Gold Walkley winner resigns amid board feud

2 months ago 5

Three Walkley Foundation directors, including this year’s Gold Walkley winner, have resigned as a result of a two-year internal wrestle over control of the body which oversees Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards, the Walkley Awards.

Adele Ferguson, the foundation’s chair and the winner of this year’s highest honour, alongside former Four Corners boss Sally Neighbour and writer Victoria Laurie, informed board colleagues on Monday morning of their decision before providing a statement to this masthead.

It said their decision followed the union’s rejection of their proposals to reform its constitution.

This year’s Gold Walkley winner Adele Ferguson has resigned as the Walkley Foundation chair.

The resignations appear to be the culmination of a drawn-out battle, led by the trio, to introduce two new independent directors to the board of the foundation, with hopes of diluting the control of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). The statement from the resigning trio said the union proposed to add one MEAA-aligned director to the board.

“We have engaged in discussions on these issues for more than two years, proposing modest, widely supported reforms aimed at bringing the Walkley Foundation’s governance closer to best practice,” the statement said.

“MEAA’s proposal was both surprising and deeply disappointing. In our view, it would not advance the objectives of strengthening the Walkley Foundation’s independence or improving its governance. Instead, it would have the effect of reinforcing MEAA’s control over the Board.”

The union instead says it countered by offering to create two new director positions, increasing the board from seven to nine directors, with one new non-union director, and one additional union-appointed director, which would maintain control by the union.

Sally Neighbour, executive producer of Four Corners, will leave the ABC in May.

The remaining board directors were disappointed to be informed of the resignations, a statement from federal president of the MEAA’s media section Michael Slezak and vice presidents Bianca Hall and Kasun Ubayasiri said. The MEAA-aligned directors added that it was their understanding most of the contested issues had been agreed to in principle and that the resigning directors had misrepresented their proposal.

“On December 4, MEAA officer holder directors provided our final position, based on legal advice, and it appears there has a misunderstanding of that position,” the remaining three directors said.

“This includes our proposal to establish term limits (both an example of good governance and an item recommended by legal advice commissioned by the board) and of maintaining the current director balance (with the addition of two new directors put forward by MEAA directors, not the one new MEAA director that has been claimed).”

Last month, Ferguson, who chairs the foundation’s board was presented with the Gold Walkley by Neighbour, the chair of the Walkley Advisory Board, which oversees judging for the awards.

The three previous union representatives on the Foundation’s board resigned this year over the ongoing battle. The union has controlled the foundation and the awards since its inception 70 years ago.

The board was previously described to this masthead as fractious and dysfunctional in March, with lines drawn between those representing the union and those in non-union appointed directorships.

At the time, the union said the foundation’s constitution was so to ensure the foundation remained in the hands of journalists, not other professions such as lawyers, which had been proposed as an example of introducing new skill sets and expertise to its ranks.

There have been suggestions the internal battle has arisen due to the union’s increasing tendency to take positions on contested matters, albeit those that are largely supported among its membership.

The Walkley Foundation concluded a review into its sponsorship policies in 2024 and opted not to renew its partnership with Ampol after protests from a number of high-profile cartoonists in 2023.

The union also passed a resolution calling for ethical reporting in the Israel-Gaza conflict in late 2023.

The resigning directors said they had served their roles diligently and had been honoured to do so, but felt they could not properly discharge their fiduciary duties in an organisation whose governance was so deeply flawed, particularly after their attempts to bring about change failed.

“Now that our modest reform proposal has been comprehensively rejected – and MEAA has responded with a counterproposal that would further entrench its control - we feel we have no option but to resign forthwith.”

The trio said the union’s counterproposal would limit the chair of the Walkley Advisory Board, until this morning Neighbour, to a term of two years as well as changing the process of appointment and voting rules in ways that “weaken independent oversight and concentrate decision-making power”.

“Taken together, these changes raise serious governance concerns.”