ABC Four Corners: Michelle Guthrie accuses Justin Milne of ‘inappropriate touching’

Ousted boss Michelle Guthrie has accused the ABC’s former chairman Justin Milne of “inappropriate touching’’.

Former ABC chairman Justin Milne and ex-managing director Michelle Guthrie. Picture: AAP / ABC

Ousted ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie has alleged the public broadcaster’s former chairman Justin Milne touched her inappropriately.

Ms Guthrie, who was sacked by the ABC board on September 24 just 2½ years into her five-year term, said Mr Milne touched her at a board dinner in November last year. “It was inappropriate behaviour,” she told an ABC Four Corners program broadcast.

Reporter Sarah Ferguson asked if the behaviour was physical, to which Ms ­Guthrie replied: “Inappropriate touching is the best description of it. I felt icky, it was inappropriate, it was unprofessional.”

Mr Milne was asked about Ms Guthrie’s allegation, including a suggestion he rubbed her back at the board dinner at Billy Kwong’s restaurant in Sydney.

He replied: “Definitely not. Definitely not. I think she meant that to have a sexual innuendo about it, which I can’t possibly for the life of me understand why she would say that. I’ve had no physical relationship with Michelle at all. I never, ever acted inappropriately with Michelle, or indeed with any other woman in the workforce, or any other woman.”

Ms Guthrie said the alleged incident did not affect her professional relationship with Mr Milne. “It didn’t have an effect on my professional relationship with him but it was certainly in mind … in social settings. I tried to avoid putting myself into situations where that might recur,” she said.

Ferguson asked why she didn’t insist that the ABC board investigate. “Because I wanted to get on with the job,” Mr Guthrie replied. “I was focused on the task at hand, there was a lot to do.”

Mr Milne heard about Ms Guth­rie’s allegation from ABC director Donny Walford, and immediately called a board meeting.

“The board felt, and I completely agreed, that the best thing to do was to meet with her and make, if you like, a preliminary investigation of the allegations, but to try and to deal with them,” Mr Milne said.

“The best way to deal with them would’ve been to have her make a complaint, to formalise her issues, but she declined to do that.”

ABC board member and lawyer Joe Gersh was deputised to speak to Ms Guthrie, and the two met at a cafe near the ABC headquarters in Ultimo, Sydney. Their accounts of that meeting differed greatly.

Ms Guthrie said the purpose became “very clear, that he was trying to force me to resign”.

“It was very clear that it wasn’t to take forward those allegations, which was the purported conversation, but it was about saying, ‘You clearly can’t work with the chair, so you need to go’.”

The ABC board said in a statement that Mr Gersh “did not go to the meeting to elicit Ms Guthrie’s resignation”.

Mr Milne assumed the matter had been settled after Ms Guthrie met Mr Gersh and declined to take it further.

Ferguson asked if Mr Gersh had “made that clear to you and the board”, to which Mr Milne ­replied: “Abundantly clear.”

Ms Guthrie also told Four Corners she raised the issue of political interference by Mr Milne with the ABC board, but it failed to act.

At the time of Ms Guthrie’s sacking, the ABC board said she wasn’t the right person to lead the public broadcaster. Mr Milne resigned on September 27 after allegations of alleged political interference were leaked.

“In a recent communication to Four Corners, Guthrie pointed out that one possible outcome is reinstatement and return to the ABC,” Ferguson said.

Ms Guthrie has been replaced by ABC executive David Anderson, who last month put his hand up for the job permanently.