Senator pursues details of ABC’s top exec salaries despite failure

Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson is planning another attempt to force the ABC to disclose the salaries of its top-paid executives after two motions were voted down by the Senate late last week.

Henderson has signalled she will be relentless in her efforts to have the wages disclosed in a more transparent way, claiming it was “untenable” that information is kept secret from taxpayers.

Senator Sarah Henderson will make another attempt to have the salaries of high paid ABC staff exposed.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“As a publicly funded corporation accountable to Australian taxpapers, it is untenable that information about this expenditure should remain secret,” she said. “That the ABC’s public interest immunity claims were supported by Labor and the Greens shows they could not care less about transparency.”

“I will continue to fight for greater transparency at the ABC and intend to make further requests for information. The ABC Act is no longer fit for purpose and it is clear we need legislative reform to ensure that the national broadcaster is delivering in the interests of all Australians.”

Henderson wrote to ABC managing director David Anderson in early November, requesting disclosure of the remuneration packages for employees, contractors, subcontractors, or other workers earning an annual salary of at least $230,000. She also requested a breakdown of the roles, genders, places of work, and remuneration bands of ABC employees, on public interest grounds and believes these disclosures can help reduce the diversity of wages.

Anderson made a claim of public interest immunity in early November against requests by Henderson, the shadow communications spokesperson, to disclose the remuneration of highly paid staff as well as the gender, place of work, and remuneration bands of employees.

He said it raised commercial in confidence concerns, staff privacy, work health and safety. In late November, the environment and communications legislation committee said it shared the ABC’s view on privacy and commercial in confidence concerns.

Henderson tabled two motions in the Senate last week, demanding the information by December 9. Both were rejected by Labor, the Greens and Senator David Pocock.

Labor senator Anthony Chisholm on Thursday said Henderson’s attempts to disclose salaries “smack of a personal vendetta” against the ABC.

“The ABC claimed public interest immunity in respect of Senator Henderson’s recent attempt to obtain details from the ABC as part of the recent budget estimates process,” Chisholm said.

Henderson’s first motion - disclosure of salaries - was lost by four votes, as Senator Nampijinpa Price was absent. The second motion was lost by three votes.

The British public broadcaster, the BBC, publishes the names and salaries of its highest-paid stars, but the ABC does not go this far with its disclosures. The public broadcaster’s latest annual report showed it paid $538m in employee benefits in the 2021-22 financial year, including $403 million in salaries and wages, and $72 million in superannuation benefits. Henderson said she was concerned about the ABC’s refusal to disclose the salaries in light of its obligation to be “transparent and disciplined” with remuneration reports. She said BBC’s disclosures had “exposed a culture of discriminatory wage practices, leading to much greater equity and fairness particularly for women.”

“Similar disclosure by the ABC is very much in the public interest,” she said.

Attempts to disclose salaries came as ABC employees voted against a pay offer by management that would give them an extra 9 percent pay over three years.

The Media Arts and Entertainment Alliance emailed members late last week, confirming it had received 3930 votes about the proposed pay deal and that 72.8 percent had rejected the offer. ABC staff are now considering next steps, which will include industrial action. The union is calling for annual 18 per cent pay rise over three years and 15.4 per cent superannuation payments.

The ABC was approached for comment.

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