Lawrence ‘Moonman’ Mooney departs Triple M Sydney breakfast

Lawrence Mooney has engaged the services of a top employment lawyer after departing Triple M with a year on his contract.

Comedian Lawrence Mooney has engaged the services of top employment lawyer John Laxon after his departure from Triple M breakfast with a year left on his contract.

Confidential last week reported Mooney would be leaving the station with much industry speculation as to why.

After dragging out the announcement for more than a week, parent company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) announced the departure in a bizarre mixed tense press statement.

“SCA announced that Lawrence ‘Moonman’ Mooney leaves the Triple M Sydney Breakfast show today,” the statement read. “Mooney was a regular on Triple M breakfast in Sydney and Melbourne, before officially joining Triple M Brisbane’s breakfast show in 2016. He moved to Sydney breakfast in 2019, joining Jess Eva and Chris Page. SCA thanks Mooney for his contribution to the Triple M Network over the past five years.”

Late on Monday, a statement was issued from law firm Laxon Lex confirming John Laxon was “acting for Mooney against Southern Cross Austereo Services Pty Ltd”.

Previous reports suggested Mooney was on a contract worth up to $2 million.

“My client has a contract which runs through to the end of next year, which SCA has brought to an end,” Laxon said. “The terms of that contract were drafted by SCA and were bargained for and agreed to by my client. He will hold SCA to those terms. All my client asks is that SCA honour the contract and observe the contractual arrangements which they put in place. No further comment will be made.”

Triple M's Moonman in the Morning breakfast team – Chris Page, Lawrence Mooney and Jess Eva.

Last week, Confidential questioned the station as Mooney had not been heard on air since November 3.

At the time, SCA allowed speculation to mount as to why Mooney was not on air by issuing a simple statement: “Lawrence Mooney is currently off air.”

Earlier this month too, SCA announced rugby league great Mark Geyer would be joining the team in 2022.

Today’s statement leaves more questions than answers with no reference to what the future holds for Triple M breakfast

Lawrence Mooney in Byron Bay.

Jess Eva pictured working from home.

Triple M new drive show — The Rush Hour with Gus (Worland), Jude (Bolton) and Wendell (Sailor). Picture: Tim Hunter.

Closed-door meetings were held through last week with negotiations between SCA and Mooney’s management. Mooney has not commented.

The 56-year-old had been with the show since the beginning of 2019 and was joined on his Moonman in the Morning program by Chris Page and Jess Eva, who took over on air in his absence.

Radio ratings released on Tuesday showed the team kept steady with a 4.6 per cent share of the breakfast market, well below Ben Fordham at number one on 2GB with his share of 19.8 per cent. The network did however have high hopes for the Moonman breakfast show, which it failed to deliver on.

Earlier this year, Confidential broke news that Mooney had breached Covid regulations by travelling to Byron Bay during Sydney’s lockdown. At the time, he was forced to apologise for the mistake.

“I know how serious this is and the impact lockdowns are having across the state and am

very embarrassed by my misunderstanding and stuff up,” Mooney told Confidential in July.

“I feel like an absolute goose for not realising I wasn’t permitted to travel to Byron Bay during my break.”

Mooney’s absence follows Page in August taking an extended break due to alcohol addiction. Page at the time implored high profile people to be honest about their demons.

“It really bothers me, particularly anyone in the media, or anyone in the public eye, you often read about someone taking extended leave for exhaustion,” Page told Radio Today at the time.

“That’s crap. If someone says they’re taking leave for exhaustion, they’re in rehab. And there’s a real, there’s a stigma around rehab. And if people can’t be open about it, then no one’s going to talk about it, and that stigma just grows.”

In other news at the station last week, Confidential revealed weekend team of Wendell Sailor, Jude Bolton and Gus Worland are replacing Mick Molloy in Triple M Drive as The Rush Hour with Gus, Jude and Wendell.