Former editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly Ita Buttrose has been appointed as the new chair of the ABC.
The role has been vacant for five months following the resignation of former chairman Justin Milne last September.
Mr Milne’s resignation came after reports of ABC management interfering in editorial decisions and calling for journalists to be sacked.
The ABC is also currently without a managing director, after former MD Michelle Guthrie was sacked by the ABC board last September.
Ita, who was the founding editor of Aussie women’s magazine Cleo and until late last year was a host on Channel 10’s breakfast program Studio 10, said she was honoured to be appointed to the role.
“The ABC is one of the most important cultural and information organisations in Australia and I am honoured to be given the opportunity to lead it,” she said.
She also touched on the organisation’s recent tumultuous leadership history.
“I think my most important role is to restore stability to the management of the organisation, to reassure the staff that life will go on as usual and to reassure the board, who has also been through a period of unrest, that it’s time to get the ABC functioning again with proper stable management and good frank discussion between the chair and whoever is the managing director,” Ita said.
“If there’s not a close relationship between the chair and the managing director, you cannot make an organisation work efficiently and well.”
Ita Buttrose departed her previous role at Studio 10 late last year. (Image: Getty)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison today officially announced he will recommend Ita for the role to the Governor-General.
“Ita, as we know, has the strength, the integrity and the fierce independence that she is known for to take stewardship of this important Australian institution,” Mr Morrison said.
“But it is not just her extensive experience in publishing and broadcasting which equips her for this role.”
“Australians trust Ita. I trust Ita and that’s why I have asked her to take on this role.”
The former Cleo editor said the organisation needs stability. (Image: Getty)
Ita said she is a loyal consumer of ABC content.
“I consider it one of the most important cultural and information organisations in our country and I’m honoured to be asked to lead it into the future,” she said.
“It is a voice of the Australian people. I think it reflects our identity, it tells our stories not just here in Australia but to the rest of the world, and I have grown up with the ABC.
“I’m a devoted listener to the ABC. I start my day with ABC News Radio, I don’t leave home without it.”
WATCH: Ita Buttrose’s farewell on Studio 10. Post continues after video…
But she rejected criticism that she was not equipped to lead the ABC into the future because she has no digital media experience.
“I have never been frightened of what technology offers to us in the media,” she said.
“It is the way of the future. We all know that. And the ABC has a part of that and it’s already working very hard in this field and I don’t intend that it shouldn’t keep doing so.
“We have a right to be there. It is the way of the future and the ABC must have that future.”
