ABC chairman resigns after ordering senior staff be sacked
ABC CHAIRMAN Justin Milne has broken his silence after quitting over allegations he ordered the sacking of senior staff. Mr Milne demanded former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie dump senior journalists Emma Alberici and Andrew Probyn.
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ABC CHAIRMAN Justin Milne has quit after allegations he ordered the sacking of senior staff.
Board members met without Mr Milne at a crisis meeting on Thursday morning and asked the chairman to step aside for a Department of Communications inquiry. But Mr Milne this morning confirmed his decision to resign.
Mr Milne has described the pressure he faced to resign today as a “firestorm”.
“Clearly there is a lot of pressure on the organisation, and as always, my interests have been to look after the interests of the corporation,” Mr Milne said during his only interview today which aired on the ABC.
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“It’s clearly not a good thing for everybody to be trying to do their job with this kind of firestorm going on.
“There was absolutely no interference in the independence of the ABC by the Government
“Nobody from the Government has ever rung me and told me what to do in relation to the ABC.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison today tweeted about the crisis engulfing the ABC, saying it was time for the ABC to “resume normal transmition”.
ABC Board and Chairman have made the right call. Time for the ABC to resume normal transmission, both independently and without bias. That is what Australia’s taxpayers pay for and deserve.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 27, 2018
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the inquiry — to be headed up by Department of Communications secretary Mike Mrdak — will involve interviewing board members and senior ABC management.
Mr Mrdak will focus on a series of allegation Mr Milne ordered former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie to sack senior ABC journalists Emma Alberici and Andrew Probyn.
“(Mr Mrdak) will be talking to all the relevant parties — the chair, the current and acting managing director and he will invite the former managing director (Michelle Guthrie) to participate,” Mr Fifield said in Melbourne today.
“He will talk to members of the board and other staff members as relevant … Mr Mrdak is at liberty to raise with me any matters .”
Mr Fifield also said he had previously sent the ABC complaints about news reports which name specific journalists but denied ever calling for a journalist to be sacked.
“I have always respected the independence of the ABC. Like most members of parliament, I have, on occasion, raised with the ABC issues of facts in reporting, as indeed I’ve done with commercial media organisations,” Mr Fifield told reporters in Melbourne this morning
“But, at no stage, and in no way, shape or form, have I ever sought to involve myself in staffing matters in the ABC, nor, for that matter, am I aware of any member of the Government who has sought to do so.”
Mr Milne ordered Ms Guthrie to fire the broadcaster’s star political editor, telling her “you just have to shoot him’’ because then-PM Malcolm Turnbull hated him.
If she refused to fire Mr Probyn, Mr Milne is alleged to have told Ms Guthrie she was “putting the future of the ABC at risk” and was jeopardising “half a billion dollars” funding for his pet project, called Jet stream, to digitise the public broadcaster, board sources said.
The startling claims were made in Ms Guthrie’s detailed account of the conversation included in documents she presented to the ABC Board on Friday before her sacking on Monday.
The Daily Telegraph can also reveal that in May Mr Turnbull rang Mr Milne in a white-hot rage about ABC economics correspondent Emma Alberici’s article on company tax, which he said was riddled with errors.
The anger from the then-prime minister during the phone call is said to have left the ABC chairman shaken, sources familiar with the conversation said.
This call coincided with Mr Milne’s email to Ms Guthrie on May 8 demanding that she “get rid” of Alberici.
Then on June 15, Mr Milne had a meeting with Mr Turnbull and Mr Fifield to discuss the ABC’s political coverage led by Probyn, who was accused of running “Labor lies” about the Super-Saturday by-elections.
After the meeting, Mr Milne rang Ms Guthrie to “debrief” her and demanded she sack Probyn, according to her report to the board.
“In that phone call that lasted for approximately half an hour, Mr Milne berated me about Andrew Probyn saying that the then-prime minister hates him and ‘You have to shoot him’,” the board documents state.
“When I responded that I can’t do that, that I can’t fire a journalist for making a mistake and that I probably make 10 mistakes a day and that couldn’t be the test for firing someone, Mr Milne responded that my mistakes don’t affect the prime minister.
“Again, I said to him that couldn’t be the test for termination of an employee.
“I reiterated the need to maintain our public trust and the ABC couldn’t be responding, or be seen to be responding, to pressure from the government of the day.
“In response, Mr Milne continued to yell at me and berate me and wouldn’t let me finish the call.
“He accused me several times of not listening to him and interrupting him.
“He told me I was putting the future of the ABC at risk as we are asking the government for half a billion dollars for Jetstream and we won’t get it unless I do what I’m told.
“I told him you can never make the government happy, even if you wanted to.”
On Thursday at an ABC board meeting, Ms Guthrie had agreed to resign of her own accord at the end of 2018, with a $900,000 payout and a series of farewells celebrating her time at the public broadcaster. But by Friday’s meeting, she changed her position and fought back against the board’s call she step down halfway through her five-year tenure.
Multiple ABC board directors told The Daily Telegraph the board was united in its decision to sack Ms Guthrie, despite her claims of political interference from Mr Milne.
Board members held a conference call yesterday afternoon. They did not move against Mr Milne.
Board member Peter Lewis, the former chief financial officer of the Seven Network, told The Daily Telegraph he was standing firm on the decision to sack Ms Guthrie despite the publication of Mr Milne’s email.
“A single item is often out of context. Now I don’t know what was in the email before or after but generally context is important,” he said.
ABC staff initially cheered when Ms Guthrie was boned by the board on Monday, with veteran Four Corners journalist Sally Neighbour tweeting: “Excellent decision.”
But yesterday sentiment had turned. More than 100 ABC staff met at the corporation’s Ultimo headquarters to back a union motion calling for Mr Milne to “stand down” while an independent investigation is held into his actions.
Mr Milne said in a statement: “I do not propose to provide a running commentary on the day-to-day issues which arise as we carry out our duties.”
Mr Milne and Mr Turnbull have been good friends for more than 20 years and were involved in the internet start-up, Ozemail, together.