‘I didn’t plot to oust PM’: Kerry Stokes rejects ABC report
Kerry Stokes has rejected a report claiming Malcolm Turnbull was rolled due to interference from him and Rupert Murdoch.
Kerry Stokes has strongly rejected a report by the ABC claiming that Malcolm Turnbull lost the prime ministership because of interference from him and Rupert Murdoch, confirming last night he had “never received a text” from the News Corp executive chairman “on this or any matter”.
In a rare public statement, the Seven West Media chairman unequivocally denied a series of claims made by the ABC’s national political editor Andrew Probyn in a lead story illustrated by graphics of mocked-up text messages during Tuesday’s evening news bulletin.
Chris Kenny: ABC’s Rupert Murdoch conspiracy theory absurd, factually wrong
Accompanied by a 2165-word online article titled “What did Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes have to do with the Liberal leadership spill?”, the ABC news report alleges Mr Stokes and Mr Murdoch conspired to direct the demise of Mr Turnbull through media outlets.
Responding to Probyn, who worked at Seven West Media for more than 11 years, Mr Stokes also says the ABC was wrong to assert The West Australian newspaper supported Scott Morrison at his behest.
In a severe test of the public broadcaster’s reputation, Mr Stokes addressed Probyn in comments sent to The Australian: “I acknowledge you contacted me for an interview before you published the story on September 18 ...
“Having worked with our organisation for many years, you should be very aware that I never enter into speculative political gossip nor have interfered with editorial opinions.
“But in reply to your question posed in the headline. ‘Absolutely nothing, full stop’. I have never been involved in leadership events nor autopsies of them like the one you have published.
“You are wrong in asserting that The West Australian backed Scott Morrison at my direction. Again, having worked for me for many years, you should know that is not the way I operate.”
According to the ABC, Mr Murdoch told Mr Stokes that “Malcolm has got to go”. The ABC says this conversation was relayed back to Mr Turnbull by Mr Stokes. Mr Stokes told Mr Murdoch, Probyn wrote, that “rolling Mr Turnbull would deliver government to Labor, that the industrial relations landscape would see the likes of the CFMEU thrive”.
Mr Murdoch is then alleged to have told Mr Stokes: “We have got to get rid of Malcolm. If that’s the price of getting rid of him, then I can put up with three years of Labor.” Similar claims were published earlier by The Australian Financial Review’s gossip column Rear Window.
Mr Stokes continued: “Furthermore, the characterisation and supposed details of the private conversations you have assigned to me are wrong. I would have hoped that you and the ABC would establish and publish the facts instead of accepting on face value spin from parties attempting to rewrite history.”
After receiving Mr Stokes’s rejection of the story yesterday, Probyn replied: “Thanks to Kerry.”
Mr Stokes is the majority shareholder in Seven West Media, operator of free-to-air broadcaster Seven Network and West Australian Newspapers. Mr Murdoch is executive chairman of News Corp, publisher of The Australian.
Mr Stokes told The Australian: “I have never received a text from Rupert Murdoch on this or any matter. I don’t think he has my number nor I his.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison also dismissed the ABC’s report on Wednesday.
“I don’t think it happened,” Mr Morrison said.
“I don’t believe it happened at all, and you’d think I’d know, given I was involved.”
The ABC yesterday added parts of Mr Stokes’s statement to Probyn’s online article, but the 7pm TV ABC news bulletin made no mention of the denial.
An ABC spokeswoman said: “There was no story involving Mr Stokes in the evening news bulletin. In addition, by 7pm Mr Stokes’s statement had not only been online for several hours but had also been read out live by Andrew Probyn at about 1.45pm on the pre-Question Time show.” The Australian asked the ABC whether the organisation was confident editorial guidelines were followed and if there would be a review of Probyn’s reporting. The spokeswoman replied: “Can you please specify what are the editorial guidelines you suggest have not been followed, and what exactly would be reviewed?” Earlier this year, Probyn was found to have breached impartiality standards when he described former prime minister Tony Abbott as “the most destructive politician of his generation” in a piece to camera.
Additional reporting: Sam Buckingham-Jones
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