ABC recruits Rodney Tiffen, Chris Masters to review Ghost Train series

The ABC has recruited University of Sydney Professor Rodney Tiffen and award-winning journalist Chris Masters to conduct an investigation into its series on the Luna Park fire tragedy after complaints were made about the way NSW Premier Neville Wran was characterised in the program.

ABC sources, who were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said the review into the three-part series, Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, was commissioned by managing director David Anderson, after a series of high-profile people, including former premiers Bob Carr and Barrie Unsworth, complained about the program.

Journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna and co-investigator Patrick Begley present Exposed: Ghost Train Fire on the ABC.Credit: ABC

Reported by Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Patrick Begley, the series focused on the deaths of six young children and one father in the 1979 Sydney Luna Park tragedy, as well as the involvement of corrupt senior NSW Police in the first investigation and an inadequate second investigation.

The third episode of the series alleged Mr Wran, who was then-premier of NSW, met socially with underworld boss Abe Saffron. It also alleged a High Court judge, Lionel Murphy, and a solicitor discussed in telephone conversations how Mr Wran, who died in 2014, could be persuaded to back a bid for the burnt site by a company owned by Saffron.

The accusations were made based on claims by Rosemary Opitz, a Saffron employee, that the former premier often had drinks with Saffron, and an interview with former policeman, Paul Egge, who was involved in a wire-tapping operation.

Former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and aide for Mr Wran, Milton Cockburn, wrote to the ABC in May saying the broadcaster breached its editorial policies when it claimed the former premier was linked to Saffron, and that claims he was behind the ghost train fire cover-up were unsubstantiated. Other high profile figures who have complained include Mr Carr, former NSW Premier Barrie Unsworth, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former ABC chairman David Hill.

The external review, which Mr Anderson asked editorial director Craig McMurtrie to conduct, follows an internal response to Mr Cockburn’s complaint, sources said. It is unclear whether Mr Tiffen and Mr Masters have found that Mr Wran was wrongfully and unfairly depicted in the series. The ABC declined to comment on the investigation. Mr Tiffen and Mr Masters were approached for comment.

Mr McMurtrie has conducted several external reviews on high-profile ABC programs. The ABC’s US election coverage, for example, was reviewed by veteran political reporter Laurie Oakes and former editorial director Alan Sunderland, while former Australian Financial Review editor Colleen Ryan has also previously conducted a review. Former BBC advisor Kerry Blackburn was commissioned to report on the ABC’s 2019 federal election coverage. The reviews are presented to the ABC board once completed.

Mr Tiffen has previously conducted three reviews of ABC’s international broadcaster Radio Australia and worked on the independent Finkelstein inquiry into the media. Mr Masters was the longest serving reporter for the broadcaster’s investigative program Four Corners, winning five Walkley Awards in his time with the ABC.

In 1983, Mr Masters’ program “The Big League” alleged Mr Wran had conspired with chief magistrate Murray Farquhar to have an embezzlement case against rugby boss Kevin Humphreys dismissed. It led to The Street Royal Commission which exonerated Mr Wran of any involvement. However, it did find that Mr Farquhar had used the premier’s name to secure the dismissal of a bribery change against the then president of the NSW Rugby League. Mr Farquhar was convicted and sent to prison.

In a post on the ABC’s Alumni website, former Four Corners executive producer Jonathan Holmes, who worked with Mr Masters on the program, wrote that Mr Wran would have sued the broadcaster for its latest report if he was still alive. “Neville Wran, if he had been alive, would surely have claimed that an imputation of the series ... is that he knew of and condoned police corruption, that he knew of and endorsed the deliberate setting alight of the Ghost Train, and that he was therefore an accessory to murder,” Mr Holmes wrote in May.

While complaints about the way in which Mr Wran is represented have occurred, family members of the victims of the tragedy have also written to the ABC to thank the team for their work.

After an article in The Australian accused the ABC of caring little about the victims’ families, Paul Carroll, the brother of now deceased Richard Carroll, wrote to the ABC in late May to state it had shown “integrity” and “concern” for the family’s welfare.

“We find these personal attacks in the media upon such dedicated and caring ABC staff to be unwarranted and inappropriate,” Mr Carroll wrote in the letter, signed by other family members of the deceased.

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