Former Senator and Sky News host Cory Bernardi threatens to launch legal action against the ABC
Former senator and Sky News host seeks $400,000 damages after ‘malicious’ allegations aired on ABC show Ms Represented.
Former senator and Sky News host Cory Bernardi has threatened to launch legal action against the ABC after it aired allegations by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on popular TV series Ms Represented.
The threat comes just days after the ABC issued an apology to Mr Bernardi for failing to give him a “fair opportunity” to respond to the claims made during the program – which he vehemently denies – and conceded it had breached its own editorial standards.
The ABC has been issued with legal documents by Mr Bernardi – a senator from 2006 to 2020 – and he is demanding the public broadcaster pay him $400,000 in damages. He has also ordered the episode be removed from its streaming platform iview, as well as all promotional material, and that the ABC pay his legal costs.
The four-episode series focused on the experiences of female parliamentarians and was hosted by the ABC’s political writer Annabel Crabb.
During the second episode, which aired on July 20, Senator Hanson-Young told Crabb about alleged interactions she claimed she had with Mr Bernardi during a parliamentary sitting on December 4, 2014.
This included the senator telling Crabb that Mr Bernardi came in from a party a few corridors down and “was shouting, making mutterings” and “then as the night went on he got closer and closer to the seat next to me”.
Senator Hanson-Young said Mr Bernardi was “whispering nursery rhymes, it was creepy”.
Senator Hanson-Young also claimed that he was inebriated at the time and made statements to her about her personal life.
Mr Bernardi has strongly denied the allegations and said that at no stage did the ABC contact him before the allegations were aired.
The episode drew 585,000 viewers across the five major capital cities and was heavily promoted on social media.
A promotional tweet posted by Crabb on the day it aired had more than 1100 retweets and nearly 3700 likes.
Mr Bernardi said the ABC’s complaints process was not acceptable, resulting in him threatening legal action.
The ABC would not comment on the matter.
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