Channel 7 Queensland news director Michael Coombes posts from Whitsundays

One of Seven’s most senior news directors, who made an unexplained exit two weeks ago, has resurfaced on social media as the network hoses down speculation over his future.

A snap meeting was called at Channel 7’s Queensland studios following the unexplained departure of news director Michael Coombes.

Channel 7 has hosed down speculation over the future of its missing-in-action Queensland news director, after he resurfaced on social media enjoying the Great Barrier Reef.

Michael Coombes, who has run the Brisbane and Gold Coast newsrooms since June 2023, has been absent for two weeks after an abrupt, unexplained departure.

This week Mr Coombes posted to Instagram a picture of sunset over the Whitsunday Islands, and aerial images of Heart Reef and another section of the Reef.

“It was too windy for the tour the day we went out there,” he captioned the Heart Reef picture.

“But we still got to see it the next day from above.”

Channel 7 Queensland news director Michael Coombes' social media post from the Whitsundays. Picture: Supplied

Following a snap staff meeting on Wednesday, at which the network’s national deputy Ray Kuka admitted that even he did not know Mr Coombes’s employment status, a Seven spokesperson told The Courier-Mail he was on personal leave.

Mr Coombes’s leave comes at a sensitive time for Seven, just one month after an explosive episode of ABC’s Four Corners separately exposed a toxic workplace culture at the network.

The Courier-Mail does not suggest Mr Coombes’s leave is any way related to that Four Corners episode, nor does it suggest his leave is related to any wrongdoing.

Channel 7 Queensland news director Michael Coombes.

The episode revealed staff had lodged formal legal complaints over bullying and harassment, with one female reporter alleging that verbal abuse had driven her to self-harm outside Seven’s Mt Coot-tha office in Brisbane.

Management assured staff at a recent meeting it was “here to support them”, and encouraged employees to come forward with any workplace concerns.

Mr Coombes took over as Queensland news director from Neil Warren when he assumed a similar role at 7 News Sydney.

Since then, 7 News Queensland has been plagued by upheaval, including the brutal axing of key staff in a cost-cutting measure.

The cuts, announced just before the end of the financial year, were part of a national restructuring plan aimed at saving $100m annually.

The bloodletting claimed the jobs of more than 150 employees across the network, including several high-profile Queenslanders.

Among the casualties was beloved weatherman Paul Burt and veteran presenter Sharyn Ghidella, who was unceremoniously dumped after 17 years at the network.

Ghidella has since been snapped up by rival station 10 News First, where she now anchors the 5pm bulletin.

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