Please explain to ABC board from senior staff

Senior ABC staff are demanding that its directors explain publicly why they continued to support chairman Justin Milne.

Justin Milne returns to his home in Sydney yesterday after his resignation as chairman of the ABC. Picture: AAP

Senior ABC staff are demanding that the national broadcaster’s ­directors explain publicly why they continued to support chairman Justin Milne amid claims he demanded the sacking of senior journalists because their reporting had outraged then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Only hours after his resignation, the outgoing chairman stared down his internal critics last night by declaring ABC journalists could not expect to “go around ­irritating the person who is going to give you funding again and again and again if it’s over matters of accuracy and impartiality’’.

His departure, three days after the board sacked managing director Michelle Guthrie, failed to provide the “release valve’’ he was seeking, raising the prospect of the crisis further engulfing the board.

One of the ABC’s most high-profile journalists, Leigh Sales, demanded that ABC directors come clean about their involvement in Ms Guthrie’s sacking for perceived management failures, while former ABC chairman and managing director David Hill said the directors should consider their futures.

Last night the full text of an email reportedly sent by Mr Milne to Ms Guthrie telling her to “get rid of” the ABC’s chief economic correspondent Emma Alberici was leaked to media.

The text read: “After two glasses of red of course there’s an agenda. They fricken hate her. She keeps sticking it to them with a clear bias against them. We clear her as ok. We r tarred with her brush. I just think it’s simple. Get rid of her. My view is we need to save the corporation not Emma. There is no g’tee they will lose the next election (sic).”

In a telephone call, he also ­allegedly ordered her to sack political editor Andrew Probyn, telling her “you have to shoot him’’.

Mr Milne, who had been in the job for only a year, resigned yesterday after the ABC board held an emergency meeting in his absence before asking him to stand aside after a week of damaging leaks against him, staff protests and some staff telling union representatives they were prepared to go on strike if Mr Milne remained.

In announcing his resignation, Mr Milne said: “It’s clearly not a good thing for everybody to be trying to do their job with this kind of firestorm going on. I wanted to provide a release valve.’’

He said the government had never demanded that he order the sacking of an ABC journalist and said his email to Ms Guthrie was “a piece of an email taken out of context’’ and he had not demanded she sack either Alberici or Probyn.

“Truthfully, I have great respect for them, particularly Andrew Probyn,’’ he told 7:30 last night.

He said, however, it was naive not to understand that the relationship between the ABC and the government was a difficult one.

Mr Milne’s decision to resign was backed by Scott Morrison, who declared on Twitter: “Time for the ABC to resume normal transmission, both independently and without bias. That is what Australia’s taxpayers pay for and deserve.”

The Prime Minister had indicated privately that he wanted the issue “dealt with” before the weekend, such is the tumult it has caused, but he didn’t express a preference as to how the board should act.

While an acting chair may be named as early as today, an independent panel headed by former Treasury secretary Ted Evans will be convened to produce a list of potential replacements for Mr Milne to be considered by cabinet. This is unlikely to be ready until next week.

Sales said on Twitter she had two questions for the board: why did they agree to sack Ms Guthrie; and if they saw the “political interference” emails between Ms Guth­rie and Mr Milne, why did they not act until they became public?

Mr Hill said: “I think those board members ought to consider their own positions, and the extent to which they’ve been involved in and compliant with an improper course of action by their chair … it’s extremely disheartening to know that when they dismissed Michelle Guthrie, they knew that the ­chairman had ordered her to sack senior staff.”

All directors have remained ­silent except for the staff-elected director, Jane Connors, who told colleagues on Tuesday before the political interference revelations that she took her board respon­sibility “very seriously”. The board, which includes Peter Lewis, Donny Walford, ­Joseph Gersh, Vanessa Guthrie, Kirstin Ferguson and Georgie Somerset, had asked Mr Milne, a former business partner of Mr Turnbull, to step down while a government inquiry considered his handling of government complaints about the ABC.

The inquiries by the Communications and Arts Department secretary and a Senate committee will continue and are likely to involve the examination of board members as well as Mr Milne and Ms Guthrie.

In addition to the furore over the futures of Alberici and Probyn, Mr Milne was caught up with controversies about wanting to ­reverse a decision to move the ­Triple J Hottest 100 away from Australia Day and for the ABC to apologise for swearing on comedy program Tonightly, an incident that was cleared by internal ABC processes and the regulator, The Australian Communications and Media Authority.

As well as the email, with the full text revealed by Fairfax Media last night, Mr Milne is accused of allegedly directing Mr Guthrie to sack Probyn in a June 15 telephone call where Mr Milne told Ms Guth­rie: “You have to shoot him.’’

Speaking in New York, Mr Turnbull said he never called for any ABC journalists to be sacked and the complaints he made about the ABC were public and related only to the accuracy of its journalism.

“I want to be very clear I have not complained and I do not complain about sorts of Left or Right bias — my concern has been purely about the accuracy and impartiality of news and current affairs reporting on the ABC. That’s the critical thing, and I do believe it has deteriorated in recent years, which is very regrettable,’’ he said.

As the government considers replacements at the ABC, Ms Guth­rie is going to spend the next week assessing whether she will take legal action over her ­dismissal, having retained Kate Eastman of New Chambers and Ruveni Kelleher of Johnson Winter Slattery.

Interim managing director David Anderson, appointed on Monday, told staff “the ABC’s independence is paramount and can never be compromised”.

“Our staff should feel confident they can do their job without interference, and Australians can continue to trust their national broadcaster as they always have,” Mr Anderson said.

On Monday, The Australian reported that a rift had developed between Mr Milne and Ms Guth­rie over his plan for Project Jetstream, a digital technology platform that would be built at a cost of $500 million. That morning, the ABC board sacked Ms Guthrie because of her management style.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance also questioned the ABC board’s line-up, which includes only one member with extensive media experience, former Seven West Media chief financial officer Peter Lewis.