FED:PM bringing on fight with Rudd: Turnbull

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2011
FED:PM bringing on fight with Rudd: Turnbull

MELBOURNE, Dec 6 AAP - The government's decision to award the Australia Network contract
to the ABC is Prime Minister Julia Gillard's attempt to "bring on a fight" with predecessor
Kevin Rudd, opposition communication spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says.

The move highlights a widening rift between the pair and Sky News deserves compensation
for the botched tender process, Mr Turnbull said.

"Friction is an understatement. It's more like a widening rift between the prime minister
and Kevin Rudd," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.

"To abandon that tender and dump effectively Kevin Rudd's preferred candidate, Sky
News, while he is on a plane somewhere else in the world, that just shows this is a provocation.

"Julia Gillard has done this deliberately in order to provoke Kevin Rudd. I suspect
she is trying to bring on a fight with him."

The government announced late on Monday that it would permanently award the $223 million
contract to the ABC, ending a bid by Sky News.

The commercial broadcaster has flagged it will seek compensation for taking part in
the scuttled tender process.

Sky News and the ABC both bid for the 10-year contract to broadcast the network to
44 nations in Asia and the Pacific.

Mr Turnbull said Sky was morally entitled to compensation.

"If you are asking the question from a moral point of view, sure, Sky has every reason
to feel very aggrieved."

But he said a clause in the tender might allow the government to avoid paying Sky News.

"There may be some legal reason why the government can wriggle out of that, but morally
I think they're in an awful position," Mr Turnbull said.

AAP jcr/tdb/mn/tab

KEYWORD: NETWORK TURNBULL

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