Category Archives: Australian media

Channel Seven commentator under fire for comments on Matilda Katrina Gorry being a mother

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‘Certainly motherhood has not blunted her competitive instincts’ David Basheer said during Matildas’ Women’s World Cup match against Ireland

A Channel Seven commentator has been criticised for saying Matildas midfielder Katrina Gorry has retained her competitive instincts despite becoming a mother, as the opening match of the Women’s World Cup gave the network a national broadcast audience of 1.974 million.

“Certainly motherhood has not blunted her competitive instincts, that’s for sure,” Seven’s David Basheer said, as the Matildas midfielder won a tackle.

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Labor to consider ways to protect ABC and SBS from future funding threats

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Michelle Rowland says review into security of national broadcasters will consider options to support their independence

A review into the security of ABC and SBS funding will examine ways to protect the public broadcasters from future threats of privatisation and arbitrary funding cuts, the communications minister Michelle Rowland has said.

Rowland told an ABC Friends dinner the communications department review would consider options to support the independence of the ABC and the SBS and it was open for public submissions.

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Is Labor cooking up a ‘ministry of truth?’ No, it’s just an opposition scare campaign – with a side of hypocrisy | Paul Karp

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The Coalition now opposes the type of social media regulation it supported in government – and its about-face is aimed at fuelling the campaigning journalism of Labor’s critics

Labor has a patchy record when it comes to free speech online.

In 2008, it attempted to filter the internet – an idea that limped on despite enormous practical difficulties until it was ditched in November 2012.

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Australia news live: ‘are you really worth seven times the salary of the PM?’ Labor senator asks Deloitte chief

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Former competition watchdog Allan Fels tells parliamentary inquiry federal government must act now to avoid conflicts of interest. Follow the day’s news live

Divers are trying to retrieve hundreds of drones that plunged into Melbourne’s Yarra River over the weekend due to a technical error.

The drones were part of a light show for the Matildas’ game against France on Friday night but fell into the river due to a technical glitch. The retrieval operation began on Sunday and is continuing on Monday.

We want to see all drones taken back out of the river because we know if they are left there they will leach chemicals which can damage the environment.

We want investors to come into the market to take advantage of the great demand for rental accommodation.

But we don’t want to stifle that by putting unnecessary burden (on landlords).

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Raw footage from Bruce Lehrmann’s Channel Seven interview subpoenaed in defamation case

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Lawyers for Network Ten are examining footage from Spotlight interview as they prepare to defend themselves against Lehrmann’s defamation case

Lawyers for Network Ten are examining raw footage of Channel Seven’s recent interview with Bruce Lehrmann as they prepare to defend themselves against his defamation case.

Lehrmann is currently suing Network Ten, Lisa Wilkinson and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the federal court, alleging they defamed him by wrongly suggesting he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

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No campaign runs opposite claims on Indigenous voice across different social media pages

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Exclusive: Advance lobby group runs multiple Facebook pages that target different demographics, including one that purports to be a neutral news source

The no campaign in the Indigenous voice referendum is running three different social media strategies, each targeting different groups of Australians with apparently contradictory messages, a Guardian Australia investigation can reveal.

The lobby group Advance, one of the lead organisations in the no camp, runs one Facebook page highlighting conservative criticism, another highlighting progressive complaints, and a third portraying itself as a neutral news source.

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Just some songs that you used to know: Triple J to broadcast all past hottest 100 entries

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From next Monday, listeners can relive songs from the past three decades including Denis Leary’s Asshole, the first winner

The ABC’s youth broadcaster Triple J has found a home for its archive of 30 years’ worth of its beloved annual music countdown – a whole new radio station.

The station, Triple j Hottest, will play on repeat the songs Australians voted into the hottest 100 since it began counting down the most popular songs of the previous 12 months in 1993.

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Meta vows to crack down on abuse and misinformation surrounding voice to parliament referendum

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Exclusive: Parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads says it will ensure content on its platforms is ‘contributing to democracy’

Facebook and Instagram want to be “contributing to democracy” and not exacerbating harms surrounding the Indigenous voice referendum, the company’s Australian policy head has said, as the social media giant beefs up protections on misinformation, abuse and mental health before the national vote.

Meta, the parent company of the two apps, on Monday announced it would boost funding to factcheckers monitoring misinformation, activate global teams to locate and respond to potential “threats” to the referendum – including coordinated inauthentic behaviour – and form a partnership with ReachOut for mental health support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The company will also maintain transparency tools such as its ad library that tracks political spending.

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How the Coalition collaborated with ‘friendly media’ to silence robodebt victims

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Alan Tudge’s office planned to use sympathetic outlets such as News Corp to counter reporting on scheme, royal commission report reveals

When Alan Tudge needed to promote what became known as robodebt in December 2016, he found willing media outlets in the Australian newspaper, 2GB and A Current Affair.

“Welfare debt squad hunts for $4bn,” the Australian dutifully reported at the time. The then-human services minister next went on 2GB, where then-host Chris Smith said in the introduction: “Are all those people with their hands in the taxpayer pocket in genuine need?”

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Chelmsford defamation case ends in settlement and apology for claims in Scientology book

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HarperCollins ‘sincerely apologises’ to doctor for claims about Sydney hospital in ABC journalist Steve Cannane’s book

A long-running defamation case sparked by the ABC journalist Steve Cannane’s 2016 book on Scientology has ended with a confidential settlement and an apology.

Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia included a range of claims about the use of a controversial psychiatric treatment – deep sleep therapy – at Sydney’s Chelmsford private hospital in the 1960s and 70s.

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Daryl Maguire’s lawyers accuse media of stalking, unsafe U-turns and spooking horses

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Oddly worded statement attacks unnamed outlets for alleged behaviour after Icac findings against former MP and his former partner Gladys Berejiklian

Lawyers for Daryl Maguire have attacked journalists for their alleged behaviour since damning corruption findings were made against the former Wagga Wagga MP last week, issuing a strangely worded statement accusing unnamed “media” of “unsafe u turns”, spooking “valuable horses” and trespassing on government-owned rail corridors, among other things.

Maguire’s lawyers also praise their client’s efforts to secure money for Wagga, including his pursuit of grants and hospital funding that were at the centre of Icac’s corruption investigation.

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Ten Network drops bid to secure Melbourne Cup rights over Tabcorp deal

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Network concerned that Victoria Racing Club partnership with gambling company is at odds with ‘preferences of its viewers and advertisers’

The Ten network has pulled out of bidding for the Melbourne Cup, citing the new focus on gambling by rights-holder Tabcorp as a reason.

Ten has been the Melbourne Cup Carnival broadcaster since 2019 after signing a five-year deal reportedly worth $100m which saw the cup move from Seven, where it had been broadcast since 2002.

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ABC’s international budget should grow as China spends billions on information war, inquiry told

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Parliament hears media in Asia and the Pacific are being courted by Beijing in an ‘unprecedented campaign’

China is spending billions to win the information war in the region, a committee inquiry has heard, and greater funding for the ABC would allow it to be a stronger presence in the Asia-Pacific.

Claire Gorman, the ABC’s head of international services, told the inquiry into supporting democracy in the region that China is spending at least $3bn a year on international media, compared with $11m for the ABC.

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Indigenous voice no campaign using Lisa Wilkinson comments about Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to fundraise

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Coalition senator emailed supporters asking if they heard about the attack on her from the ‘woke celebrity and voice activist’

The no campaign for the Indigenous voice referendum is fundraising off the back of comments made by The Project host Lisa Wilkinson about the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, in a leaked recording of conversations with Brittany Higgins.

It comes as anti-voice organisations gear up for the referendum campaign to officially begin, with one leading conservative lobby group seeking donations to reach “millions” of homes with phone calls and direct mail.

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Senator removed from party room – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Liberal senator David Van is speaking to Sydney radio 2GB about independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s allegations in the Senate yesterday.

Thorpe withdrew the remarks to comply with the Senate’s standing orders but said she would be making a statement on the issue today.

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Lisa Wilkinson lodges official complaint with Seven Network over Bruce Lehrmann interview

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Complaint also relates to mention of letter allegedly sent by Brittany Higgins to Wilkinson, who claims she has no record of it

Lisa Wilkinson has lodged an official complaint with the Seven Network about a program that featured an interview with Bruce Lehrmann and about a separate segment on morning television.

Wilkinson lodged the complaint on Tuesday alleging the broadcasts breached commercial television standards, and can escalate the complaint to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) if it is not resolved, her lawyers confirmed.

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Liberal MPs break ranks to call for inquiry into Brittany Higgins’ leaked text messages

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Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer make call after Network Ten asks AFP to investigate alleged leaking of evidence in Bruce Lehrmann trial

Liberals Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer have broken ranks to call for an inquiry into how Brittany Higgins’ text messages were leaked, with Bragg labelling debate in the Senate where the Coalition is pursuing Katy Gallagher “very ugly”.

The pair made the call after the finance minister denied misleading the Senate about her knowledge of Higgins’ allegation before it aired and Network Ten asked the Australian federal police to investigate how Higgins’ texts became public.

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Network Ten asks AFP to investigate ‘leaking’ of evidence in Bruce Lehrmann trial

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Lehrmann is suing Ten and Lisa Wilkinson in the federal court over their initial reporting of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, which he denies

Federal police have been asked to investigate the alleged leaking of evidence from the trial of Bruce Lehrmann to the media by a lawyer representing Network Ten.

Marlia Saunders, a partner at Thomson Geer, who is representing Network Ten in a defamation case brought by Lehrmann against them, confirmed she had made a complaint to the AFP on 7 June regarding the leak.

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Lisa Wilkinson apologises to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price over leaked audio recording

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Former The Project host says the conversation was ‘out of context’ and was about the need for change within the Liberal party

Lisa Wilkinson has apologised to senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price after she made disparaging comments about the Indigenous senator in a leaked audio recording.

In the audio, the former The Project host appeared to mock the Coalition by raising questions regarding the validity of Price’s preselection to the National party and struggled to pronounce the senator’s name.

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Network Ten apologises to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price over leaked Lisa Wilkinson recording

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Audio features Wilkinson seemingly mocking the Coalition by questioning the senator’s preselection and struggling to pronounce her name

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been offered a private apology from Network Ten after audio was leaked of host Lisa Wilkinson making disparaging comments about the Indigenous senator.

In the leaked audio, reported by media outlets on Friday, Wilkinson appeared to mock the Coalition by raising questions regarding the validity of Price’s preselection to the National party and struggling to pronounce her name.

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