Ita Buttrose lauds ABC’s ‘brand’ as she calls it a day, and Kim Williams takes the reins
On her final day as ABC chair on Wednesday, 82-year-old Buttrose told staff in a video message that the taxpayer-funded organisation’s brand was the organisation’s ‘identity’.
Outgoing ABC chair Ita Buttrose has urged the public broadcaster’s staff to protect the media organisation’s “brand”, in a thinly veiled swipe at journalists who have egregiously misused social media throughout her five-year term and badly damaged the reputation of the institution in the process.
On her final day as ABC chair on Wednesday, 82-year-old Buttrose told staff in a video message that the taxpayer-funded organisation’s brand was the organisation’s “identity”.
“We are ‘Brand Australia’,” she said.
“It represents the how, what and why of everything that we do.
“Don’t take the ABC brand for granted. Look after it.”
Describing the ABC as the nation’s most trusted media organisation and its biggest cultural institution, Buttrose warned staff to value the loyalty of ABC viewers and listeners, because “once lost it is almost impossible to get back”.
Buttrose said Australia would be “weak and diminished” if the ABC didn’t exist.
“It has been honour to chair the ABC. I shall miss it.”
ABC managing director David Anderson said Buttrose had been “tireless in her defence of the ABC”.
Media executive Kim Williams will begin his term as ABC chair on Thursday.
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