ABC executive to work from Canada

This is outrageous and the kids producers here in Melbourne and all around the country are fuming. We work with you all too remotely already! When De Jong left, there were going away drinks in Sydney, an in-house video and a general acceptance that she will not be back in a few months. How can she possibly interact with the industry on remote control? No explanation has been made about whether she will work Australian hours or Canadian hours and whether the ABC will connect you through to her in Canada (who pays for that?) or whether producers will stump up the cost. Commissioning for productions depends on having one on one contact, not a phone call in the middle of the night. An interim appointment should have been made if she needed cover to attend to personal matters. Shame ABC. Producers have been dudded.

Although I understand the frustration producers might feel by the increased difficulties in communicating with Ms De Jong, as a Canadian myself married to an Australian partner I understand that family matters are more important, and should one of my parents, for example, fall deathly ill (or God-forbid died), my partner would likely work from Canada while affairs were put in order. Of course, this works the same vice-versa.

Although I don’t know the details entirely, I can’t imagine this is anything less than that, and would ask that we respect the privacy we would ask in any similar situation.

Melody, that’s not the point.
We all have to make personal decisions and that is perfectly understandable. We also have to deal with the consequences of such decisions.
Government agencies and companies would allow a person to take up to one year leave while still retaining their positions should they decide to return. During that time, you’re officially on (unpaid) leave and someone is appointed to act in your position.
This is a different situation; they’re being flexible to a point that most Australians can only dream of! Why should the ABC use taxpayers money to accomodate De Jong in these circumstances?

Why is it so outrageous that the ABC might increase their VOIP bill by 0.000001% this year? We’ve been videoconferencing for years, and multiple VOIP providers include calls to the US, Canada, UK etc as free within even their base plans. If you’re still calling internationally from Telstra land-line and are a business decision maker, you’ve got bigger problems than someone who’ll obviously be working the hours her job requires of her choosing to work from a different remote location for part of the month.

Obviously she’ll be chopped in 6 months if it’s not working out, or creatively, earlier. If it’s working out, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

@ curious: ” someone who’ll obviously be working the hours her job requires of her choosing to work from a different remote location for part of the month.”

Requires or of her choosing? Part of the month?

Our understanding is that she has moved to Canada for 6 months per Tim Brooke-Hunt’s clarification above. I had no idea that she was now working part-time. Given that they are already so far behind on their work at the ABC, I cannot see how this is going to help.

Carla’s move comes at a time when the team at ABC kids is under severe pressure to manage multiple projects and at their own admissions “under resourced.” This year already the team have consistently fallen short of their promised response times to projects and submissions, so how her absence will make it better I fail to see.
Canadian producers look set to benefit from her move and Aussie producers to loose out. Pity the ABC could not see this

For those of you missing the point; let me fill in some gaps.

Firstly, we have a news article on this very subject, in itself being a signal that something is not quite right here, possibly public servants trying to cover tracks. Then you have Mr. Brooke-Hunt say, “The ABC is pleased to have negotiated an arrangement with Carla such that she can manage her immediate personal circumstances”? which makes it sound very very ominous. But the truth is, she got married. That’s all.

This is an unbelievably ridiculous situation and as a senior producer, who has seen many many comings and goings over many years, I find it reprehensible and typical of the arrogant attitude of the ABC children’s department. And now we have the tax payers of Australia footing the bill for this “head of commissioning and development for children’s television” to live with her new husband (a Canadian children’s tv producer interestingly enough) in Canada. Wouldn’t we all love that? There is no need for her to live in Canada, other than she clearly just wants to, making the Australian tax payer cover the cost of numerous business class flights to and from her new home and many other incidentals I’m sure.

The bigger question is – has the ABC picked up any new programs from the new husband’s tv production company recently? Are they looking at picking up other new programs from him? And who is the person who gives these programs the greenlight? Among everything else, surely this is in itself, enough of a conflict of interest.

[Note from the editor: This post has been edited for legal reasons]

A Maddened Producer.

I think that sometimes we are risk of losing our ability to have compassion and humanity in this cut throat industry. I have no idea of the circumstances that Carla has found herself in, but I would think that they would be quite important to her LIFE – that thing you have OUTSIDE of work, for her to have to work under this arrangement. I think we should applaud a company that a) values her work to such an extent and b) has compassion. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful feeling if we all knew that should something happen to us, or our families, we wouldn’t have to give up our work in order to manage our life? And I’m pretty sure that whether or not it is part time (and I do think Tim Brooke-Hunt mentions part time), she will work her absolute hardest to not disappoint the employers that have helped her out in her hour of need. I think that if it’s something that ‘most Australians can only dream of’ then we should not be jealous, we should just hope that this kind of arrangement will spread to others in their time of need.

AdventureGal, I’ve already explained that other Government agencies express this flexibility and compassion by allowing the person to take a year of unpaid leave and still retain their position.
That’s very different from just giving someone a deal that most people can only dream of, and regardless of what Brooke-Hunt says, it’s subsidised by the tax payer.
Will Carla pay for her own return flights to attend “meetings and events” like she said she would? I don’t think so!

I did understand your explanation, Outraged, and think it’s beside the point. We live in such a technological age – I worked with my editor on cutting a movie trailer whilst I was on the back of a motorbike travelling the country, for one small example – and such a tiny global village that really, her actual physical location is not going to make that much difference to everyone’s lives, is it? And – call me naive – personally I do think she’ll be forking out the airfare for some/most of those flights. But my thoughts – and yours – about that are purely academic, as I’m sure we’ll never know for sure. Regardless of that, though, I think you sum it all up in your statement – ‘a deal that most people can only dream of’. And that’s a GOOD thing, that’s a tall poppy, and a deal we SHOULD dream of, and maybe one day we can all get a deal that most people can only dream of.

Oh, Outraged and A Maddened Producer – I JUST read that she just got MARRIED. In that case, it’s all bollocks. She should be hung and quartered and choose between husband/home and job. Why should she have it all?

Its alright for some. Too bad non executive staff cannot even be allowed to work from home!

The relationship between you and your editor is a private affair. These people work for a Government-funded corporation and their actions must be transparent.
If someone gets married and decides to move overseas, that’s great, but why should the public broadcaster retain themlike they’re irreplaceable? You made a decision, move on, let someone else develop her/his career.
if someone in Melbourne applies for a job at the ABC in Sydney, will the recruiters say ‘sure, no problem, the job is yours’?

If you can’t see why this is relevant, I’m not going to change your mind.

According to the ABC’s web site Carla is responsible for ensuring the ABC
provide a broad array of programming ……designed to challenge, entertain and excite and which embodies a true AUSTRALIAN sensibility.

Surely that requires a person working in Australia with their finger on the pulse of what is going on in the industry, able to meet and discuss pitches and ideas in person, and be immersed in our society to develop that sense of an Australian sensibility. Actually residing in Australia is what is called an essential job criteria.

While the ABC could be commended for being flexible and supportive in its approach to its staff, there is no way on earth it would extend this degree of flexibility to the humble program makers who work there. Flexibility at the ABC only means insecure short term employment contracts.

The announcement speaks bucket loads about the demise of the ABC TV. The rot started when Shier brought in a troupe of charlatans and carpetbaggers. The ABC is a public broadcaster expending public funds. The current crew of managers in TV do not seem to understand the concept that public funds are not to be applied to support private whim.

And what do these weasel words mean about the ABC not paying SIGNIFICANT additional expenses. I would expect as a bare minimum expect the ABC to make a declaration that not a cent of public money would be spent to support the relocation of the Head of Commissioning or of the return trips that would be necessary for her to competently carry out her role.

You think the ABC is bad, take a look at Screen Australia..$7million pumped into the turkey that was A Heartbeat Away, a film produced by the ex-CEO of the AFC, do you reckon we could get any transparency or accountability on why such a cliche riddled mess was even considered a good investment..now way, none at all. I think people in the industry are beginning to fully realize that the government institutions that WE have developed how now become these little clubs that really have at the heart of it a strange mix of perverse transparency and seething arrogance and no matter how much we stamp our feet and say “This just isn’t right” they continue along with their seething arrogance right at the forefront of every decision they make.

Doug – what makes you think that Screen Aust put up the whole $7m? On last reading their cap was $2.5m for any single feature. Pretty naive if you think that ALL of our feature films are ENTIRELY funded by the public purse, and I think you have aptly demonstrated that you know SFA about how our films are budgeted & funded. Maybe we should forget about funding our films and just buy more pink batts..

@ Doug.

Ex ceo AFC – B R?

I have to agree with everyone that thinks that her move to Canada is problematic. There have been significant problems with ABC’s Children’s Television group, lack of innovative programming and commissioning being one of them. Lack of Australian commissions being the other. What happened to the promise of starting off with 50% of programming money going towards commissioning Australian work with increases later on?