In this week’s On Background, more moves at the ABC, a colourful US anti-tax activist takes on Australia, Stokes returns, and Q+A’s replacement program traverses familiar ground.
It’s so Gr-over
Just when it is finally getting off the ground, one of America’s most colourful anti-tax advocates Grover Norquist has taken aim at Labor’s News Media Bargaining Incentive.
Norquist, whose Americans for Tax Reform organisation is a staunch opponent of any and all tax increases, said in a statement this week that Australia has found “a new way to tax American success”.
He wants tech companies and media companies to negotiate freely, without the government “thumbing the scale”. That sounds lovely, but the problem has been that tech giants like Meta have done just about everything possible to avoid coming to the table with meaningful offers voluntarily, and even pulled news altogether to evade a previous version of the law. Add that to the fact that those same companies targeted by the new levy have also found many (legal) ways of sharply minimising their tax payments on these shores, and Grover’s rhetoric starts to look a bit thin. Of course, if the laws go through, Nine, the owner of this masthead stands to benefit.
“Canberra calls it support for journalism. It is a shakedown, and American companies are the mark,” said Norquist’s outfit on Tuesday. He once was a director with the National Rifle Association (NRA). For four decades he has championed conservative causes in the US capital and has been hell-bent on reducing the size of government. It comes as no surprise that he wants to put an end to a government policy to redirect funds from America’s biggest public companies to our own media ecosystem.
In 2001, he famously told American broadcaster NPR he didn’t want to wish away the government entirely and merely wanted “to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub”.
Ironically, he is also a non-interventionist on foreign policy. So maybe sit this one out, buddy!
Case closed?
There are still major outstanding questions for the ABC, after it took down a further three pieces of content fronted by Mahmood Fazal on Monday that it had concluded did not meet its editorial standards.
Who, if anyone, in Four Corners knew about the identity of his sources? If no one did, how did the cavalcade of masked ne’er-do-wells make it on screen with lurid tales of the underworld? And who approved the payment for the rental of a Mercedes-Benz, which was then presented on-screen as belonging to a high-flying drug dealer during an episode of the ABC’s flagship show?
While the entire chain of command above Fazal when those Four Corners stories were published has since left the ABC for a variety of reasons, only Fazal, the lead reporter, has publicly taken the fall. And even then, Fazal – who has denied any wrongdoing and said all his stories went through a robust editorial process – was sacked over a separate issue relating to an independent podcast.
What is clear though, speaking to senior staff inside the ABC this week, is that they now consider the matter dealt with. That is barring any further complications from a looming report by the broadcaster’s independent ombudsman.
But that hasn’t stopped managing director Hugh Marks remaking the ABC’s news division in the aftermath of the scandal.
Acting News boss Lee Glendinning told staff this week the ABC has to work to restore trust with its audiences, following its repeated failings. She was acting for Donna Field, who is acting for Simon Robinson until he arrives at the ABC on September 14. The ABC will wait to allow Robinson, a former Reuters executive, to appoint the broadcaster’s next investigations and current affairs boss himself, following Jo Puccini’s departure this month.
Robinson could go external, but there are some big players remaining at the broadcaster. Foreign Correspondent boss Morag Ramsay has been appointed interim investigations boss. Caitlin Shea, the long-time boss of Australian Story, who Marks chose to head up his ABC’s new documentary unit, is another possible contender for a top news job. As would be Sean Nicholls, the head of the special investigations unit.
Whoever gets the current affairs gong at the ABC will have to preside over a fiefdom built on shifting sands. Earlier this year, Stevens shifted one of the ABC’s two most expensive shows, 7.30 out of the investigations and current affairs division and into the main newsroom (yes, at the ABC they are different things).
Then there’s Background Briefing, the investigative radio program, which has also bounced between the current affairs and investigations division and Radio National. It appears it will stay within the investigations team for now.
“7.30 was moved to better align with the other national teams as well as the digital teams,” an ABC spokeswoman said.
We wish whichever executive puts their hand up to build an empire on that somewhat treacherous terrain all the best.
Stokes rides again
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,” said Al Pacino in The Godfather III.
Well, that was the case this week when the Perth father himself, Kerry Stokes, spent some loose change to up his stake at the company soon to be known as Seven Media Group from 20 to 23 per cent. That’s the outfit that owns radio station Triple M, broadcaster Seven and The West Australian tabloid newspaper.
Australian media (including this masthead) had largely written off the billionaire as a media owner last year when he engineered the merger of his company, Seven West Media, with Triple M owner Southern Cross Austereo.
Stokes left the board, Southern Cross chairman Heith Mackay-Cruise took charge, and that appeared to be that. Only, it wasn’t, and Mackay-Cruise soon departed, to be replaced by Stokes-aligned figures in a suite of senior roles.
The 85-year-old billionaire’s thinking is a bit of an unknown at this point, but he wielded no shortage of influence behind the scenes last time he was thoroughly in charge. One theory behind his move? Trying to creep back up the register to get ahead of share buying by his old lieutenant Bruce McWilliam (who has the financial backing of Gina Rinehart). McWilliam has said there is unrealised value in the company, with its share price sitting at 56 cents on Thursday.
It all shows that for Kerry, it was never really about the money. If it was, he would have sold a long time ago.
Imitation on Immigration
Save the date! There’s more happening at the ABC on September 14.
The same day Robinson arrives, the ABC’s second National Forum will go to air. Many have been wondering what happened to the big shiny Q+A replacement after March’s Antisemitism debate. Fear not, On Background can reveal the next bright idea is a debate over another hot topic: immigration.
The lineup is yet to be decided, but with Robinson sitting down to watch the ABC’s flagship current affairs night of programming after his first day on the job, there will be hopes National Forum’s second outing does better than the first run. That had an average audience of just 342,000 in the usual Four Corners time slot.
Reviewers at the time said it looked like a copycat of SBS’s Insight (which launched its 2026 season with a debate on immigration), while industry title TV Tonight said it “did not make for compelling television”.
The new boss will likely be the judge of that.
The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.
CORRECTION
An earlier version of this story said Grover Norquist is on the NRA board of directors. He was on the board from 2000-2018.
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.From our partners
About the Author
