Top ABC political reporter is slammed over ‘deplorable’ analogy that has upset both major parties

The ABC has come under fire for its comparison of opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie’s campaign to a military parachute exercise.

While taking a swipe at the Liberal defence minister, senior digital political correspondent Brett Worthington managed to offend former Labor defence minister, Joel Fitzgibbon.

While reflecting on Mr Hastie’s previous comments regarding women being barred from close combat roles in the Australian Defence Force, Worthington used the analogy of a failed parachute. 

‘Like a soldier jumping from a plane, Hastie tried to deploy his parachute as the pace of his freefall hastened. It didn’t release,’ he wrote.

‘A crash landing increasingly looked likely as the questions continued to come.

‘The questions kept coming, and without a parachute in sight, Hastie hurtled towards the ground.’

The poor comparison comes just 13 months after Mr Fitzgibbon’s son, Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon, died in military parachute training.

Corporal Fitzgibbon died from injuries he sustained during the exercise on March 6, 2024, with his father since advocating for veterans’ welfare in his honour.

Senior digital political correspondent Brett Worthington compared opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie’s (pictured) campaign to a fatal military parachute exercise

Former Labor defence minister, Joel Fitzgibbon’s son, Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon, died in military parachute training in March 2024

His funeral was attended by several Labor bigwigs, including Anthony Albanese, Richard Marles and Mr Hastie.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton and Nationals head David Littleproud were also in attendance.

While Worthington didn’t make any reference to the incident, the comparison was criticised as poorly timed.

Mr Hastie, the member for Canning in south Perth, came under fire for comments he made in 2018 that ‘the fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male’. 

While he wouldn’t backtrack on the controversial comment, noting it was based on his personal experience in the military, Mr Hastie said his opinion didn’t mean the Liberals were looking to ban women from combat.

‘I said what I said, but the thing that the Australian people need to know, under a Dutton-led Coalition government [is] we will have a policy that is open to all Australians for combat roles. Nothing is changing,’ he said.

‘The one thing that we will insist on is high standards, because in combat, there’s no points for second place, so we need to be able to win every fight that we go into.’

More to come…