The Australian government would not fill two soon-to-be vacant positions on the ABC Board, until it could establish a fair, merit based appointment process, according to the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy.

ABC Board Deputy chair John Gallagher QC completes his term on February 23 while Dr Ron Brunton concludes on April 30, 2008. The FABC is highly critical of the composition of the current ABC Board which it believes was stacked by the previous government.

Senator Conroy was speaking in Canberra to a Friends of the ABC delegation; Professor Alan Knight (National Spokesperson) , Jill Greenwell (President, Friends of the ABC, ACT) and Malcolm Hewitt(President, Friends of the ABC, NSW).

The Minister said the government was investigating legislating to ensure transparency and accountability of ABC Boards. He added the government was absolutely committed to Labor policy to allow for an ABC staff elected Board member.

Professor Knight said that when the Minister was asked about how the ABC would fare in this year's budget, Senator Conroy replied that any new funding initiatives in the 2008 budget were expected to be explicitly restricted to projects promised during the election.

Professor Knight noted that this would appear to exclude the ABC television children's channel, which had been discussed but not promised by Labor during the campaign.

Senator Conroy said he supported adequate government funding for the ABC and noted that degrees of commercialisation should be governed by a properly appointed, independent, ABC Board.