Labor ministers withdraw from AFR summit due to Nine journalists’ strike

Exclusive: Asked if he, Katy Gallagher and Murray Watt were uncomfortable about crossing the picket line, Bill Shorten said ‘the AFR cancelled the conference’

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Three Labor ministers who were scheduled to appear at a summit hosted by the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday withdrew because they did not want to address the conference while Nine’s journalists were on strike.

The AFR’s government services summit was cancelled at the last minute on Monday afternoon by Nine, which had planned to hold the conference in the midst of the five-day strike by Nine Entertainment’s newspaper journalists.

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