Senate report blasts ABC board over Michelle Guthrie dismissal
Senators have blasted the ABC board over the dismissal of managing director Michelle Guthrie last year.
In a report into the national broadcaster’s independence following the MD’s firing last September and the subsequent resignation of chairman Justin Milne three days later, Senators said they were “astounded” at the board’s behaviour .
(L-R) Then ABC chairman Justin Milne with managing director Michelle Guthrie, board member Peter Lewis and board member Kristin Ferguson at a 2018 public meeting.
The committee was convened following accusations Milne and Guthrie had both attempted to sack ABC presenters who had incurred the Federal government’s ire.
What a predictable outcome … “the ABC Board is no good, let’s sack ’em and replace ’em with people more attuned to ‘our’ (Greens/ALP) point of view”. Not political stacking, of course, that’s only done by the other mob (conveniently forgetting that Gough Whitlam sacked the entire ABC Board when he came to power and then changed the rules so Malcolm Fraser couldn’t do the same). A pox on all their houses!!!
What is infuriating about this report is the point scoring nonsense that the Chair of the Senate Committee, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young sprouted last night on the ABC 24 News. When asked a question on the report, she answered…’In my opinion the Liberal Government….’ and so on. Her opinion does not count. She is Chair of the Committee. She should only report the fact. Then she went on to say that the Senate Committee was ‘stacked’ with Liberal members. Again incorrect. There were 3 x ALP, 1 x NAT, 1 x IND, 1 Green, and ONE Lib. She is not fit to be the spokesperson for this report and badly misrepresented its findings.