Federal election 2016: Howard veteran relayed Credlin warning

Tony O’Leary was the senior Liberal figure who relayed the Peta Credlin boycott to Sky News.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott with Tony O'Leary.

Tony O’Leary, formerly press secretary to John Howard and now a media strategy consultant to ­Malcolm Turnbull, was the senior Liberal figure who warned Sky News that Turnbull would never appear on the cable network while Peta Credlin was on the payroll.

Credlin, formerly chief of staff to Tony Abbott, signed up in late March as an election commentator on Sky. She was a controversial figure in government, wielding power in a manner that created enemies. Her commentary has been sharp, sometimes brutally critical of Turnbull’s campaign.

Yesterday The Australian ­revealed that Sky’s top political reporter David Speers was threatened over Credlin’s role and warned on June 1 that while Credlin ­remained on air, the Prime Minister would reject future election debates hosted by Sky.

Speers regarded the threat as sufficiently serious that he immediately reported it to Sky chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos. O’Leary had approached Speers in the Canberra press gallery, where the threat was made in a conversation between them.

After reporting to Frangopoulos, Speers returned to the gallery with another Sky journalist where O’Leary apparently repeated his warning that Mr Turnbull would refuse further debates with Bill Shorten if Credlin remained. He did not reveal whether this had been discussed in the Prime Minister’s office.

Mr Turnbull’s communications director David Bold intervened in this conversation, attempting to assure Speers that there was no ban on Sky over Credlin and that O’Leary did not speak for Turnbull. Frangopoulos subsequently called Mr Bold himself. Bold reiterated that they were not banning Sky. He apologised to both Speers and Frangopoulos.

Yesterday Mr Frangopoulos confirmed that he had spoken to the Prime Minister’s office over the O’Leary threat. “The issue was immediately raised with the PMO and the matter resolved,” he said

After receiving Mr Bold’s assurance that there was no ban over Credlin, Sky sent a formal email to Nr Turnbull and Mr Shorten the next day, June 2, proposing a debate on June 8 in Brisbane. The email advised both parties that Sky would go to air with its invitation that afternoon.

The email to Mr Turnbull’s office received no reply. The Opposition Leader’s office accepted immediately. Sky announced on air at 4pm that it had invited both leaders to a second debate.

Turnbull’s office ignored the invitation. Within days, the Prime Minister announced he had arranged a debate with News Corp and Facebook — seeking a wider audience and social media. The previous Sky debate or “people’s forum” on May 13 in Windsor had also run live on Facebook. Mr Turnbull said he would not ­respond to Sky’s “decree”.

Mr O’Leary and Credlin had had an acrimonious relationship. Despite his 11 years with Mr Howard heading media strategy and consulting to Mr Abbott as opposition leader, the two crossed swords. Credlin was said to have barred Mr O’Leary from Mr Abbott’s victory celebrations in 2013.

Despite this bad blood, the sharpness of Mr O’Leary’s message, the non-response to invitations, and the fact Mr Turnbull has not appeared since on Sky, has kept the issue simmering behind the scenes. There were indications from the PMO this was because the Sky audience was too small.