'I'm not frightened to ruffle feathers': New ABC chair plans to disrupt

It belongs to everyone, and no one needs to know what you think.

And especially not what the ABC thinks about itself - nothing could be less appealing to the public than navel-gazing or self-congratulation.

"The ABC talks about itself a lot," he told The Canberra Times.

"I think there is too much discussion in the ABC about the ABC and the interior culture and drive of the ABC, rather than being much more intimately connected with the fibre of Australia.

"I think it can be quite destructive, to be so obsessively self-focused."

Mr Williams takes the reins of the board from Ita Buttrose on March 7, and said he had no trepidation about the broiling culture wars, lack of confidence or internal political issues that have engulfed the broadcaster in recent times.

"Anyone who knows me would tell you that I am not frightened to ruffle feathers, but I do not set out to ruffle feathers," he said.

"But I state my views plainly and directly. I think my qualities are that I am a good listener, that I don't think with my lips, that I usually have given appropriate due consideration to something on which I'm offering some comment, particularly in an environment like a boardroom."

While he has admitted the task of combining impartiality and diversity is complex, he also pointed out that the ABC had a very clear charter that most people hadn't even looked at, much less engaged with.

"On the issue of balance, and on the issue of impartiality, core to the whole remit of the ABC in dealing with news and current affairs is the positive obligation to be at all times independent, at all times to reflect integrity in the nature of coverage and questioning, and to aspire to the extent possible in all human affairs, to impartiality. And that is an absolute obligation," he said.

"And if you work at the ABC, you need to respect those rules of engagement. It is not there to provide employees with a platform to prosecute their own views on issues that are live in Australian or international society. It's simply not there for that."

And he would not be drawn on providing specific examples - "that would be surrendering to the public sport".

The classically trained musician and composer has headed Musica Viva, the Sydney Opera House Trust and the Australian Film Commission.

He was also the head of Foxtel from 2001 to 2011, and then of News Limited, where he lasted just 20 months.

During that time, he was tasked with bringing the newspapers into the digital age, but resigned amid complaints about his management style.

He has had "an intimate, lifelong relationship" with music, cinema, drama and literature - "I have a vast personal library and I never have my nose out of a book or a Kindle" - and was also a commissioner in 2014 of the AFL.

"I've had a rich range of diverse experiences in creative, commercial, and intellectually driven life, and I think it makes me well suited to the role," he said.

"Not that anyone can ever be a proxy for the audience, but I certainly have been an audience member in a wide variety of different subject domains."

His blind spot, he says, was children's television. His first wife was the writer Kathy Lette; he is now married to Catherine Dovey, the daughter of Gough and Margaret Whitlam, and the couple have no children.

But he grew up consuming ABC radio and television programs, is now well across Bluey, loves the podcasts and has even recently started listening to Triple J.

"I mean, my life is pretty much focused on classical art music, and that's where my personal preferences repose, but I think [Triple J's] got a huge body of Australian content. And I think that's to be celebrated and promoted very, very affirmatively.

"For me, it's a process of discovery."

Meanwhile, he said the ABC needed to be more stoic in the face of criticism, most of which was inevitable.

"Organisations that are in receipt of as much criticism as the ABC is can tend to become defensive. I personally think that's the wrong response," he said.

"And I think it is a professional obligation not to be obsessively defensive in responding to criticism. You should listen to criticism, absorb criticism, comment on criticism, rejecting some where appropriate and in other instances saying, 'Sounds like we didn't do too well there'.

"It's a national institution. It belongs to the people. It's fundamental, I mean criticism is part of the lifeblood of the ABC."

He said ultimately, the ABC as an institution was vastly misunderstood as an independent and impartial authority.

"I know that there are many, many contrary views to that in contemporary society. I happen to think they wholly misunderstand the role of a statutory authority which is a respondent to the Parliament, which has its legislative description of purpose so clearly presented, and that if you work there, you subscribe to those values," he said.