FOURTH ESTATE TRIUMPH:
The crème de la crème of Australian politics journalism – David Speers – has delivered a master class to newcomers to the craft in the art of the brilliant gotcha question; one that leaves a politician’s career stone motherless dead in its tracks.
Speers delivered the definitive gotcha – one that will be taught in journalism studies for ever more – in a brilliant, deceptive, 25-word poser to an unwitting and totally unprepared NDIS minister Bill Shorten late in the week.
To put it bluntly, Shorten looked like a plucked goose after Speers was through with him. Only Shorten’s most ardent supporters would have seen the outcome of their exchange the other way around (pictured at top).
The ABC Insiders host lured an arrogant, unprepared Shorten into his trap with this: “You mention the, ah, by-election. Is it pure coincidence that this is all coming to light just a couple of weeks before the by-election?”
While Shorten paused briefly, clearly blindsided by Speers’ laser-like probing, other scribes at the presser broke out into spontaneous applause over the brilliance of the senior journalist’s questioning. It was clear to all present that Speers was making the telling point – albeit cloaked in covert cleverness – that Labor was obviously behind renewed allegations of wrongdoing by former pollie Stuart Robert, purely to harm the LNP’s chances in his former seat of Fadden in mid-July.
But more than just that! The question clearly reinforced Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s belief that Labor would play dirty at the by-election by mentioning Robert, an act that in itself was totally unwarranted and one that reeked of inexcusable political opportunism, one that would be anathema to the principled, conservative, side of Australian politics.
Shorten began his response hesitantly. “No-one asked Mr Roberts to resign,” he offered to smirks and snickers from the predominately Newscorpse and Nine Entertainment journos present. Several slapped Speers on his back.
“The timing of the by-election is purely and utterly in Stuart Robert’s hands. No-one asked him to ride out of town.”
To his credit on what surely would have been his last day in politics if Speers had managed to get in more questions, Shorten made no attempt whatsoever to deny that an explosive claim in a sworn statement to a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday about Robert’s dealings with consultancy firm, Synergy 360 had clearly, as Speers cleverly suggested, been totally orchestrated by Labor for tacky, unethical political gain.
There were fresh titters of scorn and disrespect from the assembled scribes as Shorten tried to wriggle his way out of the trap Speers had set for him.
“The issue is… last November reports emerged … slowly … more reports emerged … allegations and counter claims … that has happened long before Mr Robert announced his unexpected resignation.”
The journalists all turned to Speers, expecting him to somehow use fresh clever words to suggest Labor was behind all those reports too, regardless of when they emerged.
But Speers remained silent, cleverly letting Shorten stumble on: “If people are wondering why they’re voting on July 15 in the Gold Coast , a hundred and, you know, ten thousand voters, why the taxpayers are spending millions of dollars, they should ask Mr Robert and the LNP why they are having a by-election.”
Speers’ work was done. And his colleagues could only marvel at the political nous and cunning of a scribe at the top of his game, with skills perfectly honed in the hotbed of Sky News Australia journalism practised at its professional best.
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