Communications minister Mitch Fifield says details should be made public by the end of November

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Coalition has demanded the ABC publish a list of the names and salaries of all staff who earn more than $200,000 by the end of November or it will change the law to force the broadcaster to comply.

The communications minister, Mitch Fifield, has written to the corporation’s chairman, Justin Milne, ahead of the introduction of legislation to change the ABC Act – which was part of a deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to get the media reform package through the Senate.

“Taxpayers are entitled to expect a high level of transparency about how their taxes are being expended on their behalf,” Fifield wrote in a letter which was leaked to the Herald Sun on Friday. “I request that the ABC voluntarily agree to provide this enhanced level of reporting and disclosure.”

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The ABC has refused to release the information on commercial-in-confidence grounds and believes that such a disclosure is contrary to the Privacy Act.

Salaries at the public broadcaster are much lower than those on the commercial networks, where stars can earn as much as $1m for reading the news.

The letter appears to be a response to managing director Michelle Guthrie’s dinner speech at the ABC Friends conference last week. In a reference to One Nation, she described the legislation as “a political vendetta by one party uncomfortable with being scrutinised by our investigative programs”.

Hanson told the Australian this week that the list of salaries was needed to prevent taxpayer dollars from being “squandered on dud talent”.

“Ms Guthrie has been drinking the ABC Kool-Aid for too long,” she said.



“Some of the television and radio personalities wouldn’t cut it in the real world of media and would likely end up throwing pots in Nimbin without the ABC providing a safe haven for their pathetic talent.”



In May, One Nation complained the party had received “unfair treatment” from the ABC and planned to reject “all bills associated with the budget” unless the broadcaster’s $1bn a year funding was cut by $600m over four years.

In April, Four Corners revealed bitter infighting among One Nation members in its program Please Explain.

Britain’s Tory government forced the BBC to reveal the salaries of stars in July, encouraged by newspapers often hostile to the corporation.

As well as the salary disclosure, Hanson secured a clause which says the ABC has to be “fair and balanced” and for the government to establish an inquiry into whether the ABC has an unfair advantage over commercial competitors.

Labor, the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team have said they will reject the proposed changes.

Fifield also responded to Guthrie’s speech with an opinion piece in the Australian on Monday in which he said opposition to the proposed changes to the ABC Act were “hysterical” and “unhinged”.

“The government will also ­require the ABC and SBS to disclose the salaries of its highest paid staff,” he wrote. “Our inspiration for this is the actions of that right-wing haven the BBC. In Australia the salaries paid to ministers, MPs, judges, military officers and senior civil servants are all public. It is in keeping with the temper of the times to expect similar transparency from the national broadcasters.”

A spokeswoman for Fifield said she could not give Guardian Australia the Fifield letter because it had been “an exclusive” for the Herald Sun.

The ABC declined to comment on the letter.