Nine News Queensland boss Amanda Paterson depart

Staff at Nine News have been delivered a shock announcement with the immediate departure of a high-ranking staff member.

Amanda Paterson has left Nine Queensland.

• Qld TV’s historic sackings

The off-camera drama has continued at Nine with the shock announcement of the immediate departure of the Queensland news director.

Brisbane staff were called into a snap Zoom style town hall meeting by management on Thursday and were told it would be Queensland News Director Amanda Paterson’s final day with the company.

The meeting was called by Nine’s TV news boss Fiona Dear. She would not reveal why Ms Paterson (right) was leaving but said it was a “private matter”.

It is understood Ms Paterson went into a meeting in the morning and was in the office most the day before disappearing not long before the news was delivered to staff in the town hall.

Sources from Nine said Ms Dear told staff she hoped they could appreciate why she couldn’t say a lot about Paterson’s shock departure.

After the meeting an email was sent to staff by Ms Dear.

“While we formalise and internal and external recruitment process to replace the role, Kate Donnison has agreed to step in on a short-term basis until QTQ EP Brendan Hockings returns from the US and his annual leave,” she wrote. “Brendan will then act in the role until we finalise the recruitment process to ensure stability in leadership during this time.”

Ms Paterson’s temporary replacement Kate Donnison is the A Current Affair Queensland bureau chief.

During the meeting it was announced her job would be advertised in due course.

“As you know we are also recruiting for the Perth News Director role after the appointment of Gareth Parker into the network desk role,” Ms Dear said in the email.

“I’d encourage anyone to apply who is interested, or to reach out for a chat if you’d like to know more.”

A spokeswoman for Nine confirmed Ms Paterson’s exit.

“Nine can confirm a leadership change was announced today within the Queensland TV News and Current Affairs department,” a Nine spokeswoman said. “An internal and external recruitment process will now commence.”

The shock departure comes in the wake of a review into Nine’s workplace practice and culture amid bullying, intimidation and harassment claims.

Also on Thursday Nine Entertainment chair Catherine West was re-elected to the board, despite facing a barrage of questions at the media group’s annual shareholder meeting about her failure to act on the organisation’s rotten workplace culture.

Ms West, who was appointed chair of Nine in June following her predecessor Peter Costello’s ignominious exit, was forced to defend her own record when several disgruntled shareholders asked why she hadn’t sought to address the widespread bad behaviour of staff during her eight years on the board.

“I wish I had known, and we really did look for it,” Ms West said, referring to the entrenched culture of bullying and sexual harassment at Nine uncovered by the recent report.

“What we really have found out is that the reporting levels were really low because people didn’t trust those systems, and there was a very severe imbalance of power.”