Malcolm Turnbull and the ‘ghosts’ of PMs past

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Last month, RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas tried to push Malcolm Turnbull on who he thought should win his old seat of Wentworth. Turnbull’s response at the time was unequivocal: “I’m staying out of the election contest,” he emphatically told her.

But what a difference a fortnight makes for the man who – soon after he was ditched as PM – had adamantly declared that he would never hang around politics in the manner of “miserable ghosts” Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd.

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull.

As we all know now, Turnbull’s heavily publicised speech to the Washington Harvard Club on Friday contained plenty of poison darts for former Liberal colleagues, as he noted that any wins by so-called “teal” independents would mean “the capture of the Liberal Party (by the political right) will be thwarted by direct, democratic action from voters”.

Wentworth’s high-profile independent Allegra Spender must have been thrilled that Turnbull has such a loose definition of “staying out” of things.

Until his belated intervention last week, Turnbull had adopted one of the lowest profiles of any of the former PMs during the election campaign.

Research provided for Diary by media-monitoring group Streem shows that in an active campaign for former leaders, another Liberal ex-PM John Howard had been dominating the pack until last week, with 1878 mentions in print and online for the first four weeks of the campaign, a doubling of his presence on the previous four weeks. Howard was followed by Kevin Rudd (1252 mentions) and Tony Abbott (1128).

Until last week, Turnbull had been at the bottom of the former PMs list in terms of media mentions. But, as it has since become apparent, he was never going to be deprived of his media relevance for an entire campaign, with the fallout from his comments on Friday continuing to play out prominently in headlines over the weekend.

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Trioli’s spray over Morrison blacklisting

She has allegedly waited “three years” to no avail for an interview with Scott Morrison. So when Virginia Trioli received a text message from the PM’s office on Thursday morning telling her with a note of finality that Morrison wouldn’t appear on her show before the next election, she was immediately in the mood to unleash.

Shortly before 8am, the ABC Radio Melbourne morning host went on to her colleague Sammy J’s breakfast show to reveal she was being boycotted.

“We’ve been pretty much told by the Prime Minister’s office – and that’s been reaffirmed this morning – that we’ll never get Scott Morrison.”

Taken aback, Sammy J asked: “Reaffirmed in what way?” Trioli replied: “Via text. That we will not get Scott Morrison on the program at all.”

Asked for the explanation given, Trioli replied: “The schedule is full. We were hoping that full schedule might have included us, given we’ve been requesting for, coming on three years now.”

Going off the long run at this point, Trioli then launched into the PM for black-listing her: “Scott Morrison does not believe that he has an obligation to, or wants to, or cares to, address the morning listeners on ABC Radio Melbourne. A quite substantial audience, but there you go.”

Little more than 90 seconds later at 8am, the familiar notes of the theme tune of the ABC radio news show AM came on. And what was the lead item for the very same listeners who had just been told by Trioli moments earlier that Morrison wouldn’t appear? Why, a 10-minute interview by host Sabra Lane – with, you guessed it, Scott Morrison.

Then, at the end of the Morrison interview, Lane had a complaint of her own about another apparent boycott of an ABC show – this time by Anthony Albanese. “We’ve made several requests to interview the Labor leader Anthony Albanese,” Lane said on-air. “He hasn’t been available.”

It seems that Lane was also in the dark that Trioli’s guest of honour at the start of her show at 8.30am would be none other than Albanese.

After a routine interview with the Labor leader that started with the subject of childcare, and ended with the question of “would it be just you and your dog Toto in The Lodge”, there was room for some more cracks at the PM for his absence.

First, in once more noting her apparent blackban by Morrison, Trioli noted that she had been “a broken record” with her listeners in “sharing with you the countless number of invitations that we’ve made to the Prime Minister to join you on the program”.

The program then moved on to open line calls about Albanese’s performance in his interview with her, in which Trioli continued to make clear her frustration with Morrison’s decision. At one point, she said his absence was “driving me mad”, while she also appeared to agree with a listener critical of the PM’s no show: “I definitely know where he’s not going to be … which is absolutely disappointing,” she said.

On this point, Trioli appears to be right, with strong hints coming out of the Morrison camp that he has no plans to appear on her show.

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Palaszczuk’s boyfriend problem goes global

Note of advice to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk: if you’re trying to avoid negative headlines, it’s not the best idea to bring your hitherto low-profile boyfriend along to a high-powered summit with the boss of the International Olympic Committee.

Palaszczuk’s bulging team of 30-odd spinners were left with a “what the hell do we do?” moment last week, when the Queen of Queensland’s private life made national headlines. But by the end of the week, it was making international headlines as well. Indeed, Palaszczuk’s personal five-ringed circus threatened to overshadow the much-trumpeted visit of IOC president Thomas Bach to Australian shores.

The problem came when Palaszczuk bizarrely organised for her boyfriend, Gold Coast laparoscopic surgeon Reza Adib, to attend an official Olympics meeting in Sydney a week ago. Those present could have been excused for mistaking Adib for some sort of indispensable sports administrator for the Brisbane bid. A name sign was printed in his honour especially for the meeting, Diary hears.

Reza Adib and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Luke Marsden

But alas, Adib’s visit became fodder for a week-long media circus. First, there were days of front-page splashes in the Courier Mail (starting with the screaming headline “Olympic partner” last Monday), along with lead stories on 6pm Brisbane news bulletins.

Palaszczuk’s spin unit was quickly on high alert that the Premier’s questionable decision might end up dominating Bach’s entire visit.

By Tuesday, it had clearly been decided by Palaszczuk’s brains trust that she needed to cauterise the wound – and fast. That resulted in the Premier making a radical departure from her policy of stubbornly digging her heels in whenever the media criticises her.

An uncharacteristically contrite Premier fronted a doorstop outside the Queensland Government offices at 1 William St in the CBD to issue an unprompted and unequivocal apology, in a clear bid to put a fullstop on all the negative publicity.

Palaszczuk even admitted to poor judgment in taking Adib to the meeting. “I recognise that I have made a mistake and I should not have taken my partner to that meeting,” she said. “I apologise. It was never intentional to cause any distress to anybody.”

But if the aim of her mea culpa was to ensure the story didn’t leak overseas, it failed. By the end of the week, sites in France were running the colourful tale of the Premier and her boyfriend.

Under the headline “Ten years before the Games, Brisbane 2032 has its first controversy”, top French sports site Francs Jeux wrote at length about the Premier’s boyfriend problem. Translated, the article noted: “The Australian leader has come under fire … for bringing her companion, a doctor named Reza Adib, to a very formal meeting with Thomas Bach last weekend at a grand Sydney hotel.”

Francs Jeux went on to note that Palaszczuk’s decision to bring Adib was “all the more criticised” because “several stakeholders had not been invited, including representatives of the Aboriginal community and the Paralympic movement”.

In light of international write-ups like that, it’s probably no surprise that Palaszczuk now says she feels “guilty” for exposing Adib to all the negative publicity. No kidding!

Meanwhile, the Premier outlined her new “boyfriend policy” to the media for Adib’s future public appearances. “My partner will be coming with me to various functions – but he will not be coming to any meetings or catch-ups.”

Translated, that means that for Adib from now on, cocktail parties are in – but IOC summits are most definitely out.

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‘Pubs’ to decide Seven debate winner

With Nine’s 60 Minutes debate between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese out of the way, the leaders’ circus moves on to Wednesday night’s final face-off at Seven’s Martin Place studios in Sydney.

Unlike the Nine debate on Sunday night that featured both a 60 Minutes presenter and a three-person panel, this one will be a more intimate affair. With the face-off dubbed “The Final Showdown”, Seven political editor Mark Riley will sit at a small table right between the two leaders, leaving little place to hide if there is a gaffe from either Morrison or Albanese.

There are already interesting details emerging.

Seven political editor Mark Riley.

Diary understands one feature will be a reaction from seven pubs around the country to the performance of the two leaders – featuring swinging voters from marginal seats picked by a research firm in each state and territory.

While there will be no studio audience, we’re told Seven has taken on the complex and expensive logistics of organising for 25 undecided voters from each chosen marginal seat in all seven states and territories to attend a local pub within those seats. A cumulative vote tally collected from the 175 swinging voters at the pubs across the country will be taken to determine whether Morrison or Albanese won the debate.

Plenty will be riding on Seven’s pub vote count, with fewer than 10 days left until polling day once the debate screens. We hear there’ll be eight topics debated, with cost of living set to dominate given the recent inflation figure and subsequent interest rate hike. After opening statements, the leaders will have free rein to interject and grill their rival during Riley’s Q&A segment, leaving the potential for plenty of direct clashes.

The late screening time of 9.10pm on Wednesday has attracted some discussion, but there are no moves to bring it forward given that unglamorous politicians are not considered ratings gold. “They were never going to give shorter running time to Big Brother on its launch week to allow a lower-rating political leaders’ debate to screen earlier,” says one insider. “It’s commercial TV.”

One thing the debate won’t feature is the infamous worm. When Diary reached Seven’s news boss Craig McPherson on the weekend, he said simply: “The worm has had its time.”

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Speers makes a last campaign plea

With Seven winning the prize of hosting this week’s final campaign debate, the letter Diary revealed last week by ABC managing director David Anderson urging Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese to conduct a debate on the public broadcaster moderated by Insiders host David Speers fell on deaf ears.

As we revealed, Anderson told both leaders that the ABC was “the most trusted source of news and information and given its accessibility to Australians everywhere, is the most appropriate home for (a) debate between the two leaders”.

But even with the unusual position of the ABC not hosting an election debate in 2022, and the odds of luring Morrison onto the ABC lengthening by the day, Speers wasn’t quite ready to give up on the consolation prize of at least luring the PM on for an interview on Insiders next Sunday.

“We have one more program before election day,” Speers told the Insiders audience at the end of Sunday’s edition. “We’ve been inviting the Prime Minister on throughout the campaign – so far, without success. The Opposition Leader will be fronting up here next week. The invitation to the PM still stands.”

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Waleed’s second chance on election night

In 2019, Ten’s election night coverage caused something of a stir when it became the first major network to predict a Bill Shorten election victory.

With Ten’s election coverage “first at five”, Waleed Aly and one of his co-hosts, Peter van Onselen also wanted to be first to call an election result: “I’m expecting it to fall around 81 (seats for Labor),” Aly said on the night. “I’m basing that on things I’ve heard from people who should know.”

Waleed Aly.

As we all know, that prediction didn’t age brilliantly, as Aly himself later cheerily admitted, with Shorten resigning from the Labor leadership later that night after his party ultimately won just 68 seats, compared with the Coalition’s 77.

But undaunted by that bruising experience in making predictions, Diary is reliably informed that Aly and PVO will front up for their first election night together since on May 21, which we’re told they will this time co-host with Sandra Sully. Hopefully the injection of Ten’s newsreading doyen into the co-hosting role will this time be able to temper the more extreme punditry instincts of Waleed and PVO.

What is set to be badged as a joint The Project/10 News election special is set to see the trio joined on the election night panels by Project regular Jan Fran, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston, her Liberal colleague Hollie Hughes, along with Labor’s Ed Husic and Stephen Jones.

It wasn’t so long ago that Ten used to run dead on election night to offer an alternative to poll-weary viewers. But Diary hears that the network has now made a permanent commitment to full coverage of federal elections going forward.

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Seven cranky about weird billboard

Drivers on Sydney’s Parramatta Road last week were startled by a strange ad on a giant digital billboard, featuring a huge photo of Seven’s chief Sydney 6pm newsreader, Mark Ferguson.

Seven’s Latin billboard.

The usual snappy marketing pitch to drivers for such ads was replaced by the rather more obtuse: “LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET CONSEC ETUR”.

There’s an explanation. That faux Latin gobbledygook sentence is regularly used in advertising as a placeholder until the finished marketing text is later substituted. Only on this occasion, the finished product appears to have been overlooked before going to print.

Seven insiders say the mistake was definitely not at their end, with one muttering darkly on Friday that the network would be seeking some serious “make-goods” – or compensation in the form of extra ads – for the stuff-up from the billboard company.

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