Daniel Hurst theguardian.com, Thursday 2 January 2014
Foreign affairs minister says she has 'concerns about the quality of the programming' on Australia Network service
Julie Bishop said she had received negative feedback from overseas about Australia Network. Photograph: Daniel Munoz/AAP
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has added her voice to a chorus of conservative criticism of the national broadcaster by questioning whether the ABC-run Australia Network is meeting its goal of promoting Australia’s interests overseas.
Her concerns, raised in a front-page story in the Australian newspaper on Thursday, follow a series of complaints by conservative politicians and commentators about the ABC.
In December, the prime minister, Tony Abbott, and communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, accused the broadcaster of making an error of judgment by collaborating with Guardian Australia on the story revealing Australia’s past efforts to spy on the Indonesian president. Other Coalition MPs questioned the cost of the ABC and whether it was meeting its charter obligations.
The latest concerns centre on the Australia Network – the government-funded overseas television broadcasting service created to facilitate “soft diplomacy” by improving understanding of Australia. The former Gillard government’s handling of the tender process to deliver the service at the expiry of the ABC’s contract in 2011 attracted controversy. The government shut down the tender process and awarded the contract to the ABC after leaks suggested the tender assessment panel had reaffirmed its view that Sky News, part-owned by News Corp, should win the $233m, 10-year contract.
Bishop told the News Corp-owned Australian newspaper the way the previous Labor government “corrupted the tender process ... and prevented a competitive process from occurring has resulted in ongoing concerns about the contract that was awarded to the ABC”.
Bishop said she was aware of concerns within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) about the ABC’s fulfilment of its contractual obligations.
“I also have concerns about the quality of the programming and whether it is meeting the goal of promoting Australia's interests overseas,” she told the newspaper. “It is meant to be a tool of public diplomacy and I am concerned by the level of negative feedback I receive from overseas.”
The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, said he hoped and expected the government was not trying to apply undue pressure to the ABC in relation to its coverage.
“The ABC is independent. It is entitled to cover matters entirely as it sees fit at all times and the government needs to reassure the ABC and the Australian people that this is not some sort of way of trying to influence ABC coverage on matters domestic or international,” Bowen said in Sydney on Thursday.
The debate follows a letter from Dfat’s first assistant secretary, Justin Brown, indicating the department is closely monitoring the ABC’s performance in fulfilling its obligations, including ensuring the integrated Australia Network-Radio Australia service “becomes a more effective vehicle for advancing Australia’s broad and enduring interests in the Asian region”.
The Sydney-based conservative blogger and former radio talkback host Michael Smith wrote to the Dfat secretary, Peter Varghese, in November to complain about Australia Network’s performance.
Smith said the department paid $21.9m to the ABC last financial year and the program’s stated objective included “to project a positive and contemporary image of Australia and promote a clear understanding of government policies”.
Smith complained about an ABC story from 23 November, which was also carried on the Australia Network News website, headlined: “Opposition labels government’s asylum seeker briefings ‘a weekly embarrassment’”.
He also pointed to the lead story on the Australia Network News home page on 24 November headlined “Climate deadlock broken” and the summary: “Negotiators from about 195 countries have reached consensus on some of the cornerstones of an ambitious climate pact to combat global warming.”
Smith said the report on the “purported agreement” related to meetings in Warsaw – “a UN conference to which Australia did not send a ministerial representative”.
He concluded his letter by asking: “Why are you paying the ABC? Have you advised it of a default or breach of our contract with it?”
Brown replied that the Dfat-ABC funding agreement committed the ABC “to meet several key government objectives in delivering the Australia Network, including to foster the improved understanding of Australia’s global role and to increase awareness of the links between Australia and the Asian region”.
“Under the terms of the agreement, however, the department has no authority to direct the ABC in relation to program selection; editorial matters remain the ABC’s responsibility in accordance with the ABC charter and the codes of practice,” Brown told Smith in the response.
“Over the past year, the department has worked with the ABC to ensure the objectives of the agreement are advanced. The department is continuing to closely monitor the ABC’s performance in that respect and there is ongoing contact between the two organisations to identify what is needed to ensure the integrated Australia Network-Radio Australia service becomes a more effective vehicle for advancing Australia’s broad and enduring interests in the Asian region.”
Smith, a long-time critic of the ABC, described Brown’s reply as “amongst the best letters from an Australian government departmental head I have read”.
The ABC said its agreement provided for it "to deliver a converged international media service to the region that integrates Radio Australia, Australia Network and a range of digital and mobile services drawing on content from across the ABC and other Australian media".
"This converged service provides opportunities to increase links between Australia and the region that the previously separate and distinct offerings of Radio Australia and Australia Network did not," the ABC said. "The ABC works closely with Dfat to realise those opportunities."
The Australian National Audit Office has previously found the Gillard government’s handling of the Australia Network tender process “presented the Australian government in a poor light and cost the two tenderers … time and money”.
The ABC and the operator of Sky News participated in the competitive tender process, which was extended and complicated by a decision to change the decision-maker from the secretary of Dfat – then headed by Kevin Rudd – to the communications minister, Stephen Conroy.
In May 2011 a tender evaluation board suggested Australian News Channel – which operates Sky News – should be the preferred tenderer. The government subsequently changed the tender process by appointing the communications minister as the nominated approver and allowing him to make a decision that did not reflect the recommendations of the tender evaluation board.
The Audit Office said this raised perceptions of a conflict of interest, given Conroy’s portfolio responsibilities for the ABC and his backing of a November 2009 submission to government that proposed the ABC deliver the Australia Network on a permanent basis.
After revised tenders, the tender evaluation board reaffirmed its view the Australian News Channel offered the best value for money, and the board’s views were reported in the media. Conroy announced in November 2011 the termination of the tender process, saying the leaks of confidential information meant the process had been “compromised to such a degree that a fair and equitable outcome may no longer be able to be achieved”.
The government decided in December 2011 the ABC would deliver the Australia Network permanently.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said the ABC was independent but Labor "completely mismanaged the tender process" and Bishop, as the responsible minister, would "continue to work through" the issues.
Asked whether the government's financial commission of audit would look for Australia Network cost savings, Cormann said it would seek efficiencies right across government.
The Labor frontbencher Brendan O'Connor told parliament last month that Coalition members and New Corp commentators appeared to be working in concert on "an assault on the ABC".
