By 27
September the facts began this statement had emerged.
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…….
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 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.”
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.
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 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.
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?
