Whose ABC?, by K.S. Inglis. Black Inc, 2006. ISBN 186395189, RRP $39.95 website
When I was appointed to the Board of the new ABC, I turned to the first volume of Ken Inglis' history, This is the ABC.
It was 1983, the year the Australian Broadcasting Commission became the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Inglis' book had just been published, and I read every word of it. It was an illuminating guide to the complicated and challenging institution with which I was briefly—and unsuccessfully— involved. Reading the second volume, which brings the story up to the present, is equally illuminating, though in a different way. Inglis is a magnificent historian, in full and sympathetic command of his subject. He is able to set the story of this particular institution in the context of our national history. He has done so lucidly and, on occasion, wittily.
I suppose the main difference in my reading of this volume is that for a brief time, as a member of the first Board, I was part of the story Inglis has to tell. Indeed, as he describes it, it was a turbulent time. I was part of a 'faction' unhappy with the policies and style of the Managing Director. The faction was also 'idealistic', and therefore ineffectual. All of this reflects the long perspective of the kind of history Inglis writes, and writes so admirably. He uses "observation with extensive view" to survey the whole, remarking on "each anxious toil, each eager strife", watching "the busy scenes of its crowded life".
Characters parade across the stage. There are Managing Directors —Whitehead, "bull-in-the-china-shop" Hill, Shier, a one-man assault on tradition and traditionalists, Long, who "pressed all the right philosophical buttons", and Balding, a "brown cardigan man" and pacifier. They are all Chairmen—no Chairwomen—though tribute is paid to Wendy McCarthy's long and effective contribution as Deputy, like the dazzling and visionary Ken Myer at one end of the scale and the patient, effective and supportive Donald McDonald at the other. There's the passing parade of Ministers in Canberra, some supportive, some not, some intrusive, some not. Inglis also covers the ins and outs of Board politics, its impact and lack of impact of its members and the position of staff-elected member—abolished recently.
Members of staff figure also—policy makers, personalities like Phillip Adams, Geraldine Doogue and 'Macca' of Australia All Over. There are outstanding journalists like Kerry O'Brien, Chris Masters and Peter Manning. Their successes and failures, especially