Justin Milne quits after Michelle Guthrie’s sacking: A timeline of the last two years at the ABC
THE ABC’s crisis has deepened even further. The chairman has resigned after he sacked the managing director. Staff are fuming. This is how it unfolded.
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ABC chairman Justin Milne has resigned following pressure for him to step down over a leaked email, which revealed he called for two journalists to be sacked after Malcolm Turnbull complained.
It comes just three days after he fired managing director Michelle Guthrie, who had only served two years of her five-year term, whom he urged to fire economics reporter Emma Alberici and politics reporter Andrew Probyn.
Milne, a telecommunications veteran who was appointed in April last year, has had a tumultuous year at the national broadcaster which has included dealing with a string of complaints from the Federal Government about its reporting.
Guthrie also made several questionable cuts to specialist programming and controversial redundancy announcements, in which she attracted criticism for not understanding the broadcaster’s audience.
MORE: ABC boss Michelle Guthrie breaks silence on sacking
Here is a timeline of the ABC’s troubled two years:
DECEMBER 2015
Guthrie is announced as the new managing director for the ABC, replacing Mark Scott who retired. She became the first woman to assume the role in the broadcaster’s 84-year history.
MAY 2016
Guthrie assumed the position. Two days into the job, she received news of a budget cut which meant the annual loss of $6.5 million in recurrent funding for some news operations and the axing of 14 jobs. She came out firing with her stance on the importance of diversity but raised eyebrows for her lack of detailing a long-term vision.
OCTOBER 2016
Guthrie said no cuts were planned at Radio National while speaking at Senate estimates.
NOVEMBER 2016
Guthrie announced significant cuts to specialist programming on radio and TV, including ABC Radio’s documentary, music and religion programming, as well as its popular magazine-style science program, Catalyst. There was significant community backlash for the cuts, with prominent Australian musicians backing a campaign to reverse the decision.
The ABC later confirmed rumours that Catalyst’s half-hour format would be scrapped in favour of 17 hour-long documentaries.
DECEMBER 2016
Guthrie’s Wikipedia page was tampered with. She was described as a “corporate stooge” and “damaging director”. Guthrie made headlines again for justifying the cuts to Radio National, as she pushed for a restructure of the ABC to improve its digital offering. But it was widely reported she had failed to win over staff.
FEBRUARY 2017
Both sides of politics criticise Ms Guthrie over a decision to switch off the ABC’s short-wave radio service in the Northern Territory and parts of the Pacific. She insists in a Senate hearing the ABC would still be broadcast via FM and AM frequencies, the viewer access satellite television (VAST) service and online in the areas.
MARCH 2017
Guthrie announced there would be between 150 and 200 job losses under a new strategy and transformation program. “These changes are essential to the long-term health of the Corporation, but I acknowledge that this is of little comfort to those whose roles are impacted. We will work with unions and with affected staff. We will be open and move as quickly as possible to end the uncertainty in affected areas,” she said at the time.
She announced more changes including axing a fifth of management, spending millions worth of savings on making new content and beefing up the broadcaster’s presence in regional Australia.
APRIL 2017
Telecommunications veteran Justin Milne, a good friend of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, replaces former NSW chief justice James Spigelman as ABC chairman.
OCTOBER 2017
The broadcaster axed long-running current affairs programs The Link and Lateline.
NOVEMBER 2017
Guthrie announced a major restructure which would see the organisation divided into three divisions based on genres of content rather than broadcasting platforms. She claimed the new structure would not include any job losses, cuts to programs or a reduction in networks.
FEBRUARY 2018
Guthrie denied the ABC had bowed to outside pressure to remove a controversial analysis piece about company tax cuts by Emma Alberici, after it emerged the Prime Minister’s Office and the Treasurer’s office both wrote to the ABC to complain about the content.
The piece, which was critical of the Turnbull government’s corporate tax proposal, was removed from the website and republished with massive revisions. Guthrie blamed production mistakes for the publishing of the stories.
MARCH 2018
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield demanded the ABC investigate why it had called a conservative political candidate and philanthropist a “c***” on air.
The ABC Comedy show Tonightly with Tom Ballard had run a segment on the Batman by-election, highlighting the controversy over the electorate’s namesake and founder of Melbourne, grazier John Batman.
Comedian Greg Larsen suggested the name be changed to “Batman-was-a-c***” because “we cannot shy away from the terrible things he did”.
The segment also aired mock-up versions of campaign posters for Labor candidate Ged Kearney, Greens candidate Alex Bhathal and Australian Conservatives candidate Kevin Bailey, who was also labelled a c***.
MAY 2018
The Government announced it would freeze the ABC’s annual funding indexation for three years from July 2019, costing the organisation $84 million. Guthrie said the ABC would continue to oppose the decision and “seek every opportunity to reverse the cuts in the coming months before they take effect”.
There were also calls for ABC to reconsider its advertising spending, after it was revealed in Senate estimates it had spent $440,000 on Google Ad Words and $1.4 million in Facebook advertising during the year.
Meanwhile, the government ramped up its complaint against the ABC for a skit that aired in March in which comedians repeatedly labelled a political candidate a c***.
Guthrie said an evaluation of complaints found “no breaches” and it was not intended to “cause anyone personal offence through an absurd comedy sketch”.
Senator Fifield escalated his complaint to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
“The ABC’s response does not demonstrate an understanding of community standards … it would reflect better on the ABC to simply acknowledge that in this case they got it wrong and apologise unreservedly,” Senator Fifield said.
Then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also filed his own complaint against the broadcaster about Alberici, the second complaint involving her reporting.
Fairfax Media claimed Turnbull sent a list of 11 grievances to the ABC regarding a TV story about research and innovation spending.
Turnbull’s office said Alberici had wrongly described UTS professor Roy Green as an adviser to the Coalition government when he had reviewed policy for a Labor-dominated Senate committee.
The ABC said it stood by the story, saying the complaints submitted by the PM were reviewed by the broadcaster’s independent complaints review department.
JUNE 2018
Guthrie gave an explosive speech at the Melbourne Press Club, rejecting the Liberal Party’s vote to privatise the national broadcaster, claiming its value to the Australian economy was worth more than $1 billion. She said Australians were sick of the ABC “being used as a punching bag by narrow political, commercial and ideological interests”.
Meanwhile, Senator Fifield made another formal complaint to the ABC about its political editor Andrew Probyn and 730’s chief political correspondent Laura Tingle in regards to their coverage of the Super Saturday by-election.
Senator Fifield accused the journalists of repeating a “Labor lie” that the selection of the July 28 date was a “political decision of the government — as fact”.
AUGUST 2018
The ABC faced calls to justify its plans to create new digital lifestyle-focused projects, with free-to-air TV lobby group FreeTV saying lifestyle is “one of the most comprehensively covered market segments in Australian media”.
SEPTEMBER 2018
In its 2018-19 corporate plan, the ABC confirmed Guthrie’s desire to focus on its digital offerings, despite complaints from commercial operators. ABC staff were also thrown by Guthrie’s suggestion to improve morale by thanking each other with cheesy cards featuring a character called Larry — there’s Open & Transparent Larry, a Straight-Talking Larry, and Accountable Larry.
SEPTEMBER 24, 2018
Guthrie was sacked, effective immediately with the ABC board declaring it is “not in the best interests” of the broadcaster for her to continue in the role. Guthrie said she was devastated and was considering legal action.
SEPTEMBER 26, 2018
A leaked email revealed Milne urged Guthrie to fire Alberici after Turnbull complained about her reporting.
It also emerged he called for political reporter Andrew Probyn to be sacked.
Fairfax Media claimed the information came from a source close to the ABC board, which showed Milne was willing to bend to political pressure in the months before Guthrie was sacked.
“They [the government] hate her,” Milne reportedly wrote in the email dated May 8.
“We are tarred with her brush. I think it’s simple. Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC — not Emma. There is no guarantee they [the Coalition] will lose the next election.”
Milne is now facing calls to stand down given the ABC board is required by law to “maintain the independence and integrity” of the broadcaster and ensure its impartial reporting.
Journalists union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, this morning said Mr Milne should “resign immediately”.
The government also called an inquiry into the leaked email scandal.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
Milne resigns as chairman of the ABC after a crisis board meeting.
ABC confirmed he stepped down shortly before midday after the board asked him to stand aside while a government inquiry determined if he called for two ABC journalists to be sacked following complaints from Malcolm Turnbull.
Originally published as Justin Milne quits after Michelle Guthrie’s sacking: A timeline of the last two years at the ABC