The ABC executive who sacked Antoinette Lattouf left the public broadcaster in February with a $342,436 termination payment, taking his pay to $836,098 for eight months as chief content officer, according to the ABC annual report.
Chris Oliver-Taylor resigned after his role was substantially downgraded by the ABC chair, Kim Williams, and weeks before he was to give evidence in the high profile court case brought by Lattouf.
The Lattouf case, which has cost $2.5m to defend, was referenced by Williams in the annual report, tabled in parliament on Friday.
In June, Justice Darryl Rangiah found Oliver-Taylor made the decision to unlawfully terminate Lattouf and that he moved fast in an attempt to “mitigate the anticipated deluge of complaints” and to “beat” a story about pro-Israel complaints which was to be published in The Australian.
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Rangiah found Oliver-Taylor “blithely ignored the risk that the ABC would be in contravention of the enterprise agreement and forged ahead with his decision to terminate”.
The federal court said the ABC breached the Fair Work Act when it terminated the casual broadcaster for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
Williams said the board and the new managing director, Hugh Marks, had acknowledged the ABC’s shortcomings and had apologised to Lattouf, saying the organisation had “let down its staff and audiences”.
The annual report revealed the highest paid executive was former managing director David Anderson, whose package was $1.2m. Anderson served in the role until March when Marks took over, finally departing in July after 35 years.
ABC news director, Justin Stevens, received $667,900, just behind the chief financial officer, Melanie Kleyn, on $707,253. Williams’ remuneration is $197,000 and the staff-elected director Laura Tingle, who serves on the board as well as global affairs editor is paid $64,910 for her board duties.
The ABC spent $48m on contractors and consultants, up $10m from the previous financial year, according to the accounts. Redundancy payments were also up to $6.7m from $4.3m in 2023-24. Marks restructured the content divisions and axed the digital content and innovation unit, resulting in 50 redundancies in June.
The ABC’s general appropriation from government was $990m and it received an extra $217m for transmission and distribution. Its wages bill was $619m, up from $584m last financial year. ABC commercial revenue was $28m.
Williams said the ABC’s operating revenue from government has fallen by 13.7% in real terms, which is an annual reduction of $150m and he will continue to advocate for an increase in funding.
“ABC budget allocation has not kept pace with rising costs and with the expanded services needed to meet public demand and ensure universal access to ABC services on platforms where citizens consume services,” he said.
“Funding the ABC represents a tiny proportion of federal outlays where these have declined from an overall share of 0.31% in 2000-01 to 0.13% today.”
The Labor government has guaranteed funding for the ABC and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in five-year terms.
ABC iview average weekly users increased 6% to 2.4 million in 2024–25 and the ABC has been the number one digital brand since December 2024.
