Michelle Guthrie was paid $911,917 – just over one year’s salary – when her employment was terminated half way into her five-year tenure last September, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

The sacked managing director then launched legal action against the ABC which was settled out of court on Friday, resulting in a confidential settlement.

Under questioning at a Senate inquiry on Tuesday the ABC board refused to disclose how much the first female managing director received.

However, the amount was revealed on Wednesday by acting managing director David Anderson at senate estimates under parliamentary privilege. He said Guthrie was paid $730,000 to drop her legal action, taking her total payout to $1.64m.

The ABC board told the inquiry that the former managing director was paid more than the $800,000 which was reported by the broadcaster in November.

The inquiry also heard that an independent investigation ordered by the ABC board into allegations of political interference by former chairman Justin Milne had been aborted.

“Ms Guthrie advised us that in light of the federal court proceedings, she was not willing to participate, and the board resolved ... that we would not be able to progress that investigation,” acting ABC chair Kirsten Ferguson said on Tuesday.

Ferguson said former ABC board member Simon Mordant was recruited to help settle with Guthrie and acting managing director David Anderson did the final negotiations with his former boss.

Earlier in the day, Triple J content manager Ollie Wards told the committee that Milne warned Guthrie and radio executives that the government would not give the ABC any more money if it angered them by moving the Triple J Hottest 100 away from Australia Day.

Wards said he was summoned to a meeting with Milne, Guthrie and radio executive Michael Mason after research found the youth audience wanted the special event moved away from Australia Day.

Milne told him there was going to be a “pitch for a project called Jetstream” and moving the Hottest 100 would be “too controversial” at the moment.

During what Wards described as a “heated discussion”, Milne told him that “activists can get burnt at the stake” and it was better to avoid making a controversial decision in the interests of a good relationship with the government and the community.

“He was talking about Galileo, the astronomer, that he had gotten burnt at the stake for saying that the world was rotating around the sun,” Wards said.

Wards said he was “disappointed and surprised” by the pressure he was put under to reverse the decision so as not to put the government offside and that Guthrie “didn’t say much” to back him up.

Milne said words to the effect “Malcolm [Turnbull] will call me and tell me I’m crazy”, Wards said.

Hottest 100 winners @oceanalleyau ready to record new music in "maybe a week"https://t.co/vV5SbOv16I pic.twitter.com/dCqy6atVNq — triple j (@triplej) January 29, 2019

Wards said he was told to “take one for the team” and to “look after interests of the whole ABC” rather than follow the wishes of the Triple J audience.

Guardian Australia reported last year that Milne had opposed the move and said “Malcolm [Turnbull] will go ballistic” – but Wards has now revealed that Guthrie was at that meeting and that Milne directly linked the move to the funding of Jetstream, Milne’s pet project to invest in digital infrastructure at a cost of $500m.

Milne told the meeting Jetstream was more important than the Hottest 100 music countdown, the inquiry heard.

Wards said he was “a little deflated” after a year of extensive consultation with the audience to be told he had to reverse the decision.

While Guthrie did not defend the Triple J position, Mason said it would be “catastrophic to the Triple J brand” not to move the event.

Milne told the executives to go away and come up with another plan.

The inquiry heard the board later discussed the issue and decided to allow Triple J to make its own decision.

On this day 30 years ago, the very first Hottest 100 went to air on @triplej, and from 1989-1991 you could vote for songs released in ANY year.



What song do you think would win if we voted now? pic.twitter.com/6h5vgMEYde — Double J (@DoubleJRadio) March 5, 2019

In earlier evidence, staff-elected director Jane Connors said she had been warned by outgoing staff-elected director Matt Peacock that Milne had a tendency to meddle.