What happens when a freshly minted minister doesn’t like one of the policies she inherited from the opposition? She helps a friendly newspaper to expose it as easily subjected to fraud, and then axes the discredited policy in the budget.
This comedy of errors was exposed during New South Wales budget estimates this week when Labor minister Jenny Aitchison admitted a Daily Telegraph journalist “was given” a travel card by someone in the government or the department, although she couldn’t recall by whom.
Political reporter James O’Doherty used the government-issued card, which was meant to pay only for transport, to buy cigarettes, a soft drink and doughnuts.
In his exposé, Aitchison was quoted saying this loophole was “really concerning” and she took immediate action.
“We are suspending applications for the trial of the Regional Apprentice and University Students Travel Card, following reports that the card is easily misused,” Aitchison said.
The travel card, introduced by the Perrottet government, was meant to help apprentice tradies and students buy fuel and pay for travel but Aitchison was no fan and had previously called it a “joke”.
It was a great story for the Tele and was accompanied by a video of the purchase and photographs of the haul.
“The card on Tuesday worked to buy a 20 packet of Holiday Crush cigarettes for $32 at one service station,” O’Doherty wrote. “At another, the card worked to buy a $33 pack of Bond Street Classics, a strawberry doughnut and a can of Mother energy drink.”
Nationals MP Sam Farraway, who was the relevant minister when the card was launched, asked her how a journalist “who is ineligible for the card got a card to use?” She took the question on notice.
Farraway: “So, effectively, have you allowed taxpayers’ funds to be used for a journalist to go and get some lollies, a soft drink and a packet of cigarettes?”
Aitchison: “Look, my understanding was that I would be paying that money back … I can’t tell you off the top of my head [if I’ve paid it back] … I will definitely be paying that back.”
Live at https://t.co/sly8N6V4uv is today's #BudgetEstimates hearing into the Regional Transport & Roads portfolio of Minister @jennyaitchison. The Minister will be answering questions till 1pm, with the hearing continuing to 5:30pm with a number of senior public servants #NSWpol pic.twitter.com/AOMuDe4Kch
— Legislative Council (@nsw_upperhouse) October 31, 2023
Farraway told Weekly Beast a test card was given to the minister’s office so they could do their own testing but “their own testing was actually giving it to the Daily Telegraph”.
“They did discredit the card and then they abolished the card in the budget,” he said.
Aitchison said the card was issued “in the dying days” of the former government and was “of great concern” to her.
“I make no apologies for taking misuse of taxpayer funds seriously and showing the community how the government is taking action to protect against fraudulent use of taxpayer funds,” she said. “Transport for NSW has been paid for the expenses incurred on the test card.”
O’Doherty said: “We used a card that had been issued for testing the scheme to do exactly what the former government should have done: reveal the potential for it to be misused.
“The Nationals are just angry that we exposed the gaping loophole in their flawed scheme.”
Climate crisis
Disgusted by the news the fossil fuel company Ampol was sponsoring the Walkleys, cartoonists, led by John Kudelka, boycotted the awards in droves. Guardian Australia cartoonist First Dog on the Moon was one of those who boycotted the awards.
The foundation is yet to announce the result of a review of its sponsorship policy which allowed the petroleum giant to pump tens of thousands of dollars into the journalism awards.
Congratulations to Megan Herbert for taking out the inaugural Climate Cartoon Of The Year by Climate Council at the 39th Annual Stanley Awards @climatecouncil #auspol #ClimateEmergency pic.twitter.com/KyYGV2VYar
— Cartoonists (@AUcartoonists) October 29, 2023
In the meantime the cartoonists made their own fun and the Australian Cartoonists’ Association set up the inaugural 2023 Climate Council Cartoon award. The shortlist included Alan Moir, Glen Le Lievre, Jon Kudelka, Matt Golding and Peter Broelman and the winner announced on the weekend was Megan Herbert.
Balancing act
If you’re a prominent ABC journalist every move you make on and off air is scrutinised, particularly at the moment when tensions over the Israel-Hamas war are running high.
The ABC was forced to defend Radio National Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas for asking cabinet minister Tony Burke for his thoughts on use of the word “genocide” in relation to the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Australian reported that the interview “left members of the Jewish community ‘sickened’”.
But this week ABC news director Justin Stevens went further in his defence of the broadcaster, saying she was subjected to online trolling and abuse of a “sexualised, homophobic and racist” nature.
“For a major national media outlet to compound that abuse by publicising it and publishing personal photos to illustrate it is irresponsible and unjustified,” Stevens said in reference to two Daily Mail articles about Karvelas’ personal life which included a photograph of her wife.
The Mail stories were based on an ABC interview with Karvelas about how she felt she could not be entirely open about her sexuality early on in her career. “She tried to be ambiguous when talking about her private life, especially when using pronouns to discuss her partner,” the ABC reported of the young Karvelas.
Not known for its subtlety and nuance, the Mail turned the comments into headlines about “her life as a lesbian journalist”, but editor Barclay Crawford said the Mail published two “balanced, totally legitimate articles” based on an interview one of the ABC’s most prominent broadcasters had given.
“The first was based off the interview she gave to ABCQueer and the second was based on her own ‘X’ commentary to her 161k followers,” Crawford told Beast. “Both stories were clearly newsworthy.
“The statement by the ABC points to a growing culture of hubris and navel-gazing that is frustrating taxpayers who spend more than $1bn a year bankrolling the national broadcaster.”
Stevens did not name the Mail but said media outlets “should be combatting dangerous online abuse and gender-based and sexual bullying, and standing in solidarity with peers experiencing it, not disingenuously serving to amplify it”.
In March, Stevens accused News Corp and the Daily Mail of amplifying misogynist social media abuse by publishing articles that included “vile” Twitter criticism of an outfit worn by News Breakfast host Lisa Millar.
The Karvelas articles did not include any of the Twitter abuse.
GB News’ round-the-world trip
If you’re not a fan of rightwing news you may be dismayed to hear GB News, the UK’s rightwing channel run by former Sky News Australia chief Angelos Frangopoulos, is going to be broadcasting from Australia.
The outfit is never out of the headlines. Over the weekend it was announced Boris Johnson was taking a paid job as a presenter for GB News, a month after the channel suspended a presenter after he went on a misogynistic on-air rant about a political journalist.
The good news is the channel, which is already available here on the streaming news service Flash, is only operating from Australia in the purely technical sense. MediaHub Australia has won the contract to manage the entire “playout”, which is a technical term for a giant TV control room which puts multiple channels to air.
MediaHub will take all of GB News’ content including live-to-camera, pre-recorded, TV commercials and promos and put it all together and send it back to the UK as a linear channel.
Endangered drama
This week SBS announced it had two new local dramas for 2024, Swift Street and Four Years, and next week the ABC’s new head of content, Chris Oliver-Taylor, will unveil his first slate for the new year at a showcase for journalists. The public broadcasters do their best to produce original drama on increasingly limited budgets but the number of titles and the length of each production is shrinking.
According to the drama report released this week by Screen Australia, Nine produced two dramas last financial year but only one, Warnie, has aired this year.
Our reviewer Luke Buckmaster gave Warnie a rare one-star review when it premiered in June.
“But nothing has substance here and in fact the whole thing feels a bit off, Warne’s relatively recent death (in March last year) adding to a feeling that this production has been hurried down the assembly line, without much thought put into it,” he wrote.
This article was updated on 4 November to reflect that the GB News channel is available in Australia on the streaming service Flash.
