Comment from Peter Saxon

No one hopes for tragedy to occur. But when it does, those whose job it is to deal with it come in to their own. From the police and the firies, to the paramedics and the media, Monday’s siege is the kind emergency for which they are ultimately trained for to bring all their skills to bear and to perform at their best. Thankfully, such incidents are rare, but Monday was not a drill.

Questions are being asked about the events leading up to the incident. How did a nutter like Man Haron Monis get access to a firearm? How could he get bail on such serious charges as accessory to murder and multiple counts of rape? How was he on the dole and bleeding the taxpayer for his legal bills?

On the other hand there’s little question that the people on the frontline of this emergency – in particular the police – did an outstanding job. For almost 17 hours they showed remarkable restraint as expert negotiators tried to coax the deranged gunman to put down his weapon without giving in to any of his demands. If they had, it would surely lead to a spate of similar incidents in the future.

And when the gunman, faced with mutiny from his hostages, finally opened fire, the police did not hesitate to throw themselves into harm’s way to prevent further bloodshed. Tragically two innocents lost their lives in the melee. I’m convinced, however, that if not for the bravery and professionalism of the police, it would have been much worse.

The media also had a critical role to play. Through media coverage we all became hostages that day. Television was able to relay pictures from the event with glimpses of the gunman and pixelated images of some of the hostages. But radio took us further and allowed us to discuss what little we knew as the events of the day unfolded.

The FM stations’ Content Directors I spoke to all suspended normal programming to accommodate the fluid situation with which they were they were faced. News departments were on “high alert”

Nova Entertainment’s Paul Jackson told us, “Straight away we were in with constant news updates. We got all our key journalists in here. We sent Matt de Groot down to the site initially doing 10 and 15 minute updates. 

“We changed the music on the stations to take the edge and the tone off it. Matt de Groot did almost a 24 hour shift. And he was here breaking the story as it concluded at 2.30 in the morning.

“On smoothfm, initially we took off Christmas records. We slowed the songs down and played appropriate songs for the mood and did exactly the same things on smooth that we did on Nova in terms of covering the siege every 10 or 15 minutes and covering it right through till late at night”, said Jackson.

As you’d expect AM station coverage from 2UE and The ABC along with their national affiliates was even more intensive with pretty much the siege and nothing but the siege – even into the next day.

After we heard that the gunman demanded to speak with Tony Abbott on radio, radioinfo decided to follow the drama on 2GB where Ray Hadley had vowed to stay in the studio till the crisis was over, or at least well beyond his scheduled departure at noon. We posted a number of updates.

https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/gunman-demands-speak-tony-abbott-live-radio

https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/hadley-talks-hostage-air

https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/gunman-monitoring-several-stations-talking-abc-and-2gb

https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/hostage%E2%80%99s-mum-speaks-hadley 

When we tuned in there was a heavy bank of commercials being broadcast until Hadley returned to the mic and informed us that he’d just been on the phone to one of the hostages and he could hear orders being barked at him by the gunman in the background.

To any broadcaster, this was gold. The great John Laws made his reputation on taking calls on air from people who were suicidal and talking them out of it. Yet, Hadley refused to put his phone calls with the hostage, and later the gunman, to air.

One listener called into the the station accusing Hadley of milking the situation to gain ratings which Ray pointed out were not being conducted at the time.

Respected Channel 10 reporter Hugh Riminton also made disparaging remarks about how Hadley was handling the situation until Hadley gave him one of his trade mark sprays and confirmed that his actions were being advised by the Police Comissioner.

Riminton later withdrew his criticisms in a tweet and agreed that Hadley was doing a good job.

For any reasonable person listening to Ray Hadley as he went in and out of the studio taking calls from the Lindt Cafe it was clear that his aim was to do everything possible to help negotiators bring the crisis to a a peaceful resolution. Sensationalism was furthest from his mind.

He refused to play into the gunman’s hands by putting him or his hostages to air, voicing his demands or give oxygen to his warped ideology.

Hadley also refused to politicise the situation as much as a section of his rusted on listeners would have him do.

Most importantly, he refused to allow his show to become a forum for anti-Muslim tirades telling one caller,  “If you’ve got a problem with Muslims, mate, you won’t get any traction here.” He also took a number of calls from Muslims who were just as outraged by the events of the day as anyone else, and more so because the gunman was acting in the name of Islam. Hadley told a Muslim woman who was in tears that no one should blame her for the antics of a madman.

If anything good comes out of this tragedy it is that it has truly brought out the best in Australians. The expected anti-Muslim backlash has been suppressed by an out pouring of grief for the victims and a desire not to see more innocent people victimised for the actions of a lunatic and a relatively tiny band of individuals on the fringe.