'I still to this day think I did the right thing'
We're hearing now from ABC board director Donny Walford, who was appointed by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield in November 2015.
Ms Walford - a businesswoman with a background in executive coaching - was a hand-picked director who did not go through the independent merit selection process.
She was also the board director in whom Ms Guthrie confided about an alleged incident of inappropriate conduct involving Justin Milne during a board dinner in 2017.
Ms Walford says she was alarmed by the allegations and immediately asked for a board meeting to discuss the alleged incident. The meeting included Mr Milne himself.
"I still to this day think I did the right thing," she says.
"When there have been allegations made about someone in business, we've always first of all gone to that person and said 'these are the allegations and we need to investigate'.
"I just followed my training."
Guthrie flees Parliament
Former ABC boss Michelle Guthrie leaves Parliament House in a taxi via the loading dock.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
Board director Joseph Gersh has requested to give some evidence to the inquiry in camera, so they have gone into a private session that we can't see or report.
In the meantime, photographer Dominic Lorrimer has filed this shot of former ABC boss Michelle Guthrie leaving Parliament House in the back of a taxi.
It's very hard to tell but if you look closely she is visible through the tinted glass.
This was after reporters chased Ms Guthrie through the basement of Parliament House intending to ask her questions as she left the building.
But she was ushered to the loading dock - an out of bounds area for the cameras - and into a taxi with the help of security and the Australian Federal Police.
During her testimony to the inquiry, Ms Guthrie also requested that camera operators left the room so she could not be photographed or filmed by the media.
The Parliament House livestream still broadcast the session, however.
Guthrie was fired for performance: Gersh
ABC board director Joseph Gersh is stressing that the board decided to fire Michelle Guthrie for reasons of her own performance - issues that were unrelated to the editorial controversies around Emma Alberici or Andrew Probyn.
ABC board director Joseph Gersh gives evidence to the Senate inquiry on Friday.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
He says while those issues fascinated the media and "all seem very significant", it was actually Ms Guthrie's poor management that prompted her removal.
That is why the board was able to sack Ms Guthrie on the same day it commissioned a private investigation into her allegations against then chairman Justin Milne, Mr Gersh says.
The two issues were were regarded as "independent of each other".
Board director Joseph Gersh speaks
We're hearing firs from ABC board member Joseph Gersh - the newest director to join the broadcaster, having taken up the role in May after he was appointed by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield.
Mr Gersh played a special role in the turmoil that engulfed the ABC - he was selected by the board to meet with Ms Guthrie to discuss her allegations of inappropriate conduct by Justin Milne.
At that meeting - at the A1 Canteen in Sydney, near the ABC's Ultimo HQ - he asked Ms Guthrie several times if she wanted to file a formal complaint against Mr Milne, and she refused.
He also asked Ms Guthrie if she wished to resign, and she said "no".
Mr Gersh goes on to say that he believes the ABC board works in a collegiate and respectful manner. He concedes it could perhaps do with an additional member who has extensive experience in media or digital transformation.
Guthrie flees the building
Quite the bit of excitement during the lunch break at this Senate inquiry, as Michelle Guthrie fled the building through the basement, chased by journalists.
So keen was she to get away from the cameras that she was taken through the loading dock by Parliament House security.
Media tried to catch her at the exit but she did not appear again. There was, however, a contingent of federal police officers.
It's possible Ms Guthrie got into a taxi without being seen, or may have been ushered back through the building to another exit.
At any rate, the Senate inquiry has now resumed for the afternoon, with three board directors to appear: Joseph Gersh, Donny Walford and Jane Connors.
'I was incredibly surprised'
Michelle Guthrie says she was "incredibly surprised" when she found out that accusations she made about Justin Milne's behaviour were relayed back to him by the board director she had confided in.
Ms Guthrie has accused Mr Milne of touching her inappropriately at a dinner in November in 2017. She has refused to give further details about the alleged incident. Mr Milne vehemently denies the allegation.
Ms Guthrie first told board director Donny Walford about the incident in August. She says she was under the impression Ms Walford was going to share the information with the rest of the board - excluding Mr Milne.
Ms Guthrie tells the inquiry she was "incredibly surprised" when she found out Mr Milne had been informed of the allegations. She later met with another board director, Joseph Gersh, to discuss the claims. At that meeting, Ms Guthrie declined to lodge a formal complaint.
She believes the meeting was not designed to elicit a formal complaint but to convince her to resign as managing director.
'The most incredible and ludicrous proposition'
Michelle Guthrie addresses the Senate inquiry in Canberra on Friday.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
Michelle Guthrie is now addressing the $500 million project called Jetstream, which sort of sits in the background of the chaos that engulfed the ABC this year.
Basically, the broadcaster wants to create a giant digital database of all content to set itself up for a post-broadcasting future. It's going to be very expensive and it wants capital investment from the government.
Mr Milne was intent on driving the project forward. But Ms Guthrie grew sceptical - following the $83 million funding freeze in the budget - that the Coalition would give the ABC an extra $500 million.
Mr Milne believed the ABC's chance of getting the money was jeopardised by the government's unhappiness with journalists such as Emma Alberici and Andrew Probyn.
But Ms Guthrie says the broadcaster never stood a chance of receiving the money.
The very suggestion of firing the chief political editor of the ABC in order to secure funding for Jetstream seemed to me to be the most incredible and ludicrous proposition," she says.
She has also been critical of the composition of the ABC's board of directors, arguing it lacked sufficient media and public sector experience. This is a point that has been made widely inside and outside the ABC, including by the journalists' union and ABC Alumni.
Who do you believe?
They can't both be right.
Michelle Guthrie tells the inquiry she spoke to Justin Milne on June 15 during which the then chairman berated her and told her to "shoot" political editor Andrew Probyn.
She has provided a rough transcript of this conversation, alleging Mr Milne said words akin to "Malcolm [Turnbull] hates Probyn" and that "Andrew is a problem, we need to deal with this and get rid of him".
Mr Milne vehemently denies this exchange ever took place. Ms Guthrie says she took notes - not immediately but up to a week after the conversation.
"It absolutely happened," she says. She also maintains Mr Milne was "very aggressive" over the phone.
Guthrie hits back over her performance
Michelle Guthrie has hit back at Justin Milne's claims her performance was ABC managing director was "shocking".
She doesn't deny she scored poorly on a so-called 360 review of her leadership - a review completed by the board and her direct reports.
Justin Milne watches on as Michelle Guthrie gives evidence to the Senate inquiry.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
Mr Milne told the inquiry Ms Guthrie scored in the bottom 4 per cent of chief executives for integrity and was also rated as "arrogant", "autocratic" and "distant".
She argues the 360 review was not supposed to be a performance review but a "personal development tool", and suggested it was misused by the board as an excuse to sack her.
"It is very clear it is not how the survey is meant to be used. It is a personal development tool, not a tool for sacking people," she says.
Ms Guthrie says she did not have a conversation with Mr Milne about her performance until August, and was not aware he regarded her as a poor leader.
That is despite Mr Milne's board having already asked director Donny Walford to coach Ms Guthrie on her leadership following the poor 360 results.
Guthrie says she discussed punting Alberici
Michelle Guthrie admits she had conversations with ABC news director Gaven Morris about moving Emma Alberici out of her role as chief economics correspondent.
In particular, they had concerns about Alberici's ability to write extended economic analysis.
"One of the issues which Mr Morris and I were discussing … was whether she [Alberici] was well-suited to the role of chief economics correspondent, particularly in relation to the need to write long-form analytical articles," Ms Guthrie tells the Senate inquiry.
She does not deny Justin Milne's claim that the idea of sacking Alberici originated from ABC management, not from him as chairman.
Most Viewed in Politics
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "ABC Senate inquiry LIVE: Michelle Guthrie accused by Justin Milne of fabricating evidence - The Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment