This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The ABC should expect to be questioned about spending taxpayers’ money defending a defamation lawsuit over depictions of a News Corp columnist having sex with a dog when it next seeks federal funding, Tony Abbott has warned.



The national broadcaster is in the midst of legal proceedings about a skit on the satirical show The Hamster Decides which depicted columnist Chris Kenny “literally up a dog”, as Kenny angrily described it on his Sky News programme.

On Thursday the supreme court ruled that Kenny’s case could go ahead, though it struck out one imputation, that viewers of the show may have been made to believe Kenny actually had sex with dogs.

Asked by 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Thursday whether the ABC’s legal defence of the show was a good use of taxpayers’ money, rather than apologising to Kenny, the prime minister said it was a “fair question”.

“The point I make is that government money should be spent sensibly and defending the indefensible is not a very good way to spend government money,” Abbott said.

“Next time the ABC comes to the government looking for more money, this is the kind of thing that we would want to ask them questions about.”

Kenny told Guardian Australia he was pleased with the supreme court’s decision for the case to go ahead. “Most people would agree the ABC crossed the line,” he said.

“I shared my views about the slur on my television programme, the ABC made no effort to apologise and I sent a legal letter demanding apology.”

Kenny said he accepted the court case might result in more damage to his public image than the original broadcast, given the renewed attention on the skit and its content.

“Every defamation case runs the risk of giving oxygen to the slur – [it’s] all part of the harm done,” he told Guardian Australia.

On Thursday Kenny told Fordham that if he had received a personal apology from the ABC’s director, Mark Scott, and a broadcast or print apology from the ABC, “it all would have gone away”.

Asked about Abbott’s comments, Kenny said: “All taxpayers’ money should be spent wisely. And when media organisations defame people they should admit error and apologise.”

The ABC intends to continue defending the show after the judge varied the two imputations left open to challenge in court.

“No decision was made by Justice Beech-Jones on the merits of the case,” the ABC’s director of legal and business affairs, Rob Simpson, said.

“The ABC believes it is on solid legal ground and has no choice but to defend the matter given the plaintiff’s decision to proceed with action.”

The ABC declined to comment on the prime minister’s statement.