ABC investigative reporter Louise Milligan has blasted claims managing director David Anderson quit the broadcaster after a row with chair Kim Williams over a Four Corners expose.
Anderson quit suddenly last week just one year into his second five year term in the role, triggering a tsunami of speculation about the real reason for the decision.
Rumours have since spread that Anderson and Williams had a bruising ‘difference of opinion’ about Milligan’s Four Corners doco on the workplace culture at Seven West Media.
Sources told Daily Mail Australia Williams reportedly told Anderson the episode of the hard-hitting series was ‘weak as p***’ and had reservations about it going to air.
But Anderson is alleged to have ignored Williams’ concerns and took the decision to broadcast the episode, despite the testimony of one former employee having to be edited out because of legal issues.
The speculation was published by journalist James Madden in The Australian’s Media section on Monday, triggering a furious reaction from Milligan on social media.
‘[The] Australian is happy to publish fiction. Again,’ she posted on X.
‘Their story this evening is as fake as the fake private investigators they once said on page one that we hired.
Investigative reporter Louise Milligan took to X to vehemently deny a falling out with outgoing managing director David Anderson
ABC managing director David Anderson has announced he’s stepping down from the top job
‘It’s happened so many times now in their creepy, weird, obsessive campaign I shouldn’t be surprised.’
She added: ‘The same journalist, who printed this latest fiction, wrote 3 years ago I was ‘at war’ with the ABC MD when I’d only had positive dealings with David Anderson, & I was instead, in fact, in bed 24-7, recovering from a major operation.
‘I don’t understand. It’s all so deeply weird.’
In a later tweet, she revealed that she and Madden were one-time cadet colleagues 24 years ago, recalling him as a ‘nice, normal, laid back kind of guy back then’.
‘I feel sad about how he’s taken to printing false stories about a former colleague who never did him any harm,’ Milligan wrote.
The ABC addressed the Australian’s report on Monday afternoon by branding the article as ‘false’ in a public statement.
‘The ABC informed the journalist before publishing that the unsourced claim was baseless but The Australian went ahead and published it anyway,’ the statement on the broadcaster’s website read.
The tweets come days after Anderson resigned but he will stay on into the new year before collecting a bumper penion payday.
According to the ABC’s annual report from the 2022-23 financial year, the corporation’s top executive received a total remuneration package of $1,156,969, increasing year-on-year by $120,000.
Under the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme, Anderson, who first joined the public broadcaster as a bike courier in Adelaide in 1989 and enjoyed a 35-year career at the ABC, is entitled to an annual CPI-indexed pension of at least 37 per cent of his final salary.
That would put the outgoing ABC boss’s total taxpayer-funded annual pension at almost $430,000 – more than four-and-a-half times the nation’s average income.
However, sources within the ABC have hinted Anderson may have negotiated an even higher pension package.
Meanwhile, highly regarded former Foxtel and Nine executive Amanda Laing is already being touted as the hot favourite to succeed Anderson after he winds up next year.
Anderson was appointed to a second term in the role in 2023 but will step down once a replacement is found.
Louise Milligan called out The Australian on X
In a note to all ABC staff on Thursday, he said he expected to remain in the role until at least the start of 2025.
Anderson said he was grateful to new chair Williams and the board for their support and efforts to persuade him to stay on for a full second term.
‘Their unabashed enthusiasm for the importance and future of the corporation makes this decision easier,’ he said.
‘I am confident the timing is right for both me and the ABC.’
Williams, a former News Limited chief executive who took over from Ita Buttrose as chair in March, said the delayed resignation would ensure a smooth transition.
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