Fairfax ‘trying to bring government down’ says Peter Dutton

Labor has mocked the government after Peter Dutton lashed out at media for leading a “jihad” against the Coalition.

Bill Shorten, right, says the government, led by Tony Abbott, left, should blame themselves rather than the media for trying to bring them down.

Labor has mocked the government as a “giant blame factory” after Immigration Minister Peter Dutton lashed out at Fairfax Media and the ABC for leading a “jihad” to remove the Coalition from power.

Bill Shorten urged the government to heed the advice of Tony Abbott, who as opposition leader warned the Labor government: “If you want better coverage, be a better government.”

“What’s happened here is that the Abbott government is becoming a giant blame factory. All they want to do is blame the unions or blame the media or blame the environmentalists or blame the economists,” the Opposition Leader said.

“In fact, the only people they never want to blame is themselves, and that is where they should start looking.”

Mr Shorten cautioned Mr Dutton against conflating the word “jihad” with the actions of journalists, urging all ministers to show “cool heads and temperate language”.

“Mr Dutton should not use inflammatory language associated with the war on terror with attacking the media doing their job in Australia,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Dutton lashed out at media outlets, accusiing Fairfax Media and ABC reporters of acting like “frustrated politicians” who are “trying to bring the government down”.

Tony Abbott declared his full confidence in Joe Hockey yesterday in response to questions over the Treasurer’s position, amid growing expectations of a cabinet reshuffle if voters turn on the government in the Canning by-election in Western Australia on September 19.

Two cabinet ministers had anonymously told Fairfax Media that they were urging Mr Abbott to sack Mr Hockey, a report denied by the Prime Minister.

Mr Dutton told Sky News: “The reality is that there is a bit of a jihad being conducted by Fairfax at the moment. It’s hard to get a good story up in Fairfax, publishing stories without checking with my office stories that are factually incorrect, I point it out to them that they’re running off, you know, Twitter, anonymous Twitter feeds, and the rest of it, and that becomes frustrating.”

He also claimed there was “a huge move by Fairfax at the moment to try and bring the government down”.

“I think it would be helpful if some of the commentators in the area, in this space of politics, started reporting on the incidents, as opposed to being players themselves,” the Immigration Minister told ABC Radio.

“I think regardless of what Tony Abbott does, Fairfax will say it’s bad. I think regardless of what Joe Hockey or the Abbott Government does, Fairfax will say it’s bad.

“They’re being helped by the ABC as well, there’s no question about that, some elements of the ABC.”

Asked about his colleagues’ conduct, Mr Dutton said: “If people want to play mischief, then you know what happens, and that’s the consequence that comes to parties that aren’t unified.”

The Federal Court in June found Darren Goodsir, the editor-in-chief of Fairfax’s The Sydney Morning Herald, had lost objectivity and was motivated by malice when he crafted the defamatory “Treasurer for sale” tagline targeting Mr Hockey over preferential access the minister gave to political donors.

Justice Richard White said Goodsir had been intent on “getting back” at the Treasurer after being forced to run a correction and apology for a previous story, but gave credit to Goodsir for being a reliable witness.

Another Fairfax publication, The Age, was criticised last week for its allegedly prejudicial front page coverage of the conduct of soldiers who severed the hands of Taliban fighters while under the command of Andrew Hastie, now the Liberal candidate for Canning.

In August 2013, when Kevin Rudd and his ministers were complaining of critical coverage, Mr Abbott said it was the media’s “right” to advocate a change of government.

“Fundamentally, if you want good coverage, you’ve got to perform well,” Mr Abbott said as opposition leader.

Labor frontbencher Amanda Rishworth said government MPs were preoccupied with jockeying for their next jobs “as if they’re cutting up the spoils of government”.

“Obviously at the moment Peter Dutton is under a lot of pressure, especially with the fiasco we saw on Friday when it came to Operation Fortitude, but look, in Tony Abbott’s words, if you want good coverage, be a better government,” she told Sky News.

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