Peter Dutton pillories ‘ideologically obsessed’ Fairfax

Peter Dutton has ­attacked the Fairfax media organisation for its ‘political, ideological’ agenda.

An extraordinary spat has broken­ out between Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood ­and Peter Dutton, after the Immigration Minister declared the company’s “productivity went up” while journalists were on a seven-day strike.

Mr Dutton — a critic of Fairfax, the Guardian and the ABC — ­attacked the media organisation yesterday for its “political, ideological” agenda, saying it was “out of touch with people” despite employing “a couple of good journalists”.

The remarks came one day after journalists returned to work from a week-long strike.

The industrial action, which affected The Sydney Morning Herald’sand The Age’sbudget coverage, was triggered by an announce­ment that 125 jobs — 25 per cent of their newsrooms — would be axed.

“I thought the productivity of Fairfax went up last week with the strike, I don’t think our lives were affected one way or anothe­r,” Mr Dutton told 2GB radio, which is majority owned by Fairfax. “I think people realise that you can live without reading Fairfax newspapers. I think it’s a better way to lead your life — that would be my advice.”

Mr Hywood was quick to rebuke­ Mr Dutton, a conservative within the Liberal Party considered­ a potential leader.

“Once again Peter Dutton shows why no one rates him,” Mr Hywood said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann took a more diplomatic tone than his cabinet colleague­, saying it was “good” to see Fairfax journalists back at Parliament House.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young claimed Mr Dutton was “gloating” about Fairfax job losses because he “never liked transparency and hates good journalists”.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan said it would be a “sad day” if any media organisation — be it News Corp Australia (publisher of The Australian and other city-based tabloids), Fairfax, the ABC or other TV networks­ — ceased to exist.

Mr Dutton, who has previously­ accused Fairfax of leading a “jihad” against the Coalition­, was scathing of its reportage­, saying “no amount of Fairfax pondering” would stop the government’s tough immig­ration policies.

“When they say the Prime Minister has been captured by the right or has been playing to the conservative base of the party, what that’s code for is this: they’re saying that Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t undone the boats policy, he hasn’t allowed the detention centres to close on Manus and Nauru,” the Immig­ration Minister said.

“That’s the one thing they’re obsessed about. This is their criticism: they believe that already we should’ve had gay marriage or we should’ve had a republic — they can’t believe that somebody like Turnbull is being captured into thinking you continue Operatio­n Sovereign Borders and stop people coming by boat.”

Fairfax journalist Heath Aston responded to Mr Dutton on Twitter: “Funny, because most Fairfax readers think the country could live without Peter Dutton.”

His colleague Jacqueline Maley also labelled the Dutton attack as “extraordinary”, saying he appeared to ­be acknow­ledging that Mr Turnbull had been “ ‘captured’ by elements of his party”.