Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

The story in question picks up the usage employed by groups such as the International Court of Justice, but the reporter also specifically refers to the particular section of the barrier as an "eight metre high razor-wire fence".

The ABC agrees that care needs to be exercised to avoid using the labels favoured by one side or the other and to be as accurate as possible. In this instance, it was clearly more accurate to refer to this particular section of the barrier as a fence, which is what the reporter did in the key element of the story when describing the local activities she was observing.