Fan-girl Ferguson would be a poor fit to chair ABC

jANET aLBRECHETSEN ON kIRSTEN fERGUSON.

It is not a stretch to think that acting ABC chair Kirstin Ferguson wants to make her gig permanent. Or at least as permanent as anything can be at the roiling ABC. Here then is my contribution to due diligence the government must perform as it considers who will fill this critical taxpayer-funded role.

Amid the chaos of last week, Ferguson told ABC News the board was “grateful” that Justin Milne had resigned as chairman. She promised that under her leadership directors would “absolutely not” intervene in editorial matters.

That jars with my recollection of Ferguson in 2015 when she applied to become a director of the national broadcaster.

I was appointed to the government’s ABC and SBS nomination panel in July 2014 and resigned in April 2016. In 2015 I played a part in recommending Ferguson for the ABC board, something that I came to regret very quickly. And will regret even more if Ferguson pursues the role of chair in the same way she sought a seat on the ABC board.

After making the shortlist of candidates, Ferguson changed her mind. Curious about this, I called her, and after some discussion, she changed her mind again. Once she resolved to become an ABC director, she made an extraordinary effort to get close to me and David Gonski, another member of the four-person nomination panel.

Gonski is a man about town, well-connected and known for a cohort of “Gonski’s angels” — women appointed to boards with his mentoring help. I was useful in a different way, perhaps. I had been an ABC director and I was invited to join the nomination panel by prime minister Tony Abbott, who would ultimately sign off on board appointments.

Back then, I was impressed with Ferguson’s personable manner and, more importantly, her apparent skill set. Her CV stood out from an otherwise lacklustre lot. Ferguson was also a Queenslander and female. Drawing up a shortlist of board candidates involved ticking an expanding and ridiculous list of boxes. It was identity politics writ large.

In the end, I resigned from the panel because I could not work within a set of parameters that hindered the search for the smartest, most capable person. And given the obsession with counting the number of women on boards, it is worth noting that five women sit on a seven-member board that is directly responsible for the ABC’s present debacle — the worst in its long history.

But back to Ferguson. After her interview with the panel, she wooed me in a most intriguing manner, wanting to be a friend rather than just seeking professional advice. Nothing wrong with that. We make friends in different ways on our journey through life and I took her at face value as we chatted about all manner of things. But Ferguson seemed to approach making friends like a five-point plan. I recall ringing a girlfriend to remark on Ferguson’s weirdly cloying manner, but I soon forgot about it until last week.

During our conversations, I was keen to work out what kind of director Ferguson would be. I spoke to her about my own experience on the board. As a former lawyer, I explained that directors are invested with legal duties to ensure that news and information are delivered accurately and impartially. I told her that directors are legally required to ensure that the functions of the corporation are performed efficiently and with the maximum benefit to the people of Australia, and one of those functions is that the ABC reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community.

As a potential candidate, Ferguson agreed wholeheartedly. She nodded and said all the right things, seemed to understand that if the board does not meet its ­duties to oversee news and information that is accurate and impartial, then the ABC will remain a playground for activist staff rather than an important cultural institution for all Australians. Just as I didn’t care who she voted for, I told her that the ABC should not lean one way or the other. The ABC’s mandate, in return for taxpayer funds, is to reflect the diverse views of Australians.

I checked Ferguson’s references too. The referees said nice things about her — as referees almost always do, by the way. I thought she would be a decent addition to the board, better than those on the shortlist we sent to then communications minister Malcolm Turnbull. So I rang Turnbull and suggested he consider Ferguson.

Ferguson was duly appointed to the ABC board in November 2015. For a short period after that she was all smiles, telephone calls, questions about holiday plans and family, a few friendly Twitter messages. And then silence.

The next time I saw her, in an airport lounge, she made a determined ­effort not to make eye contact.

Maybe my usefulness had passed. And I work for The Australian, after all, which has done more than any other newspaper to make the case, on behalf of weary taxpayers, that the ABC must live up to its charter obligations.

Again, I put it down to odd behaviour, and forgot about it. Until I read reports in The Weekend Australian that Ferguson and managing director Michelle Guthrie were once “thick as thieves”. Until Ferguson turned on her.

Having personally put Ferguson’s name forward to be an ABC director, I watched her – and her twitter feed - with interest. She regularly snuggles up to ABC staff, nearly always female journalists. So I was not surprised that she cosied up to Emma Alberici, more girlfriend than director, with this text to the ABC’s senior economics reporter: “Great work on the tax story…Thanks for making company tax digestible and understandable for the average punter watching. X”

But I was disappointed that Ferguson would so quickly endorse journalism that was riddled with errors, including a fatal misunderstanding of the ­difference between profits and revenue.

There is another problem if the government appoints Ferguson as permanent chair of the ABC. The ABC board, led by the chair, will appoint the next managing ­director.

Ferguson’s nauseating “girl-power” gush on Twitter since her appointment might cause problems as chair.

She has been so determined to promote women, connect with women, talk about women, writing a book about women, mentioning quotas for women that it raises a potential perception of gender bias.

If a bloke ran a twitter feed like this for men, he would be hung, drawn and quartered.

But Ferguson’s fan girl feed is feted. That makes her the ideal ABC chairman if you are Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek or one of the many feminist ideologues at the ABC. Isn’t a male candidate for managing director entitled to wonder whether he would get a fair go from a chairman who so doggedly promotes women?

Perceptions of potential bias should matter if the ABC is to attract the best applicant to be the next managing director.

If you believe in merit rather than handing out gendered favours, then Ferguson is wrong for the job.

The chair of the national broadcaster cannot afford to have cosy relationships with staff, especially a managing director.

The chair sets the standard for the rest of the board. And that brings us back to the biggest problem with Ferguson.

Milne tried to deal with serious editorial matters even if it was done in a dreadfully ham-fisted way. He alluded to government unhappiness rather than his own proactive duties as a director.

Ferguson has already told ABC News that under her leadership directors would “absolutely not” intervene in editorial matters. On that front alone, the ABC staff collective could not find a better pick for ABC chair. Enough said.