Pollies divided over what to watch in gym

The bitter divisions of the floor of the House of Representatives have spilled into the parliamentary gym, with pollies on both sides sweating over whether to watch the ABC or Sky News.

The battle for the airwaves was reportedly kicked off early on Monday when Labor Senator Claire Moore asked her Coalition colleagues Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Tasmanian MP Anderew Nikolic to switch the channel in the Parliament House gym from Sky News to the ABC.

The men declined, taking control of the remote and ending the ABC's unchallenged 15-year run in the parliamentary gym.

The Coalition stance led Senator Moore to canvass the opinions of her peers and the Senator conducted a poll asking whether pollies would rather watch the ABC or Sky.

Mr Nikolic emailed his fellow Liberals to urge a vote for Sky.

"I encourage you to vote for SKY News on the basis that: it does not involve socially-progressive commentators sitting on couches endlessly reciting Labor talking points; and the sports coverage on SKY is vastly superior," he wrote.

Sky is reportedly well ahead in the poll as Coalition attacks on the ABC become increasingly common.  

Earlier this year Tony Abbott criticised the ABC's reporting and chastised the network for not being patriotic enough. 

Source: The Australian

Author: Martin Zavan, Approving editor: Matthew Henry