The ABC has revealed that former news director Justin Stevens received a $353,000 payout when he departed the public broadcaster in May, with the figure disclosed in the organisation's annual report released on Monday evening, just ahead of senior executives facing a Senate estimates committee on Tuesday.
Stevens, who had spent 19 years at the ABC, left after managing director Hugh Marks had already arranged for his replacement, Simon Robinson, to take the role. The size of the payout has drawn fresh scrutiny at a time when the ABC is facing broader questions about its editorial standards and significant churn in its senior leadership.
Senior executive salaries and departures pile up at the ABC
The annual report laid bare the cost of the ABC's ongoing leadership transition. Marks himself was paid a total package of $1,199,856 in the 2026 financial year, including a base salary of $1,134,639. ABC chair Kim Williams received $226,000 over the same period.
Chief operating officer Melanie Kleyn, who has also recently exited the broadcaster, received a full package of $869,771 in 2026 and is understood to have received a severance payout on top of that figure. She has been replaced by Trent Dickeson, who joins from Seven West Media.
The scale of executive turnover since Marks took the helm has been striking. Almost his entire management team has been replaced during his tenure, a pattern that has intensified scrutiny of both the cost and the pace of change at the public broadcaster.
Robinson's arrival signals big changes to the ABC's news division
Staff inside the ABC are bracing for significant changes to the news division under incoming news director Simon Robinson. Last week, Robinson informed staff that the broadcaster had axed The Business, a program that had been on air for two decades. The decision underscored concerns among staff that more structural changes to the news division are on the way.
Robinson's appointment comes at a turbulent moment for ABC News, with the organisation still dealing with the fallout from the conduct of former Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal. Fazal was sacked in May after setting up an unauthorised podcast, and several episodes of his investigative work for both Four Corners and Background Briefing were subsequently removed amid concerns about his sourcing methods.
Four Corners fallout looms over Senate estimates appearance
The ABC's own independent ombudsman later found that failings relating to two episodes published in 2023 and 2024 had undermined trust in the broadcaster. The entire reporting chain responsible for those episodes has since departed the ABC. That list includes Fazal himself, Four Corners executive producer Matthew Carney, investigations head Jo Puccini, Stevens, and former managing director David Anderson.
Marks and other senior ABC executives are expected to be pressed on all of these matters when they appear before the Senate estimates committee on Tuesday. Senators are likely to question the cost of the executive departures, the circumstances surrounding the Fazal affair, and the direction of the news division under new leadership.
The convergence of these issues, including costly payouts, editorial credibility questions and programming cuts, means Tuesday's hearing is shaping up as one of the more consequential public accountability sessions the ABC has faced in recent years. Whether Marks can mount a convincing defence of the changes he has overseen will be closely watched by staff, politicians and media observers alike.
The ABC has not publicly commented on the specifics of individual departure arrangements beyond what is contained in the annual report, and it is understood that further details about severance terms for departing executives may be sought by senators at Tuesday's hearing.
The ABC's annual report, which disclosed the Stevens payout, was released on Monday evening, giving the public and parliamentary observers little time to digest the figures before executives faced questioning. The timing is unlikely to go unnoticed in a Canberra hearing room where scrutiny of public broadcasting expenditure has intensified considerably over the past year.
