Ita Buttrose is poised to become the next chair of the ABC, ending a tumultuous search for the public broadcaster’s next leader following the acrimonious departure of Justin Milne and managing director Michelle Guthrie nearly six months ago.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield will take Ms Buttrose’s nomination to cabinet this week, despite her name not being included in a shortlist compiled by an independent panel following an extensive search by global recruitment firm Korn Ferry.
Media icon Ita Buttrose is firming as the new ABC chair. Credit: Stefan Postles
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal the final names provided by the panel for the prestigious position were all men: former Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood, former News Corp chief executive Kim Williams, Film Victoria president Ian Robertson, and Gilbert + Tobin managing partner Danny Gilbert.
If cabinet approves Ms Buttrose’s appointment, she would be only the second woman to take the top job at the public broadcaster after Dame Leonie Kramer in the early 1980s.
“The government is undertaking a process to appoint a new ABC chair,” a government spokesman said. “No decision has been made and an announcement will be made in due course.”
The appointment of a new ABC chair will end a difficult period for the public broadcaster which began after the shock sacking of Ms Guthrie in September, the fallout from which resulted in the departure of Mr Milne over allegations the then chairman asked her to sack journalists the government did not like.
Appointing Ms Guthrie’s replacement will be the new chair’s first responsibility.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed Ms Buttrose was a potential candidate earlier this month.
The former Kerry Packer confidante denied she had been approached at the time and has been unavailable for comment in recent days.
Ms Buttrose is seen by some in the Morrison government as a sensible and well-regarded figure with the extensive board experience needed to take charge of the public broadcaster.
But her appointment is not assured, with cabinet discussion likely to canvass the suitability of other possible candidates.
Mr Gilbert, at whose firm Labor communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland worked for several years, was once the frontrunner to replace Mr Milne’s predecessor Jim Spigelman.
Ms Buttrose most recently appeared on Nine’s Today Extra program and previously worked at Network Ten. She famously edited Cleo, the Australian Women’s Weekly in the 1970s when it was owned by Mr Packer’s Australian Consolidated Press, and The Daily Telegraph.
Ms Buttrose has also been a News Limited and Australian Consolidated Press director and was the president of the Chief Executive Women organisation.
While she has not previously been associated with the ABC, the public broadcaster aired a mini-series titled Paper Giants in 2012 based on her time at Cleo. Ms Buttrose’s former husband Alisdair Macdonald obtained an apology from producers over claims he abandoned her.
Ita Buttrose was a finalist for Australian of the Year.Credit: AAP
Labor has demanded to be “genuinely consulted with reasonable notice” about the appointment of the next ABC chair, making requests to receive a briefing about the nomination process and likely candidates.
Senate hearings last week revealed that request had been rebuffed by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said it was “another demonstration” of Labor “getting way ahead of itself in terms of making assumptions about what the results of the next election will be”.
Applications for the position closed in November and the candidates were whittled down by an independent nominations panel. The government is under no legal obligation to pick from the list provided by the panel.
Dame Leonie, the first female chancellor of the University of Sydney, has been the only other female ABC chair in the organisation’s history, and only held the position for a year.
Emails obtained in September revealed Mr Milne, who was close to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, had encouraged Ms Guthrie to remove the ABC’s chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici because she was “sticking it” to the government.
Alberici amended a controversial article critical of the Coalition’s plans to cut the corporate tax rate after senior editors decided it might breach the ABC's rules on impartiality.
Mr Milne reportedly also asked Ms Guthrie to sack the broadcaster’s political editor Andrew Probyn, telling her “you have to shoot him” after complaints from the government about his coverage.
Ms Guthrie is currently pursuing the ABC for adverse action and has specifically named Mr Milne and other directors including Donny Walford, Joseph Gersh and Vanessa Guthrie.