A staff director is essential to protect ABC’s independence

WHEN Communications Minister Helen Coonan announced her intention to introduce legislation to amend the ABC Act and abolish the position of staff-elected director on the ABC board, she cited claims that the position created uncertainty about accountability.Contrary to the minister's view, there has never been uncertainty about this position. All directors are obliged to act independently, in the best interests of the ABC. Only the method of our appointment differs. I am elected by the staff. All the other board members have been picked by the Government, except the managing director, who has been picked by the board.

I am the only director independent of the government.

The election of a staff director means that at least one member of the board brings expertise in journalism, broadcasting and a working knowledge of the role and functions of the public broadcaster and its importance in the cultural life of the country.

Since the creation of the corporation in 1984, the staff-elected director has provided balance to party-political stacking of the board. Previous incumbents have also been publicly engaged in defending the role and independence of the ABC and making sure that its obligations under the charter were upheld. The position has evolved as a vital structural element in the protection of the ABC's strategic and editorial independence. The staff-elected director raised concerns in the early 1990s about the ABC's proposed commercial partnership with Fairfax and Cox (US) in pay TV in Australia.

In 1995, the then staff-elected director, Quentin Dempster, (backed by staff) assisted the Senate in its inquiries exposing breaches of the ABC Act through backdoor sponsorship, a point acknowledged at the time by Coonan's predecessor, Richard Alston, in his Senate report Our ABC.

In 2000, then staff-elected director Kirsten Garrett debated the provision of the ABC's programming output to Telstra's broadband portals. Had the ABC entered into such a partnership with Telstra, we may now have been in even greater financial difficulties.

In October 2002, I informed the chairman of my unwillingness to support a number of proposals in the Board Directors Handbook, a document not binding under law and which serves as a gentleman's agreement. I assured the chairman and the board that I fully intended to act in accordance with my legal obligations under the Corporations Law and the ABC Act.

Among other problems, the document attempted to make the actions of individual directors subject to approval by the chairman or the majority of the board. This is contrary to the requirement that directors act at all times independently and in good faith.

Since 2002, I have made 11 reports to staff while I have been a member of the board. Each is prefaced with a statement about legal limitations on my ability to discuss many matters. As well as containing a summary of the issues I took to the board, they contained a summary of my views about board decisions.

I have never breached confidentiality in this role. I have simply raised concerns about the potential for political interference. Board governance was at the heart of the matter that led to the resignation of Maurice Newman in 2004, when managing director Russell Balding decided to contract out monitoring of the ABC's news and current affairs coverage in a non-election period without his seeking a formal resolution of the board.

The minister's intervention in acting to abolish the staff-elected director position while an Australian Electoral Commission election is under way reveals the urgency of the Government's desire to control the ABC.

It is my sincere concern that the pressure on the ABC to conform to the Government's political agenda will only intensify in the coming months. This is a time of great uncertainty for the organisation as it searches for a new managing director and awaits the Government's latest political manoeuvre in appointing a new chairman or perhaps extending the present chairman's appointment.

Coonan's announcement also mentions concerns about conflicts of interest and the effective functioning of the ABC Board. The board has functioned perfectly well in the four years since I first declined to be a part of the cosy club that presumably stands for modern principles of governance.

The Government would like there to be no conflict of interest at all between the ABC board and the Government. With the staff-elected director removed, this will place the Government in a position more like that of Silvio Berlusconi, who has his own TV stations as well as holding the state-owned media in his hands. Is this really what Australians want?

Ramona Koval is the staff-elected member on the ABC board