One Nation compares relationship with media to domestic violence

James Ashby has compared One Nation’s relationship with the ABC to a domestic violence relationship after banning some of the broadcaster’s journalists from a press conference in Melbourne.

The party’s national director made the comparison when asked about the ABC and The Guardian being barred from attending One Nation Victorian leader Warren Pickering’s media appearance on Tuesday afternoon – the second time local journalists from the outlets have not been let into one of the party’s events.

“We don’t want morally bankrupt or corrupt media organisations coming into a room,” he told Today host Tom Steinfort.

“We’re happy to face the tough questions. I’m here this morning. We don’t always get a good, free ride from Channel 9, but when we deserve a slap, we get one.

“But with the ABC, it’s like going back to some domestic violence relationship and just getting beaten every time they come through the door.”

After the interview ended, Today host Sylvia Jeffreys said the comparison would “raise eyebrows”.

Full Stop Australia chief executive Karen Bevan said the remarks downplay domestic violence and sends the wrong message to both victim survivors and offenders.

“For a lot of people, there’s a long distance between a throwaway comment about likening a relationship between journalists and political groups as a bad relationship. By invoking domestic violence, you’re actually really missing the point,” she told nine.com.au.

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“It’s the wrong message and it really is so cruel and unhelpful for victim survivors of domestic violence.

“And it does the opposite of what people want, which is that it sends the wrong message to perpetrators that their behaviour doesn’t really matter.”

Bevan added that public discourse has a significant impact and political parties should be held to a higher standard.

“The way we talk publicly about these issues matters, that is something I really want politicians to understand,” she told nine.com.au.

“That an off-the-cuff comment that didn’t feel like anything to them, it matters because the people who are receiving it, who are hearing it, hear it in through their experience.

“Victim survivors hear it, hear it when we make fun of domestic violence.

“They feel that personally because it’s personal. It’s very real for them.”

One Nation deputy leader Barnaby Joyce defended Ashby’s remark, saying it sounded metaphorical.

“It’s obviously literal, and it’s comparison. Not asking people to do it,” he told reporters in Canberra.

Pauline Hanson was widely criticised for her own remarks on domestic violence in July after telling 4BC domestic violence is a “two-way street”.

“It is wrong but it’s also a two-way street. I’m not saying that it’s just men, women can lose their cool as well,” she said at the time.

Read the question and response in full below.

Today host Tom Steinfort: Well, if we look now at that press conference that was held yesterday, you touched on it. You were there. You kicked certain journalists out of the room. There were some from the Guardian, the ABC. Now, your party is marketing itself as standing for transparency in government, and your own free speech policy says that it should be enshrined in the constitution to safeguard open debate, free expression for Australians. How can you advocate for free speech and transparency yet at the same time say you don’t want certain media outlets to cover you guys?

James Ashby: Well, we don’t want morally bankrupt or corrupt media organisations coming into a room, we’re happy to face the tough questions. I’m here this morning. We don’t always get a good free ride from Channel 9, but when we deserve a slap, we get one. But with the ABC, it’s like going back to some domestic violence relationship and just getting beaten every time they come through the door. I’m sorry, we’re not going to participate in that, and I won’t have these morally bankrupt organisations like the Guardian or the ABC telling me that they must be in press conferences. No, it’s not your right. We’ll make that decision depending on how you treat us. We’ll treat you.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).