The ABC board has sensationally given Managing Director Michelle Guthrie her marching orders just halfway through her term and amid months of heightening tension between herself and Government-appointed board directors.
Guthrie was officially sacked by the board – spearheaded by chairman Justin Milne – two-and-a-half years into her five-year appointed term.
In a statement confirming the sacking earlier this morning, the ABC stated the decision came as a result of “several months” of discussions, and that “it would not be in the best interests of the ABC” for Guthrie to continue in the position.
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Milne, a former NBN board member and Telstra executive who was appointed to the Chairman’s position by then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in March of last year, had reportedly been at-odds with Guthrie for several months, a time-period in which Guthrie was the public – and often lone – executive voice defending the ABC against a barrage of Coalition and Murdoch press-backed attacks on the public broadcaster’s operations.
The sensational sacking comes as the ABC looks to seek new leadership which it asserts will “benefit the organisation, its dedicated employees, and the ABC’s audiences.”
In the interim, the ABC’s current head of specialist and factual programming David Anderson will serve as the Acting General Manager while the board searches for a permanent replacement for Guthrie.
The board was at pains to assert that, by law, the process of hiring a Managing Director is one done solely by the board, totally independent of the Government and the Opposition of the day.
We’ll see how well that goes this time around.
