ABC chair Ita Buttrose (Image: AAP/Dan Peled)

ABC chair Ita Buttrose has opened fire on the federal government in the biggest contretemps between the two organisations since the Iraq war, demanding a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s complaints-handling process be axed, terming it “an act of political interference designed to intimidate the ABC and mute its role as this country’s most trusted source of public interest journalism”.

Buttrose’s extraordinary statement uses language stronger than that of any recent ABC chair to attack an inquiry initiated by Liberal backbencher Andrew Bragg, the former retail superannuation spinner who has developed a record of attacking media outlets that don’t hew to the Coalition line.

“Once again, an elected representative has chosen to threaten the ABC’s independence at the expense of the integrity of this irreplaceable public service,” Buttrose said. “Any incursion of this kind into the ABC’s independence should be seen by Australians for what it is: an attempt to weaken the community’s trust in the public broadcaster.”

Scott Morrison now faces the consequences of his decision to appoint Buttrose to replace Justin Milne after the latter was forced out in the wake of the sacking of managing director Michelle Guthrie. The appointment of the iconic Buttrose was expected to be a political winner designed to neutralise perceptions the government was routinely interfering in the ABC; Buttrose’s early comments about ABC bias would have reassured Coalition MPs that Morrison had made the right choice.

Now, six months out from an election, the government faces direct accusations — from its own nominee — of interference.

Morrison is already ceding ground, with his office briefing a stenographer at The Australian that Bragg had gone rogue and been “rapped over the knuckles”, with the suggestion the politically naive Bragg had been “played” by Labor senators.

In fact Bragg is continuing a longstanding war of the Coalition against the ABC’s complaints process. For the best part of 20 years, the Coalition has been frustrated that their complaints of political bias at the ABC (not sporting bias, which is the other large source of ABC bias complaints) aren’t upheld.

Richard Alston and then-ABC chair Donald McDonald had an extended argument over how the ABC handled his complaints about its coverage of the Iraq war (coverage that has since been comprehensively vindicated), leading to Alston demanding that the ABC establish a fully independent complaints process rather than its internal Audience and Consumer Affairs area, which is separate from program areas but operates within the Corporation.

In fact there is already an external, fully independent complaints process — complainants can take their complaint to media regulator ACMA if they don’t like the ABC’s response. As Buttrose pointed out, the ABC’s own external inquiry into its complaints process is well underway.

But in the absence of a high-profile issue like the Iraq war, a focus on complaints-handling looks like the Coalition going out of its way to pick a fight with the ABC in the lead-up to an election. Given the cowed state of the ABC news division, which has ceded all public interest journalism to ABC Current Affairs, it also looks wholly unnecessary.

Displaying some political smarts of her own, Buttrose has seized on the overreach by Bragg to highlight the government’s ongoing attempts to interfere with the broadcaster. Not for nothing did she use the phrase “once again”.

And Buttrose went further in her comments to Fran Kelly this morning, explicitly linking Bragg’s inquiry to the government itself, labelling it a “partisan political exercise” and in effect dismissing the “rogue senator” line from Morrison.

The tradition of Liberal ABC chair appointees is that they enter the role with expectations they will pull the broadcaster into line, only to be demonised as having been “captured” once they do the job legislation requires and safeguard the ABC’s independence. That was the fate of Donald McDonald, and is now the fate of Buttrose. Sky News commentator and Victorian Liberal Party identity Michael Kroger declared she was a failure and should resign back in June, and overnight claimed she was a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.

The problem with Buttrose’s comments is that they confirm what everyone already thinks — the government has been working hard to muzzle the ABC for years. Now Morrison has a mess on his hands, and no amount of demonising Buttrose will help.