Why AFL star Luke Darcy turned on Daniel Andrews
Until last Monday, Luke Darcy would have been the last name to strike fear into the hearts of seasoned politicians.
Since COVID-19, Dan Andrews has famously dodged Melbourne talk radio jocks such as Neil Mitchell for the calm waters of FM music stations.
His biggest radio commitment has been as a regular on Triple M’s Hot Breakfast, hosted by Eddie McGuire and Luke Darcy, and until last week it had been the safest of territories for him. Eddie is friendly with the Premier — not surprising given his older brother, Frank McGuire, is on Team Dan as MP for the dead-red Labor seat of Broadmeadows.
But something changed last Monday. Until then, Darcy would have been the last name to strike fear into the hearts of seasoned politicians. But the AFL legend — previously the show’s second banana when it came to political interviews — shocked the radio world with some crunching hits on Dan. Indeed, Darcy conducted the radio equivalent of root canal surgery on the Premier in a 17-minute interrogation about why “extreme lockdowns” were necessary. The interview has gone so big that a source tells Diary it is Triple M’s most popular podcast ever.
After starting by saying he was “astounded” about Andrews’s revelation that it “wasn’t even a 50/50 decision” to extend stage four, Darcy left the Premier verbally stumbling by claiming the current isolation had contributed to last month’s death of his own father.
“I lost my 78-year-old father, Premier, during this time,” Darcy said.
“And you know what happened to him? He was a very similar person to you actually, Premier. He loved his golf. He was isolated in his home. He wasn’t dying from this. He was dying from the isolation and the loneliness because he couldn’t get to the gym. He couldn’t run his business that he built for his family his entire life. And so, what was happening was the policies were causing harm, Premier.”
Andrews eventually responded: “These restrictions are very tough and they have a cost, yes. (But) the cost of taking them all off too soon is far greater.”
The greatest surprise was McGuire’s near-unprecedented muteness. After 17 minutes of watching the verbal punches fly, his only involvement was a nervous “thank you” to Andrews for appearing. So will Dan be back?
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ABC mystery: Sarah’s life after China
The posting of the ABC’s power couple, Sarah Ferguson and former Q&A host Tony Jones, to China is over.
Diary can confirm that with two prominent Australian journalists, Bill Birtles and Michael Smith forced to flee China last week, the ABC has resigned itself to Ferguson and Jones not heading to the alleged People’s Republic for the foreseeable future.
It is now 19 long months since Ferguson was announced as the ABC’s China bureau chief. Back in February 2019, Aunty predicted she would move to Beijing later in 2019. She is said to have prepared meticulously, taking intensive Mandarin lessons. We heard she wanted to make long-form documentaries about China when she got there.
Meanwhile, Jones would join her while writing thrillers, hosting regional Q&A specials and filing for Foreign Correspondent.
But snags soon started to appear. In January, Jones told Diary that delays in the visas could be put down first to “Chinese New Year”. Later, it was COVID-19.
But as the year went on, it became clear the delays were most likely down to problems in the Australia/China relationship. So that also scuppered a plan at one stage to send Ferguson and Jones to Hong Kong instead.
Amid these changes of plans, neither Ferguson (who remains a full-time ABC employee) nor Jones have been spotted on air since Ferguson’s doco Revelation screened six months ago.
Ferguson is currently recovering from shoulder surgery. Last week, she tweeted her relief that ABC colleague Birtles was back safe in Australia, prompting even ACA host Tracy Grimshaw to reply: “I’ve been wondering where you were.”
Ferguson says she’ll be “back soon”. But what will she do? Making documentaries full-time is not an option in cash-strapped times for Aunty, so unless there’s another overseas gig, she needs to be tenured to an ABC show. The most likely, Diary hears, are Four Corners or Foreign Correspondent.
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Emma’s ‘smear’ claim
Emma Alberici was never going to disappear quietly into the sunset after her high-profile departure from the ABC last month.
Her new book will claim her reputation has been unfairly “smeared” over her 2018 corporate tax story.
At last, Diary can reveal both the title and subject of her new memoir, to be published by Malcolm Turnbull’s publisher Hardie Grant next year. And in case you were ever in any doubt, it will cause plenty of debate — mainly because she will use it to make a detailed defence of the 2018 story.
The book will be called “Rewrite the Story”. And no, we are not making that up.
There will certainly be plenty for Alberici to “rewrite” about the controversial 2018 story, which caused ructions all the way to the highest levels of both the country and the ABC. Not only did it prompt the intervention of then-PM Turnbull to complain and ask for it to be rewritten, but Justin Milne’s unsuccessful instruction to sack Alberici over both the main story and a separate analysis piece ultimately played a key role in his abrupt departure as ABC chairman. Alberici now makes it clear that all of this and more will be addressed in the book. In an acquisition announcement to be formally released this week, Alberici says the primary focus of Rewrite the Story will be to finally clear her name with “irrefutable” evidence.
“In the aftermath of my corporate tax story and analysis, my name was smeared with apparent impunity by various quarters of the Australian media,” Alberici will say in this week’s announcement. “I’ve got a new story to write. The whole story.”
The pitch goes on to say that Rewrite the Story will draw on “three decades of expertise” to underpin her arguments with “irrefutable economic evidence”.
With such a mission about a story that he did not like, the book will no doubt cause tensions between Alberici and Turnbull, the latter of whom is Hardie Grant’s star author and now her publishing stablemate. But despite his big role in disputing Alberici’s tax story, Diary is assured the ex-PM will have zero say in what ultimately appears in her book.
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Raf goes down to Danistan
Amid Dan Andrews’s search for softer FM interviews, talk radio presenters have taken matters into their own hands.
ABC Radio Melbourne drive host Rafael “Raf” Epstein, for one, has decided that if the Mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the Mountain. Epstein has settled in among the reporters at the Treasury Theatre at 11am sharp most days and become a regular cameo actor in Melbourne’s new daytime smash hit, Dan TV.
While being part of a daytime soapie doesn’t allow the same scope for detailed questioning as a radio interview, Raf has had his fair share of high ratings moments in grilling Andrews — including facing down the Premier a fortnight back about his carefully manicured media presence.
When Diary caught him last week, Epstein explained his approach to Dan: “It’s just silly not to go and ask a question if you can’t get the Premier on the radio. He is there waiting for questions. It’s not ideal. But it’s also fascinating.”
Given 3AW morning king Neil Mitchell’s loud complaints that Dan has ducked him for years, it might be time for him to join Epstein down the other end of a very empty Collins Street for a spot of jousting.
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The $US5m Voice
There are many reasons that The Voice is Australia’s most expensive show. Most are about the cost of the show’s all-star “coaches”.
Diary has learnt that US R&B star Usher demanded a $US5m ($6.8m) salary to appear on The Voice for just one season. No surprise he didn’t end up on the show!
But there are still more juicy details. Diary is now told that the most recent Voice coaching team of Kelly Rowland, Boy George, Delta Goodrem and Guy Sebastian cost Nine $10m — although apart from salaries, that included the cost of jets, glitzy temporary homes and other demands.
So now that Seven is taking over the high-cost singing show, let’s hope that COVID-19 is helping it to take an axe to the price tag of its “stars”.
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Swan’s ‘covfefe’ slip
There are a growing number of accidental social media posts put out by prominent people in recent years. The most famous is US President Donald Trump’s viral midnight tweet from May 2017, which simply read: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” In the years since that tweet, the term “covfefe” has generated a production line of memes, jokes and songs. So it’s probably no surprise that Dr Norman Swan, captain of the ABC’s COVID-19 coverage, caused a significant social media stir among his 100,000-odd Twitter followers a few days back when his normally polished feed was hijacked by the tweet: “I tryhih u ok ywe.”
It’s a jumble of letters straight from the Trump “covfefe” playbook. But it had some prominent fellow media types concerned Swan might be having a medical episode. Not least among them was the ABC personality’s now-famous son, Washington-based Jonathan “The Cygnet” Swan, making his own global headlines since his Trump interview. Taking his cue from his dad’s tweet, and perhaps last week’s “R U OK? Day”, a concerned Swan Jr asked his father 30 minutes after the initial post: “You ok, dad?”
Thankfully, turns out Swan Snr was fine, if a little bruised. Soon after his son’s post, he responded: “So here’s what must have happened. I just had a fall on a bush walk. Must have been a pocket tweet. Only scrapes and cuts! Need to keep my phone off!”
Swan later explained that Siri picked up some gobbledygook after he tripped down a slope while walking with “two psychiatrists”. Would love to have heard the chat on that walk!
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Hayes hosts again
Nearly 25 years after leaving the Today show for 60 Minutes, one of Nine’s best-known identities, Liz Hayes, is making a long overdue return to the presenter’s chair.
Diary is reliably informed that Hayes will be the anchor of a new prime time show for Nine in 2021 called Under Investigation, after successfully pitching the program to Nine bosses.
Our understanding is that under the hour-long new show’s format — to be crewed by her 60 Minutes colleagues — she will investigate major public events and mysteries, such as the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and terrorist attacks, to search for new evidence. In this, she will be joined by specialist investigators and experts.
Hayes’s new show will likely run around May or June next year for a limited 8.30pm or 9pm weeknight run as a starting point. If it’s successful, the show could extend into a year-round format.
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Media’s toughest gig
Looking for a media job in the worst recession Victoria has ever seen? Skilled at selling highly unpopular policies in a locked-down “issues-rich” environment to a restless public? Can you recite “I stand with Dan” 10 times fast without stumbling? And do you also have the skills to produce Melbourne’s most popular daytime soap, Dan TV?
If you said yes to all those questions, you’re in luck. While jobs dry up everywhere else in Melbourne, Dan Andrews has put ads on LinkedIn looking for media advisers in the Office of the Premier.
In the interests of full disclosure, dear prospective candidates, there won’t be much of a feeling out period. For one, you will have to “manage complex media issues” immediately. And you will need to be a Dan true believer. Successful candidates will have to “promote actions of the government”.
Gluttons for punishment should turn up at the Treasury theatre in a North Face jacket at around 11am, any day of the week, for a live job audition.
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Hugh marks cricket
The race for sports rights is heating up. Nine CEO Hugh Marks has confirmed to Diary he is ready to pounce on the rights to cricket. That leaves open the unusual scenario of Nine featuring Tests and then the Australian Open tennis on the network’s 2020-21 summer schedule.
Following the news that Seven may tear up its contract with Cricket Australia, we went straight to Marks on Friday, for once beating Nine’s near-impenetrable phone defences.
“Of course we’d always be interested in having a discussion if a discussion’s there to be had,” Marks told Diary. “It’s a massive driver of revenue and audience across December and January. It is Australia’s national sport.”
Word is that Marks is most interested in Tests, which have minimal clashes with the tennis.
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Nine’s Simonds spat
Nine’s A Current Affair nabbed a nice scoop with much-publicised footage of construction magnate Mark Simonds (of Simonds Homes fame) and his family escaping Melbourne’s coronavirus quarantine while sipping champagne on the Gold Coast (after several stops) aboard their yacht, the Lady Pamela.
But ACA’s scoop could come at a price. Diary is told the Simonds family is cranky with Nine, with rumblings of an ad boycott.
However, Nine sources tell us their ad exposure to Simonds Homes is limited — even though it did sponsor the Today show’s “win a house” giveaway earlier in the year.
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#MeToo gets hooked into politics?
With the #MeToo movement blowing open the personal proclivities of business bosses such as QBE’s Pat Regan and the AMP’s Boe Pahari and Alex Wade, emboldened journalists are turning their gaze to politics.
There were whispers last week of an ABC reporter fishing for information on the alleged private affairs of a senior federal politician, casting the net far and wide among various associates.
ABC types were tight-lipped when we asked them about it on Sunday, but it’s one to watch.
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