OUTSPOKEN Northern Territory minister Alison Anderson has unleashed a scathing attack on the head of the ABC's new fact-checking unit, Russell Skelton, slamming his work as "highly partisan" and saying he is unfit for the role.
Skelton became the centre of controversy when a string of tweets he made targeting Coalition figures was revealed in Senate estimates hearings a fortnight ago. ABC managing director Mark Scott said the tweets had come before the former Fairfax journalist had joined the broadcaster.
"Journalists have views; journalists vote," Mr Scott said, defending the appointment. "The test is not what their views are; the test is how they do their job."
The creation of the unit has caused concerns within the ABC, with talk among some staff that it will further expose the broadcaster to claims of bias.
Ms Anderson, a former commissioner of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commission, said Skelton's appointment was "not in the interests of the national public broadcaster, or of the nation". The pair clashed over his 2010 book King Brown Country, which slammed her and her family's involvement with the Papunya Community Council.
Ms Anderson declined to be interviewed for the book, which won a 2011 Walkley Award. She said "its principal source was deeply hostile to me", understood to be a reference to her former partner, and adding that it "contained almost 70 basic errors of fact and detail".
A police investigation cleared Ms Anderson of any wrongdoing.
The Australian understands that Ms Anderson sought legal advice last decade over Skelton's reporting and that the original publisher of King Brown Country declined to proceed with the project over fears of litigation.
Skelton has a longstanding friendship with Des Rogers, a political rival of Ms Anderson's.
Ms Anderson defeated Mr Rogers to win Labor preselection for the Alice Springs and southern outback seat of Macdonnell in 2005. She left Labor in 2009 to sit as an independent, then joined the Country Liberal Party in 2011. Ms Anderson defeated Mr Rogers, the Labor candidate, to win the seat, renamed Namatjira, at the Territory poll last August.
She said Skelton "conducted himself more like a campaigner than a reporter" in the campaign.
Scott McConnell, of Ingkerreke Outstation Resource Services, a supporter of Ms Anderson, said he had "shirtfronted" Skelton when he arrived in Alice Springs before the poll, demanding that he declare his friendship with Mr Rogers. A statement appeared at the end of a feature published days before the poll.
The Australian has found quotes from Mr Rogers in Skelton's reporting on indigenous affairs dating back to 2007.
Mr Rogers accompanied Skelton as his guest to the 2011 Walkley dinner in Brisbane, where he won the award for King Brown Country, and also appeared with him at a function in a Melbourne bookshop promoting the book weeks before the Territory election.
Mr Rogers yesterday acknowledged their friendship. He said he had introduced Skelton to the Papunya community, but denied he had been a source for the book.
He praised Skelton's reporting, saying "he only writes stuff from an evidence-based perspective", and dismissed Ms Anderson as "a headline grabber" after "anything to get her in the media".
Opposition leader in the Senate Eric Abetz, who first raised the matter of Skelton's tweets, said: "Even the ABC's own Media Watch appreciates the grave issue of apprehended bias with Skelton's appointment."
Skelton dismissed Ms Anderson's claims, saying she was approached on "countless occasions over a number of years" for comment during the writing of his book. "Since publication . . . Ms Anderson has not approached nor disputed any of the facts contained in King Brown Country -- the Betrayal of Papunya with either me or my publisher," he said.
Skelton said the book was "informed by multiple sources including members of Ms Anderson's extended family".
