ABC set us up, Jeff Kennett tells CLP

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has slammed the ABC for supposedly using ‘our money to set us all up’.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has used the Northern Territory Country Liberal Party’s campaign launch to slam the ABC for supposedly using “our money to set us all up” in relation to the controversial youth detention and live cattle export Four Corners programs.

Mr Kennett said he liked good news and balanced commentary, but claimed that last month’s prog­ram exposing shocking footage of abuses at the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre had been unbalanced and “timed to deliver as much damage (as possible)” to the Giles government.

“At times I get the feeling that the ABC uses our money to set us all up, to put together stories they’ve worked on for years, where they’ve interviewed ­people for hours and they only deliver part of the story for their own reasons,” Mr Kennett said.

His views appeared to echo those of Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles and deputy Peter Styles, who have questioned the program’s timing and accused it of sowing racial discord.

The ABC has dismissed the alleg­ations as “false, outrageous and desperate”.

Mr Kennett made the ­remarks at a low-key event in Darwin conspicuously unattend­ed by federal ministers.

Mr Giles told a small crowd of supporters he took responsibility for the fact his government had “not always been the prettiest”, and promised a different style.

“We’ve made mistakes. Our processes have been messy at times. We haven’t always been as effective as we should’ve been,” he said. “I commit a re-elected CLP to being a government that will listen. … There will be no ­unplanned surprises.”

He said the Country Liberals would deliver 24,000 new jobs, although the promise was largely based on already announced projects and existing federal funds.

Labor yesterday unveiled an uncosted plan to see the Territory go from less than 5 per cent to 50 per cent renewable energy use by 2030. Opposition Leader Mich­ael Gunner, tipped to win the election on August 27, said he would commission a report to guide the process, but insisted the target was achievable without raising power prices above CPI and without boosting subsidies.

Mr Gunner denied that commit­ting to 50 per cent renewables just four years after the ­Territory’s major gas-supply ­contract expires in 2026 was a disincentive to explorers.

“I think there’s more than one market for Territory gas,” he said.