Board members will now be asked to give evidence at two inquiries into the unprecedented turmoil at the top of the ABC. "The big question is what on earth was the board doing while all of this was going on?" Mr Brown told Fairfax Media. "And behind that, you can ask how did they even come to be directors of the ABC? Well, they came to be directors of the ABC by a nominations system which is more honoured in the abuse than application of it." The government appointed half of the current ABC board without the endorsement of the independent nomination panel designed to depoliticise board appointments. Those directors appointed by Senator Fifield are Minerals Council of Australia chairwoman Vanessa Guthrie, South Australian businesswoman Donny Walford, and Melbourne lawyer Joseph Gersh, who is close to former treasurer Peter Costello. Acting chairwoman Kirstin Ferguson was rated highly by the panel but withdrew her application and only ended up on the board after a personal appeal by the government.

Senator Fifield has also appointed others to the SBS board who did not go through the nominations panel process. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The Morrison government is under pressure to reform the system in the wake of the ABC crisis but is so far resisting the calls. Mr Brown's own appointment to the four-person independent nominations panel in 2014 prompted claims of political interference given his Liberal Party links and public criticisms of the ABC. In his first public comments since his three-year term concluded last year, Mr Brown said the panel's work was "basically wasted".

"It was a very frustrating time because you could see you were going through the ritual with no prospect of really being listened to," he said. Former Liberal communications minister Neil Brown. Credit: "The spirit relating to the nominations panel has not been complied with. I think it has been ignored and ignored in a very serious and repetitive way." Mr Brown said the existing ABC board lacked legitimacy and should resign. "I don't see how they could possibly say they have exercised their functions properly."

Critics have claimed the board did not do enough to respond to documented evidence of Mr Milne's request to sack political editor Andrew Probyn and chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici, and only moved against him once the details became public. Mr Brown, who is now a QC, felt the panel had been verballed by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Senator Fifield when the pair last year announced the appointment of Mr Milne as the new ABC chairman. A press release announcing the decision claimed the panel had "recommended" Mr Milne, a close friend of Mr Turnbull. The panel placed Mr Milne on a list with at least four other candidates. "Now to me, that press release gave the impression that the panel actually said that Milne was the only one who should be appointed. It didn't. It seems to me the minister is grossly misleading people, actively misleading the public."

Senator Fifield declined to comment on Mr Brown's criticism. Loading Of Dr Guthrie's 2017 appointment against the panel's advice, Mr Brown said: "How can you say you've applied the spirit of the nominations panel when you appoint Vanessa Guthrie but concede she was not even recommended by the panel?" He was also "staggered" when the Coalition gave Ms Walford a role on the ABC board in 2015. "We had never seen her. She didn't apply. She had no application form and didn't express any interest in the job so far as I know."