Liberals accuse ABC reporter of ‘weaponising’ NSW premier’s Catholic beliefs

Liberal MPs have accused ABC of weaponising NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s religious beliefs in a report into Catholic schools.

Mr Tudehope said the ABC had made a political judgment about trying to attribute “intimate knowledge” of the allegations levelled against the school to the premier. Picture: Jonathan Ng

NSW Liberal MPs have accused ABC Four Corners journalist Louise Milligan of weaponising the Premier Dominic Perrottet’s religious beliefs ahead of the state election as part of her investigation into four Catholic schools in Sydney’s northwest.

The program, “Purity: An education in Opus Dei”, was broadcast on Monday night, exploring the influence of the Opus Dei faith and the affiliated educational institutions — Redfield College, Tangara School for Girls, Wollemi College and Montgrove College — on the NSW Liberal Party.

It claimed “disturbing practices” occurred in the schools, operated by Parents for Education Foundation or PARED, including teaching students misinformation about sexual health, and discouraging girls from getting the HPV cervical cancer vaccine.

The investigation linked Mr Perrottet and Finance Minister Damien Tudehope to the PARED education system, noting the former had been school captain at Redfield while both had children or siblings who attended the schools.

A spokeswoman for the ABC said: “there is nothing in the program that is an attack on the Catholic faith.”

“It is relevant for the public to know about the schools’ connections to their publicly elected representatives.”

Mr Tudehope said the ABC had tried to attribute “intimate knowledge” of the allegations levelled against the school to the Premier.

“It’s a really unsavoury thing to be occurring to try and introduce people’s religious beliefs into a political campaign in circumstances where people’s beliefs should be respected,” Mr Tudehope told The Australian.

ABC’s Four Corners claimed Mr Perrottet’s Catholic school Redfield College had “disturbing practices” including teaching misinformation about sexual health.

Mr Tudehope, whose nephew Tim Pocock features in the Four Corners investigation and who described his experience as “miserable” and “hell on earth”, described Ms Milligan’s attempts to link the testimonials in her report to the Liberal Party as “really unfortunate”.

“I don’t think the story did the ABC any credit,” he said.

Mr Tudehope said the Premier had been correct in his response on Tuesday morning calling for any issues in the schools’ curriculum to be referred to NSW Education Standards Authority, the body responsible for monitoring school standards.

Mr Perrottet attended both Redfield and Oakhill College, a school not investigated by the ABC, on Monday said it was “not a crime to be Catholic”, adding he was a “strong believer in parental choice” in education for their children.

Liberal Wollondilly MP Nat Smith, who also attended a PARED school, accused the ABC of “gutter journalism”

“It’s good old fashioned 1950s bigotry. Need not apply if you are Irish or Catholic,” he said.

“And this is our publicly-funded national broadcaster.”

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean declined to comment on the investigation, saying: “We’ve got very strong policies here in NSW to ensure that our curriculum is science-led and evidence-based.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Perrottet said neither his government nor NESA had received any complaints of any relation to the PARED schools, but that bullying was inappropriate at any school and needed to be addressed.

“The advice that I’ve received from NESA, which is the Education Standards Authority and through the Education Minister is that no complaints have been made,” he told 2GB.

In a statement, a spokesman for PARED said the school had been contacted by NESA, which would be “commencing a review of two of our schools in relation to the allegations raised by the ABC. PARED and our schools will fully co-operate with NESA’s inquiries into these matters.”

A spokeswoman for the ABC said: “there is nothing in the program that is an attack on the Catholic faith.”

“It is relevant for the public to know about the schools’ connections to their publicly elected representatives.”