Laura Tingle to join ABC board after winning staff vote

High-profile journalist Laura Tingle has been voted in as the staff-elected director of the public broadcaster’s board.

Tingle beat ABC business journalist Daniel Ziffer by 30 final votes out of the 2073 ballots cast by staff. The 7.30 chief political correspondent will be appointed to the board on May 1.

Laura Tingle is the new staff-elected director on the ABC board.Credit: James Brickwood

Tingle nominated herself for a staff-elected seat on the board in January, aiming to provide staff with a more independent voice.

“The job of the board is to scrutinise decisions management are taking which affect both the corporation as a whole but also, obviously, the staff,” Tingle said when she decided to run for the position.

“The staff-elected director brings the experience and perspective of staff to that scrutiny. It’s about a lot more than pay and conditions,” she said.

“The recent cuts to ABC archives is a classic case in point which has profound implications for the way we do our job, and for the ABC’s obligations to preserve our national memory.”

ABC’s global affairs editor John Lyons wrote on Twitter that “there were some strong candidates, from a range of backgrounds, with Laura’s win just being declared”. He said Tingle was “a very strong addition to an important national institution”.

Four Corners investigative reporter Louise Milligan tweeted she was “absolutely delighted” by the news. “Laura is a beacon of decency, intelligence and integrity,” Milligan wrote.

Unlike the other candidates, Tingle didn’t request an endorsement from the media union and told colleagues she could not be independent if she was backed by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

“There are clear obligations for directors of any board to be independent and while I would obviously listen to all staff concerns, I feel it would be detrimental to simply be perceived as representing the interests of one sector of our workforce,” Tingle said in a note to staff last month.

The ballot for the staff-elected board position included Ziffer, Compass host Indira Naidoo, The Drum co-host Dan Bourchier, Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner and head of Indigenous, Diversity & Inclusion Kelly Williams.

Ziffer beat Tingle on first preference votes, attracting 615 votes to Tingle’s 568, but the 7:30 mainstay and former political editor of The Australian Financial Review won the position by 30 final preference votes.

Tingle and the ABC declined to comment on the news on Friday.

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