Lyons, Toll, Xenophon, Greens and hacks in Parly
July 14, 2008
Here are Stephen Mayne's six stories from the Crikey edition on Thursday, January 19, 2006.
9. Lyons punted as speculation mounts of more Packer changes
By Stephen Mayne
It's either all happening inside PBL after the death of Kerry Packer or nothing is happening, depending on who you believe. The one certainty we do know is that the poor public communications and intense privacy which typifies Packer family dealings is simply adding to all the speculation.
Crikey was informed by a normally reliable Packer observer yesterday that Graham Richardson had been sent packing with a $2 million payout and John Lyons had also been punted from Channel Nine by Sam Chisholm.
The Richo rumour was contested by one of his close mates and you could still leave a message for his secretary at the ConsPress Park Street office this morning. He was definitely still on the payroll when he took off on holiday with his wife just before Christmas, although ASIC's crucial court win yesterday to secure 12 folders of Swiss bank account records certainly won't improve Richo's appeal to James Packer.
However, it does appear that John Lyons was indeed removed as executive producer of Sunday and Business Sunday yesterday. It was Mark Llewellyn who fired the bullet with the blessing of Sam Chisholm, although the longstanding close relationship between PBL CEO John Alexander and John Lyons means he'll probably be looked after within the broader empire.
The well-respected Peter Hiscock is the new man in charge of Sunday and Business Sunday and his appointment has been widely welcomed.
The media is all over the question of a new CEO for Channel Nine, with Eddie McGuire's candidacy just adding to the feverish speculation. The Herald Sun got some grabs from Eddie after the funeral of Sophie Heathcote yesterday but even he was loath to offer any meaningful comment. Those who think Sam Chisholm is on the outer would have been interested to hear Eddie say that "any comment on these things must come from James Packer or John Alexander."
Apart from US-based nephew Francis Packer's comments to The Australian on January 6, no individual member of the Packer family has yet spoken publicly about Kerry's death although we're promised some reflection from wife Ros and daughter Gretel in February's Women's Weekly.
So is there a sense of paralysis or is it business as usual inside PBL? One thing's for certain, the PBL webmaster is still asleep because despite Crikey mentioning this a week ago, the PBL website still lists Kerry Packer as executive deputy chairman.
Similarly, Hugo Kelly broke the news of David Broadbent's departure from Nine News in Melbourne more than a month ago but the popular political veteran still finds himself profiled on the NineMSN website as he starts to spend his redundancy money.
10. Toll's nightmare gets worse
By Stephen Mayne, unhappy Toll, Patrick and Virgin Blue shareholder
Paul Little's nightmare at Toll Holdings got a whole lot worse this morning when the stock crashed another 57c to $12.13, meaning it has now fallen 10.74% from the $13.59 it was at before the ill-fated $4.6 billion Patrick Corp takeover bid was launched on 22 August last year.
Over the same period, the All Ordinaries index is up 7.3% so that represents underperformance of 18.5%, something the normally stellar Toll has never delivered before.
The market appears to be worried about a few things, such as the loss of shareholder value from the dysfunctional relationship at Pacific National, the amount of cash wasted on the defence, the likelihood of a protracted court battle with the ACCC and the prospect of Toll going over the top in buying P&O's Australian stevedoring assets for up to $2 billion.
Whilst Patrick shares also dived a more modest 52c to $6.70 yesterday, the stock is up 14c to $6.89 today and one of the reasons is speculation that a rival bidder could yet emerge.
Richard Branson's Virgin Group is the obvious candidate and there is some talk in the market that a $7.40-a-share bid will be launched soon. Branson is about to become very liquid from the $1.63 billion cash sale of his 72% stake in Virgin Mobile to NTL and would dearly love to recover control of Virgin Blue from Patrick. Toll Holdings would be a ready buyer of Patrick's valuable stevedoring business and Branson knows plenty about trains from his Virgin franchises in the UK.
Branson would have no problems with the ACCC, but it has to be said that Graeme Samuel's tactics yesterday were very interesting. His emphatic 8 page statement appeared designed to blow Toll out of the water and exert maximum pressure against any court challenge. The ACCC suffered a major blow when AGL beat it in court, and clearly Samuel would rather not risk another defeat.
Finally, it would be very interesting to know how much money has been wasted on all these takeover processes so far, let alone the enormous distraction it has been for management.
As we've argued before, takeovers are becoming ridiculously expensive and the disclosure is not often very timely. For instance:
- Boral spent $11 million on its failed bid for Adelaide Brighton;
- GPT spent $16 million on its failed merger with Lend Lease; and
- Lend Lease spent $28 million on its failed merger with GPT.
- Axa Asia Pacific spent $7 million saying "non" to its French parent last year
17. Strange tales of candidates who change sides
By Stephen Mayne
Politics often produces shifting alliances but we've come across a couple of very unusual developments in Tasmania and Victoria.
Pam Fratangelo has been endorsed as a Liberal candidate for this year's Tasmanian election in the seat of Bass, yet she worked for many years as an electoral officer for Labor's Racing Minister Jim Cox.
Cox wasn't the most energetic of members, such that he used to send Fratangelo out to glad-hand the constituents on his behalf. Bacon's office eventually ordered that she be moved on from Cox's office but now Cox is facing her as an endorsed Liberal candidate
Pam's husband Gino is a former Commonwealth Games weightlifter so she is fairly well known in the electorate and still works in the Department of Premier and Cabinet in an unattached capacity, which is also quite unusual.
Then you have the tale of former BRW reporter Georgi Stickels who in 1996 was the Liberal candidate in the Federal seat of Maribyrnong.
A quick read of the latest newsletter from the Victorian Greens features a piece from none other than Georgi Stickels, talking about a new members night at the Great Northern Hotel in Melbourne. She's the contact point for the Yarra Branch.
We've heard of people shifting between Labor, and the Greens and the Democrats have picked up refugees from Labor and Liberal over the years, but rarely does anyone go all the way down the spectrum from Liberal candidate to Greens organiser.
We've also heard talk that the Greens have preselected a Pentecostal Christian in the highly winnable South East Metropolitan region for this year's Victorian upper house. If so, what will the party do on preferences with Family First in that seat?
Strange days indeed.
22. Can the Greens control Victoria's upper house?
By Stephen Mayne
With Robert Doyle's leadership looking perilous and Steve Bracks riding high in the polls, one of the few points of interest in this year's Victorian election will be who controls the reconstituted Legislative Council.
Under the new proportional voting system for the Victorian upper house, the Greens are a very good chance to go straight from having their first Victorian MP at either state or federal level, to holding the balance power.
So just who will they choose to take on such huge positions of responsibility? Buried on Friday, 23 December, was this press release announcing Green candidates for four of the eight new regions which will each elect five candidates.
ABC election analyst Antony Green, or Anti-Green as he's known by some members of the party, published this piece predicting the Greens will be good for five seats in the Legislative Council and the two absolute certainties are Southern Metropolitan and Northern Metropolitan where they got 15.4% and 16.8% respectively in the same upper house areas at the 2002 election.
The Greens have completed preselections in both regions so step forward the first of at least two Green MPs in the Victorian House, who are described as follows on the party's website:
Sue Pennicuik: Southern Metropolitan
Sue is currently Convenor of the Australian Greens, Victoria, and former Occupational Health and Safety Co-ordinator in the union movement. Sue is a long term Elwood resident and is co-president of a local environment group in Port Phillip. Sue has been particularly active in opposing dredging of the bay and identifying alternatives to it. She also has campaigned to save the iconic St Kilda hotel, The Espy.
Greg Barber: Northern Metropolitan
Greg is a Fitzroy resident and has lived in the northern suburbs for the last 20 years. He is a former City of Yarra Mayor, Councillor and Chair of Finance. As Mayor and Councillor, Greg helped restore confidence in Yarra Council and create a vision for what Green Government could be. Greg's passions are education, health and public transport. He has an expert grounding in economics and finance: his MBA stood him in good stead when planning and implementing solutions to the City of Yarra's "financial crisis."
The City of Yarra was Victoria's first Green-controlled council and financial management was certainly a major issue, although the quotation marks around financial crisis would suggest the Greens contest that claim. Expect Barber's record as Mayor to be subjected to Latham in Liverpool style attacks as both major parties warn against giving the Greens the balance of power in upper house. Then again, there aren't two many politicians who have an MBA, so the lad is obviously quite bright.
23. Nick Xenophon's dream media run
By Stephen Mayne
South Australia's No Pokies MP Nick Xenophon is getting a dream in the media at the moment and is firming for another eight year term in the upper house after this year's state election.
In a move which must have angered his political rivals, Xenophon was allowed to fill in for 5AA's ethically-challenged but high rating morning host Leon Byner late last year as The Advertiser reports here.
Even more surprising was a glowing editorial in last week's Sunday Mail urging his re-election. It's not often a dominant Murdoch paper goes out on a limb for an independent but editor Phil Gardner's tome was an extraordinary endorsement and should be read in full:
Nick Xenophon must remain in the SA Parliament. He is no ordinary MP, especially in that stuffy bastion of political propriety, the Upper House. He is one of the few performers in a chamber mostly lacking in talent and passion. And he does it all for grassroots South Australians, not for the top end of town.
He unashamedly exploits one-liners and stunts like taking toy cars, bobcats, cash cows and gravy trains to the steps of Parliament.
Some will argue these sometimes tacky stunts dent his credibility, but the self-professed "media tart'' makes no apology for pushing his message – any way he can. And he has successfully sold numerous messages since he won office in 1997 with just 2.86% of South Australians writing "1'' next to his name.
Apart from his bread-and-butter pokies issues, he has taken a stand on pollies' perks, ticket scalpers, fuel leaks, sustainable development and drug rehabilitation reform. He's also pushed for tougher hit-run laws alongside the family of cyclist Ian Humphrey, killed by Eugene McGee.
He forced the Rann Government to adopt legislation to fast-track compensation claims for families of asbestos victims after highlighting the plight of dying mother Melissa Haylock. And it was Mr Xenophon who first raised the issue of the mass cull of SA chickens because cheap interstate eggs were destroying our industry.
Yet, on March 18, Mr Xenophon is facing his toughest challenge and no amount of stunts will help him. He needs 8.3% of South Australian voters – expected to be around 70,000 to 80,000 – to support him to gain a quota for one of the 11 Legislative Council spots. This time he is unlikely to get across the line on preferences.
The one-man de facto Opposition has been an irritant to the major parties since day one, and they will be keen to see the back of him. Estimates vary, but Labor and the Liberals should manage eight or nine spots in the Upper House, leaving the rest to be fought out by the Democrats, Family First (strengthening as a party), the Greens and Mr Xenophon.
Ironically, while Mr Xenophon is one of SA's highest profile politicians, ignorance is probably going to be his downfall. He constantly recounts the story of one voter telling him: ``I'd love to vote for you, but I'm not in your electorate.'' Let's set the record straight here – South Australia is his electorate. You are his constituents. Do something right on March 18. Vote "1'' for Nick Xenophon. South Australia cannot afford to lose his drive and determination from the Parliament.
Wow, with an endorsement like that from a paper that sells 330,000 copies, Xenophon will be good for a quota on his primary vote alone. No wonder Rupert Murdoch's brother-in-law, Federal Liberal Party treasurer John Calvert-Jones, is having trouble raising any cash in South Australia. The Liberal opposition are being outshone by this one-man-band independent.
27. The fast-growing list of hacks running for office
By Stephen Mayne
We've now received about 50 emails from the Crikey army contributing to our definitive list of hacks, successful or otherwise, who have run for public office. The number of successful tilts for state and federal Parliament is up to 59 while the equally fascinating failed tilts group is now into the 20s and includes entries like the following:
David Utting was a journalist with The West Australian, editing the paper's gadgets section in the early 1990s. In late 2004 he started the Western Beacon newspaper, a free monthly giveaway, in Fremantle. In May 2005, while still reporting/commentating on council affairs, he had a tilt at Fremantle council's south ward, publicly declaring he had to do so because his polling showed a business candidate was going to thrash the community candidate.
As it turned out, the community candidate (Jon Strachan) romped home ahead of businessman (Victor Paino). Utting finished a distant third. Importantly, local councils here are first past the post so there were no preferences allocated. If anything, Utting endangered Strachan by threatening to split the community vote. Utting, a cousin of former Fremantle mayor and well-known WA barrister Richard Utting, then folded his paper and his South Fremantle house is on the market.
We've also been challenged to start a new list dealing with politicians who go into the media for the first time after leaving office. Here are three names to kick if off:
Jeff Kennett: the former Victorian Premier became a shock jock on 3AK in 2002 until it all fell apart spectacularly.
Daryl Manzie: long serving CLP Minister retired in 2001 and now hosts talk-back radio on the Territory Network and 8TOP-FM community radio.
Graham Richardson: the notorious Labor fixer and Minister in the Hawke and Keating governments became a Bulletin columnist and low-rating 2GB shock jock as part of his commitment to the broader Packer circle of influence which includes election night commentary for Channel Nine.
It's taken about six hours of updating so far so please do check out these much-improved lists and keep the additions and corrections coming to smayne@crikey.com.au as it is all unique, albeit quite trivial, research.
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