Which news outlets had the communications minister’s ear first?

Top brass at News Corp Australia and the Seven Network were among the first commercial news executives to get the ear of Communications Minister Michelle Rowland after she was sworn into office last year, after meeting first with leadership at the ABC and SBS.

According to the first three months of Rowland’s ministerial diary, obtained by Crikey through freedom of information laws, Rowland spent three hours at Seven’s Eveleigh headquarters in Sydney on August 22, one hour of which was spent lunching with James Warburton, CEO of Seven West Media, and other Seven executives.

The meet-and-greet was among the earliest in a series of introductions with Australia’s top media representatives in the early days of the Albanese government, after meeting leadership at both public broadcasters during the government’s first weeks in office.

One week later, Rowland headed down to News Corp’s Holt Street offices in Sydney to sit down with executive chairman Michael Miller for a two-hour lunch.

About three weeks after meeting with Miller, Rowland met with SBS managing director James Taylor on September 19 at the broadcaster’s Artarmon offices for a meeting and “short site visit”. 

She then dashed across town around lunchtime to meet with ABC executives again, including managing director David Anderson, as well as chief financial officer Mel Kleyn and director of strategy Mark Tapley.

The minister first met with ABC leadership in Canberra on June 8 last year, when she met with chair Ita Buttrose and Anderson, for 15 minutes, before sitting down with the ABC board for another 15 minutes. 

Before arriving in office, Rowland pledged to extend the three-year funding terms provided to both the ABC and SBS to five years, to safeguard their budgets from “political interference”. 

In November last year, Rowland announced in a speech to the Victorian Friends of the ABC that in addition to providing a five-year funding term to the ABC, the government had commenced work on a review of funding certainty for the public broadcaster. 

Rowland said the department had plans to hold targeted public consultation through 2023, but ruled out changes to the charters of both the ABC and SBS, along with the possibility of a merger between the two. 

Labor’s first budget, handed down in October last year, included a reversal to $83.7 million in cuts made to the ABC’s budget by the Coalition under previous governments. The ABC will receive the boost over four years, and is expected in May to receive confirmation of the government’s commitment to a five-year funding term.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said the communications minister met with news executives at News Corp and Seven before leadership at SBS. This is incorrect, and we apologise for the error.