Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

The government opposes the motion. Senator Henderson's attempts to obtain certain details of ABC salaries echo previous attempts by One Nation and smack of a personal vendetta against the ABC. The government supports transparency and accountability with respect to the ABC, and, as a Commonwealth entity, the ABC already discloses executive remuneration in its annual report in accordance with its obligations under the PGPA Act. The ABC also conducts an annual gender pay equity review and reports this in its annual report.

The ABC claimed public interest immunity in respect of Senator Henderson's recent attempt to obtain details from the ABC as part of the recent budget estimates process. The Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee carefully considered and ultimately accepted the ABC's public interest immunity claims that the provision of the information requested may result in unwarranted privacy concerns for identifiable employees, as well as commercial-in-confidence concerns for the ABC more generally.