The ABC board sacked Ms Guthrie on Monday,triggering a week of damaging fallout.

Days after ABC staff celebrated the sacking of Ms Guthrie,they turned their ire on the chairman who made that decision. Journalists gathered in record numbers at lunchtime on Wednesday and unanimously voted for their chairman to stand aside,while being assured by their bosses that the ABC would not bow to political pressure.

The journalists'union,the Media,Entertainment and Arts Alliance,has called for Mr Milne to quit.

He is now under pressure from all corners of the political spectrum,with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten interrupting his leave to declare the chairman's position was now"untenable",and Labor moving to establish a Senate inquiry into the alleged political interference.

Mr Fifield said he has always respected the ABC’s independence and had never sought to involve himself in staffing matters.

“I have only ever raised with the ABC matters in relation to facts in reporting. I’ve done so on half a dozen occasions,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

“I have never called for or sought the end of the employment of anyone at the ABC.

“The independence of the ABC is something that this government is deeply committed to.”

Mr Fifield dismissed suggestions his complaints carried significantly more weight given they came from the minister responsible for the ABC.

“I would hope that media organisations in Australia take equally seriously questions of fact that are raised regardless of who raises them,” he said.