“The fact is that Mr Porter has made a basically unfounded, reckless and incorrect statement and has misled parliament.” It was an attempt to undermine the establishment of a powerful new anti-corruption body, the national integrity commission, which has the support of Labor, the Greens, most of the newly powerful parliamentary crossbench, a large cohort of the nation’s most eminent lawyers, civil society groups and, overwhelmingly, the public. Infamously, it also led to a demand from then ABC chairman Justin Milne that Probyn be “shot” because the journalist threatened the broadcaster’s chances of getting more funding from a government that hated him.īut on Monday, Porter was suddenly solicitous of Probyn’s independence. It was Andrew Probyn, whose on-air characterisation of Tony Abbott as “the most destructive politician of his generation” a few months back inspired furious complaint from the government. It wasn’t just any journalist Attorney-General Christian Porter was defending this week, either. When a member of the government professes concern for the independence of an ABC journalist, it may be taken as fair evidence they are grasping at straws.
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