Press Council chair distances himself from GetUp! activist

The new Press Council chairman admits the appointment of Carla McGrath “threw’’ the body’s independence into question.

Neville Stevens gives his first public address as Press Council chairman. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

The appointment of a left-wing activist to the Australian Press Council last year “threw into question the independence” of the newspaper watchdog, its new chairman says.

Press Council chairman ­Neville Stevens told the Melbourne Press Club yesterday that Carla McGrath, a GetUp! director, was an “outstanding Australian” but her appointment to the council had become an issue.

Mr Stevens’s predecessor, David Weisbrot, resigned last year because of the furore over Ms McGrath’s appointment to the Press Council despite her position at GetUp!, an activist group with strong links to the Labor Party and the Greens.

“Public members need to not only reflect the community, they must also be independent and be seen as independent,” Mr Stevens said. “The appointment of Carla McGrath to the council in the middle of last year and the re­action to that appointment threw into question the independence of the council.”

As a result of Ms McGrath’s appointment, The Australian ­refuses to accept any council ­adjudications or decisions ­invol­ving Ms McGrath.

Carla McGrath.

“While there is no question that Carla is an outstanding Australian, the issue revolves around whether her position as deputy chair of GetUp! is compatible with her role as a council member,” Mr Stevens said.

Mr Stevens, in his first public address since his appointment in December, said all members of the watchdog would have to lodge any potential conflicts of ­interest at their May meeting, in accordance with a new conflicts policy announced late last year.

He refused to say whether Ms ­McGrath’s role at GetUp! meant she had already breached that conflict of interest policy.

“All council members, including Carla, will be assessed against those guidelines. That will happen at the May meeting,” he said.

“It really would be inappropriate of me to pre-empt those council deliberations by expressing my view.”

Mr Stevens did not say whether he had considered making other moves to remove Ms McGrath from the council.

Ms McGrath did not respond to a request for comment.

The former secretary of the federal Department of Communication has been in the job for more than four months but has not spoken publicly until now.

He finally stated why the council had not made a submission to the federal government on its proposed whistle­blowers scheme despite protec­tions for journalists in the new bill widely considered to be too weak.

“The reason the submission wasn’t made was because their was a transition for a new chair and it simply didn’t happen due to that process,” he said.

“Going forward, we will make submissions on these issues.”

Mr Stevens said the council supported new shield laws for journalists in South Australia despite fears of a loophole allowing judges to decide whether a source needs to be protected.