Former Communications Minister Neil Brown says ABC’s process for board appointments is ‘strange’

Neil Brown has condemned the independent nomination panel who suggest ABC and SBS board appointments and said it has very little impact on who the government selects.

Former federal government minister, Neil Brown. Picture: AAP

The ABC’s independent nomination panel – which makes recommendations for appointees to the public broadcaster’s board – is “strange” and is routinely ignored by the government, according to a former member of the group.

Former Communications Minister Neil Brown, who was a member of Malcolm Fraser’s government in the early 1980s, said the ABC’s nomination panel carried very little clout.

Speaking at the weekend on the ABC Radio National program Between The Lines, hosted by Tom Switzer, Mr Brown said: “Since I have left parliament I have been on that strange selection committee which is supposed to recommend … members of the board of the ABC.

“The government does not have to accept the recommendations of that committee and the government (usually) does not … I think more by accident than anything, they actually do appoint someone to the board whom we’ve recommended.”

Mr Brown was on the committee from 2014 to 2017.

The nomination panel generally has four members, however Kirstin Ferguson resigned from the group earlier this month and a replacement is yet to be announced.

The ABC is also on the hunt for two new board appointments after Fiona Balfour, a former chief information officer at Qantas and Telstra, recently resigned with more than three years to go on her term, while businessman Joe Gersh has been told his term, which expires in May, will not be extended.

Mr Brown also took a swipe at the ABC’s “one-sided commentary”.

“I listen to the ABC quite a lot, I watch it on television but it’s very, very rare, if not a unique occasion, when someone is being interviewed who is opposed to that voice,” he said on the program that aired on Saturday. “It’s a consistent torrent of regular one-sided commentary on the voice and on most contentious issues it takes a left-wing bent … it’s not conducive either to its charter.”