Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has suggested that Channel Nine's alleged six-figure payment to free their crew from a Lebanese prison may be examined by Australian authorities.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was reported on Friday that Nine paid Ali Elamine, the father at the centre of the Lebanon child abduction scandal, and his family at least $500,000 to encourage him to drop the charges against the 60 Minutes crew.
"I've got no doubt it will be of interest to various regulatory agencies," Mr Turnbull told 2SM's John Laws, who asked whether he supported the idea of financial regulators ASIC investigating.
"Nobody is above the law and if you break the law in other parts of the world, you may well be breaking Australian law as well," he said.
While the 60 Minutes team have returned to Australia after being released from their Beirut prison, the judge investigating the attempted child abduction has warned they could still be recalled to Lebanon to face charges.
They had been detained for two weeks for their role in Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's bid to retrieve her children from their father in Lebanon using a professional child abduction firm.
When asked if the TV crew's actions had been "foolish", Mr Turnbull said they "appear to have been most unwise" but declined to go any further.
On Thursday, Fairfax Media revealed documents showing that Channel Nine also transferred almost $70,000 to the firm engaged by Ms Faulkner.
One source said Nine made a mistake, transferring money to an account nominated by Ms Faulkner, without realising it was the firm of "child recovery" operative Adam Whittington.
Labor MP Kelvin Thomson, set to retire at the upcoming election, has called on Channel Nine to provide the public with a "full accounting" of their involvement, including payments, details of their actions and who was involved.
"Channel Nine has embarrassed Australia and its diplomatic personnel, has put its own employees in danger, and has almost certainly been involved in a conspiracy to break the laws of another country," Mr Thomson said.
The company has so far refused to elaborate on any details, pointing to an ongoing review of the incident.
Dropping the charges against the journalists, Mr Elamine said they had "dropped the ball big time" and shouldn't have involved themselves in family matters, but denied a financial settlement had swayed him.
