Your noon Briefing: Milne under pressure, board urgently meets
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 light read for lunchtime.
ABC in crisis
Just two days after the sacking of the ABC’s managing director Michelle Guthrie the knives are now out for the chairman who got rid of her, Justin Milne, with politicians and the journalist’s union describing his position as “untenable”. Things are moving very fast at ABC’s Ultimo headquarters, with Mr Milne’s boardmates now co-ordinating diaries for yet another crisis meeting.
Meanwhile, their former managing director turned nemesis Michelle Guthrie is believed to be in Sydney taking counsel on what she will do next, former chairman James Spigelman reveals the barriers in making change at the ABC, suggesting ‘the staff think they can run it’, and Stephen Brook writes that Guthrie defended journalists including Emma Albericie and Andrew Probyn from attacks from the chairman.
Alberici says revelations Justin Milne pressured Michelle Guthrie to sack her may represent a conflict of interest.
“I just think it really undermines the independence of the ABC, I think that’s why we work there, it’s certainly why I work there.”
Emma Alberici
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‘No third chamber’
Scott Morrison has slammed the Uluru Statement from the Heart as a “third chamber” of parliament, making it clear he does not support calls from indigenous leaders for a constitutionally enshrined representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
“People can dress it up any way they like, but I think two chambers is enough.”
Scott Morrison
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Business goes German
While the US under President Donald Trump is stepping back from globalisation, Australia is undergoing its own state-imposed fundamental change in business, writes Robert Gottliebsen. Step by step, Australia is moving towards a Germany-style system of business rather than the American/British system that we have embraced for the last century.
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The light read: A spy’s-eye view
Daniel Pembrey follows in James Bond’s footsteps in the Alps, with no need for death-defying stunts.
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Comment of the day
“Only idiots put things such as that in writing. They don’t even know corporate 101. You walk down and tell her. As if Guthrie didn’t leak that email.”
Paul, in response to ‘ABC’s Emma Alberici reacts to revelation Justin Milne pressured Michelle Guthrie to sack her’.
China’s great wall of silence
China deliberately concealed information about the coronavirus, and now it is fighting an inquiry. So what is Beijing hiding?
Your noon Briefing
Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.