Tanya Plibersek snubs local media

Tanya Plibersek, Federal MP for Sydney, has come under fire recently after allegations that she, and her office, are snubbing local media.

City Hub’s sister-paper Sydney City News has tried repeatedly to organise an interview with Plibersek in the lead-up to the Federal election, but no serious opportunity for an interview has been presented.

The City News was hoping to question the local Member on the tensions that have arisen between her responsibilities as a Federal Minister, and to her constituents – such as the issues of same-sex marriage, and immigration.

“Is she a local member, or is she a Federal member?” asks Simon Black, News Editor of City News.

“Is she dealing with issues on a Federal level, or is she trying to deal with the concerns of her local constituents? Because we’re the ones that put her there.”

Mr Black expressed disappointment, saying that these were the issues that voters of the Sydney electorate cared about, and that her local paper readership deserved more than party approved sound-bytes.

“She’s willing to stop and have a few words with us, but that’s not the same as actually doing a proper interview.”

“We don’t just want to hear the party line, we want to get to the bottom of what she thinks and feels,” Mr Black said.

He went on to express concern that this kind of behaviou is a growing trend amongst politicians from the major parties.

“Maybe asking a politician for the opportunity to discuss issues in depth with them is just not what [the media] can achieve anymore.”

He continued, “You look at the one hour debate between Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard… If you’ve seen their election ads, and read enough of their slogans, you may as well not have bothered listening… [the political system] is just feeding sound bytes to people, and it pisses me off!”

Ms Plibersek was approached by the Hub during a campaign stall at Broadway shops last Saturday, but denied an interview and left.

By Kieran Adair