Kieran Gilbert: Shadow Cabinet Minister, Shadow Communications Minister, Sarah Henderson, thanks for your time. This talk the government is looking at providing support to nations like the UAE in the Middle East, it would be defensive support. What’s the Coalition’s stance on that?
Senator Henderson: Kieran, good morning, the Coalition will consider any such request, as we know there’s been no formal request, when there is appropriate information and given the particular circumstances. So that is our position. We can’t really add any more than we will always act, of course, in the best interests of Australia. But we will consider any such request at the given time and taking into account the appropriate circumstances.
Kieran Gilbert: I know you’ve been critical of some of the discussion around the conflict, particularly in relation to the ABC. Now what are you calling for? Is it a parliamentary inquiry into the reporting of the ABC? Is it one case? What specifically are you worried about there?
Senator Henderson: Well, Kieran, we spoke about this last week on your program but last November I put forward a motion for a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s impartiality and accuracy obligations under statute, and that was rejected by the government and also by the Greens. We’ve now seen a number of incidents, particularly involving one senior reporter from the ABC, which brings into question the ABC’s impartiality in its coverage of the Iran war. And I’ve called on the minister to conduct an urgent independent investigation into the ABC’s impartiality.
When the government releases a statement like, ‘we stand with Iran’ and ‘against the brutal oppression of the Iranian people’, we cannot tolerate a situation where a senior ABC reporter labels this as ‘political propaganda’. So I’m actually standing up for the government and it’s very disappointing that the Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, has said almost nothing about this. She continues to parrot lines saying the ABC is editorially independent. Well it is, but it also has very strong statutory obligations, under law, to be impartial and be accurate and the minister is failing in her job to hold the ABC to account, as she should, and that’s why I think the government needs to conduct this inquiry.
Kieran Gilbert: We looked at it last week and discussed a similar sort of thing. I wonder if you’ve had any further thoughts or reflections on the balance between, on the one hand yes, news reporting has to be objective and straight but is there more scope, more leeway for some senior figures, like the example you’re referring to where opinion is allowed, where views are allowed to be expressed on the national broadcaster in that fashion?
Senator Henderson: No, opinion is not allowed unless it’s very clear that it is an opinion-based program. This was a news program, John Lyons, the senior Americas editor, made a number of comments including labelling the government’s position ‘political propaganda’. He also made some improper comments in relation to, basically, America following Israel’s tune. And also said this was nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program. They are matters of opinion, there is no room for personal opinion in a news program when the ABC has a clear statutory responsibility to disseminate news and information, impartially and accurately.
Kieran Gilbert: To look at something a bit closer to home for you, the Victorian government looking at charging visitors to one of the iconic places of Victoria, the Twelve Apostles. What’s the likely impact of that? I know governments, federal and state, have provided support for that region, significant support in recent years. What’s this all about?
Senator Henderson: Well, in fact, it was our government under Prime Minister Morrison, we announced nearly $90 million for the Twelve Apostles precinct. It is an iconic tourist destination. Many millions of people visit the destination every single year. But now we have seen by stealth, the Victorian government proposing to tax Victorians and overseas visitors, everyone except locals. This is just unacceptable. $90 million of Commonwealth money has gone into this project to upgrade the precinct, frankly, under circumstances where we opposed the compulsory acquisition of land, there was a very good proposal to upgrade facilities without spending so much money. But putting that to one side, Kieran, this is an iconic part of Australia. This is one of the most famous tourist attractions. The Labor government, federal and state, sees an opportunity to tax and away it goes. This has got to be rejected. It is just completely unacceptable particularly when taxpayers have invested so much money in this development.
Kieran Gilbert: Shadow Communications Minister, Sarah Henderson, appreciate your time. We’ll talk to you soon.