JUANITA PHILLIPS: A cabinet minister in the Morrison government is facing demands for a police investigation into whether his office was involved in forging a fake document to attack Sydney’s Lord Mayor. - ABC News, 24 October, 2019

Hello, I’m Paul Barry, welcome to Media Watch.

And what a cracker of a yarn that is, the mysterious tale of the dodgy document at the centre of a grubby political hit job, with help from the media.

And how did we learn about it? From Anne Davies and Christopher Knaus in The Guardian last Wednesday:

Angus Taylor baselessly accused Sydney’s lord mayor of driving up carbon emissions by spending $15m on travel, a claim that was later backed up with a doctored council document provided to the Daily Telegraph ... - Guardian Australia, 23 October, 2019

So, how did the Minister — and The Daily Telegraph — get themselves in this mess?

Well, it all began back in June, when Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore declared a climate emergency.

Clover wrote to state and federal ministers to inform them of that declaration and got a letter back from the federal minister for emissions reduction, with some helpful, if patronising, advice:

You might be interested to know that there are many practical ways local councils can take real and meaningful action to reduce their carbon emissions. One such example is to limit unnecessary air travel. Given your most recent Annual Report shows your Council spent $1.7 million on international travel, and $14.2 million on domestic travel, there is a real opportunity for your Council to make a meaningful contribution to reducing Australia's emissions. - Letter, Angus Taylor, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, 29 September, 2019

Remarkably, The Daily Telegraph also received a copy of that letter. And even more remarkably, it received it before the Lord Mayor and Sydney City Council had even seen it.

And not surprisingly, the Tele splashed the story on page 3 the very next day:



EXCLUSIVE Clover’s climate conflict heats up Lord Mayor Clover Moore has been told by the federal government to rein in the hundreds of thousands of dollars her council is spending on international and domestic travel if she is serious about lecturing Australia on climate change. In his letter Mr Taylor claims the council spent more than $15 million on domestic and international travel … - The Daily Telegraph, 30 September, 2019

The mayor’s media team had assured the journalist those numbers were wrong. And Anna Caldwell, the Tele’s state political editor, all but conceded that in her story.

But it didn’t stop the paper from publishing the Minister’s false accusations. And it certainly didn’t stop the usual suspects from jumping all over it.

First, with Alan Jones at breakfast:

ALAN JONES: Clover Moore has been told to put her money where her mouth is when it comes to climate change. - The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 2GB, 30 September, 2019

Then, Chris Kenny at lunchtime:

CHRIS KENNY: … full marks to federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor who’s fired a broadside at one of the loopiest city councils in the country ... - The Kenny Report, Sky News, 30 September, 2019

So, was it all based on a lie? In a word, yes.

The council’s latest annual report — available on its website — shows spending of just $1700 on overseas travel last year, not $1.7 million as the Minister claimed.

And $4200 was spent on domestic travel, which is less than .03 per cent of Angus Taylor’s figure of $14.2 million.

Having checked the real figures, Clover Moore duly wrote back to the Minister last week to tell him:

These travel costs are grossly inaccurate … The Daily Telegraph published the inaccurate figures, and its journalists allege that your office provided a document containing the false information. - Letter, Clover Moore, Sydney Lord Mayor, 22 October, 2019

And here is that Word document with the false information — supplied to the Telegraph by the Minister’s office after the story was published — to back up his claims.

And while the words are the same, there are very different numbers from the council’s version.



In short, it looks to be a forgery.

Angus Taylor has now apologised to Moore, admitting the figures were wrong. But he denies his office had anything to do with it.

As he told Parliament last week:

ANGUS TAYLOR: … the document was drawn from the City of Sydney website and it was publicly available. Now I reject the bizarre suggestions and assertions being peddled by those opposite. - Question Time, ABC News Channel, 24 October, 2019

Sydney City Council flatly denies that the altered document came from its website. And has the metadata to prove it.

Meanwhile, Labor is demanding a police inquiry to uncover the answer.

And The Daily Telegraph has turned on its informant, telling readers on Friday:

ANGUS CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH MINISTER’S FLYING FACTS - The Daily Telegraph, 25 October, 2019

So, should the Tele have published in the first place, given that the figures were so wildly inflated and the council was adamant they were wrong?

And should it have written this editorial that repeated the Minister’s false claims unchallenged?

A Telegraph spokesperson told Media Watch the letter was newsworthy and it accurately reported the dispute:



The Daily Telegraph thoroughly interrogated Mr Taylor's office and Ms Moore’s office and, as a result, the story published carried both of their claims ... The Daily Telegraph could not have foreseen when it was questioning both parties that a federal minister would be relying on what has this week been found by the council to be an altered document. - Email, Spokesperson, The Daily Telegraph, 28 October, 2019

The Tele adds it has now corrected the record on the figures and is, quote, “pursuing all leads” to find out how it was misled. It also told Media Watch it will co-operate fully with any police investigation.

But, strangely, the government is in no hurry to have one.

And that brings us to the wider point in all this, which is that some journalists are facing the threat of jail for reporting on government leaks while others are being fed leaks by government ministers to smear political opponents. And the government shows no interest in investigating that.



It is an ugly business and some in the media are complicit.