In response to a letter from a member of Friends of the ABC (NSW) Labor leader Kevin Rudd confirmed that the ALP will establish a non-partisan and transparent approach to the appointment of the ABC Board.  Mr Rudd's letter said in part:

Labor is committed to ending the practice of Governments making political appointments to the ABC Board. Under Labor, appointments will be based on merit, not mateship.

Since 2003 Labor has argued that there should be an open and transparent process for making appointments to the ABC board. Vacancies should be advertised and there should be clear merit based selection criteria. Labor's policy provides for an independent selection panel to undertake a proper shortlist selection process.

Most importantly the selection of the shortlist would be independent of the Minister. If the Minister does not appoint a short listed candidate he or she will have to table a formal statement of the reasons for departing from the shortlist to the Parliament.

This process will make it virtually impossible for a political crony to be short listed for an ABC Board appointment.                                                    

In an interview with Kerry O'Brien on the 7.30 Report  Rudd took this further indicating that similar rules would apply to Labor's proposed industrial relations umpire and perhaps  to all public institutions.  He said:

Well, I give you this as an absolute guarantee here on your program. I will not be prime minister of this country and appoint some endless tribe of trade union officials to staff or ex trade union officials to staff the key positions in this body....

I'm passionate about the integrity of public institutions. Public institutions have been prostituted by this Government so much over the last decade that we've actually got to draw a line. We need to restore the integrity of institutions so that they are put beyond the reach of partisan politics.

Here's another guarantee for you. I will not make an appointment of any former politician or political staffer to any position on the board of the ABC. We've got to restore the integrity of institutions like the ABC fully. We've got to also make sure that bodies such as the future Fair Work Australia is properly constituted as well.

It seems from these responses that the Labor Party may be extending its existing policy on the appointment of the ABC Board to apply to other public institutions.  This is the position in the U.K., where the Nolan Rules, to which the ALP policy for the ABC Board has some resemblance, apply to all major public institutions.

While this seems to be a very positive development in Labor policy, Mr Rudd's position on advertising on the ABC appears more ambiguous.

Early in April 2007 former Staff Elected Directors of the ABC wrote to Managing Director Mark Scott regarding reports that the ABC might run advertising on its web sites.  Scott replied that the while the ABC accepted advertisements on its so-called "external" websites, which presumably included its Countdown site, it would not accept advertisements on its mainstream sites without "widespread scrutiny". Labor's Communications Spokesperson, Senator Stephen Conroy, was quoted as saying:

Our view is that advertising would undermine the independence of the ABC and could seriously damage its editorial integrity. We will not accept advertising on any part of the ABC and we would amend the Act to make it unlawful.(The Australian, 5 April, 2007)  (Emphasis added)

In response to a later letter from Judith Rodriguez (President, Friends of the ABC, Victoria) Kevin Rudd repeated the substance of his earlier response to the appointment process for the ABC Board. However with regard to the issue of advertising Mr Rudd appeared to retreat from the earlier commitment given by Senator Conroy.

Senator Conroy had said that Labor would not allow advertising on "any part of the ABC".  Mr Rudd, in his reply to Judith Rodriguez, said that Labor would prohibit advertising on "ABC branded sites".

Does this draw a distinction between sites, like the Countdown site, which are owned by the ABC, but do not display the ABC logo, and sites like http://www.abc.net.au which are also owned by the ABC and which do carry the ABC logo?

If so, why should advertising be permitted on some ABC web sites and not on others?

I will be writing to Mr Rudd to clarify both the appointments issue and the issue of advertising on ABC web sites.

                                                                                                                                                               Darce Cassidy May 2007