You’ve heard of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Now get ready for the latest exciting addition to the Housewives franchise: The Teal Housewives of Parliament House.
That’s the title of the latest episode of Pauline Hanson’s hit spoof cartoon series, Please Explain. For once, Hanson doesn’t even make an appearance, as the episode is signed over to plenty of fertile material about the teals. It includes the “break out the popcorn” battle between Monique Ryan and her now former staffer, Sally Rugg, and a fictional episode in which member for Warringah Zali Steggall manages to convince her benefactor, Simon Holmes a Court, that she needs another huge donation to “help with climate change”.
But perhaps the funniest moment comes with the mention of an impromptu “karaoke session” in Steggall’s office. The reference is a clear nod to unconfirmed rumours that have spread like wildfire around Canberra that just such a karaoke session involving several teals may have happened in Parliament House in the past fortnight.
Meanwhile, the cartoon version of Ryan tells Rugg: “I really need you to work harder so I can be Prime Minister”: a nod to the fascinating revelations in their recent court dispute that Ryan revealed to Rugg she wanted “to be the prime minister one day”.
Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.
‘Very poor indeed’: Probyn lashes Keating’s treatment of journalists
ABC political editor Andrew Probyn has unloaded on Paul Keating’s treatment of journalists during a fiery National Press Club appearance on Wednesday, describing the former PM’s behaviour during the appearance as “very poor indeed”.
Keating took an array of colourful potshots at a number of journalists who dared to ask him questions about the role of the China threat in Anthony Albanese’s signing of the new AUKUS submarine deal last week.
But in comments to Diary, Probyn suggested Keating had crossed the line, particularly in his treatment of Sky News political reporter Olivia Caisley and Nine journalist Matthew Knott.
“I thought the dismissive manner in which he dealt with younger, especially female journalists, who all asked perfectly decent questions, was very poor indeed,” Probyn told Diary.
In one instance, Keating told Caisley one of her questions was “dumb” and “hardly deserves an answer”, while at another point, he claimed she must be trying to “dust up” her reputation. Meanwhile, Keating told Knott: “If I were you, mate, I would hide my face and never appear again”, as he lashed the Nine papers for what he dubbed “the most egregious and provocative news presentation” in 50 years over their Red Alert series.
The ex-PM also saved some choice comments for Probyn, who had contradicted Keating’s claim that China has not threatened Australia by pointing to the economic warfare it had waged on Australian wine, coal, timber, barley and lobster. In response, Keating implied Probyn was “silly enough to think” the threat implied in the imposition of wine and other tariffs equated to “threat meaning invasion”. At a personal level, Probyn maintained his reaction had nothing to do with the insults directed at him personally, because he had previously been on the end of the Keating blowtorch.
But he did have a problem with the attacks on younger journalists.
“I have no issue with the backhanded way in which he dealt with my question, even if I disagree with his attempt to define ‘threat’ from China as being a threat of invasion,” he told Diary.
He also noted that there should be lessons from the encounter: “The National Press Club would be best served not repeating that format.”
Probyn’s comments have come as the moderator of Keating’s appearance, Laura Tingle – who has defended the former PM’s right to criticise the AUKUS pact – conceded Keating’s “invective” had worked “against his own interests”.
On Sunday’s edition of Insiders, host David Speers also asked guest insider Peter Hartcher, the Nine papers’ political and international editor, how Keating’s viral description of him as a “psychopath” made him feel.
Hartcher seemed to be thriving on Keating’s latest character assessment after years of insults the ex-PM has directed at the Nine journalist: “One of my daughters rang me … and she said congratulations, you’ve been graduated from being a weasel to now being a psychopath. It’s a bit of a family joke, but it’s nice to get the new epithets.”
Paul Barry v Bevan Shields: Media’s newest bushfire
A war of words has erupted between the ABC’s Media Watch program and The Sydney Morning Herald over the Nine papers’ Red Alert series on China.
On Sunday, Media Watch host Paul Barry took aim at Herald editor Bevan Shields, accusing him of speaking “bull...t”, after the latter denounced Media Watch’s eight-minute attack on Red Alert for “hypocrisy and poor standards”.
Media Watch had claimed the Herald and The Age had failed to treat the China threat “responsibly” in its three-day series, accusing the papers of “alarming” and “extraordinary stuff”. Barry later stated he had not gone to the Nine papers for a comment because “they have their own megaphone” through their own editorial pages.
But speaking to Diary on Sunday, Shields claimed that, by Barry’s logic, the Herald in future never has to seek comment over a story about the ABC.
“The excuse that he offered – that the Herald has a megaphone and he doesn’t have to come to us for comment – is ridiculous,” Shields said.
“They can say whatever they like about us or Red Alert. I have no problem with them forming their own judgment.
“But they’ve formed their judgment without embarking on the most basic tenet of journalism, which is when you write about someone, you ask for them comment.”
Barry didn’t mince words when we put Shields’ remarks to him. “That’s bull...t,” he said. “We did quote them – we quoted their editorial and we summarised their defence in addition to that quote. If they’ve already presented their defence in an editorial, what else are they going to say to us?”
The criticism of Red Alert by Media Watch and the likes of Paul Keating has not gone down well with Shields. In an editor’s note published last week, he wrote: “Media Watch professes to be the arbiter of good and bad reporting, but Monday night’s episode failed to adhere to the most basic standards of journalism because the program did not bother to ask us for a right of reply before putting the segment to air.”
Shields told Diary on Sunday the papers were now in the process of submitting a letter to the ABC to demand an on-air apology for the Media Watch segment.
But if Barry’s comments to Diary on Sunday are any guide, we wouldn’t be holding our breath.
Dom demands privacy while spruiking his kids
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet recently angrily scolded reporters at a press conference for asking questions about his headline-making brother and secretary of the NSW Young Liberals, Jean-Claude Perrottet.
“Leave my family out of it,” he angrily told a 2GB reporter in one press conference.
But in a number of recent media appearances, Perrottet has been doing anything but leaving his family “out of it”.
The Premier – regarded by bookies as the outsider to win Saturday’s NSW election – has been only too keen to wheel out his wife and seven kids to the media in an attempt to hoover up every last NSW family vote.
In a blitz of publications and TV outlets across the media spectrum over the past week or so, Perrottet has offered up himself, along with his wife Helen, for interviews about the challenges of parenting seven children.
And of course there have been the obligatory cute photos of his plentiful offspring at home, by his work desk on Macquarie Street and just about anywhere else you care to mention.
And the numbers show just how big a media presence Perrottet’s family have become in recent weeks. Research conducted for Diary by media monitoring group Streem show Perrottet’s family have received a whopping 238 mentions since February 27 across print, online, TV and radio news, with syndications removed.
That number is a sizeable 76 per cent more than his rival for the NSW top job, Labor leader Chris Minns, whose family have only received 135 mentions.
Streem specifically searched for every time Perrottet or Minns were mentioned within 20 words of phrases like “my family” or “his family” or “my kids” or, alternatively, the names of their spouses or children.
Anecdotally, Perrottet’s social media is also literally teeming with family photos, clearly designed to soften his image.
‘Green’ Kean takes over the media
Apart from the competition between the two leaders in NSW vying for the top job on March 25, there is one other fascinating aspect about an otherwise dull campaign: the seemingly unstoppable rise and rise of Matt “Green” Kean in the media.
Diary organised for media monitoring group Streem to examine the NSW MPs most mentioned during the campaign, excluding the two main leadership candidates, Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns.
As it turned out, it wasn’t a contest, with Green Kean beating his rivals by the length of the straight. The NSW Treasurer received 1068 mentions in the mainstream media, more than double the next-highest counts among a list that included Deputy Premier Paul Toole and One Nation leader Mark Latham.
That huge media presence suggests that if Perrottet does lose the election, as the bookies now strongly believe (at last count, Sportsbet had a Labor minority government the favourite at $1.95, and $3 a Labor majority), put your money on Kean to become the next NSW opposition leader.
Party Premier grilled about showbiz mates
Annastacia Palaszczuk has been desperately trying to shake her image as the Party Premier by shunning all recent red carpet appearances. But in the immortal words of Al Pacino playing Michael Corleone in Godfather III, the Queensland Premier may well have been thinking last week: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
On Academy Awards day last Monday, in a surprise appearance by Palaszczuk on Seven’s Sunrise, hosts David Koch and Nat Barr insisted on finishing up by talking up the prospects of Baz Luhrmann’s Queensland-produced and Oscar-nominated Elvis Presley biopic, Elvis – which the Premier had played such a role in luring to Queensland. If you recall, the Elvis premiere on the Gold Coast last June became a focal point for widespread criticism of Palaszczuk in Queensland for posing in literally dozens of photos on the red carpet with Tom Hanks and Luhrmann, the Hollywood heavyweights behind the film.
Reliable word to Diary out of the Queensland government’s tower of power on 1 William Street last week was that members of Palaszczuk’s ever-growing spin team virtually spat out their cereal when (amid a barrage of Elvis questions) Barr suggested Palaszczuk was “best mates with Baz”, and that the legendary director “met up with you in London”. It wasn’t exactly the new austere image for Palaszczuk they have been trying to project.
In the nine months since last year’s Elvis premiere, public polling published in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail and separate private polling have suggested a perception Palaszczuk had become more interested in red carpet events than the more thankless task of running the state.
So great an effect has the publicity had that Palaszczuk recently sidestepped the chance of a media appearance with Oscar winner Russell Crowe in Burleigh Heads, despite the fact she was literally staying 50 metres away at her partner Reza Adib’s luxury beachfront Burleigh pad.
Kochie and Nat’s questions also didn’t go unnoticed in state parliament last week. Queensland LNP deputy leader Jarrod Bleijie gleefully took Sunrise’s ball and ran with it, accusing Palaszczuk of still being more in touch with the glitz and glamour of showbiz than the more pressing issues around health, youth justice and the government’s waste of taxpayer money.
Ten bosses’ secret visit to US mothership
Ten’s former news boss, Ross Dagan – now the boss of news operations for US giant CBS – last week summoned two of the Australian network’s most senior executives for their first visits to CBS’s New York headquarters, Diary has learned.
Australian Dagan – formerly Ten’s head of broadcast news, but since October 2021 the Paramount-owned CBS’s news and transformation honcho – called on his successor, Martin White, for his debut visit to CBS’s head office. White also apparently took Rashell Habib, Ten’s new-ish head of digital news and strategy, to meet Dagan.
The visit has been the subject of much intrigue within Ten. Did Dagan, for example, have any curly questions about why CBS’s satellite Australian news and current affairs operation at Ten was paying Lisa Wilkinson a reputed seven-figure salary to sit on her hands?
Diary is now assured the answer is no.
Instead, the big-ticket item on the agenda was finding more ways for CBS – which of course makes the US version of 60 Minutes – and Ten to share resources.
Dagan, having previously captained the Australian news ship, is interested in finding ways for CBS and Ten to collaborate as much as possible, including joint ventures on big international stories.
But Ten news sources are adamant this is not about finding job cuts in Australia.
And as for the old chestnut that Ten could eventually take over the 60 Minutes brand locally? We’re now told the chances of that are Buckley’s and none.
Nine has locked up the Australian rights to the 60 Minutes brand well into the future, and it’s at that network it will stay in perpetuity, despite the CBS/Ten relationship.
However, Ten will be able to screen any world exclusives from the US version of 60 Minutes – such as the recent one between Anderson Cooper and Prince Harry – but it won’t be able to feature the signature ticking 60 Minutes stopwatch.
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