ACTU tv ads, Telstra and IR reform, Latham, Col Allan's punch-up

1. The ACTU grand final ads that were almost pulled



By Stephen Mayne

At quarter-time in Saturday's AFL grand final, a hard-hitting ACTU industrial relations ad featuring John Howard promising no worker would be worse off was run on the big screens at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of almost 92,000 people.

It just so happened that MCC CEO Stephen Gough was hosting the PM at the game and the next 15 minutes proved most intriguing. A call was placed to someone from Harold Mitchell's media buying agency, which handles MCG advertising, instructing that the ACTU ad not be shown again. It was scheduled to run at half-time and three-quarter time.

This caused a flurry of phone calls, including one to ACTU secretary Greg Combet at home. Crikey hears that it was only when it became apparent that the story would leak to the media that the MCC reversed the decision to drop the ads shortly before half time.

Harold Mitchell was asked about this during his regular Monday segment on 774 ABC Melbourne's Drive program on Monday and downplayed the incident, claiming that nothing happened and he hadn't spoken to Stephen Gough for a couple of years.

Why then did someone ring Greg Combet shortly after quarter-time and tell him the ads were being pulled – as Combet explained on the Drive program an hour before Mitchell appeared?

All parties except the ACTU are now trying to play down the incident, but Crikey knows it happened. The big question is whether the PM took umbrage and personally asked the MCC to pull the ads, or whether Gough took it upon himself because he was our dear leader's host for the day?




4. Will Sol and the three amigos wait for IR reform?



By Stephen Mayne

Not everyone inside Telstra is railing against the forthcoming revolution under Sol Trujillo and his three amigos. One executive working on the strategic review has told Crikey that Sol and his chief operating officer Greg Winn are very impressive, their knowledge of telco operations being far more profound than anyone else inside the place.

As more and more rocks get turned over, it now appears increasingly likely that more than 10,000 jobs will be shed in a major out-sourcing and restructuring program. The maintenance divisions, such as the NDC operation, are ripe for being flogged off to someone like Leighton Holdings but management are also conscious that some of these parts of Telstra are highly unionised, so industrial action appears quite likely.

For this reason, there is an emerging school of thought that it would be wise to wait until the Howard Government's new IR laws are in place on January 1 because attempting to downsize the Telstra head count from about 40,000 to less than 30,000 will almost certainly cause industrial strife.

As we saw on the waterfront, Telstra chairman Donald McGaughie loves the cloak and dagger of big bang industrial changes. Secrecy will be important but Telstra also needs to keep the market fully informed.

For instance, on hearing this Telstra executive strongly praise Greg Winn and predict swinging cuts to the workforce, I would be inclined to buy the stock after yesterday's 6c drop to $4.05. It is also encouraging that the strike point for Trujillo's options and shares is being set at $4.78, a hefty 18% premium to yesterday's closing price.




8. Pell and Hawke join the Latham critics seeking revenge



By Stephen Mayne

There's a wonderful academic thesis waiting to be written that tracks the public reactions of people adversely mentioned in The Latham Diaries. Bob Hawke and George Pell are the latest prominent Australians to directly attack Mark Latham without dealing with the specific criticisms.

You can read Pell's comments here, but it was interesting to hear Hawke talk about Latham on The 7.30 Report last night:

"I worked as hard as I possibly could to stop him becoming leader. I rang so many people in the Caucus urging them not to vote for this man because I thought he would be a disaster. In their lack of wisdom, they voted for him and he became the leader. I regarded it as my obligation, as a loyal member of the Labor Party, once they had made their mistake, to go out and do what I could. I had him to my home. I talked calmly with him about what I thought was the right tactics; the right strategy, the right policy, the right approach. Unfortunately, he took no notice of anything I said. But I regarded that as my duty. They made a mistake in electing him. But they made him. It was my responsibility as a loyal party member to see if I could get him up."

Hawke claims he won't be buying the book to stop Latham getting his $3.90 royalty, which is amusing given one of the many adverse comments that Latham makes about Hawke in his Diaries is that he is too money focused. Try this one for size:

Sunday, 14 March, 2004

Lunch at Bob Hawke and Blanche's place: a multi-storey mansion on Middle Harbour with a separate unit/meeting space down below on the water. Hawke offered this to me for 'secret meetings - you can come in here on a water taxi'. He must think I'm James Bond or something. I politely declined his offer.

An amiable enough lunch and conversation, more workman-like than warm. These two are tightly focused on money, far more than Janine and me. I suppose you don't end up in a posh joint like this otherwise. I kept on thinking about Chifley's house in Bathurst and Curtin's in Cottlesloe. Yes, we have changed too much as a Party. Maybe I'm the odd man out these days, but I dislike wealth on this scale.

Hawke was a legend when I first joined the Party 25 years ago. Is this why it is so hard to have a normal conversation with him. I can't stop grinning when I look at him, thinking of the great story Ralph Willis tells from the early 1970s. Ralph was a research officer at the ACTU and Hawke was President. One day an announcement came through at around lunchtime that Hawke was Australia's Father of the Year, so Bob grabbed his mates and went to the pub to celebrate.

Ten hours later it was Ralph's job to haul him out of the pub, get him into a car and take him home. Ralph dropped him, full as a boot, on the doorstep as Hazel came out the front and gave him both barrels, calling him every name under the sun. Ralph drove away thinking to himself, 'There's Australia's Father of the Year'.

The Party has glorified Hawke's alcoholism and womanising but, in its day, it must have been horrendous for his family. I can laugh at the Willis story because I wasn't there, but imagine being Hazel - the true hero of the Hawke years.

All up, a strangely ambivalent day, memories of my first wife and Hawke's. What can you do about it; history is fixed in concrete. Bob and Blanche, what a combination. As Janine and I left, the masseur was arriving for their afternoon session - a good time to get out of there.

CRIKEY: Such valid observations about a grubby individual, with plenty of humour thrown in for good measure.




9. Interviewing Iron Mark on your ABC



By Stephen Mayne

It was a relaxed and upbeat Mark Latham who wondered into the ABC Melbourne studio at 4.10pm yesterday afternoon for a 20 minute chat with Crikey, who was filling in for the mystery woman that will eventually permanently replace Virginia Trioli on the Drive shift.

Given that no-one in the media has been more supportive of The Latham Diaries than me, it would have been churlish of Iron Mark to say no because he wasn't due at Melbourne University to deliver his gloomy lecture until 6pm.

I came clean early on in the interview and admitted I was guilty of spreading the bogus bucks night video on Crikey. "Shame," he said, as we quickly moved on.

Much of the chat focused on Latham's relations with and criticisms of the media and specific journalists. However, after telling listeners that he had largely rejected interview requests from commercial media and shock jocks such as Alan Jones and John Laws to avoid "yet another slanging match," Iron Mark suddenly popped up on MMM not long after finishing his chat with Aunty.

Latham also laughed off Strewth's claim in The Australian on Wednesday that he had sought an opportunity to address the Press Club in a televised address. The item read as follows:

Latham presses his luck

MARK Latham is obviously a sucker for punishment and has a hide thicker than the late Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Latham has approached his publicists at Melbourne University Press to get him an invitation to speak at the Canberra Press Club. This would ensure he'd be televised nationally and receive yet more publicity. But what sort of publicity? Considering he's bagged almost every journalist to ever say "hi'', he would be throwing himself holus-bolus into the lion's den. He must think he's the lion.

"Turn it up, as if I'd want to go down there, I've had my say, mainly through the ABC," Latham responded. Don't hold your breath for a Strewth correction and the clowns should also know that it is the National Press Club.

Latham didn't deny pulling out of an appointment with Meet The Press after learning that Michelle Grattan and Glenn Milne, who he calls the "poisoned dwarf," would be the two journalists firing off the questions along with host Paul Bongiorno. However, he specifically singled out Milne as being gutless in refusing to use one of his long columns to address the many criticisms of Milne's work in the diaries. Latham cited his move to the backbench in 1998, when he claimed that Milne told him it was because he was about to be charged with sexual harassment and this had come from the Beazley camp. He takes Milne's silence as confirmation it is true.

"You can tell the critics, because they are mentioned in the book," Latham told ABC listeners, when asked why Laurie Oakes had not responded to 22 mentions but instead launched a vitriolic attack.

Latham also stuck by his contested Mark Arbib diary entry which reads as follows:

The focus group also showed that it's popular to bash blacks: "You need to find new issues, like attacking land rights, get stuck into all that politically correct Aboriginal stuff – the punters love it." Maybe he should have had lunch with Pauline Hanson, though not at Azuma's.

Arbib claims Latham drank two bottles of red wine at the lunch, but Iron Mark responded: "I was recovering then from the pancreatitis attack in August last year. If I'd drunk two bottles of wine then, I can assure you Stephen, it probably would have killed me."

It was actually Monday, November 1, so there's one small error – he was out by two months and was supposed to have fully recovered from the pancreatitis attack by the time of the election and its immediate aftermath.

However, the other defence Latham invoked was Arbib's offsider, Warren Mundine, being "out there challenging the land rights agenda" at the same time. "He wouldn't be doing that unless Mark Arbib ticked it off."

Latham's comments on defamation were interesting. He said that virtually all of the hand-written diary entries were offered up to the publishers, but then "less than 10%" was removed for "prudent" legal reasons. He even specifically mentioned Malcolm Turnbull as a litigious character who had sued him before and was therefore not mentioned adversely.

Asked if Richard Butler and his first wife Gabrielle Gwyther were two individuals who were partly saved by the lawyers, Latham refused to be drawn, although last week's Bulletin splash would suggest the latter is certainly true.

Latham also appeared on Lateline again last night in what was quite an aggressive exchange, as Tony Jones took a very strong line on the damage Latham was doing to people's private lives and Latham responded that Jones and his sources should come out in the open and specifically challenge the facts.

Given that Maxine McKew, the regular stand-in host on Lateline, must be acutely embarrassed by the diaries, it is not altogether surprising that Jones is going in relatively hard. The private banter with Latham during our interview was polite and I tried to encourage him to stand for a few public company boards. "Why haven't you run for PBL yet?" he asked.

He seemed very surprised to learn that John Gay only owned 5% of Gunns and the remaining 95% was wide open. "Good luck in getting on the Gunns board," was his last observation as he headed off to his next engagement.

Imagine that, Iron Mark running for corporate boards. Stranger things have happened.




10. Paul Bongiorno a Labor tipper – Latham



By Stephen Mayne

If you thought Mark Latham was only going after Coalition sympathisers in the media, think again. Channel Ten's veteran Canberra chief Paul Bongiorno copped it in the neck yesterday on ABC Victoria when Iron Mark outed him as regularly giving tips to his office. Let's go back to the diary for some context:

Thursday, 9 December, 2004

Hosted Christmas drinks for the press gallery in our new press office. Gritted my teeth and tried to be pleasant. Naturally, all the grubs bagging me were there to drink my grog and see if I'm still alive. I have hardly any allies left. One of them, Paul Bongiorno, told me that during the election campaign Howard rang the head of Channel Ten to complain about his reporting. That's what I should have done: rung my mate Kerry Packer to fix up Jabba (Laurie Oakes). Situation hopeless.

Bongiorno is one of many journalists who has refused to engage with Latham's claims. We sent this email to him last week:

Hi Paul, is Latham's tale about Howard complaining about your coverage an accurate claim. Can you confirm that it was Howard himself. Who did he complain to and what was he specifically complaining about. Any other thoughts on the book?

Regards, Stephen Mayne

The reply came back as follows:

Dear Stephen,

You'll find the PM's office won't confirm or deny it. Neither will I. This book would have been an interesting addition to political science libraries in thirty years time. The fact that it is written by somebody who led the Labor Party just nine months ago and is salacious as well as creative gives it enormous, damaging currency now. Latham obviously has junked any notion of private conversations, off the record, casual remarks etc for his own malicious purposes. I just wonder if he believes his life expectancy is so short, he doesn't care.

By the way his view of Laurie Oakes' coverage of the election is jaundiced by his Packer fixation. Oakes after all broke the story of the "lying rodent" on the eve of the election which then became a theme for cartoonists and commentators up until polling day. My experience is bias is in the eye of the beholder.

Cheers, Paul Bongiorno

After I read the first half of this out to Iron Mark on air yesterday he went a lot further, accusing Bongiorno of being partisan in favour of the ALP:

Bongiorno used to ring our media office every second day with snippets and tips about the Liberals, so people who are partisan in their job, as opposed to independent commentators, well, when the wheel comes around you've got to be accountable for your partisan activities.

Just as a I think a Glenn Milne should be accountable for his obvious support of a Costello, his running of Tory agendas and the like, I think your barrackers on the other side have got to be accountable too.

And what's wrong with calling the media for what's goes on? People who want to be participants, as opposed to independent commentators, well eventually someone is going to say, 'well, that's the case and let's talk about it'.

It will be interesting to see where this one finishes.




18. Col Allan's latest punch-up



By Stephen Mayne

Col Allan has added another punch-up to his "legendary" status in the media world as you can see from this report in The New York Daily News which included the following:

New York's posh and exclusive Soho House is still abuzz at the fisticuffs involving Editor in Chief Col (Bruise) Allan, his No. 2, Colin (Sting Like a Butterfly) Myler and another Aussie hack from a News Corp. newspaper.

Big Col couldn't stop himself from jumping into the wee-hours fray to separate his battling deputy and the other reporter, who can't be named in a family newspaper.

The tired and emotional Australian journo had been hurling vile personal insults.

Rather than consider the source and the time of night, Myler started pummelling the Down Under Disser — and Allan jumped into the mosh pit.

"Two of Col's friends got into a dispute," said a friend of Allan's. "There was an argument, and Col stepped in. He's a big guy."

Allan, no stranger to the dessert trolley, finally managed to restore some semblance of order.

Rupert Murdoch's spokesman Howard Rubenstein refused to comment, other than to say, "Col was a hero here."

Rupert's mouth-piece describes Col Allan as a "hero". Says it all, really. Col has been involved in a number of altercations over the years. There was the time that Peter Blunden punched him in the back of Kerry Stokes's limo after a day at the races.

And what about the police charge sheet that Col received in New York many years ago after a punch-up. His dodgy mate Steve Dunleavy called in a favour with the cops and they burnt the charge sheet in a local bar. Such inspiring community leaders, indeed! This is what Crikey wrote when Col was sent to New York in June 2001:

When Col was a correspondent in New York some 20 years ago, he beat up some bloke in a bar who was hassling his then girlfriend. The NYPD charged him with assault and there was every chance he would be thrown out of America, which might have led him to be thrown out of News Corp.

Enter Steve Denleavy, the man with legendary police contacts back in the days before everything was on computers. Dunleavy agreed to meet Col in a bar and produced the actual charge sheet which some dodgy copper had obviously leaked to him.

There was no duplicate so when the lads pulled out their cigarette lighters and gleefully burnt it in the bar, Col was out of jail, so to speak. And now Col is running the ultimate New York cops and robbers tabloid. How the world turns.

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