Independence day: Labor vows to end ABC board-stacking and ministerial interventions.

Extract from The Guardian 

The weekly beast

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Amanda Meade

No more captain’s picks or complaint calls about negative stories, communications minister says. Plus: the ‘sixty-three, sixty-four, seventy-five’ Wimbledon match.

The ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, was on the receiving end of coverage complaints from the former communications minister Paul Fletcher.

Fri 8 Jul 2022 12.27 AEST

Last modified on Fri 8 Jul 2022 16.21 AEST

The days of stacking the ABC board and its nominations panel with captain’s picks may be over. The Labor government has pledged to make sure ABC board members are appointed on the basis of expertise in a transparent and impartial way and are able to operate independently, the new minister for communications, Michelle Rowland, said.

In the decade since an independent nominations panel was established by Labor to appoint ABC board members based on merit rather than political affiliation, the Coalition has ignored or circumvented its spirit. The Abbott government made a mockery of the process by appointing vehement ABC critics to the panel, including Janet Albrechtsen and former Liberal minister Neil Brown, who once called for the corporation to be privatised.

Rowland told Weekly Beast she would “revisit” the makeup of the ABC board nominations panel, which has several vacancies. “The reason for the nomination panel was to ensure that there was this extra layer of transparency and I think whatever actions we take in future as a government will be mindful of those principles,” she said.

Rowland said she believes in board autonomy, so we are unlikely to see extraordinary interventions such as the time in 2020 when then Liberal communications minister, Paul Fletcher, asked the ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, if the Four Corners program which alleged inappropriate conduct by two ministers met the standards of accurate and impartial journalism.

“As minister I will enable the ABC Board to operate independently,” she said.

ABC managing director David Anderson welcomed Rowland’s comments to the Guardian last week on a five-year funding package to provide the national broadcaster with financial stability.

“Moving beyond the current three-year funding cycle will strengthen the independence of the ABC,” Anderson told Weekly Beast.

“The ABC is celebrating its 90th year as an independent broadcaster that has served this country well, and a change in policy that provides more stability and certainty is recognition of how the ABC has connected and helped build a cohesive community and enriched our culture by showcasing Australian stories.”