MEDIA NEWS:

ABC News says despite intensive search efforts it has still not found at least four cadet journalists missing for periods varying from days and up to several years in its central news archives in Sydney.

An ABC spokesperson said the latest search by corporation staff and teams of SES volunteers (main picture) began on Tuesday, 24 hours after Monday’s publication of an “analysis” by journalist Patricia Karvelas quoting former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull strongly backing gender quotas for Liberal Party preselections. (below)

In the Karvelas article Turnbull said: “The Liberal Party has said it needs to recruit more women into its parliamentary ranks for years and for just as long resisted quotas on the basis it undermines the right of party members freely to choose their own candidates.”

He continued: “But nothing has changed and the party room has fewer women than ever. Those who oppose quotas need to explain what their alternative is, otherwise people will reasonably conclude they are quite happy with the male dominated status quo.”

The ABC spokesperson said after reading the “analysis”, a first-year cadet journalist in the national broadcaster’s Sydney newsroom posed a question to the chief of staff (COS) on duty.

It is understood the cadet asked: “Shouldn’t PK [Patricia Karvelas] have mentioned Turnbull’s own strenuous efforts when he was PM to impose his leadership authority on his party to implement gender quotas for Liberals preselections and explain why his obviously relentless, valiant crusading attempts didn’t work?”

The spokesperson said the COS then suggested that the cadet undertake some research in the ABC’s news archives to find evidence of Turnbull’s previous activism on the quota issue.

“The cadet entered the archives soon after but hasn’t been seen since,” the spokesperson said.

“We suspect they took literally the COS’s light-hearted instruction not to return to the newsroom without evidence of Turnbull’s strong leadership on gender quotas.”

The ABC spokesperson confirmed that several other cadet journalists were also the subject of ongoing searches in the news archives.

“One cadet entered the archives a few years back when Turnbull was attacking the Morrison Government over its climate change policy, or lack of it. The cadet was seeking evidence of how Turnbull had stood his ground as leader and PM to take on the right wing of his own party and the entire National Party to advance a sensible emissions control and renewable energy policy,” the spokesperson said.

“Unfortunately that cadet is still in there somewhere. So too is the cadet who tried to find evidence of Turnbull’s actions as prime minister to advance an Australian republic.

“The poor kid figured that since Turnbull had previously led the Australian Republic Movement, he would have used his authority when leading the government to advance the cause.

“SES searchers did find an old news file on the floor of the archives in which Turnbull described himself as an ‘Elizabethan’ when visiting the late Queen to explain why he had at that stage not pushed for a republic.

“We suspect the cadet in question dropped that file and ventured further into the archives looking for evidence of Turnbull’s later no-doubt fearless stance on the issue.

“Another cadet went missing in the lead-up to the 2023 referendum on an indigenous Voice to Parliament when they went to the archives to find evidence of Turnbull’s longstanding commitment to the concept.

“That cadet did actually return to the newsroom somewhat confused with material showing Turnbull as PM had helped stymie the Voice from the get-go by calling it a ‘third chamber of parliament’.

“The cadet was unwilling to believe that anyone in a national leadership role could be as hypocritical and opportunistic as to jump on the ‘yes’ campaign when they had previously done all they could to stoke a ‘no’ vote, so the poor naïve darling went back into the archives and hasn’t been seen since,” the spokesperson said.

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