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ABC presenter Leigh Sales has defended her budget night interview with Treasurer Joe Hockey after Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said a "less aggressive" style of interviewing would be more effective.
In a Sunday appearance on The Bolt Report, hosted by conservative columnist Andrew Bolt, Mr Turnbull said budget interviews by Sales and Lateline host Emma Alberici were "very aggressive" and recommended journalists take a "more forensic" approach.
"He's free to have an opinion on whether he thought the interview was aggressive, but it won't change the way I do interviews," Sales told Fairfax Media.
Sales said her budget week interviews with Mr Hockey and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten were both "pretty standard political interviews".
"Go back and have a look at my budget interviews when Wayne Swan was treasurer or with Julia Gillard or with Kevin Rudd during the election campaign or Tony Abbott about BHP," she said.
"In a courtroom you get six to eight hours [with the witness]; I get eight minutes. I'd argue my interviews are forensic - I try look at how the figures line up with what the person is saying.
"I do the best I can to be fair, impartial and to always ask what I think the average viewer would want asked.
"If people aren't answering the question then I push them to answer it because that's what I'm paid to do."
In her 2013 post-budget interview with Mr Swan, Sales' first question was: "Wayne Swan last year you promised with certainty a $1.5 billion surplus, tonight you've delivered an $18 billion deficit. How can you look Australians in the eye?"
Mr Hockey said on Monday that he had no problem with the interview and that he respected Sales.
Veteran journalist George Negus suggested that sexism may explain the criticism directed at broadcasters such as Sales and Alberici.
"I wonder whether he would say the same about ... Kerry O'Brien, or me at a different time," Negus said. "What he really means is they don't like being interviewed by them. Well, that means that they're probably doing their job."
Sales said she did not think gender was the primary reason that people criticise her interviews. Rather, viewers often object to adversarial interviews with politicians they agree with but approve of tough interviews with politicians they disagree with.
Mr Turnbull said on Sunday: "I would say as somebody who used to interview people as a living, both as a journalist and as a barrister and of course as a politician, I would say a more effective interviewing style is one that is less aggressive and more forensic."
But he defended ABC journalists against the accusation of bias, said the ABC employed conservative presenters and argued that the broadcaster provides politicians with a forum to deliver their message.
An independent editorial audit commissioned by the ABC found that last year's budget interview with Mr Hockey, by journalist Sarah Ferguson, did not show the Treasurer enough respect and was so aggressive that it could inflame perceptions of bias.
