an Australian veteran has been defamed—already proven, with a nice big settlement from the ABC on the Australian taxpayers' dime—because they showed falsified vision and soundtracks. And it was not only once—they didn't only do it in Mark Willacy's report. It has been demonstrated today that 7.30 weren't happy with taking it from one gunshot to six gunshots. Oh no, that wasn't enough for them; that wasn't enough of a lie for them to tell. They had to make it 12 gunshots. So the question asked today was not about the independence of the ABC, it was not about the funding of the ABC and it was not about any of the other straws that Senator Green was clutching at.

When she talked about regional reporting, I can say, as an old Moree girl—somewhere we used to get quite adverse weather—we did have the ABC. What I can tell you is that I wanted that reporting to be factual. I didn't want them to say, 'Oh, there's going to be a hailstorm this afternoon,' when there was going to be a light sprinkle. We needed factual reporting, but now the ABC is not held to those standards by those opposite. Truth in journalism is a concept they don't understand, with the great irony that they're now trying to put up a bill around mis- and disinformation, and somehow the minister will be responsible for determining that.

We now see a government that is clearly bereft of a moral compass that thinks that blatantly lying about an Australian veteran is acceptable and should be defended in this chamber, rather than condemned. We know that it's pathetic because clearly Minister Rowland has been on the phone, saying: 'Oh no! Quick, get in there. I did actually ask for a briefing because this is unacceptable.' Well done to Michelle Rowland! At least, I hope, she has some understanding of that compass. Even Maurice Newman, the former Chair of the ABC, has called them 'a self-serving collective' and 'the shameless megaphone of the Left'. That's why those opposite will never dare utter a word against their friends at the ABC because it is their taxpayer funded cheer squad. And, let me tell you that, as we enter an election season, they need all their buddies at the ABC to be on board.

I do want to mention that Heston Russell is a very dear friend of mine. In fact I spoke to him the other night to see how he was going. There will be lots who will tell you that they're good friends of his, but I was the only politician who provided him with an affidavit in regard to his defamation suit. I did that because, talking to Heston, seeing him and hosting him at my house, I saw the damage that was being done to an Australian war hero by this vindictive campaign being led by the ABC—a campaign that those opposite have now dismissed as something more than a threat to the independence of the ABC. If the ABC can't govern itself to tell the truth, I'm starting to think that, somehow or other, they might have given up the right to some of that independence. They have no capability to tell the truth. They have no capability to abide by their own charter. They have no respect for the taxpayers—every single one of you here today—who fund not only all the management, the producers and the journalists but also the editors. And we know they'll be throwing one of them under a bus pretty soon because it won't be any of the senior journos or producers.

This is the opportunity for the new chair, Mr Williams, to come in and say, 'Enough is enough!' Stop wasting taxpayer dollars on Louise Milligan specials, on 7.30 reports, on every other Four Corners story that gets them through the courts. We know how much money they've cost. Heston Russell's case so far is at around $3½ million and now, with these latest two revelations of duplicity, it might just cost all of us—you, me and everyone else—a whole heap more. Those opposite need to hold journalism at the ABC to account and stop using independence as a smokescreen.