The Prime Minister has announced the nomination of former News Limited CEO Kim Williams as the next Chair of the ABC. Mr Williams will take over from current Chair Ita Buttrose after her term ends in March. He was nominated to take the top position by an independent panel and would be appointed for five years. Kim Williams has spoken about the appointment and his views about the
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00:00 King Williams, thank you for making time for us here at the ABC.
00:06 You're the new boss, it's always good to hear from you.
00:08 The moment that your announcement of the new job has been made, the ABC is an institution
00:14 that provokes a lot of public debate, a lot of public scrutiny, perhaps more so than some
00:19 of the other organisations you've led in recent times.
00:24 How does that sit with you?
00:25 How does that frame your approach to the job?
00:27 I think I've had constant public scrutiny in most of the organisations that I've run.
00:35 I was the CEO of the Australian Film Commission back in the 1980s and it was certainly the
00:42 subject of very regular scrutiny, both in this building in Parliament House and externally
00:48 in a variety of media environments as we reshaped and reset all of the basis of film and television
00:57 production incentives in Australia.
01:00 At the Film Finance Corporation, which was an outcome from that, there was a lot of scrutiny.
01:06 The scrutiny at Fox Studios, setting up a film studio in the centre of the eastern suburbs
01:13 of Sydney was a matter of apparently dire consequence for the good citizens of the eastern
01:20 suburbs and received a huge amount of media scrutiny, including I think one of the largest
01:25 campaigns the Sydney Morning Herald has ever run.
01:28 So I'm not averse to scrutiny and in fact I think scrutiny is part and parcel of things
01:34 that matter and the ABC is an enormously important national institution to the sense of togetherness
01:44 in Australia and it is a mechanism for Australians talking with each other and talking about
01:50 their nation and examining their nation and interrogating the directions of the nation.
01:57 It has a charter which is unique in the Australian legislative landscape and I think the corollary
02:03 to that is scrutiny because to get the ABC properly run, properly managed is in fact
02:09 a creature of this Parliament and if you're a creature of the Parliament you better stand
02:14 up to scrutiny because it's a public institution and it's accountable to the public.
02:19 Do you think in some of the discussion around the ABC, scrutiny verges into something else?
02:24 Verges into vexatious complaints or things like that?
02:28 Look, I think in any media environment one encounters a certain degree of vexatious representation
02:40 that comes with news in particular where clearly often emotions can be very volatile.
02:49 It is important that the ABC at all times maintains a balanced and sober response to
02:57 that sort of scrutiny and defends its position in a way that is not grandiloquent but is
03:04 in fact calm, measured and authoritative.
03:10 It doesn't particularly bother me that sometimes people can be fairly extreme in their expression
03:17 of things, about things that they care about.
03:20 What is important is that the ABC is professionally measured in response.
03:24 Do you think the ABC has been measured in its response to some of the recent criticism
03:28 it's been receiving such as with regards to its coverage of the Israel-Gaza war?
03:32 Matt, I'm not yet the chair of the ABC.
03:35 That won't happen until March.
03:36 You are a public consumer though.
03:38 I guess you've been sitting there at home watching, reading, listening to the comments.
03:41 That will not happen until March and I think it's best that I take extensive soundings
03:48 with the workforce of the ABC, with my colleagues on the ABC board and obviously with the editorial
03:55 and general leadership group at the ABC before I venture into the various potholes with dealing
04:08 with responses to current news and current affairs coverage.
04:12 Taking some of those soundings, you'd clearly be aware of some of the disquiet within the
04:16 organisation at the moment.
04:17 It was only earlier this week that a no confidence motion was passed by some union members, 125
04:24 to 3 against the current managing director, David Anderson.
04:29 Given that sentiment is strong within the ABC workforce, when you're getting those soundings
04:37 from staff, how do you seek to address those sort of morale concerns or those concerns
04:42 about editorial direction?
04:45 I think the best response in all matters of morale which reflect intense opinion and feeling
04:55 about directions editorially is to listen and to encourage discussion where there is
05:04 no sense of punitive response but there is a sense of genuine managed engagement.
05:11 .
05:12 and I'm married.
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