Defence minister says corporation’s ‘attack’ on Australian navy made him so angry he needed time to cool off

The defence minister, David Johnston, has angrily defended the Australian navy and said he was “sick to the stomach” about the ABC’s reporting of claims that navy personnel were involved in burning asylum seekers’ hands.

In the most strongly worded government rebuke of the ABC so far, Johnston said on Friday in a news conference in Sydney: “My people have been spat on, abused, treated like servants, and have endured all of that to save more than a thousand lives and yet they’ve also had to endure the horror of fishing out hundreds of people floating dead in the water.

“I am absolutely sick to the stomach that this iconic Australian news agency would attack the navy in the way that it has,” he said. “Let’s get the record straight. They are heroes … I want to stand here and say thank you to them, they have done a magnificent job.”

The ABC has come under scrutiny for its reporting of allegations that navy personnel forced asylum seekers to hold on to hot engine pipes during a boat turnback operation.

But an investigation by Fairfax Media on Thursday revealed further details about the allegations, and also that a central figure relating to them, Yousif Ibrahim Fasher, said he had never been questioned by Australian authorities about the matter.

Despite the strongly worded defence, Johnston maintained the government’s line of refusing to provide details about the incident, and also said he was not responsible for oversight of the matters.

“You will need to put those matters to border protection command and the responsible minister,” he said. “They’re on-water matters that are not my responsibility, because it is a civil policy area.”

But he added: “I have discussed this matter with senior command. They have assured me that there is no substance to these allegations.”

In a news conference later in the day, Tony Abbott would not be drawn on whether footage should be released to dispel the allegations. The prime minister said the release of footage “might also help the people smugglers”.

The ABC managing director, Mark Scott, has stood by the reporting of the claims, and has resisted calls to apologise for the publication of the story.

“I think there are some suggestions here that those allegations should not have been reported, there’s some suggestion here that that video tape should not have been aired,” he said.

“We stand by that, we stand by the thrust of the story, and I think it is important that we be judged on that story.

“One of the reasons we’ve pursued this story is that we do greatly respect and admire the Australian navy.”

He did earlier acknowledge that some of the wording in the initial ABC reporting “needed to be more precise”. He said: “We regret if our reporting led anyone to mistakenly assume that the ABC supported the asylum seekers’ claims.”

Johnston said: “The good men and women of the Australian navy have been maliciously maligned by the ABC, and I am very dissatisfied of the very weasel words of apology that have been floated around.”

“I have not said much because, I have to confess, I was extremely angry. I required some time to cool off.”

The Fairfax investigation detailed further claims made by Fasher, who said he had been acting as a translator between navy personnel and asylum seekers and had been a witness to the alleged burning incident.

He claimed some of the asylum seekers’ hands were deliberately held to the pipe as punishment for protesting and to deter others from going to the toilet too often.

‘‘I saw it with my eyes because I was translating ... They punished three of them, three of them ... so they would never want to go to the toilet again,‘‘ said Fasher, who was on the navy vessel at the time.

He said he had been called over by a navy officer. ‘‘They said, ‘Yousif, translate for the people. Say to anyone, if you want to go to the toilet again, we will burn his hands. So, tell them.‘ So I translate for them.”

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said in a statement in response to the Fairfax story: “The government does not give credibility to malicious and unfounded slurs being made against our navy personnel and rejects outright any allegations of unprofessional conduct by our people serving in Operation Sovereign Borders.”