Who was it that told ABC Chairman Justin Milne that the public broadcaster would be denied funding if it didn’t remove journalists that federal government ministers wanted silenced?

On 24 September 2018 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) board announced the sacking of Managing Director Michelle Guthrie, stating “it was not in the best interests of the ABC for Ms Guthrie to continue to lead the organisation”.

By 27 September the facts began this statement had emerged. 

These showed political appointee to the ABC board chairmanship, Justin Milne, in a less than attractive light.

Having now been caught out acting as a heavy-handed surrogate for the Liberal-Nationals Federal Government, this very same government is reportedly now pressuring Milne to resign ahead of the 20 October Wentworth by-election to save it further embarrassing revelations.

This is how the matter is playing out in the media…….

9 News, 26 September 2018:

Political pressure is mounting on the ABC chair Justin Milne after revelations he ordered sacked managing director Michelle Guthrie to get rid of a senior presenter because the Turnbull Government "hates her".

The instruction to sack Emma Alberici came in an email from Mr Milne to Ms Guthrie in May, Fairfax Media reported. 

"They [the government] hate her," Mr Milne wrote. "We are tarred with her brush. I think it's simple. Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma. There is no guarantee they [the coalition] will lose the next election."

The comments were circulated to members of the ABC board a week before Ms Guthrie was sacked on Monday.

Malcolm Turnbull sent a list of concerns to ABC news director Gaven Morris about Ms Alberici's coverage of the government in May.

The Guardian, 26 September 2018:

The ABC chairman, Justin Milne, vehemently opposed moving the Hottest 100 away from Australia Day and tried to convince the ABC board to reverse the Triple J decision, saying “Malcolm [Turnbull] will go ballistic”, Guardian Australia has been told.

Multiple sources have said that the former managing director Michelle Guthrie supported the Triple J decision, which was taken after a year’s consultation, and convinced the board not to bow to pressure from the government.

There was huge pressure on the ABC because the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, had asked the ABC board to reconsider the decision to move the Triple J Hottest 100 from Australia Day because it was “making a political statement” by taking an action that would “help to delegitimise Australia Day”.

Milne was also opposed to Guthrie’s handling of the ABC’s Tonightly sketch in which they used the word “cunt” when highlighting the racist past of the grazier John Batman.

In a skit aired in March, a candidate for Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives party, Kevin Bailey, was lampooned about the name of the electorate of Batman.

Milne was furious and adamant that Tonightly presenter Tom Ballard should immediately apologise for the sketch on the program, but Guthrie insisted that the ABC’s internal complaints process run its due course.

The ABC’s internal complaints unit and the Australian Communications and Media Authority cleared the Tonightly sketch.

“Michelle was always saying we should back our artists and staff but Justin was always interfering and saying this will annoy the government,” a source close to the board said.

“Michelle stood up to Milne when he tried to interfere with management decisions. He believe Emma Alberici should be sacked and the top 100 should not be moved.”

Financial Review, 26 September 2018:

ABC chairman Justin Milne asked former managing director Michelle Guthrie to take action against two ABC journalists, political reporter Andrew Probyn and radio broadcaster Jon Faine, who had upset the government, according to a source familiar with the conversations.

The complaints about the two high-profile journalists were made verbally, and followed Mr Faine's clashes with a government minister and coverage that upset the Coalition by Mr Probyn, the source said.

The Guardian, 26 September 2018:

Another source said: “He [Milne] would intervene by contacting an executive and, not long after, a formal complaint would come in from minister’s office.

“He also referred to former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie as ‘the missus’.”

The New Daily, 26 September 2018:

The Scott Morrison government and the ABC board are moving to pressure ABC chairman Justin Milne to resign as soon as possible.

Mr Milne has refused to budge after a leaked email has been widely viewed as direct evidence of a breach of his director duties under the ABC Act.

But overnight there was another leak to The Daily Telegraph – an ABC board document in which sacked managing director Michelle Guthrie alleges Mr Milne ordered her to fire political editor Andrew Probyn. “You have to shoot him”, The Telegraph reported the document as saying, because former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull “hated” Mr Probyn. The exchange was said to have occurred in a telephone conversation on June 15.

“He told me I was putting the future of the ABC at risk as we are asking the government for half a billion dollars for Jetstream and we won’t get it unless I do what I’m told,” The Telegraph reported the leaked Guthrie document said.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September 2018:

Turnbull, a former journalist who knows how errors of fact or judgment can infect a journalist's copy, might have tried negotiating directly with Alberici before reaching for the official complaints switch, and he might have respected the ABC's actions to correct matters of fact after the ABC's independent complaints review department had investigated.

Instead, by exerting his clout at high levels within the broadcaster, it appeared to anyone who cared to look that the old business of serially intimidating the ABC, which relies on government funding, had reached peak velocity.

In turn, Milne, a former business partner of Turnbull and thus requiring considerable steadiness to prevent being accused of bearing a conflict, lost all sense of proportion at the sound of shot.

No cool-headed chairmanship here: apparently infected by hysteria, he waved his own sword. "Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma."

No-one has yet answered the burning question; Who was it that told Justin Milne that the ABC would be denied funding if it didn’t remove journalists that Liberal-Nationals federal government ministers wanted silenced?