Staggering sum ABC bosses splurged on top execs’ Eurotrip is exposed – while one of their very experienced colleagues got the short straw
- Top executives had a huge budget to travel to Europe
- Two received thousands to fly in luxury
ABC executives were flown to Europe on $20,000 business class tickets to host a week of podcasts, all at taxpayers’ expense. However, one of their senior colleagues was demoted to economy class.
The public broadcaster paid more than $30,000 to send three executives to the Radiodays conference in Munich, the EBU conference in Prague and a meeting with the BBC in London from March 14 to 21 this year.
Documents released by the ABC under the Freedom of Information Act show that the broadcaster’s head of audio, Ben Latimer, and a second executive travelled business class to Munich and back.
They each claimed just over $13,000 for the seven-day trip.
Meanwhile, Andrew Davies, the ABC’s digital and audio content development manager and 21-year veteran, had to squeeze into cattle class for the 25-hour flight.
His expenses for the seven-day trip were relatively small: $4,203.
Ben Latimer, ABC’s chief audio officer, is pictured on the left with an executive producer from Nova
Mr Latimer, pictured left with Chrissie Swan, worked for NOVA before moving to the ABC
Mr Latimer joined the ABC in July last year. He and Mr Davies were guest speakers at the Radiodays conference.
Mr Davies gave two presentations at the conference and was a guest in a filmed interview in which he spoke about the competition surrounding daily news podcasts in Australia.
He did not travel with the head of strategy to the EBU conference in Prague, nor did he attend the BBC meetings in London with Mr Latimer.
The revelation comes just days after the broadcaster admitted it showed doctored footage of an Australian soldier shooting at unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.
According to an audio expert, at least five gunshots had been added to the footage to make it appear as if Australian soldiers were repeatedly firing at villagers rather than just firing a single warning shot.
Andrew Davies has worked for the ABC for 21 years. Unlike his colleagues, he flew economy to Europe
The clip was part of an online report into alleged war crimes by the ABC’s elite investigative unit, but was removed after Seven’s Spotlight program raised questions about the manipulated audio.
The ABC was alerted to the footage but took no action based on the information.
Outgoing director David Anderson has announced that there will be a fully independent investigation into the scandal.
Anderson said identifying the source of the error is critical to maintaining public trust in journalism.
“The ABC is subject to the strictest scrutiny, and rightly so, given the trust the public places in it,” he said.
‘Trust in the ABC has been built over time by delivering excellent journalism, maintaining the highest editorial standards and being transparent with the public about how we do that.’