To: Chief of Staff

MEDIA RELEASE  3 June 2001

The ABC's Director of Television, Gail Jarvis, has resigned after just nine months in the job. Ms Jarvis is the third of Jonathan Shier's hand picked appointments to resign suddenly. She was preceded by Guy Dunstan and Tony Virgo. Mr. Hugh McGowan was offered a senior position in the ABC by Mr Shier, but the offer was withdrawn when he failed a psychological test. Ms Jarvis, Mr Dunstan and Mr Virgo all passed the test, but that does not appear to have saved them.

Before taking up duty as Managing Director of the ABC, Jonathan Shier arranged for headhunters to seek a new executive team for the ABC. Shortly after taking up his position he sacked a large number of ABC executives, including Head of News and Current Affairs, Paul Williams, and Head of National Networks, Andrew Lloyd-James.

Reacting to the announcement Friends of the ABC National Spokesperson Darce Cassidy said:

"The responsibility for this turmoil lies with the Managing Director, and the ABC Board. The ABC Board should urgently investigate whether or not the Managing Director is capable of selecting and maintaining an effective management team."

"The ABC is desperately underfunded. It can ill afford instability in the leadership team. Taxpayers can ill afford for millions of dollars of their money to be spent in redundancies, payouts, consultants and executive search fees, especially if that process only leads to more turmoil and resignations."

…..ends

Further comment: Darce Cassidy, National Spokesperson 0412 685 178