Sensitive souls at Seven West Media

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Isn’t Tim Worner’s Seven West Media sensitive about the mess over at the company’s Perth headquarters, aka “The Swamp”?

The West Australian yesterday published an extraordinary piece titled “Why The Australian newspaper is out of touch with WA”. An angry story about a competitor seemed an odd choice for page seven of their post-election wrap.

Seven West’s Ben Harvey

For all the huffing and puffing in the piece about The Oz’s editorial backing of the re-election of Colin Barnett’s government, it seemed the real anger The West’s Ben Harvey was channelling was over this column’s coverage of the eyebrow-raising departure of Seven West’s Perth boss Chris Wharton.

Wharton’s departure was ­finally announced on Friday, although he abruptly left on “long service leave” back in December when he was replaced, curiously, by an auditor partner, EY’s ­Philip Teale. The auditor continues to act in the role.

Back in December we noted that Wharton’s retirement was imminent. That sort of information — along with our reporting on the ongoing sex-expenses-governance scandal involving Seven West CEOWornerand former Seven executive assistant Amber Harrison — seems to have upset Harvey, who had a dig at this column’s “incestuous ode to financial rumour-mongering”.

“Incestuous” is a pretty brazen slur for an outfit known for its cosy reporting of Perth’s political elite.

Under the editorship of Brett McCarthy, The West had an uncanny knack of missing stories about the chair-sniffing, bra-snapping former WA Liberal treasurer Troy Buswell.

As was outlined by The Oz’s Andrew Burrell back in 2014, that was despite McCarthy’s ­attendance at two of the parties at which Buswell tangled himself in scandal.

At one shindig, Buswell allegedly “dry humped” Perth seafood tycoon Nicholas Kailis. Another ended with a drunken post-party car crash followed by a mysterious nine-day disappearance. Despite pledging to cut $20 million a year in government advertising, much of which is expected to hit the troubled Seven West, Mark McGowan’s incoming Labor administration was last week endorsed by Kerry Stokes’s forgiving paper.

McGowan will hope that the cosiness continues.

Lust in the dust

Grumpy journo Ben Harvey is currently The West’s group business editor.

However, he is better known in Perth for other things.

Above all, Harvey is a Seven West sycophant, who dreams of one day editing the print jewel in his billionaire boss’s media empire. And, if you’ll forgive the “rumour mongering”, we gather Harvey might even get his wish.

Harvey also earned a bit of a reputation for penning lusty parliamentary sketches back when he was The West’s state political editor.

One of his Worneresque lines about the Nats now deputy leader Mia Davies has become legendary among Perth’s political class. “It became too torturous to listen to so Sketch spent the rest of question time devising possible news reports which might require an interview with Nationals Upper House hottie Mia Davies,” wrote Harvey.

As you can see, he’s a real Seven West company man.

Mia Davies

Sam blows off steam

Chris Rex’s remaining time as the well remunerated boss of Ramsay Health Care looks sure to be action-packed.

Rex announced last month that he was leaving the private hospital operator after nine years in the top job.

For now, Ramsay chairman Michael Siddle’s succession plans are as clear as the reasons for ever rising private health premiums.

Sensing an opportunity is Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who has evidently decided it’s a good moment for his red house razzle dazzle.

Yesterday, while Rex was apparently overseas selling his recent half-year results to investors, Dastyari took to social media for a Daily Show-style take-down of Rex. Rex’s crime? Being a paid a lot and, apparently, refusing to attend a Senate committee this week that will look at why costs for replacement knees, hips and pacemakers are so expensive in the private system.

“Mr Rex. Mate. Bloke to bloke, come and have a chat. Come to our hearings,” said Dastyari to the camera.

Ramsay’s people said characterising Rex’s no-show as a “refusal” isn’t fair. They said no official invitation from Dastyari’s office was made directly to Rex, only a call last week through to the company’s switchboard followed by an email.

Well, any confusion seems to have been cleared up by Dastyari’s video. Rex is very much invited to the committee, which meets in Canberra tomorrow and on Thursday.

The Ramsay boss — who advised the ASX on Friday that he had sold $35m worth of his stock, as his CFO Bruce Soden revealed he had sold $7.5m — seems to be in Europe at the moment. So that won’t happen.

But if Rex refuses to attend future gatherings, Dastyari has made it known the Labor and Greens majority committee consider flexing its powers to make a summons.

Other healthcare bosses who could also be summoned include Bupa boss Dwayne Crombie, Healthscope’s Robert Cooke and Medibank’s Craig Drummond.

No word yet on any potential summons of NIB chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon, who as it happens is the brother of Labor shadow minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

Miners flex muscles

Andrew Mackenzie’s BHP and JS Jacques’s Rio Tinto were the big winners in the West Australian election. Not only is Brendon Grylls’s $3 billion tax hike not going to happen, it looks like the WA Nats leader could lose his Pilbara seat to Labor’s Kevin Michel. That’s in no small part due to the big miners’ efforts.

At a federal level, the big miners’ tax campaign looks to be in more trouble — although not for lack of trying.

Brendon Grylls

BHP’s chief financial officer Peter Beaven last week argued that the Turnbull government’s company tax cut was essential for Australia to attract global capital.

Interestingly, less than a year ago George Wright, another of Mackenzie’s BHP star employees, was running the opposite campaign.

That was back when Wright was Labor national secretary, co-ordinating Bill Shorten’s 2016 tilt at the Lodge.

We understand Wright, now a BHP vice-president, had no involvement in the writing or drafting of Beaven’s defence of the Turnbull government’s signature, if unlegislated, policy.

Instead, helping out the CFO on his speech was another BHP vice-president, James Agar, who before his promotion to the Melbourne office shared the Big Australian’s New York offices with chairman Jac Nasser.