Seven’s Perth staff are reportedly awaiting a response after a performance at a Friday town hall meeting featuring four women dressed as “sexy Santas” dancing to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas left many staff outraged.
A screen capture of a live stream of the event shows four women with linked arms dressed in provocative Santa outfits as Seven Perth’s news director Ray Kuka takes to the lectern.
While no official reports have been filed, B&T understands that questions surrounding the appropriateness of the performance, which was reportedly organised by the Seven Events team, have been raised with management.
“It’s the contrast. Four men talking about business, then four women come in, dolled up and scantily clad. What is the role of women at this company?” one staffer said on the condition of anonymity.
The timing of the performance was particularly alarming as the meeting was being used to announce that the editor of the digital title The Nightly, Sarah-Jane Tasker, had been appointed as The West Australian’s first female editor. “It felt like the ’80s,” the staffer said, calling it inappropriate considering the context and timing at such a pivotal moment in the masthead’s history.
A spokesperson for Seven West Media said that the dancers usually perform in the Perth Christmas pageant, with the meeting being used to launch the event. “The town hall also marked eight weeks to go until the Perth Telethon, which last year raised $77 million”.
“Seven West Media is extremely proud as a business to lead community events and fundraising for causes that help make the lives of thousands of families better,” the spokesperson said.
This is the latest in a long list of questions being raised about the culture at Seven in recent months since the revelations came to light that the network had gone to extreme lengths to secure an interview with Bruce Lehremann over the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins. Among the accusations included a daily allowance reportedly paid by Seven to Lehremann for “illicit drugs and prostitutes” that amounted to around $23,000.
An ABC Four Corners investigation this month revealed numerous instances of gender discrimination, disability discrimination, sexual harassment and physical abuse within Seven’s newsrooms across Australia over the last ten years and up until just a few months ago.
The hour-long program started with the story of young female reporter Amy Taeuber. Her family alleged that she had been sexually harassed by male colleagues in Seven offices. However, because of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed with the network, she was unable to talk about what led to her signing an NDA.
According to Four Corners, which said it had spoken to more than 200 people as part of its investigation, there are three current discrimination cases brought by Seven employees against the network in the Sydney news division alone. However, while some current and former staff were able to go on the record for the program, it said that many more were gagged by NDAs.
One anonymous female journalist was suing the network for various reasons, including harassment from a cameraman. “That f**ker scares me and is most uncomfortable to work with… he’s creepy and inappropriate,” she told her boss. That same boss, the journalist claims, ordered her not to wear glasses on air because the network news director told him that the glasses make her “look like f*cking Buddy Holly”.
She also said that when she refused to approach the husband of a mother who jumped off a cliff with her toddler, a manager threatened to send a reporter who was seven months pregnant. She also alleged that on more than 20 occasions, she had to hand her story over to a male reporter after working late into the night on traumatic stories.
Perhaps the most shocking allegation was that one junior female reporter in its Brisbane office ran in front of a car outside the network’s office at Mt Coot-tha, before throwing herself down a hill because of her treatment. “She says she was working extremely long hours and constantly rostered on weekends for a base salary just above the minimum wage. She says she began to suffer from crippling anxiety and decided to resign, but she was told the company wouldn’t allow it,” ABC reporter Louise Milligan said, recounting the woman’s experience”.
In a statement, Seven West Media (SWM) said it “notes the issues raised by the ABC’s Four Corners program. While we are clearly concerned about allegations of poor behaviour and any mistreatment of employees, a number of matters raised represent old issues that have been well aired and dealt with, in some cases many years ago.
The network said that a number of staff members who displayed behaviours contrary to Seven West Media’s values have already been removed. “We encourage all SWM team members to call out any behaviour that does not reflect our values. Whistle-blower protections are in place and are regularly re-emphasised with all staff”.
“We have a great team at SWM and the actions of some individuals do not reflect the values, behaviour and attitude of the business as a whole, which is home to some of the best, hardest working and most passionate media professionals in Australia. Our focus is to build a stronger culture that enables our great people to thrive, and where unacceptable behaviour is not tolerated”.
In June, the media company announced an overhaul of its operating model by separating its television business, Digital and ring-fencing its Western Australia operation. With this restructure came the slashing of up to 150 roles including the high profile cuts of chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette, chief marketing and audience officer Melissa Hopkins and head of sport Lewis Martin.
Seven West Media reported a sharp 52 per cent drop in net profit after tax to $54.46 million in the half year to December 2023 due to a weak advertising market. Its revenues had also fallen by 5 per cent to $775.8 million, leading the group to find up to $25 million in cost savings in the first half of this year.
A recent decision by Meta to abandon news content deals is thought to have shaved a further $15 million from the top line.
