Australia news live: Karl Stefanovic to leave Nine immediately, network confirms | Australia news
Network confirms Karl Stefanovic will leave Nine with immediate effect
Karl Stefanovic will leave Nine immediately, the channel said this morning.
It comes after days of controversy in which the highly-paid Today presenter used her independent podcast series to interview British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
A spokesperson for Nine Entertainment said: “Nine Entertainment and Stefanovic have agreed that it is no longer possible for him to host Today simultaneously with his independent podcast.”
“Although Karl and Nine had previously agreed that he would leave Today at the end of this year, they later decided that he would leave the network immediately.
important events
Good morning, Nick Visser We’re here to take the reins. Let’s see what will happen on Friday after a busy week in parliament.
Minister says defense ‘not performing as well as it could be’
As Labor undertakes its biggest overhaul in fifty years, performance problems in the defense department have emerged to be more widespread than expected due to a “cramped” decision-making process. Australian Associated Press reports.
In December the federal government announced the creation of an independent delivery agency to deal with cost overruns and project delays as Labor poured billions of extra dollars into defense over the past decade.
minister of defense industry Pat ConroyHe said inaccurate cost estimation and lack of discipline in project management were behind the inadequate delivery.
“Our analysis found that the problems were more widespread than I thought,” he told AAP.
The processes are setting people up (for failure), so the system as a whole means the defense is not performing as well as it could be.
Conroy said some parts of the department spend too much time in meetings, resulting in a lack of action and decision-making at the top, leading to “a lot of gridlock.”
What we see is fragmented accountability… if everyone is accountable, that means no one is accountable.
The defense industry minister will outline progress on reform in a speech to the National Press Club next Thursday.
He will position Labor as a defensive party to tackle growing support for One Nation, while also addressing discontent within his own party with the government’s approach.
“Elaborating that intellectual framework is really important because we need to constantly make the case for why investing in defense is progressive,” Conroy said.
“This is both about the rise of far-right populism and also about talking to the Labor base about why this matters.
“You want to fight for a progressive Australia, but you also need to defend a progressive Australia.”
‘It’s time for Karl to leave Today and Nine,’ says network CEO
“You would have seen a lot of media coverage about Karl Stefanovic and his future here at Nine,” Nine chief executive Matt Stanton said in an internal email to staff seen by Guardian Australia.
“This morning we announced that after more than 20 years the time was right for Karl to leave Today and Nine,” the email says.
Karl has been a fixture on our screens for over two decades; so we know this is a significant change for our viewers and all of us here at Nine, but now is the time to do it.
Who is Tommy Robinson?
Here’s a freshly released account of the controversy that appears to have cost Stefanovic his planned long and quick farewell from Nine:
Network confirms Karl Stefanovic will leave Nine with immediate effect
Karl Stefanovic will leave Nine immediately, the channel said this morning.
It comes after days of controversy in which the highly-paid Today presenter used her independent podcast series to interview British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
A spokesperson for Nine Entertainment said: “Nine Entertainment and Stefanovic have agreed that it is no longer possible for him to host Today simultaneously with his independent podcast.”
“Although Karl and Nine had previously agreed that he would leave Today at the end of this year, they later decided that he would leave the network immediately.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I Martin Farrer with the best night stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
Nine confirmed this morning that the Today presenter confirmed. Karl Stefanovich He is leaving the network “immediately” because it is “no longer possible” for him to both host Today and run his independent podcast. We will provide more information about this soon.
We also start with the rather frank comments of the defense industry minister, Pat Conroyabout his own department, which he said was “not performing as well as it could be” and spent too long in meetings making decisions.
And there’s a lot more news to come, stay with us.
