ABC concedes that its staffing numbers are rising, despite budget ‘cuts’

ABC employee numbers have risen in the past 12 months despite repeated claims that staffing levels are on a downward trajectory.

ABC managing director David Anderson.

The ABC has admitted its employee numbers have risen in the past 12 months despite its repeated claims that staffing levels at the national broadcaster are on a downward trajectory.

ABC managing director David Anderson told a Senate hearing last month he didn’t believe the organisation’s headcount had ­increased over the past year but fresh figures provided by the taxpayer-funded broadcaster show this is inaccurate.

The staffing details, which were included in the ABC’s responses to questions it took on notice during the Senate hearing in June, reveal the organisation had 120 more employees on its books in the 2020-21 financial year compared with 2019-20 – with an extra 25 ongoing employees and another 95 (non-ongoing) temporary staff on the payroll.

When asked last month about the ABC’s staff numbers by Senate committee member and WA Liberal senator Ben Small, Mr ­Anderson said while he didn’t have the exact information at hand, “I don’t believe it’s increased. I don’t believe so.”

ABC managing director David Anderson and Chair Ita Buttrose in Parramatta CBD after announcing ABC HQ will move from Ultimo. Picture: Ryan Osland

In its responses to the questions Mr Anderson took on ­notice, the ABC conceded that under the “headcount reporting method” – which is routinely adopted across the Australian public service – staffing numbers had in fact increased.

Most of the extra staff hired by the ABC over the past financial year worked on TV programs Art Works, Win the Week and The Wonder Gang, and specials including The Set, Australia Talks and Movin’ To The Country.

The Australia Talks program, co-hosted by Annabel Crabb and Nazeem Hussain, which was a one-off 90-minute show that aired in June, involved more than 120 staff.

The ABC also said the spike in short-term staffing numbers was to “combat delays in the delivery of externally commissioned content due to Covid”.

Senator Small said the ABC’s response showed “they have been exposed as deceiving the Australian public on resourcing”.

“The managing director is clearly asleep at the wheel, denying at estimates an increase in headcount whilst in actual fact an extra 120 positions had been added to the taxpayer bill in the last year,” he said on Thursday.

Recent ABC ­annual reports reveal staffing numbers at the public broadcaster have risen in the past two years.

“This is a publicly funded broadcaster that competes in a media landscape where private entities are shedding jobs and ­focusing on efficiently meeting the demands of their customers.

“News of increasing headcount flies in the face of the baseless bleating about budget cuts, and shows that the only ideological bastardry is that perpetrated by the ABC in its unceasing bias.”

Figures from recent ABC ­annual reports reveal staffing numbers at the public broadcaster have risen sharply in the past two years.

In 2018-19, the total (full-time and temporary) headcount was 3965; this climbed to 4257 in 2019-20 – an increase of 7.4 per cent — and the extra 120 positions created in 2020-21 represent a further 2.8 per cent jump.

The Australian questioned the ABC last month about staffing numbers but it failed to respond to specific questions about employee levels in recent years and instead compared staffing numbers from 2014 to 2019-20.

In June last year, Mr Anderson said the ABC would axe up to 250 jobs and cut programming in order to deal with budget cuts. “We anticipate we may farewell as many as 250 colleagues through this process,” he said at the time.

In other responses to questions Mr Anderson took on notice, relating to alleged breaches of the public broadcaster’s social media policy by Four Corners executive producer Sally Neighbour, the ABC said its investigation was “continuing”.