Annette Sharp: ABC to air exposé of Seven’s alleged ‘sexist, exploitative, bullying’ workplace

Seven chairman Kerry Stokes and his lawyers will be glued to the TV when Four Corners airs its highly anticipated exposé of the alleged ‘sexist, exploitative and bullying’ workplace culture of the network, writes Annette Sharp.

Eight years after this writer flew to Melbourne to meet plucky EA Amber Harrison, who would go on to expose the seedy goings-on within Seven executive ranks and bring down the curtain on the career of former Seven Network CEO Tim Worner and, that same year, expose claims of sexual harassment and bullying of sisters Amy and Sophie Taeuber at Seven Adelaide, the ABC’s Four Corners unit is exploring the possibility something isn’t quite right at Seven.

Having apparently waited for the #MeToo movement to explode into existence and generate broader public interest, Four Corners investigative reporter Louise Milligan and an ABC production team recently approached Harrison and Taeuber and asked them to relive their experiences and open up about Seven’s workplace culture.

We welcome Milligan, a former Seven staffer herself, and the ABC to the cause but have to wonder — what took them so long?

On Thursday Four Corners dropped its on-air promo plugging its anticipated exposé.

It comes five months after Seven’s Spotlight unit brought the network into disrepute over claims a producer signed off hookers and drugs to procure Bruce Lehrmann’s exclusive interview.

Former Channel 7 employee Amber Harrison. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Four Courners journalist Louise Milligan. Picture: Brett Costello

On Saturday Four Corners amended its promo, editing Harrison out. The ABC is yet to offer any insights as to why it took that action, or confirm whether Seven has made legal threats against the national broadcaster.

Seven denies threatening to injunct the program, but hasn’t responded to our questions about issuing any legal threats over the story.

Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes and then-CEO Tim Worner in 2018. Picture: Hollie Adams

Months in the making, Four Corner’s report was expected to focus on the alleged “sexist, exploitative and bullying” workplace cultures within Seven and Nine, but for reasons best known to the ABC, it has instead decided to drill down on just one network, Seven.

Of course, had they broadened their scope, Four Corners may have felt compelled to look within its own shop where, as revealed in June, some 97 ABC staff reported being sexually harassed at the ABC between 2021 and 2023 in an in-house survey.

Sixty-five per cent of ABC respondents were women, but despite Aunty’s inclusive and, one hopes, progressive HR policies, less than a quarter lodged a complaint.

Harrison, the attractive EA who blew up Worner’s life and was gagged by the network before being dragged to court for breaking the gag order, was among those courageous enough to speak on the record to Four Corners.

Whether she ends up the ABC’s cutting room floor now remains to be seen.

Sisters Amy and Sophie Taeuber claimed they were subjected to sexual harassment and bullying at Seven Adelaide. Picture: Supplied

So, too, did young Queensland reporter Olivia Babb, who told Four Corners, “It is one of the most soul-crushing places you can work in”.

Babb’s LinkedIn account states she worked at Super Radio Network from 2021 to 2022 before moving to the ABC for a brief five-month tenure. She next worked at Seven Tamworth before transferring to Seven Toowoomba for five months.

She appears to be now looking for work after flagging her LinkedIn account “Open to work”.

We hope she finds it.

The two men featured in the ABC’s promo are Josh Bernstein, head of employment and industrial law at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, and axed Today Tonight reporter Mark Gibson, who recently took a run at the Perth Lord Mayoral office before losing out to former Seven personality Basil Zempilas, a favourite of Seven owner Kerry Stokes.

Former Today Tonight reporter Mark Gibson appears in the promo for the Four Corners’ exposé. Picture: Instagram

Milligan and a team of producers have spent almost five months working on their investigation, crossing the country to talk to ex-Seven staffers in Perth and Adelaide.

Surprisingly, tiny Adelaide, or so this columns hears, was found to be a hotbed of complaints.

It’s fair to say Milligan, who worked for Seven Melbourne for eight years until 2012, has rather a lot invested in the program, which must have by now cost the national broadcaster a bundle.

With Seven’s share price closing, slightly up on recent weeks, at 36c on Friday, chairman Stokes and his lawyers will be keeping a keen eye on Milligan’s report.

To think, there was a time when Stokes gambled that a woman might be capable of running his network.

That was back in 2000 when he installed sales executive Maureen Plavsic to the top job.

He was the first Australian television proprietor to promote a woman to run his media company. It was revolutionary.

There was a chance Stokes might have become the poster boy for inclusivity in the media, had he just stayed the course.

Plavsic lasted three years, from 2000 to 2003, before being demoted with a $1.3 million handshake and replaced by Nine boss and man’s man David Leckie, who improved Seven’s profitability and market share but would make no inroads culturally.

He wouldn’t have seen a dollar in it.

Following a series of embarrassing unfair dismissal cases, hopefully Seven’s latest CEO now can.

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