![Sandra Levy has held multiple roles at the ABC.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180402192507im_/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/h/0/x/d/5/n/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.h0y2x6.png/1522266558226.jpg)
![Max Mason AFR Woodcut](http://web.archive.org./web/20180402192507im_/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/y/z/g/o/x/image.imgtype.afrWoodcutAuthorImage.120x120.png/1507774585704.png)
Former ABC director of television Sandra Levy, former Free TV chief executive Julie Flynn and former Productivity Commission head of office Robert Kerr will headline the Turnbull government's competitive neutrality inquiry into public broadcasting.
The competitive neutrality inquiry was announced as part of the government's deal with Pauline Hanson's One Nation to get Communications Minister Mitch Fifield's media reform package through the Senate last year.
The trio fit the rumoured criteria for the three-person panel of a person with a commercial TV background, a person with a public broadcasting background and a bureaucrat with competition issues experience.
Ms Levy was director of TV at the ABC between 2001 and 2005. Previously she had been head of drama at the ABC in the late 1980s, then spent nine years as head of drama at production house Southern Star. After leaving the ABC in 2005, Ms Levy spent two years at Nine as head of drama before being appointing chief executive of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in 2007 where she remained for eight years.
![Julie Flynn spent 15 years as Free TV CEO.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180402192507im_/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/n/k/m/3/1/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1470204280199.jpg)
Ms Flynn spent 15 years as the boss of Free TV Australia, the lobby group for commercial free-to-air broadcasters. She retired in 2016. She spent years lobbying hard against Foxtel to maintain the anti-siphoning list and helped reduce broadcast licence fees for free-to-air networks.
Terms of reference
Mr Kerr spent eight years as head of office at the Productivity Commission between 1996 and 2004. He then spent six years as commissioner of the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission before taking up the role of commissioner for the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation between 2012 and 2015.
The Australian Financial Review can also reveal Mr Kerr will chair the panel, which will meet for the first time on Thursday.
The Productivity Commission has its own Australian Government Competitive Neutrality Complaints Office which handles complaints and provides advice to the government on unfair competition from the public sector after a complaint is made by the private sector.
![Communications Minister Mitch Fifield is launching the inquiry as part of his deal with One Nation to get media reform ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20180402192507im_/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/z/6/d/q/h/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1508730565906.jpg)
However, the Turnbull government has chosen not to refer the matter to the Productivity Commission, instead launching its own inquiry.
The inquiry terms of reference, seen by the Financial Review, outlines what the panel will explore and that it will report to the government by July on whether ABC and SBS are "operating in a manner consistent with the general principles of competitive neutrality". However, this does not mean they cannot compete with commercial broadcasters.
It will focus on five key areas: "The application of competitive neutrality principles to the business activities of the ABC and SBS, including in operational decision making and risk management; the cost structures of business activities; the regulatory obligations for ABC and SBS compared to those for private-sector operators, insofar as these relate to competitive neutrality principles; the adequacy of current compliance and reporting arrangements; and complaints and accountability mechanisms operated by the broadcasters, insofar as they relate to competitive neutrality principles."
Some within public broadcasting fear the inquiry will be a way for the government and commercial broadcasters to suppress ABC and SBS into just filling the voids where they cannot or do not want to compete, and push for wholesale changes to their respective charters.
"Government businesses compete with the private sector in a number of markets. The Commonwealth Competitive Neutrality Policy requires that government business activities should not enjoy net competitive advantages simply by virtue of their public-sector ownership," the terms of reference note.
"At the same time, competitive neutrality principles do not imply that government businesses cannot be successful in competition with private businesses."
Pushing boundaries
News Corp Australasia chairman Michael Miller and Network Ten chief executive Paul Anderson have both spoken publicly in favour of the inquiry as a means to define guidelines for how the ABC and SBS operate.
"Their charter is so outdated that they're finding ways around it. They're pushing boundaries because they know it's not relevant and what can they do without being sprung," Mr Miller said at the Inform Forum in September last year.
"Buying search terms around the US election to knock off the commercial players who are competing with other digital news broadcasters, that's a poor use of taxpayer dollars. For SBS, buying English language popular programs that would be normally broadcast on commercial networks, is again not a good use of government and taxpayer dollars."
At the same forum, Mr Anderson said SBS's Viceland and Food channels were examples of content that is hard to see coming under the public broadcasters' charter.
"The rules are outdated; both the ABC and SBS are using that to their advantage. They're clearly under pressure in terms of their budgets, so they're finding other ways to subsidise that. I think this competitive neutrality review has to happen and just set a clear set of guidelines."