 |
|
|
|
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is drafting legislation to bar former politicians and political staffers from board seats at the country’s two state-run broadcasters.
ABC and SBS managers have long complained that the political hacks Canberra puts in charge have long failed to be anywhere near as partisan as the staff.
But it’s possible that Senator Conroy is merely concerned that there are already too many politicians on the ABC without them being appointed to the board as well. This logic would also lead to other high-profile board disqualifications including Tony Jones and James O’Loughlin.
The government is understood to be trialling new software that identifies potential board members automatically by trawling internet news sites and finding anyone with at least 100 but no more than 1000 mentions, excludes those mentioned in the past six months, and puts them on the ABC shortlist. SBS would then take candidates from the shortlist whose surnames end in a vowel.
Senator Conroy simultaneously accused the previous government of going “down [former Prime Minister John Howard’s] Christmas card list” to find appointments while conceding that “We have not been innocent in past lives on this”. Senator Conroy was referring to a notorious Hawke-Keating government practice of appointing people straight from Mr Howard’s Christmas card list.
Senator Conroy has not ruled out allowing the two broadcasters to merge back-office functions such as corporate services and ALP candidate recruitment.
Few Australians will notice, let alone applaud, a plan that gets politicians out of the ABC. Far better for Senator Conroy to come up with a plan to get Bert Newton off Nine.
Mike Bailey always presented the weather with a heavy pro-Labor slant.
