Before news of the ABC redundancies lobbed on Thursday afternoon, there was already plenty of gossip among the public broadcaster’s staff about which lucky journalists had won the right to sit with Aunty’s big bosses, managing director David Anderson and news boss Justin Stevens, at the ABC’s table at the federal parliamentary press gallery’s annual midwinter ball.
In a hot field, it quickly emerged that the winning ABC candidates were Insiders host David Speers, Australian Story’s Leigh Sales, 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson, and Canberra-based political reporters Dana Morse and Nour Haydar.
Even before last week’s redundancies were announced, the gossip about those names for the top table had spread like wildfire throughout the organisation.
But that line-up of attendees led to the obvious conclusion that neither the ABC’s political Praetorian Guard in Canberra, political editor Andrew Probyn and 7.30 chief political correspondent Laura Tingle, nor the ABC’s bureau bosses in the capital, had a place on Aunty’s top table.
In Probyn’s case, he apparently forked out to buy his own ticket on a separate table at Canberra’s most glittering event.
But in light of the shock events of last Thursday, it’s now up in the air whether Probyn will attend the event at all – even if his table is well removed from Anderson and Stevens, the men who signed off on his departure from the ABC.
Vikki Campion voices Lisa Wilkinson in cartoon series
Pauline Hanson’s satirical cartoon series, Please Explain, on Friday had its own take on the recent leaks of information that have provided a window into how Brittany Higgins’ 2021 allegations came to be aired in the media.
Not surprisingly, the episode featured many of the main players who came to light in the recent leaks, from Lisa Wilkinson to David Sharaz, Katy Gallagher, Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong.
The episode takes no prisoners, most notably featuring the Wilkinson character saying: “I want a Logie!”, the Sharaz character saying “I want revenge on the Liberals!”, and the Gallagher character telling Wong: “We can use this as a weapon to destroy (Scott) Morrison.”
But it was in the closing credits that came the most intriguing revelation: that the voice for some of the parts were provided by a ‘V. Campion’: yes, no less than Daily Telegraph columnist and Barnaby Joyce’s high-profile partner, Vikki Campion. When Diary reached Campion, she admitted with a giggle that she had voiced Wilkinson and Gallagher.
It turns out Campion agreed to a request from Hanson’s key adviser, James Ashby, to do the voices, which showcase her previous unseen skills in political and media impersonations.
“We’d been talking as friends earlier on in the week, and then he asked would I have time to put down a voice,” she told Diary. “The tone of episode was right. I hope people like Lisa Wilkinson can see the humour in this, given that the show she used to be on, The Project, never hesitated to make fun of me when I was in my third trimester of pregnancy, and I had to take it on the chin.”
Canberra media royalty line up to lash Probyn axing
Laura Tingle should still be in the honeymoon phase of her exciting new job as a director of the ABC. But mere weeks into her tenure, the chief political correspondent of 7.30 has already been put in a tricky position.
Why? Because Diary understands that at her very first meeting as a board member of the ABC just 10 days ago, Tingle had to preside over the approval of a long-planned restructure of the public broadcaster to ‘embrace its digital future’: the result of which has been 120 ABC redundancies announced on Thursday.
And some of those cuts have struck very close to home for Tingle, with the axing of her Canberra colleague, ABC political editor Andrew Probyn.
With Probyn gone, Tingle is now unchallenged as the ABC’s most powerful daily political reporter in Canberra.
But it’s a tricky tightrope for Tingle to walk. On one hand, she has to play her role as one of the ABC’s biggest-name journalists. On the other, she has to preside over decisions as an ABC director that, directly or indirectly, impact upon the futures of colleagues who she has worked with for years.
So how much, if anything, did Tingle know about the ABC’s restructuring moves and, more broadly, about any individual employees affected by job losses?
Diary phoned Tingle over the weekend to talk about this, but our calls weren’t returned.
So we spoke to previous key board members of the ABC about how much its directors are told about redundancies ahead of time.
One told us that “efficiency” programs are often discussed at the ABC’s last board meeting of each financial year, generally held in June, which approves the next financial year’s budgets.
“In my experience, there is always discussion of any restructuring programs and even the highest-profile redundancies, to understand them from a PR perspective and an ‘impact on the organisation’ perspective,” the past ABC director said.
“The job of a board is to know the landmines in any restructuring and/or redundancy program, while it’s the responsibility of management to know anything that’s controversial.”
One of the rationales for making Probyn redundant was that he was part of an “outdated, top-heavy structure still largely focused on linear television broadcast”, according to the ABC’s own internal documents.
But as one former ABC director has pointed out, Tingle’s primary editorial role at the ABC is also largely focused on, yes, linear TV broadcast: “What if the ABC had made the same judgment of Laura Tingle’s position as the chief political correspondent of 7.30, as it made about Andrew Probyn’s position as ABC political editor? Could she have potentially been put in a position where, as an ABC director, she was signing off on her own redundancy? Or would she have recused herself?”
Canberra media royalty line up to lash Probyn axing
It’s not often that an issue unites virtually the entire senior ranks of the Canberra press gallery, as well as the left and right of politics.
But the disapproval was swift and memorable among political reporting doyens, and both past and present ABC types. Nine political reporting legend Laurie Oakes put it succinctly: “Pathetic! ABC does not have Stoker statement in Van package. And they don’t think they need a political editor.”
Barrie Cassidy, the ex-ABC Insiders host of nearly two decades, also took to Twitter to lash the move, stating that it was “like saying a restaurant doesn’t need a head chef … The ABC now needs to explain how the kitchen works without a head chef.”
ABC news boss Justin Stevens argued that Cassidy’s ‘head chef’ metaphor was out of date, in an interview with ABC Radio Brisbane’s Rebecca Levingston on Friday: “It’s an analogy that might have worked in the 1980s and ’90s, when the restaurant was servicing people in one way only. The restaurant now is servicing people in all sorts of ways. You’ve got Uber drivers coming, wanting to take food home.”
But the criticism didn’t stop with Oakes and Cassidy. AFR political editor Phil Coorey described the move as “a disgrace from an organisation full of middle management time servers”.
Seven’s political editor Mark Riley asked: “In what parallel universe does the ABC not require a political editor … of the calibre of @andrewprobyn – one of the hardest working newshounds in the business. Crazy.”
The SMH’s chief political correspondent David Crowe claimed Probyn was a “good man treated shabbily by an organisation that should know better”. Meanwhile, even the ABC’s own Canberra political reporter Matthew Doran dared to tweet: “Working in Parliament House, you regularly come across gobsmacking decisions … made by elected representatives in this building. Today, it’s in our own organisation. And in our own bureau … And it’s a sad day for this venerable institution.”
Both sides of politics also found rare unity on Probyn. Ex-journo and former NSW Premier Bob Carr, who vigorously disputed the ABC’s claim that Probyn’s removal would somehow help the ABC find new social media audiences: “Sacking Andrew Probyn and replacing him with junior reporters who can get stuff on TikTok will drive down audience even further.”
And the Coalition’s Defence spokesman Andrew Hastie – Probyn’s last subject in a viral online interview on war crimes last week that attracted a whopping 400,000 or so page views digitally – said he was “astonished”.
“We sat down for an interview this week, neither of us knowing it would be his last in the role. While his relentless reporting made some public figures uncomfortable, his fearless approach is vital for democracy. You can’t replace his experience with a few digital hires,” he said.
Palaszczuk’s spin machine reaches new heights
Not content with poaching virtually the entire Nine newsroom, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is seemingly still greedy for more staff to add to her bulging spin machine ahead of next year’s state election.
As police numbers actually decreased by around 60 across Queensland in the midst of a youth crime crisis, the state’s treasurer, Cameron Dick, seemingly buried the lead: the budget papers show that Palaszczuk has added 100 staff to her own department.
Add to that separate data first reported by Brisbane’s Courier Mail, which suggests the Queensland government has added more than 120 marketing, media and communications staff to the state’s public service.
Additionally, Queensland’s entire public service will also balloon by an extra 4600 or so – taking the total number of civil servants past the 250,000 mark. Now, that’s one way to shore up your vote!
Plenty has been said about how the Premier’s raiding of Queensland newsrooms is affecting the quality of TV political journalism, in particular, in the state. But the burgeoning ranks of media and communications specialists in government ranks will have plenty of work to do, with clear signs Palaszczuk’s image is starting to fray. Diary understands that the latest Labor private polling has backbenchers very concerned that they will be swept out of power at the 2024 election, on the back of the perception that she has already checked out and is most interested in red carpet appearances.
The inside mail also suggests the Premier is now being blamed by swinging voters for the state’s youth crime and health crises.
To counter this, the government spinners are already working overtime to place the Premier next to some of the state’s heroes with bulletproof personal approval ratings.
On Thursday, in the heart of State of Origin season with Queensland already up 1-0 over NSW, a funding announcement was made featuring rugby league great Johnathan Thurston. Seemingly no one at the top echelons of Palaszczuk’s government was going to miss the priceless opportunity of a selfie with Thurston. We’re told the Queensland Maroons legend was literally swarmed by the Premier, deputy premier Steven ‘Giggles’ Miles and a bevy of starry-eyed cabinet ministers, all keen to catch their slice of his reflected glory.
The significance of the timing of the Thurston briefing as a distraction tactic – within hours of Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli’s budget reply speech – was missed by no one.
Adam Bandt behind end of Woodside sponsorship
With Canberra’s night of nights – the federal parliamentary press gallery’s annual midwinter ball – looming this week, it seems there’ll be no repeat of the Greens’ headline-making disruption of the 2022 instalment of the event.
Diary has got in touch with Greens leader Adam Bandt – and in comments that will leave the event’s organisers breathing a sigh of relief, the Greens leader has made it clear he’ll be attending the ball in less controversial circumstances this year.
If you recall, the 2022 ball made headlines for a series of protests by high-profile Greens, including Bandt’s partner Claudia Perkins, and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, both of whom wore protest ball gowns featuring anti-fossil fuel slogans, to blast the sponsorship of the ball by oil giants Woodside Energy and Shell.
As Diary revealed in April, the press gallery executive hammered out a compromise involving Woodside and Shell in an attempt to appease the Greens, after Bandt had written a protest letter about the fossil fuel sponsorships.
And the compromise appears to have worked. Bandt has told Diary: “The Greens welcome the decision to end sponsorship by Woodside and other fossil fuel corporates of the ball.”
Under the terms of the new arrangement, Woodside and Shell will no longer sponsor the midwinter ball. In fact, there will be no corporate sponsors of the ball whatsoever. However, it is understood Woodside and Shell will continue to take tables to support the event.
In a letter sent to concerned parties, the press gallery committee made it clear it wanted “MPs from all sides of politics” to be welcome at the ball, which is attended by virtually all parliamentarians from the PM down: “Corporate tables, as is the case with many events, will be sold but there will not be any sponsors of the midwinter ball nor advertising from any company.”
Despite the ball compromise, Bandt hints he will continue to maintain the rage against the likes of Woodside and Shell. “The climate crisis affects everyone and we must all do what we can to remove the social licence of those polluting our planet,” he said.
Ten confirms Raper to succeed PVO
Timing is everything in media and politics. Diary was on the money last week with our revelation that the ABC’s NSW political editor, Ashleigh Raper, would win the role of Ten’s federal political editor to succeed Peter van Onselen, after a three-month search.
But Ten’s formal announcement of the appointment on Thursday came on the very same day as someone else who would surely have been a prime candidate for the job – the ABC’s Andrew Probyn – became available.
Would Ten have prolonged its recruitment process if it had known Probyn was about to be made redundant at the ABC?
We’ll never know.
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