Labor has now firmly taken control of the country’s reins – but in the week of Jim Chalmers’ first budget, the ABC turned its focus firmly back to the Liberal Party’s decade in power.
Diary can reveal that the ABC has quietly started work on a Coalition version of Sarah Ferguson’s three-part 2015 documentary series, The Killing Season – which brutally charted the Labor disunity that helped to bring down the regimes of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Your columnist has obtained a copy of letters sent out on behalf of ABC news boss Justin Stevens to Liberal MPs and backroom players about the ambitious “documentary series”.
The letters revealing the plans show no lack of ambition, confidently claiming the series will be the “definitive” version of the Scott Morrison/Malcolm Turnbull/Tony Abbott years.
One of the letters reads: “I hope you will contribute to what we believe will be the definitive account of the Coalition’s years in office during this time of momentous political and social change.”
Another talking point of the series is who will front it, with the surprise selection of investigative reporter Mark Willacy – who in recent years has been primarily focused on questioning the activities of Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan.
Stevens’s choice of Willacy has raised some eyebrows around Ultimo, given that Insiders host David Speers – with his extensive political connections and his plan to move back to Canberra – would have appeared to be the obvious choice to front the show.
The initial letters to backroom operators and Liberal MPs will no doubt be followed eventually by formal requests for interviews with Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison.
But initially, at least, the aim appears to be simply gathering as much information as possible about the Coalition: no doubt with a focus on the LNP’s very own “killing seasons” that saw two prime ministers in Abbott and Turnbull dumped midterm, and the Morrison/Covid years, culminating in the Teal wave that helped end the Liberals’ reign at the 2022 election.
The letters sent so far suggest the research for the Liberals’ answer to The Killing Season – to be produced by Australian Story executive producer Caitlin Shea – will be expensive and lengthy.
But given the longstanding antipathy between the Coalition and the ABC – exemplified in recent years by Morrison’s refusal to appear on most ABC shows – how will Aunty win the confidence of potential Liberal interview subjects?
The ABC letters appears to be taking a “softly softly” approach, promising to initially tape only off-the-record “research interviews” that “will not be broadcast”, as part of a process that many believe could even take a year or more.
“(We) would like to invite you to share your recollections of this period of unparalleled complexity and transformation in the national, and international political landscapes,” the letters state.
“The research interviews are the foundation of the program and are essential for determining the length of the series and the issues that it must cover. Material gathered in research interviews will be used exclusively for the purpose of the documentary series. The recordings of the research interviews will not be broadcast.”
The letters also play down suggestions that the documentary will look to sensationalise the Liberal years.
“This is a documentary history series, not current affairs,” one letter notes. “The tone will be reflective. The program will be driven by first-hand accounts from the people in the room when key decisions were taken, told in their own words. Their participation will be crucial to accurately tell the story of this government.”
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D’Ath ‘rattled’ by tough front pages
A week of tough media assessments of her performance has clearly got to Queensland’s besieged Health Minister Yvette D’Ath.
Diary has learnt that D’Ath’s media minders have admitted to press gallery journalists that the Health Minister has been upset with the daily media focus on her performance. Why?
It all started eight days ago in Brisbane’s Sunday Mail with a front page that claimed: “Minister D’Ath, it’s time to resign”.
By last Monday, less than 24 hours later, D’Ath’s media crisis management team was desperately trying to manage the fallout from the damaging front page.
We’re told some even admitted to TV and print journalists on their beat that the Sunday Mail front page had left the Minister feeling “rattled”.
But by Wednesday, The Courier-Mail had doubled down with another searing editorial about D’Ath’s track record as Health Minister since 2020 – echoing some of the words from the Sunday Mail front-page piece.
Headlined “Surely time is running out for Minister D’Ath”, the tone got even tougher: drilling down into every disaster that had emerged under her watch, and her allegedly unfeeling reaction to each unfolding piece of negative press, particularly the bizarre decision in Queensland hospitals to place grieving mums who have lost their babies in the same wards as other mothers with their newborns.
“Yep, the torture will continue,” The Courier-Mail editorial read. “It is not good enough. And Ms D’Ath’s response to this trauma: ‘I understand that from time to time those women will be aggrieved by those decisions, but it has to be done on clinical grounds.’ Seriously. Could she express any less compassion?”
That editorial appeared to provide a fresh round of ammunition to the opposition, who seized the opportunity to target nearly every query in question time after it to the unfortunate D’Ath. Her go-to response in parliament last week was to blame the last LNP government of Campbell Newman, voted out a distant eight years ago.
The high price of Pat Cummins’ virtue
Two weeks ago, Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins laid down a pretty lofty standard about exactly what he expected of sponsors of the sport in the future.
In a clear brickbat for the sport’s current major sponsor, electricity supplier Alinta, Cummins told the Nine papers: “I think the most obvious, front-of-mind things you can see is who we partner with. So I hope that when we think of who we want to align with, who we want to invite into being part of cricket, I hope climate is a real priority.”
Now, that’s one way of rewarding a sponsor that had stepped in to rescue Australian cricket when few would, after previous corporate partner Magellan had abruptly turned off the tap for its sponsorship millions following the “Sandpapergate” scandal in 2018.
The comments by Cummins – who in February founded a new cricketers’ body called Cricket for Climate – quickly became an illustration of the rise of the socially conscious athlete in influencing the corporate partnerships of entire sports. But do Cummins’ personal sponsorships measure up to his own exacting standards?
You be the judge. Within days of his preaching of the importance of sponsors who limit fossil fuels, Cummins was actively encouraging people to emit plenty of carbon in his new role as a global ambassador for online flight and accommodation retail site Booking.com – urging people to “book their trips”.
He also made sure to take every possible opportunity to flog his lucrative new Booking.com partnership to his 1.1 million Instagram followers as well, with three of his last four posts plugging his nice little earner with videos, photos and messages.
In the October press release that announced his Booking.com role ahead of the T20 Cricket World Cup, Cummins stated, seemingly without irony: “I had a fantastic time working with the Booking.com team on this campaign and hope it will inspire Aussies to book their trips and absolutely enjoy the upcoming summer of sport now that it’s safe and open to travel again … As an avid traveller and Booking.com user myself, I know from experience that unforgettable travel experiences start with a booking.”
Here’s hoping that as an “avid traveller”, Cummins at least spent some of his hefty new sponsorship windfall on offsetting his own personal carbon emissions.
Cummins’ other big ambassadorship is with razor manufacturing giant Gillette: which, again, could hardly be held up as a bastion of environmental friendliness – given that disposable razors are well-known to be one of the biggest forms of plastic pollution in the world.
Again, the Australian captain’s Instagram page is packed with numerous plugs for his Gillette ambassadorship.
Sponsorship expert and former NRL commercial boss Paul Kind tells Diary that Cummins’ very public stance on climate has left him open to claims of double standards.
“If you’re going to take the high ground on an issue, you need to be certain your own behaviour and lifestyle isn’t contrary to the stand you’ve taken,” he says. “How long is this piece of string? How many companies and industries could be criticised for some aspect of their business operations?”
Kind says that the events of the last fortnight have exposed the limitations of player power. “It’s a very slippery rope for sport if some individuals take issue with a particular sponsor based on a business matter, based on their beliefs,” he says. “Is Alinta any worse than Booking.com? An athlete that takes such a strong public position needs to be very careful about their own personal behaviour.”
That last message from Kind appears to have been already heeded in some sports. One top sponsor of Australian sport has told Diary that they had received word that the backlash against Cummins as a leader of the “player power” movement – with thousands of critical comments on news sites, talkback radio and social media – had already started to register.
“I don’t think you’ll be seeing many players sticking their necks out like Pat Cummins did,” the sponsor said. “My impression is that it’s already had an impact.”
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The Age’s new motto: ‘Independent … sometimes’
The Age’s front-page masthead carries the proclamation: ‘Independent. Always.’ But that motto may need a bit of a tweak after a political intervention by one high-profile Age columnist ahead of the Victorian state election.
Diary is told that management at the Nine papers was surprised when The Age’s food columnist and prominent Melbourne identity Dani Valent popped up as the poster child of a paid Instagram advertisement for Caulfield candidate Nomi Kaltmann, one of the most high-profile Teal candidates in the Victorian election.
As the campaign begins in earnest this week, Kaltmann is the favourite with bookmakers to take Caulfield off Liberal Deputy Leader David Southwick, after being announced as the first Teal in the election back in August.
And she has use Valent as a key feature of her social media strategy. The photo of a waving and smiling Valent has been the centrepiece of Kaltmann’s paid Instagram ad campaign to recruit volunteers, headlined ‘Help Create Change’ and listing ‘INTEGRITY’, ‘CLIMATE ACTION’ and ‘STRONG ECONOMY’ as her key selling points.
Valent – a Caulfield local – even wore a teal-coloured T-shirt in the Instagram ad photo, with the prominent message: “VOTE 1: Nomi4Caulfield 2022”.
When we contacted Valent on Thursday, she admitted she had fronted the launch of Kaltmann’s tilt at Caulfield last month, but was adamant she wasn’t an official part of the campaign. “I did MC Nomi’s launch as a local community member, and that’s all I’ve done,” she told Diary. “I’m not a part of her campaign.”
Despite openly wearing the T-shirt, MC’ing the campaign launch and featuring in numerous photos next to Kaltmann on her website, Valent claimed she had yet to decide whether to cast her ballot for Kaltmann.
“I won’t necessarily vote for her,” she said. “I like the idea of independent voices in parliament. I wouldn’t actually say I’m a supporter of anyone in particular. It’s still an open question who I’m voting for.”
Valent didn’t accept a fee for MCing Kaltmann’s launch, and the T-shirt had already been relegated to her ‘pyjama drawer’, she told us.
Shortly after our first conversation on Thursday, Valent called Diary back to say she had asked that her photo be removed from Kaltmann’s sponsored Instagram post.
The Nine papers’ Life Editor, Monique Farmer, stressed that Valent was a “contributor” rather than a full-time staff member. “Contributors are not bound by the same rules as employees, and this bears no relevance to her work writing food,” she said in a statement to Diary.
But Caulfield will no doubt feature prominently throughout The Age leading up to the Victorian election as one of the state’s key battleground seats – given that Southwick holds it by a thin 0.1 per cent margin.
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Who will Dan choose for debates?
One of the less-publicised battles of the Victorian election campaign is the jostling for who will host the election debate between Premier Dan Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.
Diary hears the contest for who will host the rematch of the 2018 Andrews vs Guy debate has been underway for some time, and has come down to a race in two: between a Sky/Herald Sun “People’s Forum”, and a Nine/The Age/3AW debate fronted by journalists.
The Sky/Herald Sun forum would be hosted by Kieran Gilbert and see 100 undecided voters chosen at arm’s length by an independent research firm to directly ask questions of the two leaders.
Meanwhile, the Nine/Age/3AW debate would see questions asked purely by journalists, with representatives of each of the Nine-owned media outlets. Under the proposal, Nine’s TV representative would be weekend news anchor Alicia Loxley, The Age would put forward its Victorian political editor Annika Smethurst, while 3AW would be represented by its drive host, Tom Elliott.
Insiders say the Sky/Herald Sun proposal is firming as the bookies’ favourite for both sides. Interestingly, the Sky People’s Forum format has proved a winning formula for Andrews over two consecutive Victorian elections in 2014 and 2018, although the Premier was tight-lipped about debates when asked about them on Sunday.
Both of the debate formats line up with the strategies taken by Sky and Nine during the federal election earlier this year, in which both organisations hosted a face-off between Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison.
Gilbert hosted a Sky/Courier Mail People’s Forum in Brisbane with 100 undecided voters, who decided in a vote taken immediately afterwards that Albanese had clearly won.
Meanwhile, over at Nine, ex-TV political editor Chris Uhlmann, along with David Crowe and Deb Knight, directly asked questions of the leaders in a forum.
But Nine’s poll results memorably ran into plenty of confusion about who was the winner, first giving it to Morrison and then to Albanese, before eventually ruling it a “dead-heat” by the end of the night.
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D’Ath ‘rattled’ by tough front pages
A week of tough media assessments of her performance has clearly got to Queensland’s besieged Health Minister Yvette D’Ath.
Diary has learnt that D’Ath’s media minders have admitted to press gallery journalists that the Health Minister has been upset with the daily media focus on her performance. Why?
It all started eight days ago in Brisbane’s Sunday Mail with a front page that claimed: “Minister D’Ath, it’s time to resign”.
By last Monday, less than 24 hours later, D’Ath’s media crisis management team was desperately trying to manage the fallout from the damaging front page.
We’re told some even admitted to TV and print journalists on their beat that the Sunday Mail front page had left the Minister feeling “rattled”.
But by Wednesday, The Courier-Mail had doubled down with another searing editorial about D’Ath’s track record as Health Minister since 2020 – echoing some of the words from the Sunday Mail front-page piece.
Headlined “Surely time is running out for Minister D’Ath”, the tone got even tougher: drilling down into every disaster that had emerged under her watch, and her allegedly unfeeling reaction to each unfolding piece of negative press, particularly the bizarre decision in Queensland hospitals to place grieving mums who have lost their babies in the same wards as other mothers with their newborns.
“Yep, the torture will continue,” The Courier-Mail editorial read. “It is not good enough. And Ms D’Ath’s response to this trauma: ‘I understand that from time to time those women will be aggrieved by those decisions, but it has to be done on clinical grounds.’ Seriously. Could she express any less compassion?”
That editorial appeared to provide a fresh round of ammunition to the opposition, who seized the opportunity to target nearly every query in question time after it to the unfortunate D’Ath. Her go-to response in parliament last week was to blame the last LNP government of Campbell Newman, voted out a distant eight years ago.
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