Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger urges ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose to ‘just resign’

In an epic spray on Sky News, Ita Buttrose has been described as “a failure” as chairwoman of the ABC and has been urged to resign.

Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger has urged ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose to “just resign”, revealing senior cabinet ministers regret ever putting her in the job.

In an epic spray on Sky News, Mr Kroger has described the businesswoman, founding editor of Cleo magazine and now Chairman of the ABC as “a failure” because the national broadcaster was anti-Liberal.

“Ita should resign,’’ Mr Kroger told Sky News.

“Ita has been a terrible failure. And I know there are many people in the Coalition, including people in the cabinet who regret her appointment.”

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Michael Kroger. Picture: David Crosling

Ms Buttrose, a former Australian of the Year, was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 1979 and an Officer of the order of Australia (AO) in 1998. She advanced to a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2019.

“She and some of those board members should go. She’s lost control of the Board. The Board has lost control of the managing director. The managing director has certainly lost control of news and current affairs,’’ Mr Kroger said.

Mr Kroger, who served on the ABC board for five years, said the ABC could not be reformed because the left-wing staff ran the organisation in defiance of any outside interference.

“The ABC staff are more powerful than ever,’’ he said.

Mr Kroger went on to describe various programs as throwing “political acid” in the Liberal Party’s face.

“They have weaponised Four Corners, Q&A in particular, which is like political acid in the face of the Liberal Party,’’ he said.

“It’s a shockingly biased program. The Drum, these current affairs shows are just weaponised against the Coalition.”

Ita Buttrose at the National Press Club. Picture: Gary Ramage

The Liberal Party powerbroker then went on to claim that the ABC’s flagship current affairs program had investigated the “behaviour” of a senior ALP figure but had failed to publish a story.

“I mean Four Corners had evidence of behaviour of a senior Labor frontbencher that they have not put to air. They have not been put to air.

“They’ve got a lot of evidence. Now, they give the usual reasons I gather on the grapevine that, “Oh, well there wasn’t quite enough.

“Well, there wasn’t quite enough against Christian Porter. As they admitted the other day when they settled. And I take the view that Christian Porter did exceptionally well with this litigation. Because the ABC had to admit they were never able to prove this.”

Michael Kroger. Picture: David Caird

Sky host Chris Kenny then added the rape allegation against Mr Porter, that he denies, was “disgusting stuff to put into the public arena.”

Mr Kroger then ended the interview by again calling for Ms Buttrose to resign.

“She’s a failure. She should resign. You can’t get everything right in life. Morrison has got pretty much everything else right. But this was a bad appointment by the Coalition cabinet.”

“She’s been a hopeless failure. It’s more biased. This is like a train that has got no driver.”