'Extreme and unrelenting': ABC Four Corners team claim pressure to stop federal MPs investigation
The executive producer of ABC's Four Corners claims the public broadcaster has stared down intense political pressure as it prepares to air an investigation about poor behaviour among federal politicians.
Veteran journalist Sally Neighbour, who took to social media to promote the episode on Monday, praised the ABC's senior ranks for not buckling to the pressure.
"The political pressure applied to the ABC behind the scenes over this story has been extreme and unrelenting. All credit to the ABC’s leadership for withstanding it," Neighbour tweeted on Monday.
The ABC's headquarters in Ultimo, Sydney.Credit:Steven Siewert
Investigative journalist Louise Milligan, the lead reporter of the episode, tweeted that "multiple representatives of the Commonwealth government" had "repeatedly tried to go over our heads to stop you from seeing [the episode]".
ABC managing director David Anderson is expected to be grilled about the episode when he appears before a Senate committee on Monday afternoon.
Mr Anderson had originally been scheduled to appear at 8pm, overlapping with the show's airing at 8.30pm, but in a last-minute change his appearance was moved forward to 5.15pm.
The episode is billed as an exposé inside the "Canberra bubble", with teasers for the show featuring Milligan saying the investigation "questions the conduct of some of the most senior politicians in the nation". Neighbour has also tweeted that the episode "investigates the 'toxic' culture for women in federal politics".
Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison fielded questions about whether his government had pressured the ABC not to run the program amid speculation it featured allegations against senior Coalition MPs.
"I’m not in the habit of responding to allegations people make based on a program that I haven't seen and I don't even know what's in it," Mr Morrison said.
However, he said the ABC should not limit its focus to one side of politics and should act "in an independent and an unbiased, apartisan way".
"If they're going to make inquiries, I would think they'd want to do them across the political spectrum and it's really for the ABC under their charter to remain true to that," Mr Morrison said.
He added that he was "one of the strongest supporters" of the "bonk ban" first introduced by then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull following revelations that Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce had had an extra-marital affair with his media adviser Vikki Campion. Mr Joyce was deputy prime minister at the time and resigned from the front bench shortly after the revelations were made public.
The ban outlawed sexual relationships between ministers and their staffers under the ministerial code of conduct.
Lisa Visentin is a federal political reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, covering education and communications.