By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Laura Tingle’s comments on a racist Australia clearly hit a nerveCredit: John Shakespeare
Laura Tingle’s offhand comments at the Sydney Writers’ Festival in May about a racist Australia and her ripe remarks about Opposition Leader Peter Dutton triggered a culture-war firestorm, a limp but nevertheless embarrassing rebuke from ABC management that prompted yet another culture-war firestorm, which led in turn to plenty of mouth-frothing moments from Liberal Senators grandstanding in estimates, prompting yet another … OK, you get the picture.
You’ve gotta wonder whether it was worth all the trouble for the ABC staff-elected board member and 7.30 chief political correspondent.
Well, in terms of cold, hard cash – definitely not. In response to a Senate Estimates question from Liberal Senator (and former ABC presenter) Sarah Henderson, the ABC revealed that La Tingle received just $600 – the standard honorarium – for her two appearances at the festival.
An ABC spokesperson told us on Monday:
“All external work must be authorised by the appropriate manager and must meet relevant guidelines.”
Not quite the levels of coin she trousered in 2018, when The Australian reported that Tingle, then political editor of The Australian Financial Review, pocketed $15,000 for a two-day contract with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for hosting duties at the Association of Southeast Nations summit in Sydney.
She told The Australian at the time, “I see absolutely no conflict,” and then tweeted at the young female reporter who wrote the story, “Why don’t you go chase a real story?” Advice she was free to repeat to us when we texted her, but we didn’t hear back.
CALD OF DUTY
While politicians from across the political aisle love to talk a big game about the virtues of multiculturalism, our corridors of power remain stubbornly Anglo spaces. So much so that NSW parliament couldn’t even find a full panel of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) MPs for its event on … cultural and linguistic diversity in state politics.
An event entitled Representation Matters, part of the build-up to the state legislative council’s 200th anniversary, promises “a panel of current and former Legislative Council parliamentarians will share their fascinating experiences and insights as members from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds”.
And sure, you’ve got Indian-Australian state treasurer Daniel Mookhey, Labor MP Bob Nanva, whose parents grew up in Iran, the Liberal Party’s first Lebanese-Australian parliamentarian John Ajaka and Hong Kong-born former MP Helen Sham-Ho.
We were a little sceptical to see the Nationals’ Ben Franklin moderating, but given he’s the legislative council’s president we’ll let that slide. But also on the panel is deputy Liberal leader Natalie Ward, who didn’t strike us as particularly culturally diverse, unless being a South Australian, and daughter of a Welsh immigrant, counts.
Now, we don’t want to be making assumptions about anybody’s ethnic background, so we did check and were assured that Ward’s presence is because of her stint as minister for multicultural affairs during the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than some secret Italian lineage.
JUMPING THE GUN
It is not just our athletes who are drawing attention to themselves these Olympic Games. Some of our Aussie broadcasters are lighting up the internet – and not always for the right reasons.
Step forward Leigh Diffey, NBC’s commentator for the biggest race of Paris 2024, the 100 metres men’s final.
Diffey, a former PE teacher from Ipswich Grammar School (yes, readers, we checked), traded his teacher’s whistle for a commentator’s microphone initially in motorsport and via the BBC, Channel Ten and Speed Channel.
Alas, when the time came to call the big race, Diffey botched his moment. Not only did he name the wrong winner, he failed to mention at all the real winner, US track star Noah Lyles, during the sprint.
NBC as a rights holder has busily scrubbed the call from social media, but USA Today told us Diffey declared: “Jamaica’s gonna do it, Kishane Thompson is a gold medallist, on debut.”
Sure, mistakes happen, but NBC attracted an extra level of attention by editing the post-race commentary together with the race call to make Diffey’s lapse seem less than it was during replays.
For what it’s worth, Gerard Whateley (for Nine, owners of this masthead) and Bruce McAvaney (ABC Radio) both chose to be more equivocal about the result, until Lyles’ victory was confirmed about 30 seconds later.
In contrast, Diffey’s error has now been written up everywhere from the New York Post to the website Awful Announcing. A stuff-up fast becoming the stuff of legend.
ANTI-SOCIALIST SOCIAL CLUB
Quillette, the libertarian online magazine founded by Australian Claire Lehmann, always seemed less successful here than in the US, where the publication was championed by “anti-woke” types and heralded as a vanguard of the “intellectual dark web” (nobody knows what that means but it sounds vaguely provocative).
That said, Quillette does have some traction in the local market – it proudly claims to be the “14th most influential internet domain in Australia”, according to an unnamed 2021 study. And it’s hoping to expand its reach among local freedom lovers with a special Quillette social in Pyrmont next month. One for the calendars.
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