Australian ABC chief and The Guardian treachery

Mark Scott

On Tuesday in Canberra, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott was questioned at a Senate Estimates Hearing about releasing sensitive information that would harm Australia's relationship with Indonesia. 

He said it was in the "public interest" to reveal that in 2009, Australia tapped the phones of Indonesian leaders and the ABC was right to join The Guardian Australia in publishing secret intelligence stolen from the US National Security Agency by Edward Snowden.

Mr Scott said "Yes, I appreciate that the release of some of this material might ....... cause some difficulties with Australian-Indonesian relationship in the short term."  

Well Mr Scott, releasing sensitive information that will harm your country is called treason and it's clear that you don't have Australia's best interests at heart.  

The phone tapping took place during Labor's watch and it's been suggested that Mr Scott and The Guardian "sat" on the documents and waited until Tony Abbott was elected before releasing the information they knew would destroy his relationship with Indonesia.

Not true says Mr Scott, he said he received the documents "a matter of days before the broadcast."  The leaked documents to The Guardian were massive, he said, and took a long time to examine and they only "had access to this material 24 hours before the ABC was alerted to it."  Let's hope he can prove it.

When Liberal Senator Anne Ruston asked Mr Scott why he published documents that were marked "top secret" he said he believed it was in the public interest to do so.  But what about the national interest Mr Scott?

When The Guardian got hold of the documents, they approached the ABC about working together.  They knew how much the ABC hates the conservatives, and boy does it show.  Labor continually complain about the Murdoch press being responsible for anti-Labor articles, yet seem oblivious to the bias shown to Labor by the ABC.

So now we have three identities working against our country's best interest - Edward Snowden, the boss of the ABC and The Guardian. May you all get what you deserve.