ABC documentary on Luna Park fire cost $2m

The ABC spent almost $2m on its heavily criticised ghost train fire documentary, now subject to a board-ordered review.

The damage caused by the fire on the ghost train ride at Sydney’s Luna Park in 1979.

The ABC spent almost $2m on its heavily criticised Luna Park ghost train fire documentary, which is now subject to a board-ordered independent review.

In written replies to questions by Labor senator Tony Sheldon in Senate estimates, the ABC ­refused to provide a breakdown of research, investigation and production costs aligned to different segments, but said total expenditure was $1,911,028.

The high cost of the program, which ran for just over four hours, comes as the ABC claims it has had to cut TV and radio news programs, and reduce staff, due to budget constraints.

The three-part documentary implicated former NSW premier Neville Wran in a cover-up of the 1979 ghost train fire, accused him of socialising with crime boss Abe Saffron and alleged he organised for the Luna Park lease to go to a Saffron front company.

Despite the documentary now being reviewed because of concerns raised by the ABC board, the national broadcaster insisted the program was “subject to rigorous oversight” by executive producers, legal counsel, an editorial adviser and its head of investigations.

In the documentary, former policeman Paul Egge claimed that illegal police wiretaps – the so-called “Age Tapes” – revealed that Wran had conspired with High Court judge Lionel Murphy to ensure the Luna Park lease went to a company that disguised Saffron’s interest.

Mr Egge’s claim could not be substantiated by the Stewart royal commission into the Age Tapes or the parliamentary commission of inquiry into Murphy. The ABC did not produce any recordings or transcripts to verify this claim. No other policeman corroborated this allegation about Wran.

When asked by Senator Sheldon if the ABC had “verified the content of the tapes which formed the basis of the allegations” against Wran, the ABC did not confirm it had sourced the recordings or transcripts.

The documentary team consisted of two reporters, a producer and executive producer, with most of the research done by reporters Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Patrick Begley over a 15-month period.

During Senate estimates in May, ABC managing director David Anderson and editorial ­director Craig McMurtrie ­explained that the documentary made “allegations” that did not need to be “proven facts”.

The ABC insisted it did not implicate Wran in the cover-up of the fire but, Meldrum-Hanna told families of the victims that the cover-up “went all the way to the top”. Wran was premier at the time of the fire, which claimed the lives of six children and one adult.

The documentary, Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, has been subject to multiple formal complaints and savaged by former premiers Bob Carr and Barrie Unsworth, and Wran’s former staff. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Wran was a man of integrity and honesty.

David Hill, a former ABC chairman and managing director, said the program breached editorial policies and should not have been broadcast. Mr Hill, who previously worked for Wran, said it was “sloppy journalism”.