Guthrie names Milne in ABC lawsuit

Ousted ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie has launched legal action in which she claims she was wrongfully dismissed.

Former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie. Picture: Kym Smith.

Ousted ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie has launched legal action in which she claims she was wrongfully dismissed by the broadcaster and personally targets former chairman Justin Milne and three other directors.

Along with the ABC and Mr Milne, non-executive directors Joe Gersh, Vanessa Guthrie and Donny Walford are named as ­respondents in the lawsuit, which was filed in the Perth registry of the Federal Court in the week ­before Christmas.

The ABC board sacked Ms ­Guthrie in late September after a long-running stoush between her and Mr Milne over her performance, the organisation’s future and his pet information technology venture, Project Jetstream.

Her sacking sparked a bitter public row that claimed the scalp of Mr Milne within a week. He ­resigned over allegations that he had pressured Ms Guthrie to sack two senior reporters disliked by the government.

It was also revealed Ms Guthrie had earlier sent a dossier to the board claiming that if she was sacked it would be “in part ­because of my disclosure about the chair’s inappropriate conduct towards me” and because of interference in the ABC’s independence.

In her lawsuit, Ms Guthrie claims she was targeted over complaint­s she had made and says she could not be sacked before the ­expiry of her five-year term.

This has been disputed by an ABC spokeswoman, who said: “Ms Guthrie was dismissed becaus­e the board had lost confid­ence in her. She was not dismissed because of any complaints she had made. Ms Guthrie also alleges that she could not be dismissed during her term. The corporation dispute­s that this is the case. Ms ­Guthrie’s termination was lawful.

“The ABC board stands by its decision to terminate Ms Guth­rie’s ­appointment and the corporation will defend the claims.”

Mr Milne declined to comment on the lawsuit yesterday, saying it was “a matter for the court … There’s nothing to say. It’ll be a long time before it comes before the court.”

Mr Gersh, the executive chairman of property financier Gersh Investment Partners, said the board would “be examining our full range of legal options” after the holiday break.

“There isn’t a legal strategy as of yet,” he said. “We’re aware of it, we’re aware of the issue.”

Ms Walford, who runs executive search and “transition strateg­ist” company DW Bottomline, and Vanessa Guthrie, who chairs the Minerals Council of Australia, could not be reached.

Ms Guthrie’s resort to the court comes despite a termination payment revealed by the broadcaster last month as worth $800,000.

Her sacking and the conduct of the board was the subject of a Senat­e inquiry, which heard from Ms Guthrie and Mr Milne.

Ms Guthrie told the inquiry her early dismissal required “clear, transparent, compelling and lawful reasons to justify early termination … In my case, I was not given clear, transparent reasons, and I don’t believe the reasons are lawful­. It is apparent that the trigger for my termination was that I made complaints prior to the termin­ation about Mr Milne’s conduct towards me, including his attempts at editorial interference.”

Mr Milne told the same hearing that Ms Guthrie was sacked “due to her poor leadership skills, which resulted in the board’s loss of confidence in her” and denied his “personal views or personal or professional relationships” interfered with his duties as chairman.