By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Such is the Albanese government’s permanent state of crank toward the Greens that it’s rare to see them on the same page these days.
But it seems like both parties have come around to the blinding whiteness of the ABC board. Much like senior leadership in media companies across the country, the board of the national broadcaster is entirely white. Modern Australia is not.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi took aim at the “unacceptable” lack of diversity on the ABC board.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland took some baby steps toward changing that this week, with the government updating the selection criteria for the appointment of non-executive directors to the board.
The new criteria includes a direction that board members must possess “an understanding of, or the ability to credibly represent, the communication needs of Australia’s diverse society”.
Coincidentally, this update came weeks after Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi wrote to Rowland slamming the “unacceptable” lack of diversity on the ABC board.
“The ABC board is completely and embarrassingly bereft of diversity,” the senator thundered, saying she had “no doubt” this contributed to the treatment of former Q&A host Stan Grant and fill-in presenter Antoinette Lattouf.
Grant, a Wiradjuri man, accused the broadcaster of “institutional failure” over its lack of support when his analysis of King Charles’ coronation prompted a deluge of racist abuse. Lattouf was sacked after sharing a post on Instagram from Human Rights Watch, with a subsequent dispute with the ABC headed to the Federal Court.
So had Faruqi’s scathing letter pushed the government to make the change? Surely nobody would want to hand a win to the Greens Political Party (as Labor are wont to call their progressive rivals).
We hear the government had been working on the changes since well before Faruqi’s letter.
“The changes were informed by the government’s review of options to support the independence of the national broadcasters, and in consultation with the ABC and SBS,” a spokesperson for Rowland informed us.
Faruqi, meanwhile, told CBD the changes were simply a “step forward” and “still only a nod to diversity”.
“There should be an explicit requirement for the Board to include members from marginalised diverse communities. And I will keep pushing for it,” she said.
BOYS BOYS BOYS
We thought something was up when Jamie Briggs, the former Liberal junior minister turned corporate affairs head at government consulting firm Scyne Advisory, was liking Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s LinkedIn posts.
Scyne, which was spun out of PwC last year after that firm’s tax scandal disgrace, is in the business of winning government contracts, not cozying up with Dutts.
By mid-morning, CBD, and about everyone else, realised this was because Briggs will soon be working with the opposition leader as chief adviser for politics and campaigns with a focus on next year’s election.
Now usually, the conveyor-belt that delivers most of our bland, cookie-cutter politicians from the major parties to parliament goes something like this: staffer to fuzzily defined government relations role at big corporate, to smarmy backbencher warming a safe seat, to (if very lucky) junior minister.
Briggs is doing it all in reverse, eight years after his stint in federal parliament was up. And what an awesome stint it was.
The morning after Tony Abbott was knifed by Malcolm Turnbull, Briggs infamously rolled into parliament on a wheelchair. After insisting he’d hurt his knee running, the soon-to-be-demoted junior minister later admitted the injury was the result of “high jinks with the former prime minister” whom Briggs had tried to crash tackle during a wild spill night party. Guys being dudes, as they say.
Recent history has been bruising for cabinet minister Jamie Briggs. Credit: Andrew Meares
He would later quit as a junior minister in 2015 after an incident with a female departmental staffer late at night in a Hong Kong bar. The married father of three had tried to kiss the 26-year-old on the cheek and commented on her “piercing eyes”. Within months, he’d lost the safe Liberal seat of Mayo to Rebekha Sharkie (who’s held it ever since). What a legacy.
Now, Briggs has been drafted by Dutton to help win an election where the opposition must stop giving female voters the ick, and reclaim former Liberal seats where locals have abandoned the party for more independent types.
Which all begs the question – if Jamie Briggs is the solution, what exactly do the Liberals think the problem is?
MOVING ON
Last week’s local government elections marked the end for so many friends of this column.
The latest is Sutherland mayor Carmelo Pesce, for so long destined to succeed Scott Morrison as the Liberal member for Cook, only to unravel as he bombed the preselection campaign.
Pesce’s push for federal politics suddenly put the flashy mayor under the spotlight – from his luxury car collection and property interests to friendships with prominent hoteliers (none of which prompted any formal investigation). It all got too much for some local Liberals, who dumped the mayor from the party’s ticket, defying Opposition Leader Mark Speakman.
Pesce rage-quit, and ran as an independent, even preferencing Labor over the Liberals. But that bid has failed, with Pesce telling CBD he was proud of his record on council, and wished the new Liberal team all the best.
Things weren’t quite as civil during the campaign, which included a very public falling-out between Pesce and his former numbers man, Liberal councillor Haris Strangas, played out via campaign posters and on Facebook.
But ultimately, only one of those two got re-elected.
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