One of the themes in the federal government’s appointment of directors to the ABC board which has been missed by commentators is the appointment of hoteliers to the position. The ABC has not one, but two hoteliers on its board. As Gallagher’s entry on the ABC website says:
“Mr Gallagher was formerly a Director of Mackay Television Limited (1971-1987) as well as a Director of companies operating hotels in Queensland and New South Wales from 1960 to 1996.”
The hotel business was a family one, and Gallagher was heavily involved, even to the extent that he online biog notes his contribution to the Australian Supplement of Halsbury’s Laws of England on “Licensing Laws”.
The other hotelier is Peter Hurley.
Perhaps they are prized for a presumed ability to settle a drunken brawl, the sort of thing which the government’s appointment of Keith Windschuttle to the board is likely to provoke over a leftist glass of red wine in Carlton or New Town.
I don’t have a problem with the government stacking the board of the ABC. On its past performance, once Labor is back in power, they’ll do the same thing, so the only way to maintain a balanced board over time is for the Liberals to do the same thing. I would however argue that they could have achieved more, with more effect, than by appointing such a talismanic figure as Windschuttle.
Anyway, it’s not as though the ABC board appears to be powerful enough to do anything, whether appointed by either side. Key ABC programmes continue to be as biased as they ever have been, with no sign that anything can be done to change that. The fact that Michael Duffy’s programme, the only one with any consistently right-wing point-of-view, can be called “Counterpoint” tells you all that you need to know.