ABC boss condemns ‘unacceptable’ sexual harassment survey findings

The ABC is failing to meet its own standards on bullying and sexual harassment, managing director David Anderson has said, after an internal survey found 13 per cent of respondents in the national broadcaster’s news division reported they had experienced sexual harassment in the past two years.

Anderson told staff on Wednesday that the findings of the survey, conducted in the second half of 2023, were unacceptable.

The ABC’s findings follow reports highlighting inappropriate behaviour towards women in the media.Credit: The Age

“If anyone doesn’t understand or accept this, then the ABC is not the working environment for them,” he told staff in an email seen by this masthead. “There will be consequences for those staff who are found to have behaved in an unacceptable manner, no matter what their role is at the ABC.”

One-quarter of respondents said they had experienced bullying at the ABC, with the most common types reported as intimidation, belittling and humiliating comments. Women were twice as likely to report being bullied than men.

The Australian National University’s Social Research Centre conducted the survey, which Anderson said was designed to review the broadcaster’s newsroom culture but ultimately showed it was failing to meet its expected standards.

Of the 745 employees who took the survey in the news division, 97 reported having experienced sexual harassment. Sixty-five per cent of respondents were women. Twenty-nine per cent of staff in the division completed the survey.

Sixteen per cent of respondents said they had been harassed at a work-related event.

“Less than a quarter [of those harassed or bullied] reported the incident, and most who did, chose an informal route,” the report said.

Anderson wrote in his email: “This is unacceptable. There is more work that we need to do across the entire organisation, and not just in our newsrooms.”

In a separate email, news director Justin Stevens told staff that these types of behaviour “should not happen” and that the discussions that would follow the report were “difficult but necessary”.

ABC news director Justin Stevens (left) and managing director David Anderson last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“To those who engage in these behaviours, it is unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it. Anyone who engages in such behaviour, or who justifies it in any way, is not welcome at the ABC,” Stevens wrote.

The ABC’s findings follow reports highlighting inappropriate behaviour towards women in the media industry, including at Nine, which publishes this masthead.

Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby told staff last month that the company did not tolerate inappropriate workplace behaviour, and reiterated its complaints and whistleblower policies, after reports of misconduct by senior TV executive Darren Wick. Wick left the company in March.

It also emerged that Adrian Foo, an executive at Nine’s streaming service, Stan, left last year after an investigation into allegations of bullying and inappropriate physical contact with staff.

The ABC is running a parallel review into experiences of racism at the broadcaster, led by lawyer Dr Terri Janke. More than 100 current and former employees have been interviewed so far, and the findings will be made public in coming months.

Nineteen per cent of Australians experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, according to a 2022 study by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Slightly more than half (51 per cent) of female-identifying employees who responded to the ABC survey agreed the broadcaster is a diverse and inclusive employment environment, compared with 70 per cent of male-identifying employees.

Women were significantly less confident in speaking out about inappropriate behaviour than their male colleagues, and 30 per cent of respondents reported they did not feel psychologically safe at work.

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