‘Disgusting… wear a low cut top’: Channel Seven identity Matthew McGrane is accused of vile comments about women – after starring in ABC exposé about TV station’s ‘toxic’ culture

One of Seven’s most senior producers has been accused of sexist, aggressive and inappropriate behaviour towards women at the network.

Matthew McGrane has worked for Seven for almost a quarter of a century, most recently as supervising producer on the Sunrise breakfast program hosted by Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington.

McGrane is suing the network in the Federal Court under the Fair Work Act after he fell from his wheelchair and suffered terrible injuries while travelling home from the office. 

Seven states in its defence lodged to the court that while McGrane was off work it received numerous complaints from staff under his supervision accusing him of unprofessional conduct. 

Junior colleagues had alleged McGrane ‘frequently exhibited aggressive behaviour, including swearing, shouting and harshly dismissing the ideas of other employees’, the documents state.

Seven claims that among the ‘feedback’ allegedly raised by female employees was that McGrane had said words to the effect of ‘you look fat, that’s disgusting’ and ‘wear a more low-cut top’ while watching television presenters.

McGrane featured prominently in an August 2024 report by Louise Milligan about alleged bullying, harassment and poor treatment of women at Seven titled ‘Don’t Speak’.

‘Everyone knows TV is all smoke and mirrors, but under the surface it can be very dark,’ McGrane told Milligan.

The television veteran used the program to air some of his grievances with Seven following his accident, saying he was left feeling ‘abandoned, hurt [and] completely in disbelief’.

Daily Mail is not suggesting the claims made by Seven about McGrane are accurate, only that they have been made in documents the network lodged in its defence. 

McGrane is paraplegic due to transverse myelitis, a rare inflammatory disorder of the spinal cord, and has required a wheelchair for more than 20 years. 

At the time of his accident McGrane reported to Sarah Stinson, who was responsible for Sunrise, Weekend Sunrise and The Morning Show as Seven’s director of morning television. 

Seven alleges that in a phone conversation with Stinson after his accident McGrane left his boss unable to speak and reduced her to tears.

McGrane generally worked 2pm to midnight Monday to Thursday and 9am to 7pm on Sundays, according to his statement of claim.

Seven says in its defence McGrane was usually rostered from 2pm to 11pm from Monday to Thursday and 10am to 7pm on Sundays. 

When Seven moved its studios from Martin Place to Eveleigh in Sydney’s inner-south in mid 2023, wheelchair-accessible buses on McGrane’s route home to Surry Hills stopped on weeknights at 11pm.

According to McGrane’s statement of claim, he reached an agreement with Sunrise executive producer Sean Power he could leave the Eveleigh offices about 9.20pm and go home to finish his shift.

McGrane says on October 17, 2023, he left Eveleigh about 9.30pm and while on his way to the bus stop fell out of his wheelchair after losing balance on an uneven section of footpath.

He was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in ‘excruciating pain’, having suffered a detachment of the triceps muscle from his lower arm and a fractured forearm.

McGrane subsequently lodged a workers compensation claim which was denied after insurer GIO found his injury did not arise in the course of his employment and no formal agreement existed for him to split shifts. 

Seven states in its defence no Sunrise employee was rostered to perform split shifts and no arrangement was made with McGrane allowing him to split his.

The network also alleges McGrane belittled other Seven employees and ‘several younger female producers which [he] supervised claimed that [he] often left them in tears’.

It further alleges that during a phone conversation with Stinson about returning to work McGrane spoke to her in an ‘aggressive and inappropriate’ manner’.

That call allegedly left Stinson ‘choked up, unable to speak, brought Ms Stinson to tears, and otherwise caused Ms Stinson to feel extremely distressed’, the documents state. 

Seven’s defence states female employees, including junior staff members supervised by McGrane, had complained about him.

Some of those employees ‘informed Ms Stinson that they felt unsafe by reason of [McGrane’s] inappropriate behaviour and were extremely concerned at the prospect of [McGrane] returning to work.’

Seven accuses McGrane of repeatedly using expletives including ‘c***’ in emails.

Among the alleged complaints detailed in the documents against McGrane were that he ‘is aggressive all the time, whether that be swearing, shouting, it is all the time’ and that he ‘was so volatile… would yell, scream, freeze’. 

McGrane alleges he was passed over for promotion to executive producer of Sunrise and that Seven took adverse action against him because of his workers compensation claim and his physical disability. 

Seven also accuses McGrane of breaching his employment obligations by appearing on Four Corners and bringing the network into public disrepute. 

‘[McGrane] stated that he considered the Four Corners interview as an ‘insurance policy’, a way to ‘blow things up’ with [Seven] and in turn an opportunity to ‘get millions’ from the respondent,’ it claims. 

‘[McGrane] had been in prolonged contact with his friend and former colleague Louise Milligan of the ABC and agreed to appear on the Four Corners program in a segment designed specifically to target and disparage [Seven].’ 

McGrane, who is seeking compensation and civil penalties, claims Seven left him feeling upset, distressed and humiliated by reducing his duties following the accident.

McGrane’s lawyers declined to comment on his behalf about the accusations of sexist, aggressive and inappropriate behaviour towards women.

A spokesperson for Seven previously told the Daily Mail: ‘Seven rejects the claims made by Mr McGrane and will defend its position in this matter.

‘As this is now before the courts, we are unable to comment further.’

The case continues but its next court date has not been set.