Mutitjulu Apology Called For

Member for Lingiari and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs Warren Snowdon today called on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to apologise to the Mutitjulu community for the harm caused by news programs based on misleading allegations.

Mr Snowdon said the apology was the least the ABC could offer in light of admissions that the Lateline program hid the identity of a senior public servant and implied he was a 'former' youth worker.

'You would have to ask whether the ABC violated its own editorial guidelines in not disclosing his true identity until it was forced to do so by revelations in other media outlets,' he said.

'It specifically allowed an assistant secretary of the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination, Mr Greg Andrews, to make highly damaging hearsay allegations about activity in the community under a cloak of anonymity.

'Investigations by NT Police and the Department of Health and Community Services, involving more than 300 interviews, have revealed the allegations to be overstated in general and specific charges of petrol for sex unsupported by evidence.

'Mr Andrews recently apologised for misleading the Senate and he emailed his boss Wayne Gibbons and told him was trying to get a physical copy of a man's criminal record from a source in Central Australia.

'This in itself raises serious questions about appropriate behaviour for a senior public servant who is in an advisory role to the Government

'I have no criticism of Lateline for following up allegations of child sexual abuse and I have no problems with the statements made by others on the program.

'But why did the program need to break the public trust and hoodwink viewers into accepting Mr Andrew's performance as fact?

'It is clear to me now that the allegations aired on Lateline by a senior public servant in disguise have been the basis of intervention by the Commonwealth in cutting off community funds and then appointing an administrator.

'This is not the kind of reporting we expect from a responsible public broadcaster and the ABC should apologise and retract these allegations,' Mr Snowdon said.

2006-08-01