24 Nov 2013

ABC salary leak came from MP's office

11:49 am on 24 November 2013

Details of the salaries laid to ABC employees were leaked to a national newspaper by an employee in the office of an South Australian Member of Parliament.

News Ltd papers on Wednesday reported the salaries of numerous ABC journalists and presenters.

The information was mistakenly released by the ABC to Family First MP Robert Brokenshire in October last year as part of a Freedom of Information request about employee numbers.

The ABC reports Mr Brokenshire said he did not authorise the leaking of the information to News Ltd and that disciplinary action would be taken against the employee who released the salaries.

He said the salary information has been destroyed.

ABC managing director Mark Scott issued an apology over the release of pay details, calling the figures published in The Australian "wrong and out-of-date" and vowed to investigate how the newspaper obtained the information.

There has been a push in the past for the ABC to reveal what it pays its employees.

However, Mr Scott said it is unfair that ABC staff should have their salaries revealed, while other media companies have no such requirement.