Read on Twitter
I had just put the finishing touches to a piece about the Dan Andrews pressers, which will run in @sundayage this weekend, when I tuned in to hear #credlin cross questioning him today, and then the discussion about this in Twitter...so here are my thoughts.
Spoiler: My Sunday Age piece talks about when the public performance of journalism becomes the point, rather than the published or broadcast report. Relevant, but ...
I have no problem with Peta Credlin being there. I imagine there are constraints around covid safety and other logistics, but within those I would hope access is inclusive rather than exclusive. I hope @DaveMilbo can get in too, or at least be given good reasons why not ...
We could argue about whether Credlin is a journalist, but that is a very boring old rabbit hole to disappear down. When she questions the premier on matters of public concern, she is DOING journalism. How well? That's a different question.
I thought the question that underlay the performance was also fair enough. I was expecting somebody to ask it after @joshgnosis piece ( https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/08/telstra-phone-records-might-reveal-who-decided-to-use-security-guards-in-victorias-hotel-quarantine) I took the question to be:
"Given the mystery around the vital six minutes and who suggested security guards for hotel quarantine, will you release your phone records to the inquiry?" A perfectly reasonable question. And the answer was also reasonable. "If the inquiry asks me, yes."
(but I'm not doing it just because you want me to.)
When I was researching this piece https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/29/victoria-hotel-quarantine-inquiry-systemic-issues-more-urgent-than-individual-blame I actually checked whether the inquiry had the power to force such disclosure. It doesn't. But that doesn't stop them asking, and Andrews has previously promised all cooperation.
I also wonder about all those other messages that pass between political staffers, bureaucrats and ministers, and whether the inquiry would think asking for them a good thing to do. So a reasonable question, a reasonable answer.
And the rest was a performance. We should judge the journalist by how she reports the result of her research, not, or not chiefly, how she asks questions. The end.
