The losers of 2018 in politics, entertainment and sport
You’re not imagining it: 2018 sucked for a lot of people in the public spotlight. Pollies, sports stars, movie stars — there’s many who’ve had a tough year.
You’re not imagining it: 2018 sucked for a lot of high profile people.
Most years have winners and losers in equal measure, but this one? Not so much.
For some reason, many are leaving 2018 down, diminished, or defeated. Pollies, sports stars, movie stars: nobody’s better off than they were in January.
Even the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who rode high during the year with a glittering wedding, a pregnancy announcement and a triumphant tour Down Under, end the year on a low, brought down by intriguing reports of diva demands and a growing rift with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
So who were the big losers of 2018? We’ll start with the Aussies.
STEVE SMITH, DAVE WARNER, AND LOTS OF OTHERS CONNECTED TO AUSTRALIAN CRICKET
When Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft fronted a press conference in South Africa on March 25 after Bancroft had been sprung using sandpaper to tamper with the ball during a test match, Smith said he was “not proud” of the act, which had been cooked up by the leadership group, but he would “move on” from the mistake and “learn something from it”. And no, he would not be standing down as captain of the Australian team. Cue: mass outrage, and the onset of the biggest scandal to hit Australian cricket in decades. Within days, Smith, Bancroft and vice-captain Dave Warner were sent home in disgrace, where they were comprehensively grilled and skewered by the media. Within a week, all three were suspended from playing — Bancroft for nine months and Smith and Warner for a year.
And the cricket carnage did not stop there. Despite being cleared of wrongdoing, coach Darren Lehmann stepped down within days; Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland announced his intention to retire in June; and David Peever stepped down as Cricket Australia chairman in November.
BARNABY JOYCE
Barnaby Joyce romped back into parliament in December 2017 with a convincing win in the New England by-election, but within two months, he was forced to resign as leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister after it was revealed he had left his wife and family to live with former staffer Vikki Campion, who was pregnant with his baby. The couple told their story to Sunday Night in June, but this did little to impress the general public, despite their alarming claim that senior figures within the Coalition had demanded Campion abort her unborn baby.
Joyce floated the idea of a return to the Nationals leadership in October, but the idea went nowhere fast, and he was slammed for raising the issue prior to the Wentworth by-election, when the Coalition needed to demonstrate some semblance of unity.
MALCOLM TURNBULL
After months of dire poll results and internal party leaks, Malcolm Turnbull finally ended up as political roadkill in September. His response — quitting parliament — initially suggested his would be a relatively dignified prime ministerial exit — but this assumption turned out to be false, at least far as conservative members of the Liberal Party were concerned. The former PM’s subsequent actions — following an anti-Tony Abbott Instagram account, calling for the revival of the National Energy Guarantee, and very obviously failing to support the Liberal Party’s bid to hold onto the seat of Wentworth — saw him plummet in the affections of many a Liberal. Eventually even longtime bestie even Craig Laundy implored him to shut up.
TONY ABBOTT
Australia’s prime ministerial leadership ructions would have achieved a certain kind of symmetry if the Liberals, in their hour of need, had turned back to the man they had previously knifed, as Labor did with Kevin Rudd. But when Malcolm Turnbull’s political fortunes were waning, the Liberals did not countenance Mr Abbott for even a nanosecond, revealing just how much his political capital had sunk. Mr Abbott recently described himself as “Australia’s most famous backbencher”, but with strong anti-Abbott sentiment rising in his seat of Warringah, he may not even be that after next year’s federal election.
PETER DUTTON
A tilt at the Liberal leadership in September revealed Dutton’s ambition, but the ham-fisted nature of the challenge exposed his poor judgment. (There were allegations that his ‘numbers men’ just couldn’t count.) He remains the Home Affairs minister (albeit with a paring back of some of his powers), but he’ll face a tough challenge to keep his seat of Dickson at the next federal election, with the activist group GetUp set to target him in the marginal electorate.
He also injured his arm, which wasn’t exactly fun either.
SCOTT MORRISON
He won the Prime Ministership in September in a teflon manoeuvre that blindsided the Dutton camp. But ScoMo’s honeymoon in the top job lasted about five minutes. Within weeks, his government lost its majority, his poll numbers went south, and he suffered two indignities around the G20 meeting of world leaders: first Donald Trump refused to meet with him; and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel seemed to refer to info cards in order to work out who he was. Although Morrison appears determined to reverse the government’s fortunes with serious policy announcements about immigration and energy, political pundits are not favouring his chances, meaning he could end up as one of Australia’s briefest-serving prime ministers.
THE BANKS
Market research firm Roy Morgan revealed in October that Australians were more dissatisfied with their banks than any time since 2011 — and no wonder. The Hayne Royal Commission provided a never-ending stream of negative headlines for the big four during 2018, with reports of fees being charged for no service, fees being levied on the dead, and multiple examples of egregious corporate greed. Arguably, AMP suffered the most of all the financial institutions, with the royal commission revealing that senior company figures had manipulated a report that was presented to ASIC as independent. Their share price reacted accordingly, and board chair Catherine Brenner was forced to resign.
MICHELLE GUTHRIE AND JUSTINE MILNE
Things escalate quickly sometimes. On September 24, ABC Chair Justin Milne announced that the board had sacked managing director Michelle Guthrie. Within days, leaked emails suggested he had placed pressured her to fire economics reporter Emma Alberici. By September 28, he resigned after a crisis board meeting. The saga only got worse from there, with Guthrie accusing Milne of further politically-motivated pressure, and some inappropriate back-touching (claims he denied). The year ends with her having launched legal action against her former employer.
ANDREW BROAD
On December 17, Nationals MP Andrew Broad, who represents the Victorian seat of Mallee, stood down as an assistant minister to Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Michael McCormack after questions were raised about his private life by an article in New Idea.
The next day he decided not to recontest his seat and agrees to repay $479.62 for two taxpayer-funded domestic flights after it was revealed they were part of a trip to Hong Kong where the married MP had dinner with a younger woman he met online through a “sugar baby” website.
AND NOW, THE INTERNATIONALS …
ELON MUSK
Has any international celebrity inflicted more damage on their own personal brand in 2018 than Elon Musk? The Tesla and Space X entrepreneur attracted all the wrong kinds of attention this year. He took to Twitter to muse that he was thinking of taking Tesla private — a move that got him investigated; he smoked a joint in a filmed radio interview, and he inexplicably alleged that one of the rescuers in the mission to free the Thai soccer team from a flooded cave was a paedophile.
BILL COSBY
Cosby’s downfall had been presaged by more than 10 years of accusations that he had drugged and raped women, but this was the year of his ultimate downfall. Sentenced in September, the 81-year-old Cosby was labelled a “sexually violent predator” and jailed for no less than three years.
KEVIN SPACEY
If 2017 was bad for actor Kevin Spacey, 2018 was a lot, lot worse. More sexual assault allegations against him surfaced; Netflix dropped all association with him; he found himself replaced in the film All The Money In The World (his replacement, Christopher Plummer, would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award); and he was so on the nose with movie audiences that his one cinematic release of the year, Billionaire Boys Club, reportedly garnered just $170 on its opening day.
ROSEANNE BARR
What should have been a comeback year for Roseanne Barr turned into a full-scale disaster after she fired off a racist tweet in May. She was swiftly dropped from her network, and her character was killed off from her own eponymous show. Barr has tried to explain herself on multiple occasions since — even blaming her tweet on the side-effects of medication — but it would seem unlikely that Roseanne will come back again.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN
The allegations against disgraced Harvey Weinstein accumulated throughout 2017 — more than 80 women have so far accused him of sexual misconduct — but it was not until May this year when he was charged with the sexual assault of three women. Claims against him have to date prompted more than 20 police investigations around the globe, but so far only the Manhattan district attorney has charged the producer. His ex wife Georgina Chapman also divorced him, with the two parties reportedly agreeing on an eight-figure settlement.
(AAP)
THERESA MAY
Who’d want to have a year like Theresa May has just had? Forced to broker a Brexit deal she never wanted, May was up against it all year, combating a constant drip-feed of press suggestions that her days were numbered. She survived a no-confidence motion earlier this month, but indicated she would not lead the Tories to the next general election. Many assume she’ll resign as prime minister shortly after Brexit.
BORIS JOHNSON
Feted as a future British prime minister, Boris Johnson has found the path to No. 10 a particularly elusive one. He resigned as Foreign Minister in July in protest over Theresa May’s Brexit plan, but she has proved surprisingly tenacious: it seems this lady is not for turning either. Instead of finding himself regarded as the Man Most Likely To Become Prime Minister, Johnson now finds himself as just one in a field of candidates, with his ascendancy far from certain. He ends the year in disgrace, apologising for having failed to declare more than STG52,700 ($A93,038) in private earnings.
EMMANUEL MACRON
He rode high in 2017, sweeping to power in the French presidential elections as the head of his own political movement, but the only way has been down for Emmanuel Macron in 2018. His poll numbers dived after video emerged of his bodyguard beating the merde out of a student protester; Macron was subsequently forced to deny that the 26-year-old bodyguard was his lover. But things got worse for the 40-year-old President, who has been slammed for his elitist attitudes. Protests over the cost of living — spurred on by a proposed green excise on fuel — gave birth to the “yellow vest” movement, who staged the biggest riots seen in the republic in decades.
ANGELA MERKEL
She was hailed as the de facto leader of the free world after Donald Trump’s surprise election in 2016 — Trump himself didn’t seem interested in the role — but the German chancellor’s power and influence has ebbed away throughout 2018. Her warm embrace of refugees divided Germany, and her replacement as leader of the Christian Democratic Union has cemented the fact that she is on the way out. Although Merkel has said she wants to serve out the remainder of her term (due to expire in 2021), pundits think it is increasingly likely she will be pushed out before too long.
DONALD TRUMP
You didn’t really think we’d forget The Donald, did you? 2018 has proven to be a difficult year for the US President. Although the Republicans performed better than expected in the midterm elections in November, he has lost considerable ground, and while his unpredictable foreign policies have kept the world on its toes, some of his domestic ambitions (like the wall, and repealing Obamacare) remain unrealised. He continues to haemmorage staff — losing a Chief of Staff, a Secretary of State, an Attorney-General and a UN ambassador over the past 12 months — and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 federal election strikes ever-closer to home. (Trump’s own lawyer Michael Cohen was jailed for three years earlier this month, telling a New York court that the President’s “dirty deeds” led him down “a dark path”.) Reports suggest Trump has become obsessed by the likelihood that he will be impeached — meaning his 2019 could end up even worse than his 2018.
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