In April,the News Corp-owned Sky News broadcast an interview with Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam,the Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries,in which host Rita Panahi alleged anti-logging protesters had been “slammed for using a young child to help block heavy machinery”.
Senator Duniam said he was “disgusted” that “an infant,a toddler[had been] walking around a dangerous worksite where you have got big machinery,spinning blades,trees falling on the ground” at the protest in Gippsland in regional Victoria.
“What concerns me more is this happens to be the niece of an Australian senator,I understand,” he said.
“So,I say to Sarah Hanson-Young and all other Green senators:‘Clean up your act,and make sure you do what the rest of us think is the right thing to do as parents,don’t put your kid in harm’s way.’”
At the time of the protest,Senator Hanson-Young was spending time with her niece,who was then six years old,in South Australia.
The Greens senator was represented by barrister Sue Chrysanthou,SC,and solicitor Rebekah Giles,who also acted inher successful defamation suit against former senator David Leyonhjelm.