The debate over the future political stance of the ABC shows no signs of dying down.
In his first interview since his departure from the ABC board last week after a five-year stint, its Liberal-appointed former director Joe Gersh has urged ideological balance in the future of the ABC – calling on the current government to ensure that voices from the right side of politics continue to have a say in the future of the ABC. Speaking to Diary less than 24 hours after his term on the ABC board had expired on Wednesday, Gersh, a prominent Melbourne businessman, said he felt there should be “more conservative voices” at the ABC.
“The ABC is at its best when it tacks to the centre,” he said. “But if you look from my personal perspective, it would seem to me the vibe is more to the left than the centre-right.”
However, Gersh added that his opinion wasn’t universal: “Everyone looks at it from their own perspective, because the word ‘conservative’ has different meanings to different people. There are as many who think it is too favourably disposed to the centre-right as to the left. People are amazed when I say that, but you get complaints from both sides.”
Gersh was appointed by the Liberal government to the ABC board in 2018, at a time when then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was openly furious with the public broadcaster over the reporting of the likes of the ABC’s then-chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici.
But with a Labor government now in power, PM Anthony Albanese and his Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, allowed Gersh’s term to expire last week. Gersh said there were no sour grapes, although he confessed to feeling “a bit sad”.
“If I’d been reappointed, I would have been happy to serve another term,” he said.
“But I do understand it. I was appointed by the Turnbull government, and the new Labor government wanted to put their own stamp on the ABC board. It was not unexpected that this was a decision an incoming government wanted to make.”
Gersh defended the ABC’s coverage of the voice issue. While he acknowledges that the ABC was “institutionally empathetic” to First Nations people, he said this wouldn’t affect the public broadcaster’s impartiality in the months to come.
“I’ve got no doubt that now the voice has become a referendum, the ABC will fulfil its obligation for impartiality. It’s an obligation in the ABC Charter, and I’ve no doubt that both sides of the yes and no case will be fully heard.”
Gersh has had numerous board roles during his career, but told Diary that none had been quite like the ABC. And when there was harsh criticism of the ABC’s performance, Gersh felt he more than earned the $58,670 a year he’s been paid for the role.
“Everyone has an opinion on the ABC,” he said. “But I think, like all ABC directors, you’d do it for nothing. I’ll pick up other board roles, but I’m not sure there’ll be one that’s as emotionally engaging as the ABC board is – and for that, I’m very grateful. There would often be a situation where picking up newspaper clippings got my heart racing. But it’s good to have something that makes you think about your position.”
He also gave his parting backing to ABC chair Ita Buttrose, who was present for his last day at the ABC on Wednesday.
“She’s fully engaged, fully across it, and deeply committed to the future of the ABC,” he said. “And she works extremely hard, at a stage where she’d be entitled to put her feet up.”
Revealed: What Channel 9 is paying its top on-air talent
Nine Radio’s decision to extend Ray Hadley’s contract until the end of 2026 – exclusively revealed by your diarist before it was announced on Friday – will easily maintain his lofty position as Nine’s highest-paid on-air talent.
On his current six-year deal, which doesn’t expire until mid-2024, Hadley has been earning $4m a year, largely because of former owner John Singleton’s one-time fervent wish to move the 2GB morning king to the breakfast shift in the heady days of huge radio salaries. But Diary understands Hadley has taken a cut on his new two-and-a-half year deal through to the end of 2026.
The best estimate by 2GB insiders is that he will average about $3.5m a year from now through to the end of 2026. That figure averages the one year he has left on the lucrative old $4m-a-year contract (which runs until June 30, 2024) and his new reduced deal for the additional two-and-a-half years (which runs through to December 2026).
But an average of $3.5m a year in remuneration through to 2026 still puts him not only at the very top of Australian talk radio hosts, but well above other Nine talent, as well.
Nine famously keeps close to its chest what it pays its top talent. But senior insiders at Nine suggest to Diary that Hadley sits clear of reputedly the network’s next highest-paid on-air presenter, Hamish Blake – who sources suggest Nine pays about $2m a year for his hosting role on Lego Masters.
On the next tier down at Nine, at around $1.5m, is said to be a group of the network’s most important talent for various shows, including Karl Stefanovic (Today show), Allison Langdon (host of A Current Affair), Ben Fordham (2GB’s breakfast host) and Scott Cam (who fronts Nine’s ratings juggernaut, The Block).
Further down at around $1-$1.2m are said to be legendary 60 Minutes presenter and Under Investigation host Liz Hayes, Andy Lee (host of The Hundred), Neil Mitchell (3AW morning host), and Ross Stevenson (3AW breakfast host).
On the next tier at $900,000-$1m is Nine’s 6PM Sydney newsreader Peter Overton. Then, rounding out Diary’s Nine highest-paid on air at around $800,000 are said to be Peter Hitchener (Nine’s 6PM Melbourne newsreader), Today’s new-ish co-host Sarah Abo and Sophie Monk (host of Love Island and panellist on The Hundred).
The biggest mystery surrounds the pay packet of Hot Seat host Eddie McGuire, who these days is as much a TV producer as on-air talent. McGuire continues to host Hot Seat at 5pm and AFL Footy Classified, but what he is paid by Nine is wrapped up with the fact he produces a number of his programs for the network and its streaming platform, Stan.
Meanwhile, at just under $1.4m, Nine chief executive officer Mike Sneesby’s base salary for the 2022 financial year was lower than that of many of his top on-air talent. But Sneesby’s total pay packet jumped to $3.92m, once bonuses and other payments were taken into account.
‘Not a dole bludger’: Fury at ABC 7.30’s JobSeekers
The day before last week’s federal budget, the ABC’s 7.30 screened a story that unintentionally drew intense media scrutiny all week.
The story, by reporter Ashlynne McGee, was meant to showcase a couple who were on the poverty line on Centrelink payments, ahead of Jim Chalmers’ pre-leaked move to raise the dole by $40 a fortnight in Tuesday’s Budget.
But Monday night’s 7.30 story — showing a day in the life of Sunshine Coast couple Jennifer Searson and Mark Goodrick to demonstrate how they were allegedly battling on the current level of the dole — may not have been the ideal case study. It ultimately had the unintended consequence of triggering a torrent of angry talkback radio and other media commentary about why the show’s chosen couple should receive government subsidies.
The strong reactions came after Goodrick, reportedly a qualified chef, seemed to imply on 7.30 there was little point to him working full-time when he could “top up” with welfare, while Searson claimed that working for Big W would “not be mentally stimulating”.
At one point in the interview, Goodrick presented his JobSeeker dilemma: “So what do I do? Do I do the right thing to not be a supposed dole bludger … or do I work the hours I’m working and get that little bit of a top-up?”
But the story took up much of morning radio king Ray Hadley’s program from Tuesday’s budget day right up until Friday, with Hadley himself and his worked-up listeners incensed about the couple’s attitude to receiving taxpayer money.
Hadley was furious at Goodrick’s suggestion that JobSeeker should be used as a “top-up” to lower the hours he needed to work, in a story that featured him buying a barista coffee, and the couple seemingly owning two cars and spending $350 a week on food.
“If that’s the typical person on JobSeeker, I want my money back,” he said. “I want some of my tax back. If I’m supporting those people, and you’re out there working your arses off, working your rings off … if those are the sorts of people I’m supporting and you’re supporting, we need a reduction.”
Additionally, the couple’s 7.30 appearance was far from the couple’s first media rodeo.
If McGhee – who describes herself on LinkedIn as an ABC “investigative reporter” — had performed a basic Google search, she would have noticed that Goodrick and Searson’s complaining about the level of the dole has been recycled many times over the last year.
Diary’s cursory search showed that since last September, the couple have appeared everywhere from the ABC’s The World Today to Nine’s Today Show and Seven’s Sunrise, as well as authoring their own comment piece for The Guardian, all about their struggles on the dole.
Meanwhile, Goodrick’s unintentional zingers kept coming – suggesting he didn’t have the “energy” to work too long. “I don’t actually have the energy to say, ‘Hey, yeah, I’m off to work for 60 hours a week’. So we had to make a decision but, again, that’s not supported. You’re seen as somebody that is bludging or taking advantage of the system.”
Searson, for her part, stressed that the couple were not ‘dole bludgers’, and that ‘anybody’ could end up like them: “We need to stand up and say that Australia should be … paying people a proper level of income support so they’re not living in poverty.”
Hadley was not amused: “I’m happy to pay top dollar on the tax, because I earn a lot of money … I want to help people who need it. But I don’t want to help that couple.” He even issued an ironic note of gratitude to the ABC: “I want to thank the ABC 7.30 Report for a change, for illustrating exactly what sort of stupidity we’re dealing with here. Because even though it was not their intent, by airing that program, it’s woken a lot of people up.”
One listener summed up the broader mood in Hadley’s audience by saying he wanted to “throw my phone at the radio” after Hadley had played the story in full on his show.
Ten refutes media claim Lisa Wilkinson has left
Diary has devoted plenty of column inches to the fact that Lisa Wilkinson – one of Australia’s highest-paid TV stars – is still a paid Ten staff member, despite having all but disappeared from the network’s airwaves since leaving The Project six months ago.
But a curveball came late last Thursday from, of all places, The Guardian.
The online newspaper suggested in a story about the fallout from Wilkinson’s much-discussed victory speech at last year’s Logies for her Brittany Higgins story that the former Project host had now parted ways with the network.
The Guardian story noted, as was well-chronicled throughout the media during the week, that Wilkinson had taken issue with claims by ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold that he had warned her in a meeting in June last year not to deliver the Logies speech referencing Higgins.
But it was a claim buried way down in the 12th paragraph of The Guardian’s story, by reporter Nino Bucci, that made Ten sit up and take notice. The story claimed that Ten had “employed her at the time of the meeting but no longer do so”.
If it were true that Wilkinson had departed the employment of Ten, it would be a bombshell that would no doubt generate front-page media coverage, given her profile as one of the country’s best-known media figures.
So we put the claim to a Ten spokesperson. Their response was emphatic: “Lisa Wilkinson is still employed by the network. Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”
Gillon McLachlan’s surprise 3AW newsreading gig
A fortnight since Andrew Dillon was named as his successor as AFL chief executive, Gillon McLachlan appears to be considering a future in the media.
How else to interpret McLachlan’s hijacking of a 3AW interview with Nine sports reporter Tony Jones (standing in for a sick Neil Mitchell on his morning show on Friday) to make a pitch for a newsreading gig on Melbourne’s top-rating station?
It all started when Jones innocently asked McLachlan about where he would go after departing the AFL. McLachlan replied: “I’ll tell you what I might do. I’ve been told I have a good, deep voice for radio.”
After asking Jones for the name of 3AW’s morning newsreader (David Armstrong), McLachlan pitched a tongue-in-cheek gig for himself. “I think I might audition for David, and I’ll wear a formal outfit when I read the news.”
Sensing an opportunity, Jones decided to hold McLachlan to it. “Next time you’re in here with Neil, can he give you some news copy and you can do an on-air audition?”
Not only did McLachlan accept the offer, he took it one step further. “I’ll do the 10 o’clock news instead of David Armstrong in a fortnight,” he said.
An incredulous Jones replied: “What, you will actually present the 10 o’clock news on 3AW?”. McLachlan answered: “I’m in. I want to do it.”
After McLachlan replied in the affirmative, Jones said: “OK, alright, fine mate. We’ll get your people to talk to our people and we’ll lock that in.”
Jones quickly added: “Just be warned: you might be the lead story.”
But will it actually happen? Diary is assured the answer is yes. We’re informed steps have already been taken to lock in McLachlan to read the news at 10am on Friday, May 26.
Let’s see if it leads to a full-blown media career for McLachlan, whose equally well-known brother, Hamish McLachlan, has, of course, hosted many of the biggest sporting events for Seven.
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