‘Hard to say there won’t be job cuts’, freshly arrived ABC news chief declares

September 18, 2026 — 3:00am

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In this week’s On Background, the ABC’s freshly arrived news boss gets a grilling from his troops, a star Seven AFL reporter finds time to help promote a drinks company owned by players he covers, and Sarah Abo could be back on TV screens before too long.

The ABC’s new news boss Simon Robinson breezed into Ultimo from London this week. On Thursday, he faced his first test: a grilling from Leigh Sales in a town hall with studio production value. The questions ranged from lay-ups like “How did you get into journalism” to curveballs like “Doesn’t having been away so long create a huge challenge for you as ABC News boss to judge what news stories and issues are relevant to Australians?”

You can’t say Sales was a wilting violet in front of the new boss!

But what was most revealing during the half hour-long internal broadcast was that big change is coming at the ABC.

Managing director Hugh Marks has already been upfront about the changes he wants at the broadcaster. Another of his leadership team, chief operating officer Melanie Kleyn, bit the dust this week. So far, Marks has appointed new bosses of news, screen, communications, legal and marketing. Finance will be next after Kleyn departs.

But to really make change in the crucial news division, that needs to be done by the actual news boss. And now, Marks has his own man.

On Wednesday, the ABC cut 46 jobs in its screen division, swinging the axe at staff who help put programs to air behind the scenes. The ABC is on a path to outsourcing all of its non-news programming.

Robinson said that doesn’t automatically mean cuts will hit........

© WA Today