First he managed to land his one-time tennis buddy Anthony Albanese in the Lodge in May last year – even holding one of the famous parties hosted by himself and wife Lisa Wilkinson at their Sydney harbourside mansion to anoint the new PM on election night.
Now, nearly a year on, Peter FitzSimons is once more revelling in his success in landing a second political mate in high office, this time in Sydney’s Macquarie St.
With Chris Minns winning the state election, FitzSimons was last week quick to put it on the record through his own column in The Sydney Morning Herald that he now had a friend running NSW, to add to his mate running the country.
FitzSimons seamlessly slipped in a reference to his friendship with the new Premier while heaping praise on him, in a commentary piece that was ostensibly a celebration of Minns’s firm stance against the building of any new stadiums in NSW.
“I disclose Premier Minns as a friend, but who can say he didn’t nail it?” he asked.
FitzSimons also proudly noted in the article that the Premier’s ascension meant “the NRL needs to get their heads around it: the days of the NSW government being bullied by them into writing huge cheques to build them new stadiums are over”.
Wilkinson had also been perhaps the most vocal media critic of the previous Liberal government in NSW, and in particular, Gladys Berejiklian, who she lashed out at numerous times while she was still a co-host of The Project.
Meanwhile, the rise of Albanese and Minns over the past year is proof the FitzSimons/Wilkinson marital team are now right at the heart of political power at both a state and federal level.
Both Albo and Minns attended the power couple’s famous Australia Day party in 2022 (which FitzSimons has renamed ‘‘Independence Day’’ in line with emerging protests).
A few months later, FitzSimons and Wilkinson’s election night party last May unabashedly became a celebration of Albanese’s ascension to power, after some confusing early poll trends gave the gathered throng some nervous moments that it could be a repeat of the shock 2019 election win for ex-PM Scott Morrison.
In the 10 months since, FitzSimons has talked up Albanese’s achievements as PM, while also praising many of Minns’ policies and repeatedly calling for Morrison to leave parliament in the wake of last year’s election loss.
Fitzy’s public support was once seen as the kiss of death for aspiring Labor leaders. Bill Shorten famously didn’t make it into the Lodge in 2019, despite the prominent support of FitzSimons, who turned to Twitter to brand a Shorten appearance on the ABC’s Q+A in the days leading up to his shock election loss as “genuinely inspirational”.
But with both Albanese and Minns confirmed as election-winning leaders, who can dispute FitzSimons’s position as a kingmaker of Australian politics?
Just not cricket: ‘Activist’ sports stars spook sponsors
After belatedly rescuing its Indian tour with an improved performance in the final Tests and one-dayers, the Australian cricket team has been out in the market looking for a new major sponsor.
But marketing experts are questioning whether last year’s exercise of player power – led by Australian captain Pat Cummins – against the game’s existing major sponsor, energy group Alinta, will affect the value of one of the blue-chip sponsorships of Australian sport.
In a clear sledge at electricity generator Alinta, which makes most of its power from coal, Cummins laid down a marker for future cricket sponsors last October.
“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,” he told the Nine newspapers.
In the wake of Cummins’ comments, sources at Alinta, which rescued cricket after the 2018 Sandpapergate scandal, have told Diary the company will finally depart the game at the end of June.
New Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird used an interview with The Age last month to back Cummins’ climate change stance against Alinta, saying it was “really important” he was allowed to be “authentic”.
But the impact of Cummins’ comments and a wave of other instances of player power in sports – like netball against mining billionaire Gina Rinehart last year – were noted by companies who have traditionally used big-money sponsorships to boost their awareness and reputations.
Gambling is an area that has vigorously used sports sponsorships as a publicity platform. But Diary has confirmed with an insider at one major betting company that last year’s player power outbreaks in cricket and netball have totally changed their attitudes to sponsorships, as they move away from naming rights deals.
“Sponsoring big stickers on the chests of athletes carries risks, totally,” the insider told this column. “There’s no longer as much value for us. We’re still happy to sponsor sport, but in a more subtle way.” Instead of highly priced naming rights sponsorships, the betting company is now simply looking for access to individual players as ambassadors.
One of the country’s top sports sponsorship experts, former NRL commercial chief Paul Kind, says future naming rights sponsors of cricket will be looking for ‘‘assurances’’ from Cricket Australia that they will not be treated the same way as the likes of Alinta after last year’s events.
“Cricket Australia needs to demonstrate to sponsors they have learnt something from last year, where it was shown senior players had a big influence on the Alinta sponsorship,” Kind tells Diary.
“The true value of sponsorship is that it enhances a company’s reputation. But given the public position taken by Cummins and others, the consideration now for companies who are thinking about becoming the new blue-chip sponsor is what Cricket Australia will do to look after their reputation. What are the checks and balances now in place to protect them?”
On this point, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller warned about ‘‘activist’’ sports stars in a speech last week. “When sporting stars become activists, it has a negative impact on the growth of the game,” he said.
Kind, who works with top brands on their relationships with major sports, including cricket, AFL and the NRL, says there’s no doubt the naming rights sponsorship of cricket is a “premium asset” in Australian sport, having been held by the likes of CBA and VB over the years. Kind notes: “It works hard and delivers value for the brand that buys it, because cricket is part of the fabric of the Australian summer. In normal circumstances, would it sell? Definitely yes. But the events of last year provide a new layer of challenge, and caution for potential buyers.”
Kind points out that cricketers, and indeed players of all sports, need to get on board with supporting sponsors in an increasingly challenging market for corporate partnerships due to the rising cost of living and its impact on sponsorship budgets. Successful sponsorships can be lucrative for athletes. For example, under Australian cricket’s current deal with players, 27.5 per cent of all revenues – including sponsorships – are distributed to the athletes themselves.
Kind believes the self-interest of players may see these protests become less frequent if there is any sign corporate dollars are departing: “Sports across Australia need to be worried about scaring off sponsors, because it will ultimately hit them, and the players, in the hip pocket.”
Tracy Grimshaw rejects big media awards
Tracy Grimshaw has never been one to blow her own trumpet – so it’s probably no surprise to hear the modest ex-A Current Affair host has knocked back not one but two of the biggest gongs in journalism in recent weeks.
Diary has learnt from Nine insiders that Grimshaw has been offered but rejected both the Melbourne Press Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the same gong at Sydney’s big awards night, the Kennedy Awards, which will be held in August.
Grimshaw departed ACA in November after 17 years at the helm of Nine’s nightly current affairs stalwart. But lifetime achievement awards are generally awarded to media personalities who have retired or near the end of their careers – and Grimshaw merely sees 2023 as a ‘‘gap year’’ in her career, rather than the start of her retirement.
It is understood that, far from planning to walk away from TV, Grimshaw remains a permanent employee at Nine and plans to make a return for special new projects come 2024 – possibly as the Australian network’s answer to US current affairs legend Barbara Walters.
A Nine insider said Grimshaw had initially agreed to accept the Melbourne Press Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award, in the city where her TV career started more than four decades ago. But she apparently changed her mind at the thought of the hoopla surrounding her receiving the award.
With Grimshaw ruling herself out, the award was given to former long-time ABC Radio Melbourne morning presenter and Sunday Age columnist Jon Faine, whose speech in accepting the gong at the Quill Awards 10 days ago has attracted plenty of media interest in its own right – with Faine lashing “urban white” critics of the proposed voice to parliament.
It seems Grimshaw is the flavour of the month at multiple awards nights, as she also rejected an approach to accept the Kennedys’ version of the very same award.
“She said if she’s rejecting the Melbourne award, she’d have to knock back the Kennedy as well,” one Nine source said. “Tracy’s a no-nonsense person who doesn’t like all the fuss. She’s having the first gap year in her career, and she’s really enjoying the chance to step away from the media circus.”
McGowan snubs Chairman Dan's China media ban
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan would seem to have something to teach his Victorian counterpart Daniel Andrews when it comes to transparency with the media and taxpayers about their respective visits to China.
As we noted in this column last week, with little more than 24 hours’ notice, chairman Dan announced he was off to China and was banning the media from attending.
Even on Sunday, during a combative press conference following his return, Andrews was justifying his decision not to allow journalists to travel with him to China, on the basis he “didn’t think it was appropriate”.
But on the same day Andrews was continuing to justify his media ban and the general veil of secrecy around his China visit, McGowan was taking a much more relaxed approach.
Not only did he reveal the trip two whole weeks before he plans to travel, but he also readily announced he was taking a full travelling media contingent.
As if to underline the differences with the Andrews trip to China, a McGowan spokesman told AAP on Sunday it was “certainly not a secret visit”.
Meanwhile, in his press conference, Chairman Dan has continued to rub in the reasons he didn’t take them along.
“This trip was not about me, and with the greatest of respect, it was not about you,” he said.
“When you travel to China, you don’t get to interview any of the people that I would meet with. You would’ve been talking to me about what I had just done. You wouldn’t have been in the room, and you would certainly have not been interviewing governors or mayors or education ministers. That’s not how it works.”
He also maintained it was not unusual to make overseas visits without a media contingent.
“I’ve travelled to China before without media,” he said. “In fact the last trip back in 2019 to China and Vietnam and there were no media with me. I travelled to India without media. It’s not always true that the media travels with us.”
The four-day trip was marked by Andrews adopting an unusually low profile for such an important visit, with not a single photo from his China walkabout posted to his Twitter or Facebook pages. Apart from the very late notice about the trip, disclosures about Andrews’s itinerary in China were also carefully controlled in daily statements released by his office during the flying visit.
Premier pulls plug on PNN
Dan Andrews may have lowered his media profile on last week’s China trip, but he isn’t the only Australian leader editing his media presence lately.
Until recently, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk relished the media spotlight that came with her increased presence in the media during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For two years, Palaszczuk streamed her daily Covid press conferences live on her Facebook page, with the latest Covid-19 numbers, restrictions, lockdowns and even (who could forget?) lockouts. She even hired lots of television types to produce ‘‘stories’’ and other news ‘‘exclusives’’, in an attempt to persuade her hundreds of thousands of Facebook followers to bypass 6pm TV news bulletins and get the real story in Queensland straight from the horse’s mouth.
So obsessed, seemingly, did the Queensland Premier become with bypassing Nine, Seven, Ten and Sky, that her ‘‘LIVE’’ Facebook page became known as PNN – shorthand for the Palaszczuk News Network.
But a strange thing has been happening on PNN in recent weeks. Palaszczuk, as the network’s pivotal star, has seemingly pulled the plug on her ‘‘LIVE’’ Facebook presence altogether.
Her daily livestreams proved a hit for her social media followers and became must-see TV for some of the sport it contained. Who could forget the self-confessed ‘‘Dorothy Dixers’’ asked of Palaszczuk from former Nine reporter (and now Palaszczuk staffer) Lane Calcutt. Or her run-in with former Sunrise Queensland correspondent Bianca Stone, whom she famously dubbed “very rude”.
But with her personal popularity taking a hit in the polls recently amid plenty of “Red Carpet Premier” publicity, the live Facebook news conferences have disappeared. The change comes at a time when the big questions at her press conferences are no longer about Covid, but housing shortages, youth crime, the cost of living and a health crisis.
The whisper from government ranks is that in the current environment, and in a more complex news cycle, broadcasting the Premier’s news conferences live on Facebook may be too risky.
There has also been a change in the press conferences themselves. Members of the gallery say there’s a new rule: only one question per reporter. That’s one way of avoiding pesky follow-up questions.
Studio 10’s record low of 10,000
Spare a thought for Ten’s battling morning show Studio 10. Since the departure of its former host Sarah Harris to The Project, and its move from 8.30 to a later morning timeslot, viewers are fast switching off a show better known for advertorials about steak knives than for actual unsponsored content.
Last Monday, the show recorded what is believed to be the lowest five-city audience in its 10-year history: with an average of just 10,000 viewers.
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