The drama engulfing the top levels of the ABC got a whole lot uglier last night after fired ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie accused her old boss, former ABC Chairman Justin Milne, of touching her “inappropriately” when the pair worked together.

The allegation capped off an explosive 4 Corners in which the warring former executives detailed allegations of incompetence, poor management and inappropriate behaviour against each other.

Michelle Guthrie Claims “Inappropriate Touching”

Guthrie accused Milne of touching her inappropriately by rubbing her back at a board dinner in Sydney in 2017.

“Inappropriate touching is the best description of it,” Guthrie said. “I felt icky. It was inappropriate. It was unprofessional and inappropriate.”

“It didn’t have an effect on my professional relationship with him, but it was certainly in [my] mind that in social settings … I tried to avoid putting myself into situations where that might recur.”

Milne denied the allegation. “Definitely not. I think she meant that to have a sexual innuendo about it, which I can’t possibly for the life of me understand why she would say that,” he told the program.

Guthrie informed ABC board member Joe Gersh of the allegation, and he was tasked with investigating the incident, but Guthrie declined to make a formal complaint. Guthrie claimed she didn’t receive adequate support from the board following the allegation.

Months after the dinner, Guthrie was informed by the board that there were grave concerns about her performance as MD. Guthrie claims she was told the board had no problem with her ideas or strategy, but was concerned with how she was carrying them out. Guthrie returned to the board with a proposal for how she could address some of their concerns throughout the remainder of her term as MD.

In September, Milne informed Guthrie that she was being fired, Guthrie questioned whether her allegations against Milne played a role in the decision to sack her. Guthrie claimed she had never received sufficient feedback on her performance or her proposal to turn things around.

“I never got a response … other than being handed a deed of release with a letter of resignation and a draft press statement saying that I had to leave the ABC for urgent personal and family reasons,” she said.

Milne claimed Guthrie was sacked based purely based on her performance as MD.

“The problem in the end that the board had with Michelle was not her personality or her niceness, it was her leadership,” he told 4 Corners.

Justin Milne Denies Political Interference

The program also addressed allegations of political interference in the ABC, focusing particular on the Coalition government’s apparent contempt for senior reporters Emma Alberici and Andrew Probyn.

Milne, Guthrie and ABC News Director Gaven Morris all confirmed that the board considered sacking Alberici, the ABC’s Chief Economics Correspondent, after she published two controversial articles about the government’s company tax plans.

Michelle Guthrie also claimed she received a call and was “berated” by Milne about the performance of ABC Political Editor Andrew Probyn.

“It was terrible. And it takes a lot for me to cry, but I got very, very close and I was shaking. I mean, I wanted to get him off the phone,” she said

Milne confirmed the discussion had taken place, but denied he had berated Guthrie, or that he was doing the bidding of his friend, then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Guthrie told the program she wanted to publicly fight back against the government’s attacks on the ABC, but was held back by Milne, who wanted to protect funding for his pet project to modernise the ABC, dubbed Project Jetstream.