In a statement to parliament, the Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Mitch Fifield, said that he was aware that the ABC Board were unhappy with the performance of then Managing Director Michelle Guthrie on September 12th.
At that time he was advised by the then Chairman of the ABC Board, Justin Milne, that the board didn’t feel that Ms Guthrie “…was best placed to lead the organisation” and that she would be told such the following day.
Mr Fifield says he told the Chair that “…this was a matter for the Board”
The Minister says in the following days he was told by Justin Milne that discussions between the Managing Director and the Board were ongoing, but on the evening of the 23rd he was informed that the decision had been made to terminate Michelle Guthrie’s employment the following morning.
Within days there were allegations that the ABC Chair had pressured Ms Guthrie to sack two journalists whose reporting had angered the Government.
Mr Fifield says he wanted to make it clear that he has “never in any way shape or form sought to involve (himself) in staffing matters” and nor was he aware of “any current or former member of the government seeking to do so.”
A report from the Secretary of the Dept of Communications, and tabled by the Minister, established that both Justin Milne and Michelle Guthrie confirmed no one in the Government had asked for the dismissal of either of the two journalists.
Replying to the Ministers speech, Labor Senator, Deborah O’Neill, called for a Senate inquiry saying that the statement by Mitch Fifield was just another whitewash and “…nothing more than an effort to wipe the blood off his hands for all the damage he has done to the ABC”
The Labor Senator said that the Government, under the pressure of the cross bench, was happy to attack the ABC and that Minister Fifield was “…here in denial of the reality that …the ABC is completely under attack”.
