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PM confirms media clampdown after email leak

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By Steven Raeburn, N/A

September 26, 2013 | 2 min read

Newly sworn in Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has admitted ordering all his new cabinet ministers to channel all media contacts through his office.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott

The confirmation follows a day of condemnation after a leaked email revealed the media clampdown.

The leaked email, from Abbott’s senior press secretary James Boyce, told ministerial staff that all requests for interviews must be vetted by the PM’s new communications chief, Kate Walshe.

The move comes less than a week after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison blocked news of asylum seeker boat arrivals, which The Age newspaper described as “a curtain of censorship”.

"It’s very important that the government speaks with a united voice," Abbott said.

"In opposition, before my senior colleagues did media, they normally called in with my office. It was a very good arrangement in opposition, it s a very good arrangement in government. And it’s one that my colleagues have always been happy to comply with."

The leaked email stated: “All media co-ordination and requests should go through Kate first. This covers all national media interviews on television, radio and print. This includes any ABC local radio or ABC television interviews, the Sunday program, Sky News, and metropolitan print media longer-format interviews, etc.

"With any regular appearances on shows such as Sky AM Agenda, they should first have been coordinated through Kate at least the day before."

Tony Abbott image via Shutterstock

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