Your noon Briefing: Acting boss vows to fight for ABC

Welcome to your noon digest of what’s been making news and what to watch for.

Hello readers. Here is your noon roundup of today’s top stories and a long read for lunchtime.

David AndersonDirector of Television, ABCDavid Anderson was appointed the Director of Television in March 2017.

‘I’ll fight for ABC’

The interim boss of the ABC has indicated he will take a markedly different approach to deposed managing director Michelle Guthrie, engaging more with Canberra, giving more media interviews and being a strong advocate of public broadcasting. Acting Managing Director David Anderson’s comments came as former ABC chairman James Spigelman defended Ms Guthrie, saying she had faced a “tough political environment” in dealing with the Turnbull government. Mr Anderson wasted no time on his first full day day in the role this morning by walking the floor of the broadcaster’s Sydney newsroom talking to staff.

“We saw Michelle Guthrie on the floor but she never spoke to anyone.”

ABC newsroom source

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18th July 2018.Secretary of the ACTU Sally McManus speaking to media at the ACTU Congress in Brisbane.Photo: Glenn Hunt / The Australian

Casuals deal slammed

ACTU secretary Sally McManus has condemned an employer push to create a new “perma-flexi” employee category, warning it would remove rights for millions of workers and lead to the rapid casualisation of the workforce. The NSW Business Chamber has applied to the Fair Work Commission to create the employee category across highly casualised industries, in a bid to circumvent a precedent-setting court ruling they fear could cost business billions of dollars.

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Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and National Security and Intelligence of New Zealand holds her son Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, as her husband Clarke Gayford looks on during the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit September 24, 2018, one a day before the start of the General Debate of the 73rd session of the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York. (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP)

Baby’s day out

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s baby daughter has made a splash at the United Nations, sitting in on a meeting with her mother. Ms Ardern is among world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York this week and has had daughter Neve, born in June, in tow.

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Full length of senior couple jumping in joy on beach

Make boomers pay

Understandably, dying is something we don’t like to think about too much. And when you look at how we pay for aged care, it shows, writes Adam Creighton. The torrent of public money sprayed at residential and home care providers — more than $18 billion this year and rising rapidly — isn’t sustainable without crushing increases in income tax on younger generations. He suggests it is high time asset-rich boomers started paying their way.

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**FILE** A Friday, February 9, 2018 image reissued Monday, September 24, 2018 of former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie (right) and ABC Chairman Justin Milne during the ABC Annual Public Meeting in Ultimo, Sydney. ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie has been sacked effective immediately because it was "not in the best interests" of the broadcaster for her to stay in the job. Board chairman Justin Milne said the transition to a new leader could be disruptive but discussions had been under way for several months. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett) NO ARCHIVING

The long read: The undoing of Michelle

In the early days, there was much to like about Michelle Guthrie. But at the halfway mark of a five-year term, her job had become untenable. Stephen Brook asks: What went so wrong?

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Comment of the day

“Academia, it would seem, deliberately choose to ignore the warning of the world’s greatest anti-fascist, George Orwell, when he said ‘If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to say what some people do not wish to hear’. Society ignores Orwell at its peril.”

Peter, in response to ‘Bettina Arndt names to shame Sydney University’s ‘free-speech bullies’.’