Jacinta Price’s warning shot at ABC’s Patricia Karvelas over Indigenous voice to parliament

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has ‘serious reservations’ about being interviewed by RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas. Picture: Liam Mendes

Indigenous Coalition senator ­Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she has “serious reservations” about being interviewed by RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas about the Indigenous voice to parliament ­referendum, claiming her show is ­determined not to understand the No side of the voice debate.

However, in response to Price’s criticisms, an ABC spokesman on Sunday passionately defended Karvelas, stating: “RN breakfast and its host, Patricia Karvelas, has managed all sides of the debate in a non-biased manner, and will continue to do so.”

The falling out between Price and Karvelas appears to have become personal. Price, a vocal No advocate, was upset by a 17-minute interview by Karvelas with Noel Pearson in November in which Pearson scathingly described the Coalition senator as being trapped in “a redneck celebrity vortex”.

During a heated Estimates hearing in February fronted by ABC boss David Anderson, Senator Price lashed out at Karvelas’s November interview with Pearson. Price claimed to the ABC boss Karvelas had failed to “challenge” Pearson’s strident views about the Coalition senator.

“In November Patricia Karvelas, interviewing Noel Pearson, chose to listen to his views on me being described as trapped in ‘a redneck celebrity vortex’ … and that I was being used by right-wing think tanks to ‘punch down on blackfellas’,” Price told Anderson.

“At no point did Ms Karvelas attempt to intervene and/or challenge Mr Pearson‘s views but ­accepted them wholeheartedly.”

Patricia Karvelas of ABC Radio National Breakfast. Picture: Julian Kingma

The ABC noted in its formal ­response to the questions in Estimates that Price had “declined to be interviewed” on the day, and multiple unsuccessful “requests” had been made to get the senator to appear with Karvelas. ABC sources have subsequently claimed Karvelas made 20 unsuccessful requests in recent months to interview Price.

However, last week Price suddenly appeared on RN Breakfast to talk about the voice – but with a twist. Her appearance came when Karvelas had a day off, and Sunday Project host Hamish Macdonald was filling in for her.

Speaking to Diary, Price (fresh from appearing with David Speers on another ABC show on Sunday, Insiders) confirmed she was no longer comfortable with being ­interviewed by Karvelas.

Asked whether she intended to avoid interviews with Karvelas, she replied: “Absolutely I do. Unless it’s going to be a legitimate conversation about understanding all the nuances in the debate, I won’t go on. But when it’s evident it is about undermining my own character, what’s the point of having those conversations? It’s like being the token conservative on Q+A.”

Price claimed RN had taken a clear position in favour of the Yes’ vote on the voice: “It’s evident which side of the fence they sit on, which is really unfortunate. It’s not taking a position of balance, which is what you’d expect from your ­national broadcaster.”

Price said: “It appears to me that Radio National is making this debate about Aboriginal people predominantly supporting the Yes case. That only serves to contribute to the divide over the voice. I have serious reservations about having any more conversations with Hamish and Patricia, because their only aim seems to be to make me an illegitimate voice.”

However, the ABC spokesman on Sunday said that Karvelas’s program has gone to great lengths to ensure that all sides of the debate were covered, noting RN Breakfast had featured a number of No case advocates, including Barnaby Joyce, Sussan Ley, Warren Mundine and Lidia Thorpe. Last week alone, the spokesman said, apart from Macdonald’s chat with Price, the show featured ­interviews with Mundine and Indigenous Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle, who also supported the No case.

Greens force end to Woodside sponsorship

The Greens famously disrupted the 2022 instalment of Canberra’s most glittering event, the Midwinter Ball, because of its high-profile sponsorship by fossil fuel giants Woodside Energy and Shell.

Prominent Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young wore a formal white ball gown emblazoned with “END GAS and COAL” in big black writing on the back, while Claudia Perkins, wife of Greens leader Adam Bandt, sported a gown featuring the repeated message “COAL KILLS GAS KILLS”.

Claudia Perkins and Sarah Hanson-Young arriving at last year’s Midwinter Ball at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Following the Greens’ actions at last year’s ball, the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery – which is due to host this year’s event on June 21 in the Great Hall of Parliament House – held talks with a number of parties, including Bandt himself and representatives of Woodside and Shell. The Greens leader had sent a letter in protest about the fossil fuel sponsors of the event in which he demanded the ball drop them.

The gallery has now taken ­action to avoid any repeat of last year’s controversy – with the bold step of ending all sponsorship of the event.

Diary has obtained a copy of a letter sent by the Press Gallery’s president, ABC political journalist Jane Norman, and its vice-president, the Nine papers’ national ­affairs editor James Massola, to the Greens and others to confirm the new arrangements.

“Thank you for contacting the gallery committee to raise your concern about sponsorship arrangements for the Midwinter Ball,” Norman and Massola wrote.

“The gallery committee’s view is that we want MPs from all sides of politics to be welcome at the ball. We have decided to end corporate sponsorship of the ball.”

Explaining the move, Norman and Massola make it clear that from now on, no company would be able to use the event to push its brands.

“Corporate tables, as is the case with many events, will be sold but there will not be any sponsors of the Midwinter Ball nor advertising from any company,” the pair wrote.

As fate would have it, Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill will be venturing to Canberra this week to meet with political reporters. O’Neill will address the National Press Club on Wednesday, and can expect to field questions about whether Woodside will have a presence at this year’s ball.

When Diary contacted Woodside on the issue on Sunday, we were given a firm “no comment”.

And just to add further spice, Bandt will address the Press Club next week.

Clive Palmer to unleash anti-Palaszczuk campaign

Australia’s biggest political advertiser, Clive Palmer, has emerged from self-imposed exile to spruik the No case for the voice referendum.

Palmer popped up in The Australian and on Paul Murray’s Sky show last week to spell out his opposition to the Indigenous voice to parliament.

His pronouncements may only be the start of his re-emergence as a political player. Well-placed sources tell Diary that Palmer sees next year’s Queensland election as his big opportunity.

This news is likely to cause nervousness among LNP heavyweights in Queensland – Palmer could cannibalise the Coalition vote.

However, Diary is told Palmer’s initial plan is to preference the LNP, because he is an avowed opponent of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

His distaste for the ALP was exacerbated by a decision in Queensland’s Land and Environment Court to reject his Waratah Coal mining licence in the Galilee Basin in western Queensland.

Clive Palmer sees next year’s Queensland election as his big opportunity. Picture: Getty Images

Diary is told what made the decision personal to Palmer was that the ruling was made by Queensland Land Court president Fleur Kingham – the wife of David Barbagallo, Palaszczuk’s former chief of staff.

The word is the mining billionaire is planning to open his considerable war chest for the Queensland election, to be held by October next year.

So get ready for another barrage of Palmer’s advertisements (Who could forget his ‘Australia’s not going to cop it’ ads, to the tune of Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Going to Take It at the 2019 federal election?).

Palmer spent more than $90m on advertising alone at the last two federal elections, dwarfing the Labor and Liberal budgets.

Palmer’s appearance on Sky last Wednesday night also raised questions about his feud with Murray.

The pair have been sledging each other for years, but relations thawed during last year’s federal election, when Murray hosted the “mavericks” debate, which starred Palmer, Pauline Hanson, ex-Queensland premier Campbell Newman and Bob Katter.

Eddie McGuire to fix 3AW’s Dan ban?

It’s well chronicled that relations between Victorian Premier Dan Andrews and Melbourne’s top rating radio station 3AW have reached all-time lows.

Andrews has famously ignored 3AW morning host Neil Mitchell’s constant pleas for him to come on his show for six long years since 2017, with the Premier taking an increasingly dim view of repeated questions asked on behalf of Mitchell by 3AW reporters at press conferences.

Eddie McGuire. Picture: AFL Photos

But could 3AW and Nine Radio be looking at a plan to repair relations with the Victorian government by putting one of Nine’s biggest stars, Eddie McGuire, back on radio full-time?

Speculation reached fever pitch on Easter Monday when McGuire called his first game of AFL football for 3AW, when he commentated the clash between Geelong and Hawthorn.

It’s apparently the first of a handful of AFL games Melbourne’s best-known media performer will call for 3AW. The mere presence of McGuire, regarded as Nine royalty, in a role on Nine’s top Melbourne-owned radio station was enough to start the rumour mill running about long-term planning at 3AW involving McGuire.

One of the reasons is that while Andrews boycotts 3AW, by contrast, the Victorian Premier has a strong relationship with McGuire.

Back when McGuire was still co-hosting Triple M’s Hot Breakfast with Luke Darcy at the height of Victoria’s pandemic lockdowns in 2020, he convinced Andrews to appear for a semi-regular slot on the show, at a time he was conspicuously avoiding 3AW and others.

There’s no immediate appetite for a change of presenters in the prime spots at 3AW, given the station’s seemingly impregnable position at the top of the ratings (in the face of Andrews’ boycott of Mitchell).

But with Mitchell now aged 71, is some prudent succession planning already under way?

Mischief-makers around 3AW’s Docklands studios last week suggested drive host Tom Elliott – who stood in on the morning show over Easter – could be the permanent replacement in the event of a Mitchell retirement.

That could then open the way for the intriguing possibility of McGuire replacing Elliott in drive.

‘BBQ Bob’ slays Nine Radio giant

Still on radio, there are plenty of frayed nerves at Nine Radio’s Brisbane station 4BC about this Thursday’s second ratings survey after a battling start to the year.

The bad news from the first survey of the year was that 4BC, the Brisbane sister station of 2GB and 3AW, was beaten by a station Nine virtually gave away 18 months ago due to minuscule ratings following a disastrous experiment with sports radio.

Bob Gallagher. Picture: Tara Croser

The station in question, 4BH, is now a “classic hits” station headlined by breakfast host “BBQ” Bob Gallagher, a veteran radio DJ who plays tunes from such luminaries from the 1970s as KC and The Sunshine Band, the Captain & Tennille and Burt ­Bacharach.

But from rating 2s when Nine owned it, BBQ Bob and company pulled off a remarkable feat in last month’s first survey of the year by topping 4BC for the first time in living memory.

The fledgling AM classic hits station shocked radio insiders by rating 8 per cent of the Brisbane market, compared with 4BC’s 7.2 per cent.

While brilliant news for 4BH, run on the smell of an oily rag compared with its ex-Nine stablemate, the embarrassing result lumps huge pressure on 4BC boss Max Dudley.

Dudley has made some courageous decisions lately, including the poaching of a highly paid, zany radio trio Laurel, Gary and Mark, to replace Neil Breen on breakfast on a news talk station – where, oddly, they continue to play music.

After an initial sugar hit, the breakfast trio’s ratings have steadily fallen over this past year, at the same time that the fortunes of BBQ Bob – who’s reputedly paid peanuts – have soared.

Other unexpected timeslot wins over 4BC underlined that with 20-20 hindsight, 4BH was the radio bargain of the century.

Word around the traps is the station’s new operator, ACE Radio, secured the long-term lease on 4BH from Nine for a piddling $150,000.

Big trouble at the station looms if 4BH beats 4BC again this week.

Virginia Trioli back on radio

More than four months since she last hosted her morning radio show, Virginia Trioli returns to ABC Radio Melbourne’s airwaves on Monday morning.

Stand-in host Ali Moore confirmed the news on the show on Friday.

Virginia Trioli.

Trioli’s return comes on the first day of a new radio ratings survey. After Diary noticed her continued absence last month, Trioli took to Twitter to reference a “complex summer of family illness” as the reason.

There had been intriguing suggestions during her four-month hiatus she may have been headed for TV. Well-placed sources told Diary late last year the ABC was in the formative stages of looking at a new prime-time TV show about the arts for Trioli.

That made sense to many, as Trioli has previously hosted two dedicated arts shows, Sunday Arts and Artscape.

But for now, that talk has subsided. With Trioli’s return, ABC types are hoping she can provide a boost to ABC Radio Melbourne’s ratings, which slid during the last radio survey of 2022 and again in the first survey of 2023.

A new Negus on 60 Minutes

On February 11, 1979, George Negus famously launched the 60 Minutes brand into Australia, alongside fellow founding reporters Ray Martin and Ian Leslie.

Serge Negus and George Negus. Picture: Richard Dobson

Now Diary has learnt that Serge Negus, George’s youngest son, will next Sunday become the second generation of his family to have filed for the iconic 60 Minutes brand.

Nine sources are remaining cagey about the details of Negus’s debut story until it airs. But Diary has been able to extract that the story involves an interview by Tara Brown with a household name Australian figure from the arts, which Serge has researched and produced.

Negus joined 60 Minutes in February from Triple J’s youth-oriented current affairs program Hack.

Apart from 60 Minutes, his ­father George’s illustrious current affairs career includes having been the founding host of Foreign Correspondent, and of two eponymous shows, the ABC’s George Negus Tonight and 6.30 with ­George Negus, on Ten.

Adding to the homecoming narrative is that Serge’s mother, Kirsty Cockburn, was also a prominent reporter at Nine in the 1980s.