Cash for coronavirus: ABC ‘guru’ Norman Swan after money to turn spin doctor

Company co-founded by ABC’s ­Norman Swan bidding for government-funded campaign to educate GPs.

ABC broadcaster ­Norman Swan.

A company co-founded by prominent ABC health broadcaster ­Norman Swan, the No 1 public critic of Scott Morrison’s coronavirus strategy, was bidding to win the contract for a government-funded media campaign to educate GPs across the country on COVID-19.

Dr Swan is executive director and co-founder of Tonic Health Media, a private company that unsuccessfully pitched last month for work funded by the federal government to produce educational videos about coronavirus for GPs.

He is best known as host of ABC Radio National’s The Health Report and has appeared frequently on flagship ABC TV programs recently as the face of the national broadcaster’s COVID-19 coverage.

Norman Swan Tweets March April

When the infection rate was climbing last month, Dr Swan took to social media with predictions that a doubling of reported cases every three days would see numbers rise from 1700 to 7000 or 8000 in a week — with the true number possibly 80,000.

Highly critical of the Morrison government for not treating the crisis seriously enough, or acting with haste, he tweeted: “Primary school maths. Someone should go figure. No magic fairy will bring that down. 14-20 days behind Italy. Believe in maths not magic.”

In another tweet, Dr Swan said: “Bring the public with you. Young people as well as the elderly will die unnecessarily if we don’t act. Today’s cases are the result of what we didn’t do two weeks ago.”

Amid signs Australia’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 could now be working compared with those of other nations, the latest number of confirmed cases ­almost a month later is 6487, with 63 deaths and 3783 recorded as having recovered.

Dr Swan confirmed that Tonic had sought the government contract to educate GPs on corona­virus “a few weeks ago” during discussions with Universal McCann, the media booking agency that negotiates contracts on the government’s behalf for public ­information and advertising campaigns. But he said he did not know that Tonic was unsuccessful in winning the work until contacted by The Weekend Australian, and then checking with Tonic’s sales manager.

Dr Swan, a medical doctor who switched to health journalism 30 years ago, said he had been “upfront” with ABC management about his commercial role with Tonic, and specifically its interest in COVID-19-related productions for the government. He had “promised” there would be no conflict with his on-air work for the public broadcaster, he said.

Dr Swan said Tonic had a long commercial relationship with the federal Health Department, producing educational material in areas such as pregnancy and immunisation for influenza, and cervical cancer.

Although Tonic was rebuffed on the contract to supply education videos for GPs, Dr Swan said the company did secure some other government-funded coronavirus work “a few weeks ago”.

He said Tonic’s small part in this work, which all major media organisations had been contracted to provide through Universal McCann, involved airing COVID-19 public information videos on the company’s TV network screens in doctors’ waiting rooms.

As a fierce critic of Morrison government measures to combat coronavirus, Dr Swan argued last month that Canberra should have moved faster and harder in imposing social-distancing and isolation rules.

He urged much a stricter “shutdown”, including the closure of schools, and advocated much more testing to help determine how far the virus had spread into the community. His comments have irritated senior government ministers, especially given Dr Swan’s strong ABC following, and he has been attacked by some commentators.

Dr Swan appears to have toned down his criticism more recently with signs that attempts to “flatten the curve” of the virus spread could be working. He said he knew he was “not popular” with the government. He was also not popular with colleagues at Tonic Health, he said, because his outspoken views, often at odds with government policy, could affect the company’s ability to win further contracts.

“The last thing that is going to happen any time soon is a contract with the commonwealth,” he said.

Other principals at Tonic include its chairman, Paul Robinson, who also chairs St Vincent’s Health Australia; managing director Matthew Cullen, a member of the government’s Aged Care Quality Advisory Council and consultant psychiatrist at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital; and board member Peter Joseph, who chairs the Black Dog Institute, the St James Ethics Centre and the University of NSW’s Health-Science Alliance.

Dr Swan said the ABC was aware of his role at Tonic and the company’s interest in seeking government contracts related to COVID-19, saying he had been “transparent” with the national broadcaster. The ABC was aware Tonic was on the Universal McCann “plan” for contracted work.

“There’s always a tension involved because basically (Tonic) is a health television channel … which is why you’d be mad not to be upfront with the ABC about it.

“They know about it and the promise I’ve made to the ABC is that there will be no conflict in anything I’m doing on air, and what the health television channel is doing … there’s a long history of the company dealing with the commonwealth on education campaigns.”

Dr Swan said he understood from the company’s sales manager that Tonic did not win the GP education video contract because “the timing was wrong”. He was not involved in procuring the work for Tonic, he said, and while he was the company’s co-founder, he was now “regrettably” a minority shareholder with a less than 5 per cent stake after various capital raisings.

He did not draw a salary from Tonic, he said, but did sit on the board with the title executive director. Any paid work at Tonic he received related to his role as “executive producer” supervising video content to ensure it was clinically correct.

As well as running his own ABC radio program, Dr Swan appears regularly on the Drum, occasionally hosts Radio National Breakfast and is a guest reporter on Four Corners. He was previously involved with an ABC TV program that ran on News 24 called Tonic — the same as his company’s name — that was produced by a company, GSB Consulting and Communications, with Dr Swan as managing director.

An ABC spokesman told The Weekend Australian that Dr Swan’s involvement with Tonic was governed by the terms of his contract with the ABC and its editorial policies: “Norman is a highly experienced ABC journalist and health professional who offers informed insights and analysis as part of the ABC’s coverage of COVID-19, and is highly regarded and respected for his commitment to independence and integrity.”