Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] News of the defamation decision in favour of the member for Dickson yesterday reminds us that, while there'll always be worms and grubs in public debate, we're seeing a return to civil behaviour from select parts of the media. Honesty is the lesson of 2021—that being, that if you lie you just admit to it, fess up and apologise. Don't 'Milligan' around for months with the moral hazard of knowing that, certainly with public broadcasting, the taxpayer will fund your intransigence and your delays.

This was the experience in 2021, but there is no basis in law whatsoever that is available that the national broadcaster should have colluded with a staff member to defend defamatory material in the public domain, but they did. They passed up the opportunity of a completely cost-free apology and then vaporised around $170,000 on court costs at the taxpayers' expense. We need to accept that it's aggravating that you have to complain about ABC conduct to the ABC News unit first and then to another part of the ABC, but you can never go to ACMA. If we've learnt anything from the last 12 months, it's that the egos and entitlement of some in the Australian media need to be curtailed. We need a public broadcasting ombudsman. I commend Senators Abetz, Antic, Henderson and McGrath for standing up for these matters in the Australian Senate. The Labor Party and crossbenchers should do the same. We need a public broadcasting ombudsman and FOI decisions not done by the ABC for the ABC.