Publishing legend Ita Buttrose has called for Gina Rinehart to be granted a seat on the Fairfax board, saying she believes the mining magnate has been a victim of sexism.
“She deserves the right to be on the board,” Buttrose, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Australian Women’s Weekly, told Crikey. “I think she’d be an asset. She brings business acumen and she has money to invest in the company if she wants to.
“I can’t see why you wouldn’t want her. I find it an extraordinary decision.”
Buttrose says she suspects Rinehart’s gender has been a “contributing factor” to the board’s decision to refuse her request for two board seats.
“She a powerful woman and sometimes powerful women, I’m reliably told, frighten men … She wouldn’t be the first powerful woman to be blocked.”
Buttrose has previously defended Rinehart publicly but this is the first time she has called for her to be given a Fairfax board seat.
There are currently two women on the nine-member Fairfax board: Tourism Australia Sandra McPhee and Yarra Trams board member Linda Nicholls.
Buttrose says it is a fallacy that Rinehart, who owns around 15% of Fairfax shares, could use one or two board positions to change the editorial direction of the company’s mastheads.
“I know – as someone who’s sat on three media boards – that an individual director cannot appoint an editor. It’s a collective decision.
“I don’t see how she could do damage to Fairfax – they’ve done it to themselves … As a shareholder, I share Gina Rinehart’s concern about the state of Fairfax stock. ”
Buttrose says she respects Fairfax chairman and former Woolworths CEO Roger Corbett’s track record as a businessman but added: “I think Roger’s been a bit stubborn about Gina.”
The accusation that Rinehart lacks media experience, Buttrose says, could be made against many of the Fairfax board members.
A Fairfax spokesman declined to comment on Buttrose’s comments, but noted Fairfax also has a female general counsel/company secretary, Gail Hambly.
The Alzheimer’s Australia president says a recent episode of Q&A demonstrates that Rinehart is treated with a level of derision not suffered by wealthy businessmen. In the 28 May program, actor Miriam Margolyes described Rinehart as “fat and ugly”, comedian Barry Humphries joked about her “hole”, and journalist David Marr called her “greedy”.
Buttrose says host Tony Jones should have stepped in to stop the risque banter.
“I’ve never heard that said about a man,” she said. “It was appalling and uncalled for. As an interviewer, you have to know when to stop it … She may be a private person but we all have feelings.”