Bonus query not the only noise Joyce creating; Seven stalwart cashed up for a quarrel

Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. Picture: Bloomberg

At least there is one thing moving forward in the life of one-time corporate superstar and former boss of Qantas Alan Joyce.

The businessman has spent much of recent times lying low after leaving the national carrier earlier than planned in September last year. He’s been overseas, rarely spotted out and about with husband Shane Lloyd and has diminished directorships in line with his diminished corporate standing.

Now there is an independent consultant in the former of management consultant and non-executive director Colin Carter peeling back the layers on Joyce’s $19m in executive bonuses, which Qantas wants some clarity on given the circumstances of his final year at the carrier.

But hey, at least Lloyd and Joyce have now been flashed the green light on the $3m plans they have to amalgamate and renovate the two apartments in Harry Seidler’s 56-storey The Cove building on Harrington St in Sydney.

Building plans by Alan Joyce and Shane Lloyd have upset at least one neighbour in the high-rise apartment. Picture: Christian Gilles

The couple’s revamped home, on the 42nd floor, will feature four bedrooms and two offices, offering spectacular views of Sydney Harbour.

They have five years to enact the just-approved plans and appear to only have one neighbour to win over as the extensive works begin.

The single objection to Joyce’s plans came from financial markets operative Alex Sell, who runs exSell Capital, and also lives in The Cove in a lower apartment.

In his letter to the City of Sydney, Sell said he was worried about noise from construction, describing the prospect of disturbance as “terrifying”.

“With my heart condition, such noise causes horrendous stress, mental and doubtless physiological too,” Sell wrote.

“Working from home and during business hours it has previously proven completely impossible to conduct business calls or entertain personal or business guests.”

Maybe Joyce can get his neighbour a set of noise-cancelling headphones.

Journo primed for a fight

Another day, another media mess.

Seven Network senior news reporter and anchor Robert Ovadia has been sacked by the Kerry Stokes-controlled media group over allegations of inappropriate conduct.

Sydney-based Ovadia has worked for the network for 23 years, during which he’s won two Walkley awards and developed a high profile as a senior member of the reporting team.

Earlier this month, Ovadia, 51, was stood down from the newsroom pending an investigation into the matter, which is believed to have involved emails exchanged four years ago between Ovadia and a former female employee.

The content of the emails is not known and there is no suggestion the allegations have been proven, only that Ovadia has confirmed his own dismissal from Seven.

Lawyer John Laxon is believed to have been retained. Picture: Lindsay Moller

Word is that Ovadia has hired lawyer John Laxon of LaxonLex Lawyers to act on his behalf in the matter. Laxon is an employment lawyer who has done much work over the years for media clients. He recently was also believed to be advising now former Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn, who left Seven in April amid the fallout from the current affairs program’s exclusive interview with rapist Bruce Lehrmann.

None of this legal advice comes cheap, of course as Ten and its star presenting journalist Lisa Wilkinson can vouch for that, but thankfully Ovadia and wife Katherine appear to have some capacity to take up any fight.

Just weeks before news of the internal investigation concerning his conduct emerged, Ovadia sold his family’s long-term home in Sydney’s Tennyson Point for $5.35m.

On the same day, the couple bought a slightly smaller but impressive modern home with all the bells and whistles in Ryde for $3.08mm, paying for their new home without the need for any mortgage.

That’s left $2.3m on the table, and a healthy start to any required legal fighting fund.

Happy to take the credit

It’s said that all’s fair in love and war, and certainly here at Margin Call we take the daily battle to lift the lid on corporate Australia rather seriously.

Self-evidently so do our esteemed Nine Entertainment contemporaries at The Australian Financial Review’s backpage institution, Rear Window.

From this end, believe that the respect is high and the competition real.

So what a surprise on reading Friday’s RW drop and its dissection of Colin Carter’s appointment by the still Richard Goyder-chaired Qantas board to investigate former boss Alan Joyce’s bonus and Carter’s already deep-rooted historical relationships with key Qantas players.

There, in no less than the second paragraph, was a hyperlink promoting the exclusive story in The Australian last Wednesday by our fine colleague Tansy Harcourt revealing Carter’s appointment to help assess whether Joyce should be paid the $19m-odd he is due, or whether the Qantas board can legitimately claw back moneys based on Joyce’s bungles.

A Nine newspaper hyperlinking to its direct competitor News Corp’s scoop?

Welcome credit where credit is due, to be sure, but unusual indeed given the nature of competition between the fiercely competitive rival national mastheads.