Government intervenes in network tender process

The Federal Government has made an extraordinary intervention in an official tender process in a bid to stop Sky News Australia winning a $223 million contract to broadcast Australia’s overseas television service.

An aggressive bid to expand Australia's presence in China helped push Sky News, partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, over the line in a fierce contest with the ABC to win the rights to the station, known as Australia Network.

An independent panel of public servants set up to evaluate the competing tenders saw Sky's as the better bid, only for the government step in and prevent the contract from being awarded to Sky.

This came as the government made late changes to the tender rules, sidelining the role of the independent panel and throwing the legitimacy of the process into doubt.

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