Hunt for Oakes deep throat deepens as pollies nervous

Nervous politicians are running a mile from activities around the parliamentary press gallery’s Midwinter Ball.

Cartoon: Johannes Leak.

Nervous politicians are running a mile from activities around the parliamentary press gallery’s Midwinter Ball, in the latest fallout from Nine Network veteran ­Laurie Oakes ’s leaking of ­ Malcolm Turnbull ’s supposedly off-the-­record speech.

Diary understands at least three government ministers have already phoned in to press gallery representatives to say they will no longer co-operate with the event’s filming of humorous segments for Canberra’s biggest social event of the year.

The politicians fear the segments will be publicly released. Meanwhile, the press gallery is concerned that if dropouts ­continue, it will lose for good the more spontaneous and lighthearted side of our leaders that the ball encourages.

Diary’s favourite video feature of the night was Christopher Pyne starring in a House of Cards parody (referencing Pyne’s continued description of himself as a “fixer”). There was also a package showing Australia’s most senior politicians from both sides daggy-dancing to Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling.

Oakes argued he could make Turnbull’s roasting of Donald Trump public on the basis that he was not at the event, and therefore not bound by its off-the-record rules. “Journalists attending the ball are supposed to agree not to report what happens,” he said in his report. “But I don’t go to the ball, and an audiotape has just ­happened to leak.”

The organisers are understood to be unhappy, and the hunt is now on for the person present at the dinner who recorded the speech and leaked it to Oakes. A long warning was given at the start of the night by the two hosts, press gallery president Andrew Meares and Sky News’ David Speers, that the event was strictly off the ­record.

The event will almost certainly from now on be “on-the-record” — meaning that both Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will likely be significantly more guarded in future speeches. Turnbull has already hinted at this. “I guess what that means is that next year at the Midwinter Ball, I will read selected passages from budget paper number two,” he said.

The organisers are also ­concerned that if the ball becomes a tame affair, it will hurt its primary purpose: raising money for charity. This year, the event raised $350,000 through a charity ­auction — taking the total it has raised since its inception 16 years ago to $3.8 million.

Nine fumes at Seven

Naturally, Laurie Oakes’s story on Malcolm Turnbull’s speech has prompted a stoush between TV networks as well.

No prizes for guessing that the protagonists are Nine and Seven. Nine sources have complained about Seven running some of the footage used by Oakes in its 6pm bulletin. Nine’s watermark was ­apparently blurred out of the Seven version of the Turnbull speech story.

But Seven sources have de­flected the criticism: “Nine breaks all the rules of what is supposed to be off the record — and are now ­crying foul,” one said.

Pollies (red) carpeted

Still on the ball, the online red carpet fashion blog Fashion Critical, normally known for its hilarious take on America’s biggest awards nights, including the Oscars, has turned its sights to the unfamiliar terrain of Canberra’s night of nights. The anonymous blog — which has 60,000 Facebook followers — judged the fashions of our most famous politicians and their spouses on the night. Here are some examples of their calls on what some of our most senior ­figures wore: Julie Bishop: “Sensaysh. Somewhere though, somewhere my friend, Helen from DWTS (Dancing with the Stars) is shivering.” Qantas boss Alan Joyce: “He looks so cute and dorky. I feel like I wanna give him a wedgie.” Malcolm Turnbull: “He looks pretty good. I wouldn’t have minded a tux though old Mal.” Lucy Turnbull: “She looks smart and not embarrassing. Which at this event, is excellent work.” Brian Loughnane and Peta Credlin: “I’m not sure if they are a couple. But SHOUT OUT TO YOU BRO, if they are. She looks lovely.” Kristina Keneally: “She looks swell. Definitely too cool for this soiree.” The blog was signed off: “Please don’t arrest me ASIO after this album is posted.”

Canberra’s Midwinter Ball

VIEW GALLERY

Hywood goes economy

It was hard to avoid sitting near a media heavyweight on the Sydney-to-Canberra Qantas shuttle last week heading to the ball. High-profile TV names like Leigh Sales and Emma Alberici were in proximity, but your diarist was ultimately seated next to SBS CEO Michael Ebeid in the jam-packed plane. With a captive audience, Ebeid outlined his plans to cement the public broadcaster’s online streaming property, SBS On Demand, as “free Netflix” in the eyes of the public, rather than the ­traditional “catch-up” services offered by other free-to-airs. Thursday’s return flight was equally stacked with big media names, including Fairfax Media boss Greg Hywood. Notably, Hywood was sitting near Diary in economy, not in business. Given that a number of long-serving Fairfax staff departed the organisation for good last week as part of the group’s ­redundancy program, was this an acknowledgment of the need for belt-tightening at an executive level as well?

Howard drops in

It wasn’t only media types on Thursday’s Canberra-Sydney flight, which took on a prime ministerial air when former PM John Howard boarded with the country’s first lady and Greater Sydney Commission boss, Lucy Turnbull — fresh from her husband’s headline-making speech. Howard was not in Canberra to mingle with journalists at the ball: he was there for a separate shindig to farewell former defence secretary Dennis Richardson. But it was clear ­Howard was keeping an interest on matters editorial, particularly given last week’s Fairfax redundancies. Turnbull was overheard giving the ex-PM an update direct from the dinner on the Fairfax ­reporters and columnists he had dealt with as a politician, who had now moved on.

Fairfax farewells

On the subject of the Fairfax departures, Friday was a sad day at the media group, with mass farewells for staff at both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. At Fairfax’s Pyrmont bunker in Sydney, numerous staff finished up on Friday — prompting a succession of speeches on the SMH editorial floor from 2.30pm onwards. Managing editor Stuart Washington, ex-Sun Herald editor David Rood, tablet editor Connie Levett, national video news editor Simon Morris, court reporter Louise Hall and Sun-Herald senior investigative reporter Eamonn Duff were among those farewelled. Most departees finished up at Fairfax on Friday, although some had left a week earlier. Not all elected to give a speech, with some spoken for by friends. Those who did speak were given a nominal three-minute time limit at the start of proceedings, although this was not strictly observed and the speeches ran for about 90 minutes in total, with plenty of voices cracking and tears flowing. Later they departed the newsroom floor for the final time, to the rumble of the banging of desks from all of their colleagues, while a staff photographer chronicled their exits. The emotional newsroom departures were followed by a valedictory knees-up at Fairfax’s traditional Sydney pub, the Pyrmont Point Hotel, a lively affair marked by an “open mic” policy that allowed anyone to get up and make a speech. It was a similar affair in Melbourne on Friday, with a succession of journalists — including The Age’s respected political editor Michael Gordon, state political correspondent Richard Willingham, features editor Mary-Anne Toy and the editor of the paper’s federal political desk, Kevin Jones — farewelled. There were some private lunches held on the day, followed by an emotionally charged farewell where all staff were invited at Melbourne’s South Wharf.

Life after Pyrmont

Some departing SMH journalists, however, are discovering there is life after Fairfax. Diary understands departing SMH sports ­editor Ben Coady and the paper’s senior rugby league writer ­Michael Chammas have been picked up to run the NRL’s news website, NRL.com. The hires have come as the NRL prepares to take over the running of the site from Telstra in December. Is this a move by the NRL to go into competition with other rugby league news sites? Insiders say no. They claim that it is simply improving the existing site, which many believe has not exactly set the world on fire over the last five years.

VRC seeks new sponsor

The ripples from James Packer’s great casino cost-cutting at Crown Resorts continue to be felt in the marketing world — particularly in the sponsorship arena. One of Crown’s big marketing plays was in the glamorous side of the horse racing industry, with its sponsorship of major events during the Melbourne spring racing carnival. That all changed in the wake of last year’s arrests in China of 18 Crown employees, who were formally charged in recent days with the “promotion of gambling”. The fallout from the arrests resulted in Crown ditching a number of sponsorships in horse racing and beyond — most notably the Victorian Racing Club’s $1 million The Oaks. Now Diary can reveal the VRC is in an advanced stage of deliberations on what company it chooses to replace Crown for The Oaks, which is an integral part of Victoria’s Spring Carnival. The Oaks, known as “Ladies Day”, runs two days after the Melbourne Cup and has been a big part of Crown’s promotion to women. To coincide with the Melbourne and Sydney versions of The Oaks, it also traditionally held “ladies lunches”, which were regarded as being among the premier social and charity events on the two ­cities’ calendars. But the appointment in January of Packer’s right-hand man, former media heavyweight John Alexander, to run Crown heralded major changes over the last six months, as he spearheaded a dramatic cull of the casino group’s marketing activities.

Luckily for the VRC, The Oaks was not a hard sell to alternative sponsors: the race is considered a desirable property because of its appeal to well-heeled female consumers. While it is an expensive sponsorship, The Oaks’ $1m prizemoney pales when compared with the $6.2m sponsors have to pay for the Melbourne Cup. Diary hears on good authority three companies are on the first line of betting to win the sponsorship: Myer, watch/jewellery retailer Kennedy, and high-end Swiss watchmaker Longines. Expect this one to go right down to the winning post.

Packer kidnaps Karl

Still on Packer, he apparently had plenty to do with the mysterious disappearance of Karl Stefanovic halfway through the Today show on Thursday last week, and the seemingly sudden announcement that the TV personality was on leave. In fact, Diary understands a whole group of mates have gathered to meet up with Packer in the last few days in Bora Bora, near Tahiti — where the billionaire’s yacht, the Arctic P, is moored — for a week of fun and frivolity. ­Stefanovic and his high-profile shoe designer girlfriend, Jasmine Yarbrough, are both understood to be present. His sudden departure in the middle of Thursday’s Today showwas apparently down to the fog issues at Sydney Airport playing havoc with flights. A Nine spokeswoman was protective of the network star’s holiday movements when Diary called on Friday. “It was always planned,” she said. “Personalities go off during a broadcast from time to time: it happens regularly. Where Karl goes when he’s on leave is his own private affair.” Ben Fordham is ­sitting in the chair until Stefanovic is scheduled to return on Friday.

Sunrise v Today

Meanwhile, network executives at Seven have put their own spin on our item last week about Today’s significant ratings recovery against Sunrise, which in the last few weeks has seen the two programs neck and neck. Not surprisingly, Seven prefers to dwell on cumulative “year-to-date” figures for the five capital cities, given that these show its program is ahead. Sunrise has averaged 303,000 viewers a day since the start of 2017, compared with Today’s 287,000.

2UE’s new lifestyle

Australia’s oldest commercial radio station is 2UE in Sydney. For many years, it was also the country’s most profitable radio brand. Names like Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and John Laws launched it into the ratings stratosphere over decades. But since Jones and Hadley defected to then-rival 2GB in 2002, the station has been in steady decline. Now, both stations are in the same stable — but while the 2GB name has never been stronger, the 2UE brand has been quietly retired by parent company Macquarie Media. In September last year, Macquarie Media announced 2UE’s relaunch as “2UE Talking Lifestyle”. On the radio ratings surveys, it continued until recently to be listed as 2UE until April this year. But in recent weeks, that has changed. The station is simply listed both on its website and for ratings purposes as “Talking Lifestyle 954”, with no 2UE branding left. The lifestyle station now features everything from recipes to car advice, generally in one-hour “appointment viewing” slots through the day. Macquarie boss Russell Tate has told Diary that dropping the 2UE name has been necessary in recent months because the “Talking Lifestyle” brand is now national. “The reason for that is that Talking Lifestyle is now broadcast nationally,” he said. “Clearly the 2UE brand doesn’t work in Melbourne and Brisbane.” The rebranded station has faced significant ratings challenges in recent months. While its weekday John and Garry breakfast show and weekend George and Paul show are performing well, many of the “talking lifestyle” programs are struggling in ratings terms. For example, morning host Tim Webster rated just 2.2 in the latest survey. But Tate said not to judge the format by its ratings. “It’s not meant to be running a ratings model — almost by definition,” he said. “If it’s rating really well, it’s cannibalising 2GB. This is really about deepening our involvement with that demographic.”

YouTube seeks locals

YouTube is on the hunt for new content for its subscription service, YouTube Red. Diary hears the Google-owned video sharing site is taking an interest in sourcing some productions down under that subscribers would be willing to pay for. There has been little fanfare so far in Australia about the subscription service, but it’s one to keep an eye on in coming months.

Schapelle’s stocks drop

Since leaving Bali, Schapelle Corby’s move to put much of her life on Instagram for free — after all of the discussion about how much she would sell her interview for — has surprised even hardened women’s magazine editors. The queen of weekly gossip mags, long-time Woman’s Day editor Fiona Connolly, is so stunned by the move, she is not even running a Schapelle story in this week’s issue — because Corby is already giving her stories away. “She has thrown me,” she has admitted to Diary. “I thought I knew what I was dealing with, but suddenly she’s taken this strange new path where she’s been really open.” Connolly says the social media posts are diminishing the value of Corby’s potential authorised interview. “If we had a contract with a celebrity for exclusive rights and photos, and that celebrity posted on Instagram, I would cancel the contract,” she said. “The value of her authorised interview is 100 per cent waning with every single post.”