By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
To the Melbourne Press Club at the River room at Crown, where Jacinta Allan, 49th premier of Victoria, revealed she dreamt of a career before politics.
Premier Jacinta Allan.Credit: Jason South
“I wanted to be a journalist,” she told Nine News’ Heidi Murphy, adding she grew up in a TV, radio and newspaper household – albeit because her father wanted the form guide.
“Clearly it didn’t work out – the Bendigo Addy – I applied for a job there twice.
“Twice, I tell you.”
The premier also acknowledged the television journalists in the room and revealed she had access to a hitherto unrevealed media monitoring service: “My mum watches every TV bulletin.”
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Now to the Reine & La Rue of the tertiary education sector, otherwise known as the Australian Catholic University.
After the ACU invited hard-right unionist Joe de Bruyn to give an anti-abortion graduation speech on Monday, sparking a walkout and a protest, the university hierarchy’s attempts to placate students has produced another backlash – this time from the Catholic establishment.
Step forward Campion College, a Catholic arts college where de Bruyn is a director.
“Mr de Bruyn has always been committed to the teaching of the Catholic Church on faith and morals, including on the evil of abortion,” said dean of studies Stephen McInerney.
Joe de Bruyn speaking at the graduation ceremony on Monday.
“We not only support his right to make these comments, we support the comments themselves and admire his unwavering commitment to Catholic social teaching in all its dimensions.”
ACU vice chancellor Professor Zlatko Skrbis and chancellor Martin Daubney, KC, a former Queensland Supreme Court judge, are copping it from all sides.
But other Catholic institutions are now turning against the university.
“What they have done is managed to unite all sides of the religious freedom debate,” a church official told CBD, “progressives and traditionalists as well.
“This is the biggest own goal of the Australian church in years.
“They have sought to set themselves aside from the institution that owns them.
“That’s why there is a God almighty ruckus going on.”
Strong words, but we get the point.
CAN’T KEEP AWAY
Members of Casey council that the state government sacked after a culture of bullying and conflicts of interest in one of Victoria’s worst corruption scandals are chancing their arm again.
There were five years of investigations, evidence before the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the release of the Sandon report – which found that developer John Woodman sought to sway council planning decisions through private payments and/or campaign donations. But none of the Casey councillors were convicted of any offence so are free to saddle up for local government elections again.
Former deputy mayor and ALP member Wayne Smith, one of the then-councillors that IBAC found had benefited from the donations but had failed to declare conflicts of interest when dealing with Woodman-related projects, has thrown his hat in the ring.
One-time Liberal MP and former councillor Gary Rowe has also nominated to run again – despite conceding to IBAC that he had not declared Woodman donations.
In 2020, Rowe explained to IBAC he did not believe he needed to declare $10,000 in donations because they were made up of multiple proceeds from tickets sold to an event under the then-$500 disclosure threshold.
“There was no finding against me whatsoever,” Rowe told CBD. “I have long pockets now and I will be taking every opportunity to make sure the truth is told.”
Former councillor and Liberal Party member Damien Rosario is also running again, though he was not named in the Sandon report or accused of wrongdoing.
Polling closes on Friday.
TACKLING THE ELEPHANT
The cavernous industrial expanse that is Sydney’s Carriageworks is large enough to fit several elephants.
And at Nine, owner of this masthead, there are many of those. The media company previewed its 2025 content to about 1200 industry types on Thursday, just a week after the release of a report that exposed a toxic culture of bullying, belittling and sexual harassment.
Acting chief executive Matt Stanton did his best to project confidence and stability on Thursday, while auditioning for the permanent gig. He chummed it with network talent in the green room, getting a warm embrace from Today host Karl Stefanovic.
Nine acting chief executive Matt Stanton.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
In one of his first moves in the top job, Stanton made Nine’s top communications executive Victoria Buchan redundant. But the two were seen happily pow-wowing with The Block host Scott Cam pre-event.
Once formalities kicked off, Stanton quickly tackled the elephant early in a speech otherwise laden with facts and figures (he was chief financial officer after all).
“We’ve had to face some hard truths and confront systemic cultural issues, which has been incredibly challenging for our people,” Stanton said. “At all levels of the business, we are deeply committed to embedding meaningful and lasting change at Nine.”
That was the first and last time the dirty laundry made an appearance, leaving guests to enjoy their slow-cooked lamb shoulder and booze, while a video montage previewed the delights that will beam into the living rooms of middle Australia next year, including Sam Armytage hosting The Golden Bachelor.
In years past, Nine’s upfronts have been an altogether more loose affair, with top TV talent taking the stage for a bit of lighthearted banter. This time, nobody outside the management team stepped up. The feeling among many in the room being that anything too jovial and lighthearted might strike the wrong tone for a company still trying to apologise.
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