ABC Boss Quits

ABC Managing Director Russell Balding has quit to become CEO of the Sydney Airports Corporation. Max Moore Wilton (former Howard Government hatchet man and brains, if that is the word, behind the Pacific Solution), is leaving for the Macquarie Bank. This comes one year ahead of the end of his 5 year contract, and after 10 years with the ABC. The news comes shortly after the appointment of a new Head of TV to the broadcaster, Kim Dalton, who has pledged to recommit to local content, of which the ABC produced a mere 3 hours in 2005.

Balding was credited with bringing stability to the ABC after the disastrous Jonathon Shier years, but the timing of his resignation has been harshly criticised by Stateline host and ABC staff delegate Quentin Dempster, coinciding as it does with the Federal Government's Funding Adequacy and Efficiency Review. Dempster has suggested that Balding's resignation at such a crucial time in the ABC's history could even endanger the broadcaster's future, and particularly its transition to new media forms.

But then, Balding's been made an `attractive' offer by Sydney Airports Corporation - itself at a crucial period as it faces a tough battle against the City of Sydney Council to build a massive (and massively unnecessary) shopping centre development - and that is, of course, all that matters.