Government ministers mollycoddling mainstream media is age-old, but dudding independent media and small business in favour of mates at the Big End of Town goes too far. What’s the scam with Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the AFR?
Jim Chalmers and his minders have played a dirty pool. And this is an insider, self-indulgent What’s the Scam item but it does serve to illustrate something which is the public interest.
Journalism is about gathering information, and FOI is about public interest and disclosure … it’s about fairness. Yet our MWM star columnist, the former submariner and senator, and prolific maestro of the Freedom of Information (FOI) request Rex Patrick, lodged an FOI with the Treasurer’s office last year, voluntarily and respectfully consenting to a 21-day extension for Treasury to respond. “Mindful of Christmas,” as Rex puts it.
Yet, within 3 hours of Jimbo’s office officially disclosing Rex’s FOI, the Australian Financial Review AFR published a story on it. It was a good story, and the journo John Kehoe (who looks a bit like Jimbo in physical appearance) did a good job with Rex’s FOI, but Jimbo’s office has once again preferred the interests of the Big End of Town to ‘outsiders’ shining a light on government.
Why do they do this sort of thing, play dirty pool? To curry favour with people who will rewrite their press releases faithfully. FOI involves a lot of work. Government agencies and departments have ten days to release the FOI on their disclosure logs – and in this case, and this is speculation, what has very likely happened is that Treasury has tipped off the AFR journo that the information which Rex has sourced is about to be released and here, take it on a platter before Rex gets the Paul Keating scoop.
What is the quid pro quo? We don’t know that but in the information trade … The AFR is yet to go full press on nuclear energy like Murdoch press. They may be struck between the reality of commercial viability and kowtowing to the Liberal Party.
Who knows, but it’s dirty pool Jimbo. And giving the Oz and AFR free opeds is tacky, especially as you are subsidising Nine (AFR’s owner) and Murdoch press via the Digital Media Bargaining Code. Literally forcing Google and Facebook to splash them with cash.
This post was originally published on Michael West.