There is something of a nautical theme developing in this column in 2026. Cast your minds back to February, with news of the veteran Daily Telegraph reporter Buzz Rothfield’s boozy boat party send-off. In March, there was Gina Rinehart’s $25,000 luxury boat for Sky host Rita Panahi’s birthday. On Thursday, this masthead revealed that one of the ABC’s top HR executives had resigned after questions about a team-building day, which he held on a rich lister mate’s yacht on Sydney Harbour!
So here’s the backstory.
Back on dry land, there had been significant churn over the past year in the ABC’s employee relations team, run by head of employment relations and safety Josh Keech.
Four of Keech’s in-house employment lawyers have moved on since January alone. Another two employment lawyers left the team last year too, according to internal correspondence seen by On Background. That left just one remaining employment relations counsel still aboard.
It’s a rate of turnover in a small team that would be notable at any time, but it came during crucial pay bargaining negotiations with ABC staff and unions led by Keech’s division.
Then there was the boat trip. On Background sources said one team member declined the invitation to go on the boat, which was made available to Keech as a personal favour by businessman and philanthropist Tom Snow.
Snow comes from serious money and has been politically influential. He’s the son of the late rich lister and Canberra Airport owner Terry Snow. According to The Australian Financial Review Rich List, the Snows were worth $1.46 billion in 2025, down from $4.1 billion in 2024, when the elder Snow died.
The younger Snow went on to become founder and co-chair of the official campaign to support a Yes vote for marriage equality in 2017. He made headlines again in 2023 when he played host to NSW Governor Margaret Beazley at his wedding, aboard, you guessed it, a boat.
On Thursday, the ABC made it clear it did not pay a cent for Keech and his team’s trip on the boat.
After this masthead sent a series of questions to Keech, the ABC’s chief people officer, Deena Amorelli, and an ABC spokeswoman yesterday just after midday, the broadcaster sprung into action in record time.
Shortly after lunchtime on Thursday, executives met in managing director Hugh Marks’ office, On Background has been told. Just before 3pm, a team meeting was called with the employee relations team, with Amorelli breaking the news of Keech’s resignation at 3.30pm. It was announced to the wider people and culture team via a statement just after 4pm.
On Background sources said management was already investigating the concerning turnover in such a small team while the most consequential bargaining negotiations in two decades were rolling on.
(That bargaining, we may remind you, did not go well. Union member staff voted down the ABC’s offer for a second time in March, resulting in employees walking off the job for 24 hours in the first strike at the broadcaster since 2006.)
In February, Keech wrote to his team asking for patience during the upheaval in his ranks, On Background has confirmed. On Thursday, Keech referred comment requests to the ABC, which would not comment beyond a note shared internally confirming his departure and thanking him for his service to the organisation.
As far back as September, this column reported Keech had written to the union warning of “psychosocial risk of harm” that could be caused by a union campaign to encourage staff to write anonymous messages to management highlighting their concerns about work conditions.
On Thursday, the ABC was also asked about an incident in December at the height of bargaining negotiations, in which Keech threatened a union staffer and another ABC delegate with defamation proceedings after they referred to his conduct as “union-busting tactics” in a meeting, according to three separate sources with direct knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In the lead-up to negotiations, several staffers told On Background that Keech openly boasted about having never lost a bargaining vote in his career.
The ABC and staff unions now have an in-principle deal that is all but certain to be approved. But along the way, the ABC lost not one but two bargaining votes. And Keech, well, he’s out.
On your marks
The circus around Nine’s Today show continues as current host Karl Stefanovic continues to build out the profile and platform of his independent podcast, The Karl Stefanovic Show.
While his Today co-host Sarah Abo is preparing to go on maternity leave around August, speculation about who might replace Karl when his one-year contract ends later this year has gone into overdrive. The bigger priority for Nine, however, is first figuring out who takes over from Abo in August, sources in the television newsroom say.
One name that has come up to potentially replace Stefanovic on Today (if he does leave) is sports presenter James Bracey, who has become an increasingly central figure on Nine’s coverage of major sporting events including the Australian Open and Olympics.
Should Bracey be chosen for the role, it would add an extra layer of intrigue to the morning wars on commercial television, with his best mate, former Olympic sprinter Matt Shirvington, currently occupying the host role on Seven’s Sunrise. Nine, which owns this masthead, was contacted for comment.
AI scare
Last week, this masthead reported on the increasing difficulty for news outlets covering the Iran war caused by the rapid rise in the use of artificial intelligence for propaganda by states, their proxies and rank opportunists.
This week, the ABC’s independent ombudsman found it had run squarely into those challenges. The national broadcaster quoted what appeared to be Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, during what it said was an appearance in military uniform, declaring to a crowd he was “fed up”.
“I want everyone to understand that the decision to ban any military activity of Hezbollah or affiliated elements [has been made] and anyone who violates this decision is breaking the law,” Aoun said, according to the ABC.
“No-one is above the law, and no-one is greater than their country.”
Unfortunately, as the ombudsman’s report notes, the remarks attributed to the Lebanese president were actually from an AI-generated video “rather than a genuine speech”.
The ABC News team accepted the findings, noting that it has reviewed its existing verification and fact-checking processes and will continue to do so in the future.
We here at On Background have sympathy for staff at the broadcaster trying to sort real from fake in an era of increasingly lifelike AI video. At least when Iran’s proxies depict US President Donald Trump as being made from Lego in their notorious propaganda videos, it’s easy to spot.
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.
