Annette Sharp: Tensions simmer among Nine staff after workplace review

ANALYSIS: Instead of a list of serious wrongs committed and the naming of habitual sex pests, bullies, aggressors and perpetrators, Nine’s workplace review was a corporate cover-up, writes Annette Sharp.

A highly anticipated and undoubtably expensive 80-page report into the cultural fails of old boys’ club Nine Media was released on Thursday, proving itself a marvellous exercise in whitewashing.

Instead of a list of serious wrongs committed and the naming of habitual sex pests, bullies, aggressors and perpetrators – and any action being taken against them – what was handed down was a vague corporate cover-up that at 80 pages in length gave the sense it might contain more than a broad apology from the company, an explainer note that the reviewers hadn’t investigated or made findings about any individual incident or allegation, and a phone number for suicide prevention hotline Lifeline.

Oh, and of course the recommendation the mob retained to conduct the review be re-engaged once a year (at around $1.5m insiders have speculated) to repeat the exercise.

Nine’s new chair Catherine West.

In a nutshell, the review, which gathered the data from more than a thousand survey participants, found there was a lack of leadership accountability at the company and that behaviours defined as bullying, discrimination and harassment were bad in Nine’s radio division (2GB/3AW, etc) at 49 per cent, worse at Nine’s streaming platform Stan at 55 per cent, and worse again at Nine’s television broadcast division at 57 per cent.

The publishing division fared slightly better at 43 per cent.

As new chair Catherine West and acting CEO Matt Stanton delivered the results, in doing so building for themselves a raft upon which to launch their seemingly enlightened new leadership (which, it might be said, they owe to the rapid exits of Peter Costello and Karl Stefanovic’s good mate Mike Sneesby), staff openly lamented the fact three departed network heads, Darren Wick, Victoria Buchan and Sneesby, were bearing the brunt of the report.

This despite the fact many perpetrators remain active and safely cosseted within Nine, some of them powerful women.

Against these simmering tensions, Nine’s Head of Television Michael Healy, aka Mr Teflon, was, we hear, due to fly overseas for the annual television trade conference MIPCOM, to be held in Cannes next week.

We heard he was, along with his 2IC Hamish Turner, set to return via London for the opening of The Devil Wears Prada musical later in the week.

Healy denied this however on Sunday saying he remained at home in Sydney.

This column is not suggesting Healy, Turner, or Buchan and Sneesby are among the perpetrators of the sins at Nine.

We’re just pointing out that many will be untouched by the review.

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