Features

“Strings-attached-drops” threatens journalistic standards in Australian political coverage

Reporting reveals endemic ‘strings-attached’ reporting and an unhealthy relationship between politicians and journalists that threatens journalistic standards.

Published

7 months ago

September 16, 2025

Dominic Wexler

The Treasurer and the Minister for Finance talking to the media about the Budget (Source: Penny Bradfield/DPS Auspic)

On last week’s episode of Media Watch on the ABC, Linton Besser revealed a culture of “strings-attached” reporting that has become endemic to the Canberra Press Gallery. These ‘drops’ have raised concerns about the relationship between political reporters and politicians, and the practice could be inducing a degradation of journalistic standards and expectations.

In Australian political reporting, a ‘drop’ refers to information provided to a journalist, by an MP or their staffers, on the condition that it is not published before a certain time. The practice has fostered a symbiotic relationship between reporters and politicians, the former seeking reliable information and the latter seeking an opportunity to control narratives surrounding major policy announcements.

Journalist Gareth Hutchens, of the ABC, has written that the ‘drops’ practice has evolved into a culture of “strings-attached drops” where staffers place more restrictive conditions on the sharing of information. These arrangements, on top of an embargo on publishing their stories, include such stipulations as precluding journalists from giving context, quoting third parties, or criticising government policy.

Hutchens wrote that the norm of strings-attached drops “has become more blatant in Canberra in recent years.” He described an instance in 2018 when a Turnbull staffer contacted him after he inserted a 6-month-old quote from World Vision’s Tim Costello into an article. Costello’s comment; “whatever money we make from this dirty business will be blood money,” was a criticism of the Turnbull government’s plan to make Australia into one of the world’s top 10 arms exporters. Over the phone, the staffer called Hutcheson a “disgrace”, “pathetic”, and a reporter who did not “deserve to be in the [Canberra Press] Gallery.”

The growing prevalence of strings-attached drops is raising questions over journalistic ethics. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher has urged journalists to ignore strings-attached drops because “their main responsibility is to their readers, viewers, and listeners. Not their sources.” Phillip Coorey, Political Editor of the Australian Financial Review, also issued a statement warning reporters that it is unacceptable for them to simply regurgitate information.

“One should use one’s institutional knowledge to contextualise the information, such as why is the announcement being made, what is the political imperative or pressure behind it, does it represent a backflip on a previous position etc.” -Coorey

However, Hutchens recognised that journalists need their editor’s backing to make decisions regarding sources and tone. The Press Gallery relies on the steady flow of reliable information, and this flow is controlled by government staffers. Politicians have the power to starve outlets who do not comply with their conditions.

Hutchens is arguing for a collective action approach, wherein rival outlets coordinate and agree not to accept strings-attached drops. This would end one-way reporting and resolve the power imbalance between journalists, MPs, and staffers. A government spokesperson responded to the ABC’s Media Watch program, stating that they “have the utmost respect for the Federal Press Gallery and the role that they play, which is why [they] work with them constructively on a daily basis.”
Sources: