Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 5:13:50 to 5:15:43
The committee discusses the hiring of Mahmud Fazal for Four Corners, with Senator Henderson raising concerns about his background and the ABC's vetting process.
Topics: Integrity, Public service staffing
Speakers: Hugh Marks, Senator The Hon Sarah Henderson
Thank you. I want to firstly start with the concerns about Mahmud Fazal. So when you appeared in Estimates last time, you said to me, well, he had a great story to tell. I put to you, well, you could have just interviewed him, and it was egregious error to hire him. Have you reconsidered your position given everything that has unraveled about this particular person?
I think Senator, my my reference to the reasons that they would have had to hire Mr. Vasal, and obviously before my time at the ABC, you know, we should endeavour to have different voices on the ABC, different voices that come from different backgrounds and communities. That that must be one of our objectives. So I always encourage our teams to think differently in the sort of the people that they hire. Obviously.
He has got a he's associated with a crime family. He's got a very dubious background. How did he possibly meet the threshold and standards of the ABC, particularly at a program, a very significant programme such as Four Corners?
Yeah, I think Senator, um, they're all fair questions. Um obviously we did a review of Mr. Fasal's work and found substantial flaws in in much of that work. Um Mr. Fang in particular did a lot of detail, uh detailed background work on that particular issue, and we have taken what I believe now to be the appropriate actions to reflect the failures in Mr. Vizal's work at the ABC.