Quentin Dempster
Quentin Dempster AM is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He is a former ABC presenter, interviewer, producer and investigative reporter. He is a former chairman of the Walkley Foundation and former chair of the Walkley judging panel for the annual awards for excellence in Australian journalism. Quentin is also a regular contributor to Pearls and Irritations and other publications.
Quentin's recent articles
30 March 2017
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Wilful ignorance and the courage to explain
The role of committed journalists, whether in a functioning democracy like Australia, or a country under a kleptocracy, totalitarian or politburo governance, is to tell the public what is really going on.
13 March 2017
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Michelle Guthries survival strategy for the ABC
ABC MD Michelle Guthries survival strategy for the national broadcaster is to re-invest brutally extracted payroll savings into new extraordinary content. While encouraging staff to come up with exciting new creative ideas to use the $20m available immediately and then $50m a year in a content fund she says her flattened management restructure will deliver, apart from 80 new regional reporting and content staff, the new program strategy remains unspecified.
18 December 2016
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. NBN - Are you one of the lucky ones in Turnbull's two-speed society?
If Australia was a corporation, we, its shareholders, would be justified in terminating CEO Malcolm Turnbull's employment contract forthwith.
14 June 2016
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Michelle Guthrie's strategic plan for the ABC.
New ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie now faces a choice. She can simply manage the ABCs government-decreed decline or reorganise its resources to make distinctive, original and quality content the institutions strategic priority. The choice she (and the ABC board which appointed her) make will become apparent when the ABC publishes its updated corporate plan. This is the key publicly posted document promulgated by the board which sets the resourcing and content priorities.
5 November 2015
Quentin Dempster. Countering Rupert Murdoch's plan to destroy public broadcasting in Australia.
I regret to report there are forces at work in this country out to destroy public broadcasting the ABC and SBS. But the fight to protect and enhance a more dynamic public broadcasting sector has just begun. Tomorrow in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, you will see a half page ad paid for by public broadcasting supporters calling on all Australians to join the Friends of the ABC or Save Our SBS - grass roots audience-focused organisations - to stake a claim on this countrys future as an informed, engaged and cohesive polity. A more professional...
25 August 2015
Quentin Dempster. Rupert Murdoch destroys freedom of the press.
In a recent address to the Medico-Legal Society of NSW, Quentin Dempster has referred to the parlous state of journalism and the media and particularly the damage being caused by Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. It is a no-holds barred speech about the damage that Rupert Murdoch is doing. See link to the speech below. John Menadue. www.facebook.com/quentindempster
20 February 2015
Quentin Dempster. Attacks on the ABC's international broadcasting service.
Australian insularity and the strident xenophobia it generates is, I reckon, a significant drawback to our development as a responsive and engaged country in the Asia Pacific region. In this context it was immensely distressing to see the recent vandalising of this countrys international broadcasting services through Foreign Minister Julie Bishops unilateral decision to terminate DFATs contract with the ABC. While Minister Bishop can be expected to reject any suggestion that she has exercised her discretion to terminate the Australia Network contract at the insistence and persistence of a lobbying campaign by Rupert Murdochs News Corporation, she has...
14 December 2014
Quentin Dempster. Submission to the Senate Select Committee.
S U B M I S S I O N Senate Select Committee into the Abbott Governments Budget Cutson Friday 12 December 2014 Quentin Dempster appearing as a private individual VANDALISING THE ABC Following is a list of impacts which I have assembled from available sources. I can add to it as more information comes to hand. The committee already has the benefit of formal statements of impacts from the ABC (and SBS) and their claimed justifications. This list is to help the committee understand and put into perspective the audience impact through the...