ABC Host's Family Tie To Hydro Sparks Outrage

Edit update

ABC Hobart were contacted for comment and an ABC spokesperson has responded as follows.

Leon Compton is an experienced and respected presenter who carries out his work with professionalism and integrity. He is upfront about his wife’s position at Hydro Tasmania, has sought editorial advice on the matter and discloses it to listeners.

ABC Radio Hobart has mitigations in place to manage any real or perceived conflict of interest. Depending on the circumstances, these include Mr Compton disclosing the connection to listeners, which he did on-air this morning ahead of the interview with Hydro Tasmania CEO Rachel Watson.

Lyin’ Contemptible

Accepting the disaster which is the now-inked and irrevocable Project Marinus deal has been difficult for someone opposed to the whole concept of turning Tasmania into a large windfarm to fulfil an archaic political policy.

But this morning, Tuesday, 5 August 2025, my remaining equilibrium was rocked with this blithely delivered blindside by ABC Mornings presenter Leon Compton.

He dropped his voice tone, and took us into his confidence:

“Hey, before we start our next interview, I’ve got an interest to declare, which doesn’t happen every day on mornings.

“So here’s my interest, just so you’re in the loop, we’re about to interview the CEO of Hydro Tasmania, and just so you know, my wife is the Head of Marketing and Communications at Hydro Tasmania, I hope you accept that we would never talk about anything to do with this interview, or in fact, anything that I ever report on that has anything to do with Hydro. Let’s get into it.”

Listen to ABC Mornings at 7:04.

I was gobsmacked.

No further information was provided, and Compton proceeded to give Hydro CEO Rachel Watson a full 15 minutes to rollout her PR sell on Marinus.

There’s no-one in this state bar a caretaker premier, energy minister and some backroom advisors who know anything about this deal – perhaps not even Hydro’s CEO.

Apparently there were ‘lots of questions, comments. Love to see those.’ But we had to nip over to South Australia to talk about the Port Pirie smelter; then there was breaking news of an AFL coach being sacked; the news etc before a call was taken and a couple of texts read out about 15 minutes later.

Even then, Compton reacted to texts with conciliatory care for Hydro’s message.

I have been confident enough to speak on ABC Radio with a degree of layman authority – often invited.

Over the years this has had me talking to Leon Compton on his Mornings segment. I can truthfully say that on the whole I was not satisfied with many of those interactions, and my input was either truncated by a “got to get to the news” or a “I don’t understand the numbers and technical facts you’re quoting, so we’d better leave it there.”

Associates who’d listened would often comment about ‘bias’ from Compton, but I was prepared to believe that for some reason he was genuinely ignorant of the detail.

All my life I have been a stalwart supporter of the ABC as a source of unbiased information. Occasionally they get it wrong, and invariably apologise, pilloried by the baying of hounds from the ‘free’ press. Management decisions have been dissected in courts.

Over the years I have provided Compton with emailed material, backed by references, which I had hoped would broaden his understanding, and maybe get me a minute or two on air.

That this information could have been part of a conversation around the Compton table, or worse, the post-footy barbeque, is contemptible.

No amount of carefully scripted apologies will clear the air, even if crafted on Compton’s behalf by his wife.

I’ve never delved into his private life, and up until today would never have bothered.

The position of Senior Communications Advisor at Hydro Tasmania has been filled by one individual since July 2017 and the position of Brand and Marketing Manager has been filled by another since 2013. A cursory search does not reveal the stated position of Head of Marketing and Communications.

I’m making a leap, because Compton provided no details of his wife’s history at Hydro.

I’m making an assumption that one of these may be Compton’s wife, on the same basis that I’m being asked to ‘accept’ that for perhaps eight, or even twelve years, the renewables debate and Hydro’s central role was never discussed at home (with or without) any prejudicial outcome.

We are at a critical moment in Tasmanian politics, and finances.

With Marinus’ dirty deeds cemented during a time of unregulated parliamentary hiatus, yet another small fragment of our democracy is now seemingly corrupted by a compromised ABC team.

This is no “making a mountain out of molehill”.

We don’t need any bleating apologies from Compton. We need his removal – or perhaps a furlough – from the host’s chair. Its moulded comfort has obviously blurred the sharp definitions of the ABC Editorial Policy from his professional judgement.

For the financial blackout, read Ruth Forrest’s TT piece.

Following publication ABC Hobart have been asked for comment.

Greg Pullen has a keen interest in renewable energy transformation, in particular its benefits for Tasmania. He is a firm believer in the KISS Principle.

Tasmanian Times (TT) is a community-based news and current affairs service covering the island state of Tasmania. It exists to provide a diverse view of Tasmanian issues. TT creates and supports independent media content utilising the best of modern technologies and tried-and-true practices of public-interest journalism.

Support us in expanding our coverage and developing new content by and for Tasmanians.

New initiatives on the way include: