Seven feels the social media sting

Illustration by Rod Clement.

The digital assault on billionaire Kerry Stokes’s Seven empire has a new front.

Amber Harrison — the former Seven executive assistant who had an affair with now Seven CEO Tim Worner and has been engaged in a more than two-year bitter legal dispute with the company — has taken to Twitter.

It’s proving to be a useful forum for Harrison as she attempts to rebut the board’s claim that allegations of misconduct by Worner couldn’t be substantiated in the sex-and-expenses scandal that has rocked the company.

Taxi receipts tweeted by Amber Harrison.

Harrison used it to draw the attention of former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett — a Seven board member, who is paid $200,000 in appearance fees from the network in addition to his $126,281 director fee — to taxi receipts that allegedly show trips from Seven’s Pyrmont bunker to Harrison’s then home in Balmain, and then — later in the night — from Balmain to Manly, on Sydney’s northern beaches. Harrison says she also has texts that give more context to those taxi trips.

Amber Harrison.

Seven, for its part, says its investigations by Deloitte found that Harrison engaged in sizeable corporate credit card fraud.

A card made for Don Voelte.

With neither the Deloitte or subsequent Allens reports released, the situation’s as clear as Lake Burley Griffin during an algae bloom.

There are also photos of some of the expenses Harrison says she was accused by Seven of inappropriately spending on a company credit card: two red office chairs, a 70th birthday present for Seven favourite and Free TV chairman Harold Mitchell, and a card made for Don Voelte when he moved from Seven West Media to run Seven Group.

Harrison says all three are examples of disputed expenses she was accused of making on her card for personal use.

Wonder if she’s got anything in store when Worner fronts investors for Seven’s interim results next week?

Position vacant

Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly O’Dwyer is on the hunt for a new chief of staff. Her former COS Julian Sheezel — a former deputy federal Liberal Party director — has just left for Carlton & United Breweries.

Sheezel takes up the Melbourne-based gig as director of corporate affairs at CUB later in the month. Seems it’s not only Cory Bernardi who has reassessed his Liberal life over the summer break.

Kelly O'Dwyer, with her four-month-old baby Olivia, after being sworn-in.

Former deputy chief of staff Tania Coltman is now O’Dwyer’s acting COS.

Hers is one of the busiest Turnbull government ministerial offices this year, as it negotiates the government’s response to Ian Ramsay’s review into how financial services businesses sort out disputes with customers, pushes back against Bill Shorten’s call for a banking royal commission and embarks, once again, on changes to superannuation governance.

Oh, and of course O’Dwyer is due to have her second child in April with UBS investment banker husband Jon Mant.

Treasurer Scott Morrison will take over O’Dwyer’s portfolio duties while she’s off on maternity leave — although, remembering her superhuman effort with baby number one, that might not be long.

Plate up

Sheezel’s old boss, former federal Liberal director Brian Loughnane, was out to dinner with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson on Friday night at Sydney eastern suburbs favourite, Bistro Moncur.

Pauline Hanson

While they were seated together, it wasn’t quite a tete-a-tete meal. Loughnane was one of a number of 20 or so corporate dinner guests of political consultant Michael Kauter, a former deputy campaign director for the Nationals.

Packer trims down

James Packer is busy getting his house in order, taking the knife to a bunch of non-core assets, including the company gym in Sydney and his Crown Resorts’ sponsorship of the South Sydney Rabittohs.

The latest reportedly on the block is his stake in production and film financing company RatPac-Dune Entertainment, which he co-founded with director Brett Ratner.

Sources close to RatPac and Packer have denied they have been told any sale is afoot.

Billionaire James Packer. Picture: Justin Chin/Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, the billionaire’s bad luck continues.

Our spies in Customs at Melbourne airport report that two Chinese businessmen flew out of the country last week after spending some time on the baccarat tables deep in the bowels of Crown casino.

And they declared not one, but two suitcases of cash, each containing a cool $30,000.

Clearly the Chinese crackdown on its citizens gambling offshore — which
sees 17 Crown staff still languishing in jail — hasn’t deterred them.

Helping hand

Like anyone campaigning to be premier, West Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan needed a suitable venue to unveil one of his central election pledges — a $2.5 billion expansion of Perth’s rail network.

Mark McGowan. Picture: AAP/ Rebecca Le May.

But when reporters were ushered into the plush fifth-floor boardroom of EY in the Perth CBD for the announcement, most assumed the accounting giant must have helped Labor comb through the numbers to ensure they added up. Not so.

McGowan revealed that Tony Johnson’s EY had generously offered the ALP the use of the boardroom — which overlooks the Swan River and Emperor Colin Barnett’s new Elizabeth Quay — free of charge.

The ALP has struggled in WA for corporate support, but last week’s Newspoll seems to have focused minds.

Syrah largesse

Graphite developer Syrah Resources has found another way to upset some of its long-term backers.

Syrah last week announced it had promoted its general manager of sales and marketing, Shaun Verner, to managing director. The appointment ended a tumultuous period triggered by the sudden resignation of founding MD Tolga Kumova last October.

The latest upset is over the long-term incentive structure that will see Verner issued with
one million share options. The options can be exercised at a 30 per cent premium to its current trading level any time in the next three years.

Veteran Credit Suisse analyst Michael Slifirski wasn’t impressed, noting that the terms of the LTI implied the board believes an annual return of just over 9 per cent a year is adequate.

Most notably, should Syrah return to the $6.05-per-share level at which it raised $194 million last June, Verner’s LTI will represent a $1.8m bonus. That’s a bit rich for investors who took shares under that raising and have since seen the value of their investment roughly halve.

And as Slifirski noted, it seems an extravagant incentive for an internal candidate.

The analyst’s ECM brothers on the other side of the Credit Suisse “Chinese Wall” may not exactly be happy with him speaking out. Credit Suisse was the lead manager on the June raising.