The tax commissioner, Chris Jordan, has blasted an ABC report about its dealings with small business, but said he had not lodged a complaint with the national broadcaster.
In a lengthy opening statement at his appearance before Senate estimates, Jordan accused Four Corners of producing a story contrary to its code of practice and editorial policies, and objected to the title of the program, broadcast on 9 April, “Mongrel bunch of bastards”.
Describing the title as “highly offensive and inaccurate”, Jordan said: “I can assure you the people working at the ATO are not mongrels or bastards. They are normal people trying to do a good job for the benefit of the economy.
“They do not systematically destroy small business, they do not pick on ‘100% innocent vulnerable people’, or slowly boil people until they are roasted to death, and they most certainly do not just make up debts, add 90% penalties and sell people’s homes without them being able to dispute the debt.
“These are such ridiculous allegations that it beggars belief that the ABC would present them somehow as the result of an investigation. There was no real investigation by Four Corners, just a regurgitation of some known, fairly extreme cases to achieve an overblown, sensational story.”
In contrast to Jordan’s defensive statement on Wednesday, the day after the program was aired the government called for an urgent investigation into the ATO, and the revenue minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, said she was “deeply concerned” about the examples broadcast.
Jordan outlined a series of steps the ATO had taken after the program “in the interests of restoring confidence in the system and in the ATO”, including an audit office assessment of its debt collection practices.
He said since the inquiry was launched “only” 62 complainants had come forward to the ATO and the inspector general of taxation and the tax office had resolved “about half of them”.
Asked whether he had lodged a formal complaint with the national broadcaster given his critical statement about the program to the committee, he said he had not. But he would not rule out doing so in the future.
The ABC said in a statement it stood by the report. It was “an important story that addressed an issue of real and pressing significance”.
It said any complaint from the ATO would be investigated “according to our usual procedures”.
