Peter Dutton calls for ABC to apologise over Manus Island incident

Immigration minister Peter Dutton is calling for the ABC to apologise after claiming an incident on Manus Island wasn’t true.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton told Sky News that he expects an apology from ABC and Fairfax “in the next 24 hours.” Picture: Sky News

Immigration minister Peter Dutton has stood by his department’s version of events surrounding a child entering Manus Island during Easter and called for the ABC and Fairfax to apologise “in the next 24 hours” for suggesting the information he provided was false.

The minister last week said PNG defence personnel may have opened fire because three asylum seekers were spotted leading a five-year-old boy towards the immigration centre. The claims have been contradicted by the PNG defence force, Manus province police commander David Yapu and a former Manus Island MP, Ronny Knight.

Mr Dutton told Sky News tonight he had reconfirmed his original story with sources on the ground at Manus Island today and told the program he would not budge on those version of events.

.@PeterDutton_MP says the ABC has 'lost the plot and they should apologise'... I stand by my comments. MORE https://t.co/CshYY451lA pic.twitter.com/t5wkFqJCBS

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 24, 2017

“What I said is factual, I stand by it 100 per cent, and I’m not going to be cowered into a different position when I know what I’ve said to be the truth,” he said. “And I’ll stand by those comments and I expect the ABC and Fairfax and others to be making an apology in the next 24 hours given the revelations that have been released tonight in relation to their discredited witness.”

Some reports about the incident used evidence from Former Manus Island MP Ronny Knight, who said the violence was unrelated to the fact that a child had been taken into the centre, however it emerged a court had recently upheld a decision from two years ago dismissing him from office over charges of misappropriating funds.

“When you have the ABC and others who are relying on reports and the accounts of people convicted of fraud and who have been have been excluded from parliament, taken their word over the word of the Australian government, frankly I think the ABC has lost the plot and I think they should be out apologising,” said Mr Dutton.

“The problem is, in relation to a lot of the journalists, they’ve morphed into advocates and lost control of any dispassionate view of this circumstance. “

“If somebody from the ABC or from Fairfax or The Guardian or some of these fringe dwellers out on the internet have a different view a more substantive view or more informed view let them put it on the table.

“But I have relayed the facts as they have been provided to me by my department, and those people with knowledge of what happened on the ground and I’m not changing my position, my version, one bit.”