By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Progressive magazine The Monthly was planning a present of its own to celebrate The Australian newspaper’s 60th birthday: a profile of the paper’s star libertarian columnist Janet Albrechtsen.
And why not? After decades of columnising, Albrechtsen still commands attention, and her opinionated dispatches from the legal/cultural/political frontlines of Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial/board of inquiry/defamation case made headlines. Particularly after the ACT Supreme Court found former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff’s excessive contact with Albrechtsen led to an apprehension of bias in Sofronoff’s inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system.
Columnist at The Australian Janet Albrechtsen.Credit: Edwina Pickles
CBD hears that the magazine, founded by Morry Schwartz and edited by Michael Williams, dispatched ABC RN presenter Jonathan Green, who already had one Monthly cover story on the Murdoch empire under his belt, to put out feelers, and he reached out to Albrechtsen, Chris Kenny, Tom Switzer and others.
But now the whole thing has been put on ice. “We are letting it rest for now,” a mag source told CBD. A shame. If there’s one thing we want to read more than The Monthly’s profile of Albrechtsen, it would be Albrechtsen’s column on The Monthly.
FROM THE HEART OF TWIGGY
Whatever Western Australia lacks in proximity to the centre of political power, it more than makes up for in its sheer number of billionaires, whose intemperate feuding even forces your east coast columnists to take notice.
The front page of The West Australian on Thursday.Credit:
Ever since mining magnate turned green energy evangelist Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest accused fellow rich-lister and Seven West Media overlord Kerry Stokes of abusing his media power after a quarrel over mining machinery, the duo have been engaging in an on-off sledging match.
Unfortunately for Twiggy, one of these men controls the state’s only daily newspaper, and it ain’t him. So after Forrest’s Fortescue revealed on Wednesday that it would be slashing 700 jobs, The West Australian’s front page the following day featured Twiggy as Forrest Gump, under the headline “Forrest Dump”.
Twiggy didn’t help his case with comments comparing former Fortescue scientists who departed to start their own clean energy company to Nazi soldiers fleeing Poland after World War II. Yes readers, he really did.
On Thursday, Twiggy dialled into Perth radio station 6PR to tell presenter Gary Adshead that while he hadn’t seen the offending front page he definitely wasn’t mad.
“They [the West] can knock their socks off … I think it sounds funny.”
So, Adshead wondered, whatever happened between Twiggy and Stokes?
“I think it got really antsy about us not going ahead with the power station in East Perth. I don’t know. Look, I think good luck to him, he’s a good bloke,” the Twiggster said. “I’ve been bagged every time I’ve gone harder on green. I’ll continue to get bagged. Really, mate, it’s just tomorrow morning’s fish and chip wrappers, and I don’t mind.”
As for the Nazi comment?
“That came into my mind. Look, Gary, I just call it as I see it,” he sputtered. “I speak from the heart, mate.”
LOW RATINGS
There was considerable angst at Sky News HQ on Monday when the channel went off air hours before broadcasting its own celebratory project The Australian: 60 Years of News.
Sky chief Paul Whittaker interviewed News Corp chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch in a one-hour special.Credit: Sky News Australia
“Third-party provider MediaHub, which manages playout services for Sky News, suffered a hardware failure,” a Sky News Australia spokeswoman said. “We apologise to our viewers for the inconvenience, with catch-up episodes to be made available to all subscribers.” Thank goodness.
Regular readers might recall how we brought you news that the original plan was to centre the documentary on the thoughts of chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch, but we were told Lachlan Murdoch didn’t like that idea and nixed it.
Anyway, on Monday night viewers did not give Sky a ratings birthday present, with just 25,000 tuning in across the five main capital cities compared with about 40,000 for The Bolt Report, which preceded it, meaning almost half the audience switched off.
BANGED TO RIGHTS
CT Group, the political advisory firm kick-started by John Howard’s old necromancer Sir Lynton Crosby and credited with delivering a string of conservative electoral victories, has become a lot less interesting since its amicable separation from the Liberal Party last year.
The official line is that CT Group is shifting away from the messy world of politicking to focus on the far more lucrative business consulting and research caper. Its brand suffered considerable damage among Liberals incensed by co-founder Mark Textor’s work for the Yes campaign during last year’s Voice to parliament referendum.
However, the firm got a lot more interesting this week when Mohammed Syed, a former executive there, pleaded guilty at the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney on Tuesday to stealing more than $180,000 from it. He is on bail while awaiting a sentencing hearing in October.
Syed made numerous unauthorised payments from the bank accounts of CT to his personal accounts over a six-year period from 2012. He entered guilty pleas to stealing $20,000 to $30,000 each year, totalling $182,400, between 2012 and 2017.
In a statement CT said the firm’s former financial controller had been brought to justice.
“Syed in court today pleaded guilty to a representative set of charges under a plea deal that he agreed with the DPP,” it said, adding the amount he stole was considerably higher.
“CT condemns Syed’s criminal conduct and will always act to defend what is right, the law and its own position.”
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