Like a simmering pot with its lid rattling, it was only a matter of time before the tensions over sexual harassment inside Australia’s largest media organisation, Nine Entertainment Company, boiled over.

For the past two weeks, more than a dozen women, some of them stars who worked for Nine’s glamorous television division, have spoken out about suffering harassment from Darren Wick when he was Nine’s powerful head of the television current affairs and news division. The allegations include groping and sexual advances – and at least one attempt to drag a female employee into his hotel room following a Logies awards after-party.

Wick, who departed Nine in March, had wielded enormous influence. He’d worked for Nine for three decades, spending 13 years at the helm of television’s current affairs and news division, where he presided over an empire that included flagship programs 60 Minutes, A Current Affair and Today.

In the cut-throat world of television, Wick’s position meant he could make or break careers, and according to the women’s tearful, traumatic and anonymous allegations, Wick – or Wickie, as he was called – stunted some of the careers of those who spurned his overtures and played power games with others.

Wick did not respond to a request for an interview.

‘There is a reckoning about what has gone before and what was never OK, and what has impacted careers over a long period of time.’

Kate Jenkins, former sex discrimination commissioner

For the past two weeks, Nine’s management and board, the latter led by former federal treasurer Peter Costello, have been reeling from the allegations. Pointed questions have been asked of management and board directors of whether they knew of Wick’s alleged behaviour and his reported $1 million exit payment, after he resigned in March. In a note on his departure, Wick said: “I’m tired and need a rest.”

The $1 million payment is understood to have included more than 60 weeks of annual and long service leave.

Costello, who has been a Nine director for a decade and chair for eight years, and his deputy chair Catherine West, who’s served on the board since 2016 and became deputy chair last September, did not respond to a long list of questions.

Some staff members, who spoke out anonymously about Wick’s alleged serial behaviour of misconduct with women, claimed it was an open secret within the company, implying there was a culture of silence. Some noted it often occurred when he was drunk at functions.

Wick had narrowly escaped jail in 2021 after being caught drink-driving following a staff function. His blood-alcohol reading was more than four times the legal limit. He returned to work after a stint in rehab.

If Nine’s board and management found the stories of alleged sexual harassment within Nine’s television division confronting, embarrassing and uncomfortable, it would get worse.

Stories also emerged of allegations of inappropriate conduct by Adrian Foo, the publicity chief of Nine’s streaming service, Stan, who has since left the company. The allegations of bullying and other behaviour against Foo also included claims that former Stan staff members were requested to sign non-disclosure agreements.

It was also said that Foo was a close friend of Nine’s chief executive, Mike Sneesby, who used to run Stan.

An emergency board meeting was held at Nine’s North Sydney offices on Thursday, as management and the board sought to determine how to respond to the scandals. There was feverish speculation about the long-term future of Sneesby, who has been Nine’s chief executive for three years.

Should Sneesby be held accountable ultimately for Wick and Foo’s alleged poor behaviour and how the company responded? What did he and other senior managers know?

Sneesby was not the only one on notice about potentially being held accountable for the safety of Nine staff members; so was the Nine board.

One observer close to the media industry, who requested not to be named given the sensitivity of the matter, said it was the CEO’s job to know what was going on in their company.

If a CEO knows of allegations of sexual harassment and doesn’t relay that critical information to the board, then that is a breakdown in that relationship. The board would then question what other information wasn’t being conveyed to it.

There’s no suggestion that Sneesby knew of the multiple allegations against Wick, which may predate his tenure. Nor does this masthead, which is owned by Nine, suggest Sneesby withheld information from the board.

The observer close to the media industry also said that if a CEO didn’t know about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct in their organisation, then the question would be why.

“They’re charged with knowing it on behalf of the directors and the shareholders. It is embarrassing for a board and puts a board under scrutiny and a company under scrutiny. An embarrassed board is dangerous.”

Then there is the responsibility of Nine’s board directors. Under the new Respect at Work laws, questions are being asked as to what steps they took to prevent workplace sexual harassment, and also questions about what information they had, if any, regarding the alleged misconduct of Wick and Foo.

The Respect at Work laws came into effect in December 2022, and grew out of a national inquiry into workplace sexual harassment conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission, when Kate Jenkins was the sex discrimination commissioner.

Jenkins noted that some of the victims of workplace sexual harassment had told that national inquiry of experiences they had carried with them for 10 to 20 years, which had damaged their careers.

The Respect at Work laws impose a positive duty on companies to stop sexual harassment and other workplace discrimination, rather than relying on staff to report that misconduct. “The focus on helping people complain has been the wrong focus,” says Jenkins, who now works as a consultant, and runs masterclasses with company executives and boards educating them on how to meet the requirements of the Respect at Work laws. “The focus should be on how can we make sure that this does not happen to our people.”

From last year the Australian Humans Rights Commission (AHRC) has powers to investigate companies if they do not meet the standards set out under the Respect at Work laws, and it can compel companies to provide information if they have failed to take steps to ensure the safety of staff.

In the most extreme cases, the AHRC can prosecute a company in the Federal Court.

Jenkins would not comment on any specific sexual harassment cases at companies. However, she said since the Respect at Work laws were introduced, there had been a significant improvement in the awareness of company directors and their accountability.

Marina Go, who has worked as an executive in the media industry and is a company director of Transurban, EnergyAustralia and also the Australian Institute of Company Directors, said all board directors were on notice.

“It is incumbent on the leadership of organisations, and that starts with the board, to make sure that workplaces are safe, and that includes being safe from sexual harassment, sex discrimination or any sort of victimisation.”

Go says the boards she is involved with regularly question management how they would know if sexual harassment or bullying was occurring.

“We almost always have to assume that something could be happening. We often ask executives: ‘What gives you comfort that nothing [bad] is happening in our workplace? How would you know? What are the steps that we have in place to ensure that the reporting loop means that if there was something happening, it would come to us?’ But it’s not just about us waiting for that report, we have to ensure constantly that workplaces are safe.”

Jenkins said more boards should be alert to the legacy cases of sexual harassment and bullying that may emerge in their companies.

“We’re not just dealing with making workplaces better now. There is a reckoning about what has gone before and what was never OK, and what has impacted careers over a long period of time.”

Since the #MeToo movement, powerful men globally have been warned about how they should behave in workplaces, whether it’s within public or private companies, at the top echelons of government or within elite sporting organisations.

There has been a palpable shift in the way institutions are responding to allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. It’s also meant that some of the secrecy around sexual harassment and sexual assault has been shattered.

“Secrecy is no longer a management option,” says Jenkins. “Recognising and addressing these issues, and preventing them, is what good organisations will do.”

Sexual harassment scandals can damage a company’s reputation, and even its financial performance. It can affect the way a company is perceived by its staff, peers, advertisers, how it attracts talent or, if it’s a public company, how it interacts with its shareholders.

In 2020, AMP’s chairman David Murray and company director John Fraser resigned amid a shareholder revolt about how the company handled sexual harassment allegations against senior executive Boe Pahari.

In the same year, QBE’s chief executive, Pat Regan, exited that company after a complaint from a female employee about communications from Regan led its board to find he had breached the insurer’s code of conduct.

Earlier in 2015, Orica chief executive Ian Smith stepped down amid complaints about his aggressive approach.

In 2017, media group Seven’s chief executive, Tim Worner, was the subject of an investigation after it was revealed he had an affair with a former employee.

Worner was disciplined over the inappropriate relationship. He apologised and remained in the role. The only two female directors on Seven’s board resigned from the company that year.

In 2018, then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a ban on ministers having sexual relationships with their staff, a rule that would soon be dubbed the “bonk ban”.

At News Corporation, three senior editors and on-air personalities have left Sky News Australia and The Australian in the past two years after allegations of sexual harassment or lewd behaviour towards women came to light.

Rupert Murdoch’s family, which controls News Corporation and Fox Corporation, also had to grapple with sexual harassment and bullying scandals in the United States that engulfed the late Roger Ailes, who was chair and CEO of Fox News, while other senior men at Fox News, such as former star anchor Tucker Carlson, faced allegations of bullying and sexism.

This past week other companies have joined Nine in the headlines, with concerning allegations of sexual harassment and bullying, and questions about how management and boards have responded.

Country Road has been embroiled in a sexual harassment and bullying scandal, which led to protesters this past week plastering a Melbourne store of the clothing retailer with posters that said “Listen To Women”, “Is Harassment Part of a Modern Australian Lifestyle?” and “End NDAs”, and “Stop the Cover-Ups!”

As well this week, there have been reports that mining giant Rio Tinto may face a potential class action on behalf of its Australian employees and contractors who were allegedly subjected to sexual discrimination and harassment.

When media reports began to emerge of the allegations of sexual harassment against Darren Wick, Nine’s CEO Sneesby was in the United States on a work trip.

Sneesby, who last year was paid $2.69 million, intended to tack a family holiday onto the end of that work trip, celebrating his 50th. Instead, as allegations about Wick snowballed, he cancelled the holiday and returned to address staff last Monday.

He also issued a statement in which he noted that he believed Nine under his tenure had taken positive steps in recent years to improve its culture.

In late 2022, Sneesby, after delivering the company’s full-year results, unveiled what he said would be the key values of Nine. These values would be what Nine would live by, meaning it would shape the culture of the media organisation.

Those values were “Walk the talk”, “Turn over every stone”, “Keep it human”.

There were links to web pages where staff could learn in more detail about what those nebulous values meant. “Walk the talk” included speaking up about inappropriate behaviour. “Turn over every stone” included getting the full picture of what was going on and what was not being said. “Keep it human” included acting with empathy and care.

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Any company executive and board will explain that cultural change takes time to achieve in an organisation. Nonetheless, it’s the CEO and management’s responsibility to execute that change.

For now, any future response by the Nine board and management to the allegations of sexual harassment will hinge on the findings of an independent investigation that is being done by Intersection, a gender equality and cultural change consultancy.

It was revealed in a statement to Nine’s 4753 staff on Thursday that Intersection would be conducting an investigation into Nine’s television news and current affairs division.

A hotline has also been set up for staff to report misconduct – even though Nine already had an existing whistleblower service in place, provided by an external party.

It said a survey would be done of all staff about inappropriate workplace behaviour, and further training would be implemented to prevent sexual harassment occurring.

No doubt some of the questions Intersection will seek to answer are the validity of the claims, the time frame over which the allegations occurred, and whether this was a systemic issue, as well as who knew what and how the company responded.

The statement was signed off by Vanessa Morley, Nine’s director of people and culture, Sneesby and Costello, in that order.

“It is important we all acknowledge the trauma some of you have experienced in the past, and the distress and frustration the substance of these reports has caused,” the statement said. “We also acknowledge and thank those who have come forward to share their experiences with us directly in the last two weeks, and the courage they have shown.”

Some of Nine’s biggest shareholders and also media analysts were contacted for this article but did not want to comment on what several described as a “messy” issue.

It’s unclear whether the Intersection investigation into the harassment allegations at Nine within the television news and current affairs division will also have in its remit the ability to question Nine’s board.

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When scandals like this occur, it starts conversations around company board tables across Australia.

A handful of directors at large listed companies have told this masthead in private that the allegations against Nine have prompted them to again ask their own management teams how they know that harassment, bullying or other misconduct is not happening in their workplaces.

No one wants the pot to boil over.

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