The Australian Press Council has found a series of belligerent articles written by Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian, attacking the former ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold SC, to be inaccurate, misleading, unfair and unbalanced.
Further, the Council said she omitted key facts and that Drumgold had not been given a right of reply.
The paper on Thursday (February 26) flew into a major frothing episode, denouncing the Press Council and kicking sand in readers’ faces with paid legal opinions that are largely irrelevant to the determination that Albrechtsen and the paper failed to meet basic journalistic standards.
Swathes of perfectly good trees were put to the chainsaw to accommodate six articles replete with tireless repetition spread over three pages.
This includes lectures from the rancid bloviator Chris (The Tamil) Merritt and Justin Quill, a media lawyer who does time on Murdoch’s coin.
Expensive opinions from barristers Matt Collins and Will Houghton, both from Melbourne, were also thrown into the cauldron of steaming reports in an attempt to buttress the contention that the APC was wildly out of bounds to criticise The Australian and columnist Albrechtsen.
Three articles are at the heart of Drumgold’s complaint:
Shane Drumgold’s reputation remains in tatters, by Janet Albrechtsen, March 4, 2024
Shane Drumgold lands new job teaching law to Canberra students, by Janet Albrechtsen and Stephen Rice, March 6, 2025
‘Only in the ACT’? Justice is now in full retreat at DPP. By Janet Albrechtsen, May 22, 2024
There were similar versions in the print editions.
The March 4 article was published in response to Justice Stephen Kaye’s judicial review in Drumgold v Board of Inquiry (the Sofronoff Inquiry).
Albrechtsen, predictably, was critical of Drumgold even though Kaye found Sofronoff was biased due to his connections with the Planet and the influence her views had on him.
Further, in respect of two other particular matters, Kaye JA found that Drumgold had been denied procedural fairness. He did not uphold seven of eight other submissions that Sofronoff’s findings had been legally unreasonable.
Drumgold’s argument has been that Kaye’s ruling on (apprehended) bias infected Sofronoff’s decisions on legal unreasonableness.
That was what he pressed in his submission to the Press Council. The Australian, and the two barristers it brought in for support, contended that the Planet was entitled to criticise Drumgold because Kaye had not overturned seven of Sofronoff’s findings critical of the former DPP who prosecuted the (civil) rapist Bruce Lehrmann.
According to the newspaper, the finding of bias stood alone and was not sufficient to stain Sofronoff’s findings adverse to Drumgold. No doubt, other expansive silks could just as certainly arrive at different conclusions.
However, the thin-skinned reptiles at Murdoch’s national daily did not get off entirely Scott-free.
The May 22 article by Albrechtsen said that the ACT Integrity Commission should be investigating Drumgold, not Sofronoff.
Matt Collins was at pains to point out that Planet should have referred to the fact that the investigation of Sofronoff by the Commission came about as a result of her involvement with poor Walter, which resulted in his bias being apprehended.
The silk said that failure to do so was an omission and breach of Press Council standards.
Justice Kaye remarked that the report from the Board of Inquiry of itself had no legal consequences, which meant that even if he was inclined, he was unable to quash it.
The judge did not have the power to examine the merits of the Sofronoff findings and was limited to examining whether the process itself was lawful.
Both Sofronoff and Albrechtsen were described by Kaye AJ as “fellow travellers”.
From that, Justinian applied to the ACT Supreme Court for access to the affidavit and exhibits tendered and read during the judicial review hearing.
This revealed a mind-boggling degree of warmth, synchronicity and cooperation between the two, with Sofronoff leaking confidential material to the News Corp scribbler and giving the heads up at crucial moments. As we wrote at the time:
“Albrechtsen was on speed-dial with Sofronoff before and during the Board of Inquiry with text messages, phone calls and a slap-up lunch date.
Numerous of these exchanges occurred while Drumgold was giving evidence to the Board of Inquiry. See Drumgold’s opening submissions to the judicial review. In all, Justinian counted 275 phone calls, text messages and emails between the Water Softener and the Planet in the five months between February 22, 2023 and August 2, 2023.
Sofronoff’s excuse was that he was helping reporters to improve their coverage of his mission.”
See: Tootsies With Planet Janet
The next step was the ACT Integrity Commission, under former NSW Justice (Fatty) Adams, determining that Sofronoff and his conduct of the Board of Inquiry was “likely to threaten public confidence in the integrity of government or public administration”, amounting to serious corrupt conduct.
This was upheld by Justice Wendy Abraham in the Federal Court and is now on appeal to the Fulls.
Does the Planet feel a shadow of shame for landing her fellow traveller in the soup – with findings of bias that everyone can apprehend, not to mention serious corrupt conduct?
In October last year, the ACT Bar Association said that there was no evidence that Drumgold could be found guilty of either unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct.
The Press Council made plain that its findings about Albrechtsen’s breach of journalistic standards did not turn on fine legal points.
“The issue under consideration is not whether each party’s legal analysis is correct, but whether the publication has taken reasonable steps to comply with the Council’s Standards of Practice.”
Doubtless, the Planet will continue with her output of mind-numbing articles about the wretched victimhood of Linda Reynolds; how raped staffer Brittany Higgins got away with the loot; the Mean Girls in the Senate; the Cover Up that wasn’t; the evils of wokeness and #MeTooism; ZZzzzzz …
A good dose of the Planet is more effective than a family-size bottle of Mogadon.
Helpful links
Acting Justice Kaye, ACT Supreme Court Drumgold v Board of Inquiry & Ors (No. 3)
Operation Juno ACT Integrity Commission
The Australian, February 26, 2026: ‘Put crisply’ – Shane Drumgold disgraced, Press Council discredited
The Australian, February 26, 2026, Editorial: Misguided Press Council behaves as kangaroo court