I thought Kim Williams was the wrong pick to lead the ABC. Now I’m sure

I truly hope that Kim Williams steps down from his position as chair of the ABC board as soon as humanly possible. Or politically expedient.

On Monday night, the new host of the ABC’s Media Watch, Linton Besser and his team, exposed Williams for what he is: an activist chair with no business running the most important media institution in the country. (I hate to describe anything but Nine as most important – but we aren’t using public funding. We aren’t located everywhere from the Kimberley to Bega.)

Comedian Austen Tayshus (left) and ABC chair Kim Williams.Credit: AP/Alex Ellinghausen

Let me sum up what happened. Kim Williams intervened on behalf of a complete has-been to ensure said “entertainer” got airtime on ABC Local Radio. Sandy Gutman, now living up to his stage name as Austen Tayshus, received more than 90 minutes of free publicity on the public broadcaster in no fewer than 11 segments, all of which promoted specific upcoming gigs.

Who is Austen Tayshus? He was briefly famous about 40 years ago for his 1983 spoken-word comedy single Australiana. It captured the imaginations of people who live on puns, but I’m not aware of a more significant contribution to our national culture. More importantly for this narrative, who is Kim Williams?

Very fancy. He’s run Musica Viva, Foxtel, the Australian Film Commission, and the Sydney Opera House Trust. And News Corp, where he was chief executive for a brief two years. Then in 2024, for reasons completely un-understood, he was appointed chair of the ABC. You’d have to wonder why.

He’s been notably absent from listed company boards, but you could see why he’d appeal to the PM. Anthony Albanese wanted change after Ita Buttrose, to shake things up. Plus, clearly, some natural allegiances. And there is a disturbing tendency to appoint celebrity chairs.

This is how Williams is spending his time. As Besser put it: “We’ve learnt that not all of the ABC’s radio staff loved the idea of Austen Tayshus on their show and declined to put him to air.”

Kim Williams was announced as the new chair of the ABC in January, 2024.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

And what happened next? Gutman called Williams, furious, and made “unfounded allegations he was being denied interviews because he was Jewish”.

Gutman played the antisemite card with Williams. Was Gutman being rejected because he was Jewish? This will be the first time Gutman ever made me laugh. What complete nonsense. The ABC hosts Jews of all kinds, from the Jewish Board of Deputies to the Jewish Council of Australia. They aren’t antisemitic. They are anti-boring. They are anti-out-of-date. The ABC is not there to provide free publicity for pub gigs.

Besser again: “The comedian would have the last laugh, however, because as these regional bureaus soon learnt, Sandy Gutman had a man on the inside, none other than Kim Williams, chairman of the ABC.”

Yes, Gutman dropped the chair’s name – not that there’s anything wrong with that. Name-dropping is not yet a crime in this country (although, yes please).

Then Williams himself actually intervened. Turns out the chair had also been lobbying on his behalf in a series of correspondence with those much further down the ABC food chain. Head of audio, Ben Latimer, who also played a part in the Antoinette Lattouf fiasco. He then tried to widen his influence by copying Donna Field in on a giant mess of his own creation.

The way it’s meant to go is that if the chair wants to discuss what’s going on within the organisation, he deals with the managing director, who was then David Anderson and is now Hugh Marks. Which Latimer is not, although I’m sure he has ambitions. Why didn’t Williams call Justin Stevens? Haha. Reckon Stevens would have told him to bugger off.

You would have to presume it’s not just Gutman. If you love to wield power and influence, you aren’t going to waste it on someone whose last mildly interesting work was 40 years ago.

I have so many questions.

Why would you intervene on behalf of an “acquaintance”? Media Watch scored a response from the chair, who said he and Gutman had a “brief involvement some 27 years ago”. This is completely un-understandable.

Let me tell you what people who’ve worked with Williams in the past have said about the challenges of working with him: “Good boards have a very clear distinction between governance and operations and operational stuff, in a media company, even more so.”

And look what Hugh Marks said today: “I have been at the ABC a short time, but I am vigilant to ensure the proper delineation of responsibility between the board and management, and will act appropriately to ensure the best interests of the ABC, its people and audiences as we move forward.”

Same.

So, is this what Williams is doing with his time? You would have to presume it’s not just Gutman. The former comedian is a nobody in the scheme of things. If you love to wield power and influence, you aren’t going to waste it on someone whose last mildly interesting work was 40 years ago.

Editorial independence matters more than anything I can think of. It’s why journalists at Nine went absolutely ballistic when Hugh Marks held a $10,000-per-head Liberal Party fundraiser at the media organisation’s headquarters in 2019. It’s why journalists from The Australian are trying to get out of there as fast as they can.

As another former board member told me, “This was an editorial decision, and a media board should never get involved. The board’s job is to ensure strategy is right, to develop risk frames, to choose the right CEO.”

It’s not to decide who should be on local radio.

The thing is, this story about Gutman and Williams has been circulating since December, when the widely adored Sarah Macdonald was peremptorily dumped from her spot. Oh my god. I do not think my phone has ever run hotter than that moment. People told me about the existence of emails from Williams. Responses to emails. And I love that new and lovely Media Watch presenter Linton Besser and his team kept going until they could stand it up a week ago. Two things: awesome to observe the courage of standing up to management, and I hear they’ve been inundated with love from within and without.

My only wish is that Williams is dumped. Or he could display some courage himself and quit. Then I hope he is replaced by someone who understands what it means to be a chair of an organisation like the ABC. We aren’t meant to hear from them, but from the people who work for them. Advice to governments: stop choosing celebrity chairs.

Maybe vote for David Thodey. Never heard of him? Good.

Jenna Price is a regular columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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