The Source: Slippery govt language awakes memories of Covid lockdown

The Deputy Premier’s language around an election pledge to transform rail networks in Melbourne’s west revived memories of the government’s response to a leaked Covid roadmap.

web The Source VIC train

Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers.

Keen observers may have noted the slippery language used by Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday to claim that a decidedly unambiguous and vote-winning 2018 election promise — to transform the woefully neglected rail networks in the west — had not been broken.

Allan referred to an “internal working document” to argue that no final decision had been made.

It took the Source back to September 2020, when the Herald Sun published a leaked Covid roadmap to recovery.

The Andrews government was infuriated by the detail of the scoop, which Premier Dan Andrews dismissed as “out of date” (and later inspired a clumsy political and legal witch hunt for the source of the leak).

Then deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng described the information as being from an “internal working document”.

The Andrews government, on the strength of said “internal working document”, a few days later announced a Covid roadmap — identical to the Herald Sun story.

Should the long-suffering train commuters of the west be concerned that fateful decisions and broken promises have already been made?

Let’s not ignore the slippery language of Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll, who spoke of an “evolving” commitment to the western rail network — and reminded the (admittedly ageing) Source of the so-called “core” (and therefore “non-core”) promises once applied by former Prime Minister John Howard.

Jacinta Allan. Picture: David Caird

Allen Cheng. Picture: Sarah Matray

How Michael Gudinski wrangled world’s top acts

Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg rose through the ranks of the concert promotion game together, and triumphed as two of the biggest in the biz.

So, when it came time for the ‘true or false’ segment of popular game show, RocKwiz, which staged a tribute to the late Mushroom Group boss Gudinski at the Palais Theatre on

Wednesday, Chuggy had all the answers, and inside info, on his longtime friend.

Was it true that Gudinski made a packet selling watermelon slices to parched punters at the Sunbury Music Festival?

True, Chugg replied, but added promoter Ray Evans “did all the work, and Gudinski was stoned backstage.”

Hopes were high for melon sales the next year, but Sunbury was rained out. “They sold f--- all,” Chugg said.

Linda and Vika perform at the RockWiz tribute to Michael Gudinski

Chugg said he and Gudinski would often pretend to fight in front of the acts they were promoting to “freak them out.” Chugg added: “It led to better deals.”

Was it also true that Gudinski once threatened to put music guru Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum’s head in a microwave oven to shut him up?

“I wish he did,” Chugg snarled. “I’ve seen enough of Molly’s d--- in the past year to last a lifetime.”

Meldrum invaded the stage, dropped his trousers, and mooned the crowd at Sir Elton John’s AAMI Park show last December. Chugg is Sir Elton’s Australian tour promoter.

Molly was also involved in an incident, which was filmed by a punter and sold to a news site, at Sir Rod Stewart’s show at Rod Laver Arena earlier this year.

The RocKwiz tribute show, co-hosted by Julia Zemiro and Brian Nankervis, paid homage to Gudinski, Mushroom’s 50th anniversary, and the music label’s mighty catalogue of songs.

Past and present Mushroom artists including Mark Seymour, Linda and Vika, Adalita, Scott Carne, Didirri, WILSN, Shannon James and Billy Miller performed at the show.

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