By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
It feels like May 1968 once more at the University of Melbourne and, while CBD’s heart is stirred at all the revolutionary fervour, this outburst of activism in the name of various causes is cramping the style of some of our city’s movers and shakers.
University of Melbourne chancellor Jane Hansen
The latest victim is Jane Hansen, the businesswoman and philanthropist who started the prestigious gig of chancellor of the uni early this year and was due to be inaugurated into the role in a swanky ceremony on Wednesday attended by 200 of the great and the good.
Except she’s not, after the National Tertiary Education Union planned a strike and protest against what it described as a “lavish” event. This was totes inappropes, said the union, when so many of the academics that keep the uni ticking over were struggling financially.
University bosses took one look at plans for the picket – which had the backing of the National Union of Students – and postponed the inauguration with word going out on the weekend to attendees.
Then, on Monday, the union announced it was not going ahead with its protest on Wednesday – well, what would be the point – and the students confirmed they, too, were going to take the evening off.
It’s all too late, though, to put the event back on.
That’ll clear space in busy diaries for those expected to be on the guest list, including Governor Linda Dessau, who officially appoints university chancellors; Mr Hansen, aka Toll Holdings squillionaire and former Essendon footy club chairman Paul Little; and the university’s vice-chancellor and million-dollar man Duncan Maskell.
A university spokesperson told us simply that “alternative arrangements” were being considered.
Crikey, they’re pals now?
Murdoch empire heir apparent Lachlan Murdoch’s defamation case – spectacularly dropped last month – against Crikey publisher Private Media turned out to be one of the best things that has happened to the Eric Beecher-owned outfit in years, so it was probably too much to expect them to stop talking about it any time soon.
And in that spirit, Crikey is staging a panel discussion in Sydney next month, featuring two people who need little prompting to start talking about the Murdochs, former PM Malcolm Turnbull – who wants a royal commission, no less, into the activities of the family’s business interests in Australia – and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
We don’t remember those two being especially chummy during their time together in Canberra, but animosity to the Murdoch empire keeps turning enemies into friends.
And we’re tipping we won’t hear the last of the Lachlan Murdoch matter from Crikey for many a long year.
Quiet Tim
State Treasurer Tim Pallas’ budgets – he’s done eight of them by now – don’t usually say “no” to anyone, except maybe the business lobby, but we’ve been softened up to expect plenty of tough stuff in the document due to be served up today.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has been keeping his head down.Credit: AAP
And another radical departure from the Andrews-Pallas playbook has got Spring Street talking, with Tim going all media-shy on us and refusing, for the first time since he’s been in the job, to take part in the traditional budget-eve interview.
For the uninitiated, Pallas has done the rounds of major media organisations – The Age included – each year to chat about the big numbers, the idea being that the exercise clears the decks to allow the government to get its true headline messages out on the day.
But it’s just a photo-op this year, without even an explanation about why the time-honoured chin-wag has been dumped. Could this budget be such a stinker, goes the question on Spring Street, that the treasurer doesn’t want to talk about more than he has to.
Fur real
Sydney Institute head honcho Gerard Henderson has been using his regular Media Watchdog bulletin to rail against the curse of political correctness pervading this nation’s fourth estate since before it was fashionable.
Henderson, who along with his wife Anne Henderson is a dog lover, would often invoke the help of his pet Queensland heelers Nancy, who died several years ago, and more lately Jackie in composing his polemics.
But now Jackie – a rescue dog who the Hendersons adopted from the Gunnedah area in 2017 – is no longer with us, having died earlier this month.
“Jackie was blessed with a pomposity detector – which served in assisting her (male) co-owner in his media critique of leftist sandal-wearers,” Henderson told his readers.
CBD has suffered the occasional nip from Henderson’s watchdog over the years, but we’re saddened by Jackie’s passing, although Gerard suggests that we may not have heard the last of her. He says the original Media Watchdog, Nancy, occasionally communicated through US TV clairvoyant John Edward.
“So Jackie, I expect, will make the occasional contribution from beyond the grave,” Henderson said.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.