“A Malignant Influence On Our Democracy”: Richard Di Natale Goes After News Corp
It was inevitable that the panel on Monday night’s Q&A, including Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Labor’s Tanya Plibersek, was eventually going to be prompted to talk about News Corp.
After all, it’s election season, and avoiding Rupert Murdoch’s thunderingly unsubtle attempts to sway the Australian voting public has become as much a staple of this time in the political cycle as democracy sausages.
But News Corp is particularly in the public’s eye at the moment following their attempt to savage Bill Shorten’s mother. Shorten told his mother’s story on last week’s Q&A, and was almost immediately grubbily savaged by The Daily Telegraph, who claimed that he had left out key details from her life in the retelling.
With that mudslinging in the back of their mind, the panel was asked how they might deal with News Corp if they came to power. And Di Natale, who was asked the question last, did not hold back.
How would a Labor government handle a hostile Murdoch press intent on undermining its policies? #QandA pic.twitter.com/bx0YTS4iiW
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 13, 2019
“News Corp is a malignant influence on our democracy,” he said, as way of an opening gambit.
“They’re not a media outlet. They’re the propaganda arm of the hard right of the Liberal party and becoming increasingly hysterical. They incubate hate. And the question really is what do we do about it?”
From there, Di Natale went on to propose The Greens’ solution to the problem: ensuring that the ABC remains well-funded. “We’ve got to have a public interest test when it comes to media mergers,” he said. “We’ve got to strengthen ACMA [the Australian Communications and Media Authority] the regulator to hold these voices to account.
“And a bulwark against News Corp is a well-funded ABC. Which is why we’ve committed five years of funding. But not just five years of funding. [We want the funding] locked into legislation so a future government can’t get their hands into it because they don’t like a well-funded public broadcaster.”
The federal election is this Saturday, May 18.