Any inquiry must get to the bottom of political pressure on the ABC

You know a media storm has passed when the key participants now only appear in the gossip columns wining and dining with their best friends and mentors, followed by paparazzi shots through trees.

Thankfully, the acting chair of the ABC and the acting managing director are both doing a good job at getting things back on track. Life goes on for most staff who never wanted their leaders to be at the centre of attention in the first place. Stretched to the max by endless job cuts, it’s head down bum up on the shop room floors of ABC central.

But more thankfully, a raft of politicians have returned to Canberra today, and many still have the ABC eruptions in late September on their mind. Labor, Greens, Independents, Liberals and Nationals know that terms of references for a senate inquiry into what happened at the board level of the ABC and to the ABC more generally since the 2014 “no cuts” budget of Tony Abbott are being shown around in parliament back rooms this week.

Michelle Rowland, member for Greenway in Sydney’s west and shadow communications minister, issued a press release on 26 September stating Labor would seek a senate inquiry as soon as parliament resumes. That is today. Interestingly, the release states that “Liberal Interference” would be the subject of the inquiry.

Few at the ABC want the equivalent of a banking royal commission. But we do need a forensic inquiry with a focus on budget cuts and political pressure in the senate. Kristina Keneally is the new John Faulkner of senate questioning.

There are three separate parts of the tragedy at board level that went on show three weeks ago:

• The facts of political and editorial interference between the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, communications minister Mitch Fifield and ABC board members;

• the seeming misunderstanding of the role of board members (including the chair and MD) under the ABC Act; and

• the size of the funding cuts to the national broadcaster 2014-2018 and their effects on the independence and operational viability of the ABC.

All three of these go to the level of interference by the Abbott and Turnbull governments. And at the heart of the problem is upper level governance.

There is no mistaking that the three areas represent the worst crisis the ABC has faced for many decades. Whether by design and intent or not, the ability of the ABC to do its job was put in jeopardy. All politicians in my experience want to have their say about what the ABC puts to air, but the political pressure put on excellent reporters like Andrew Probyn for expressing an opinion as political correspondent was outrageous.

It required a straight bat from all at board level. The ABC Act under “Duties of the Board” (8.1b) states:

What part of this statement did the board – and, in particular, its chair – not understand?

Any inquiry will want to get to the bottom of what transpired at the upper reaches of the corporation to get some departments and staff of the ABC to bend to the will of its political masters of the day. In the cultural history of the ABC, the barbarians were halfway through the gate.

The inquiry should not be a rush job.

Since its remit could be governance issues, it will need to investigate how public broadcasters around the world deal with similar problems. The BBC, NHK in Japan, Deutsche Welle, National Public Radio in the US and so on have differing ways of selecting their boards and relating to government. The Australia Institute has already come up with four good suggestions on reforming the current nomination process for ABC board members.

Nor should it be assumed that this will become a Labor v Liberal contest. It was Kevin Rudd who insisted on trying to depoliticise the way ABC boards were chosen. Abbott and Turnbull ignored his reforms and appointed most new members of the board by fiat. Now we are living with the consequences.

With more than 80% approval of the ABC and its place in Australian society, Australian voters would appreciate a bipartisan approach to this much-loved institution. It would be a giant step forward if the macho attitude of some parts of Australian politics took a breather and allowed the more moderate Liberals, Nationals and Independents to sustain a truly independent ABC.

A decent inquiry by the senate is step one towards that goal.

• Peter Manning is a former ABC TV head of news and current affairs and now is adjunct professor of journalism at UTS