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One of the more bizarre subplots of Barnaby Joyce’s appearance on 7.30 this week has been dog-gate, the swirl of conspiratorial questions over whether the canine Joyce was seen yelling at to “sit down” was even real.
For that, Joyce’s wife and former staffer, Vikki Campion, blames the ABC and Sarah Ferguson, the host of its flagship program, on which she said Joyce appeared against her advice.
In a Substack post stretching to more than 1300 words, Campion said the ABC’s 7.30 program would be “banned” from the couple’s property in future. Campion took aim at a “sheltered” Ferguson for later raising questions about whether the dog existed, and for opening the door for Joyce and Campion to be “crucified” for the outburst.
“Barnaby is a big boy and can take the heat. But it is one thing for Ferguson to cast a live-stream into my house, and then question whether my dog exists,” Campion wrote this week. “She might not have heard the barking, thanks to noise-cancelling audio, but I could.”
Regular readers of CBD will no doubt recall we needed no convincing that Stella was real, after Joyce shared a picture of the staffy-border collie cross with us, and told us all about his young farm dog, which we brought word of in Tuesday’s column.
“The ABC constantly complains about One Nation refusing to take part in their interviews,” Campion wrote.
“Yet Barnaby yelling at a barking dog in a paddock, about 50 metres away, meant the ABC first refused her existence because the host was too sheltered by her own audio team to hear it, and then opened the way to be crucified on the network arguing it was ‘unacceptable’ to speak to a dog that way.”
Earlier this week, Joyce told us Stella still loved him, and suggested the backlash to his outburst, which included criticism from Victorian Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell, highlighted the “regional-city divide”. But if Campion’s post is anything to go by, we aren’t likely to see Joyce beaming into 7.30 from the farm again anytime soon.
“For years, I have personally set up cameras, lights and internet connectivity to assist Sydney media to interview Barnaby, often without ever so much as a thank you. Never again,” she wrote. “ABC 7.30 is banned from my property.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson clearly doesn’t feel the same way. The party has started selling “Sit down! Barnaby’s Dog Leads” merch.
Labor’s pay for play
The Adelaide Convention Centre, which is playing host to the Australian Labor Party’s 50th National Conference this week, can accommodate up to 3500 people in “convention mode”, and 3000 guests for “gala banquets”.
So we were intrigued to learn not only would the ALP have limited space for the travelling press, but they’d have to pay for the pleasure to attend.
In a briefing note sent to media, reporters were told only a “limited number” of tickets have been reserved for journalists. Tickets, according to the memo, would be available at the “door price” of $135 per person.
“There is only capacity for one pool photographer, one pool videographer, and a limited number of journalists,” reads the briefing, which was not passed on to us by our Herald and Age colleagues.
Pretty wild, even when measured against the low expectations set by the Albanese government on transparency.
The national conference not only serves as a signal of the Labor Party’s priorities but creates a platform document that guides the cabinet’s policy agenda.
Add to the mix that the triennial conference is also set to serve as a platform for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s 2028 election bid, and you’d think there’s enough to justify free entry for the media. But we’re sure all the cash is going towards a good cause!
We asked the party whether media has always had to pay for access to the conference, why the party is charging media to attend, and why space is so “limited”, but didn’t hear back by deadline.
OpenAI’s old friends
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave a speech at the University of Sydney about artificial intelligence. During the talk, the PM somehow tried to square courting frontier investment while being immovable on copyright law. Which is to say Albanese was speaking out of all sides of his mouth.
This kind of policy people-pleasing is music to the ears of the nation’s lobbyists. A day before Albo gave his speech, OpenAI brought in Hanbury Strategy, the well-known UK lobbying firm that set up shop in Australia this year. Hanbury has worked with OpenAI in Europe. And it doesn’t hurt that the lobby shop’s new recruits have ties to the company. OpenAI declined to comment.
Earlier this year, CBD brought word that OpenAI had brought in former TikTok and Airbnb executive Brent Thomas to head up the AI firm’s policy operation. He and Hanbury’s Australian boss Owen Torpy, the longtime Labor adviser and former chief of staff to Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth, have known each other for years.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
Fiona Byrne is the CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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