The Canberra Press Gallery will embark on talks in coming months about whether two fossil fuel giants, Woodside and Shell, should be allowed to continue to sponsor its flagship event, the Midwinter Ball, after the Greens launched an orchestrated campaign about the issue during last week’s event.
Diary has learnt press gallery members were unimpressed that the Greens hijacked last Wednesday’s Ball – a charity event which raised $350,000 for worthy causes including the Ukraine Crisis Appeal – and turned it into a ‘‘political football’’ by protesting the Woodside and Shell sponsorships.
Some Gallery members were particularly irked by a series of sledges by WA Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John on the night. Steele-John live-tweeted several times, writing that “watching MPs swan around in suits and sparkles at an event openly sponsored by coal and gas is frankly sickening”, and claiming that the ball showed the “perverse hold coal and gas have over our government”.
Perhaps Steele-John should have checked out his own leader, Adam Bandt, who himself turned up to the event in a penguin suit. However, his partner Claudia Perkins wore a dress featuring the repeated message “COAL KILLS GAS KILLS”.
That was just one of many protests among Greens present at Parliament House on Wednesday night. Lidia Thorpe strode through the Marble Foyer of Parliament House, with her trademark fist raised, yelling about “fossil fools”.
Meanwhile, Sarah Hanson-Young – who incidentally, was among the last ball attendees to depart at the end of the night – had “END GAS and COAL” in large black writing on the back of her formal white dress.
“She didn’t like the coal, but she sure liked the night,” was the wry observation of one media type.
Amid all of the protests, Press Gallery President David Crowe – the Nine papers’ chief political correspondent – pointed out in his speech on the night: “The two gas companies made up only 7 per cent of the total budget of the ball.”
There are concerns that if Woodside and Shell are not allowed to sponsor the 2023 version of the event because of this year’s Greens protests, prominent politicians who actually support oil and gas, particularly from the Liberals and Nationals, may launch their own protests at future balls. As one press gallery member noted: “It’s a ball – not a political football.”
Greens senator Larissa Waters revealed during the week that the protests had prompted organisers to “reconsider” allowing Woodside and Shell as Ball sponsors in 2023. When we reached Crowe on the weekend, he confirmed a review of the oil and gas sponsors would take place: “We’ve always consulted on how the ball works,” he told Diary.
“So we’ll consult again and listen to any concerns about sponsorships. The important thing is we consult all sides.”
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Wildcards in ACA’s hunt for new host to replace Tracy
Which TV host can go toe-to-toe with a prime minister in an election campaign interview – but minutes later introduce a story about a dodgy tradesman who’s ripped off customers?
With Tracy Grimshaw’s shock announcement last week that she will quit A Current Affair in November, the search is already on among senior Nine executives to find a replacement capable of matching her formidable on-air presence.
We hear that Nine wants to spread the net as widely as possible to find the right contender to replace Grimshaw – and that the process will include looking at talent from other networks. Following Grimshaw’s memorable interrogations of former PM Scott Morrison during his last term – which became media events in themselves – interviewing skills are considered the most important attribute for the successful candidate. From an internal Nine perspective, there are four frontrunners: Grimshaw’s regular A Current Affair stand-in, Sylvia Jeffreys (who is currently co-hosting Today Extra); her brother-in-law, Karl Stefanovic (who for years has famously coveted escaping breakfast TV to host his own prime-time show); Today co-host Allison Langdon; and Saturday ACA host Deb Knight.
Jeffreys – whose star is on the rise at Nine – is seen as the clear internal bookies favourite. Just days ago, she seamlessly MC’d a Nine leadership summit featuring its CEO, Mike Sneesby, impressing the cream of leaders from across the business. On the weekend, she was also featured in the coveted cover story for Stellar magazine in News Corp Sunday papers across the country – less than a week after Grimshaw’s departure.
But Nine executives are also looking externally. Diary understands that a longlist of candidates from outside the network, both male and female, has been drawn up. Interestingly, Nine is not wedded to the show continuing to be hosted from Sydney in the post-Grimshaw era, with management open to a successful candidate based in Melbourne.
Nine insiders say that this longlist even includes hosts from the ABC. Diary is reliably informed that the list includes The Project’s Carrie Bickmore (who is Melbourne-based and, intriguingly, out of contract at the end of the year), the ABC’s Q+A host Stan Grant (Sydney) and News Breakfast host Lisa Millar (Melbourne), Studio 10 anchor and former Nine anchor Sarah Harris (Sydney), and the popular ex-host of Seven’s current affairs show Sunday Night, Melissa Doyle (Sydney).
Poaching Bickmore from Ten would be seen as a coup, but she won’t come cheap given her lucrative contract at The Project. Meanwhile, Grant once hosted Seven’s rival to ACA in the 1990s, Real Life, while both Millar and Harris are seen as relatable to the mass ACA audience. All five external candidates are regarded as having on-air warmth that would work for the ACA audience.
There are whispers that Nine was at one point interested in Waleed Aly as a successor to Grimshaw, but he is ruled out by a new multi-year contract he signed with The Project earlier this year.
One name who won’t be on the list is former Sunrise host Sam Armytage. Apparently she is not considered a “fit” at Nine.
Meanwhile, in terms of internal candidates, don’t rule out Stefanovic, who has made no secret of wanting to host a prime time show, ever since he joined Today in 2005.
In 2015, Stefanovic was within a whisker of being poached by Seven to host ACA’s then-bitter early evening current affairs rival, Today Tonight – before a lucrative last-minute offer persuaded him to stay with Nine on Today.
Let the jockeying for the title begin.
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Why Albanese did a ‘take two’ on Queen’s address
It’s the question that had newsrooms across the country talking on Friday: why was Anthony Albanese’s address to the nation about the late Queen Elizabeth’s death delayed by nearly 30 minutes on Friday?
In what was a very early morning for our leader, a down-to-the-minute timetable – clearly planned meticulously over some time – was distributed by the Prime Minister’s office to the media about what Albanese was planning for the days ahead in the wake of the Queen’s death.
At the top of the list was that the PM would make a live televised speech, which would be made available across the country by the ABC. “The Prime Minister will make a national statement this morning which will be distributed to all television networks live and clean via the ABC at approx. 6.05am.”
But newsrooms around the country waited as first 6.05, then 6.10, 6.15, 6.20 and 6.25am came and went – and still no sign of the PM. The likes of Michael Rowland and Lisa Millar on ABC News Breakfast, David Koch and Nat Barr on Sunrise, Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon on Today, and numerous radio hosts around the country filibustered to the best of their abilities as they waited for Albo’s “live and clean” address to lob.
Sky’s Andrew Clennell hinted on his Sunday program that the delay may have been partly down to protocols requiring Albanese to wait for the statement put out by Australia’s official head of state, Governor-General David Hurley.
But there was, we’re told, another key reason. Diary understands that the PM actually delivered his message live to air shortly after the initially expected 6.05am – but then a technical issue hit somewhere in the ABC’s system. Could someone have forgotten to hit the record button?
We hear calmer heads prevailed in the Prime Minister’s office suite in Canberra where Albanese was making his address, but some urgent calls were made to broadcasters around the country warning them of the delay.
Finally, a grave-looking PM made a second attempt to deliver his address live to air at 6.30am.
This time, thankfully, there were no “technical difficulties”. Albanese’s tribute to the Queen lasted exactly five minutes, with the PM solemnly concluding: “May she rest in eternal peace.”
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Nine forced onto Seek after Anna’s poaching spree
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been hiring journalists so quickly to her ever-expanding media spin team that newsrooms in Brisbane are being forced to take desperate measures just to put out news bulletins.
Take Nine in Brisbane, for instance, which has been decimated in recent weeks by a series of calculated poachings by Palaszczuk. It has now been forced to make the unusual move of advertising on job site Seek to fill one of its vacant on-air roles on the Today show, as it desperately tries to fill at least four newsroom vacancies.
Diary is now informed that so short-staffed is Nine’s Brisbane newsroom after the blitz from the Premier’s office, that the network has had to pull out all stops just to keep its 6pm bulletin in the city going. It has forced the most senior journalist yet that Palaszczuk has poached – four-decade political reporting veteran Lane Calcutt – to stay on to serve out a lengthy notice period before he becomes the Premier’s right-hand media man. It’s already six weeks since Calcutt handed in his notice, but because of the staff shortages, Nine still hasn’t let him join the Premier. As we mentioned last week, the network has banned Calcutt from reporting on politics because of perceptions he has a conflict of interest given his new role. But that hasn’t stopped Nine from making Calcutt serve out the last weeks of his journalistic career on non-political stories, such as the funeral of former NRL coach Paul Green.
In the last couple of months alone, Nine has lost the executive producer of its Brisbane 6pm bulletin, Cullen Robinson, long-serving reporter Shannon Marshall-McCormack and Calcutt to the Premier’s office. Meanwhile, Today show reporter Jessica Millward has been lured away from breakfast TV to fill one of several vacant positions on the 6pm bulletin – creating another vacancy.
Still, it came as something of a surprise when Nine turned to Seek in recent weeks to advertise the position of “Brisbane reporter” for the Today show.
In the past, networks haven’t needed to advertise plum on-air positions on shows like Today, because there have been any number of journalists eager to fill them. But such is the rate of poachings by Palaszczuk, desperate times call for desperate measures.
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Hedley Thomas inundated with ‘cold case’ requests
The conviction of Chris Dawson for murder a fortnight ago – in the wake of the global phenomenon that was The Australian’s Teacher’s Pet podcast – has triggered a resurgence of interest from the public in contacting the podcast’s creator, Hedley Thomas.
Since the headline-making verdict, Thomas has literally been inundated with ideas for other podcast investigations, as desperate members of the public look for the two-time Gold Walkley winner to help them seek justice on other cold cases.
Thomas says he is reading all of them. But right now, the investigative journalist has his hands full. For one, he is progressively remastering and re-narrating all of the episodes of the original Teacher’s Pet (now once more available via The Australian’s app).
He is also in the midst of working on the final episodes of The Teacher’s Trial, his detailed analysis of the Dawson case. Thomas tells Diary: “There are many fascinating angles and observations by the trial judge, Ian Harrison SC in his very lengthy verdict, and the listeners want us to unpack it in as much detail as possible.”
It is understood that the guilty verdict has also accelerated momentum for the TV dramatisation of the case to proceed – with News Corp and Thomas having signed a deal to work with Hollywood heavyweight Jason Blum, founder of US production house Blumhouse Television, and streaming services said to be circling.
Thomas also has some unfinished business with another prominent podcast series he produced, Shandee’s Story, about the unsolved 2013 stabbing murder in Mackay in Queensland of 23-year-old Shandee Blackburn.
Thomas is preparing a new podcast series to follow on from the Blackburn investigation, to be titled Shandee’s Legacy, after Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in June announced a full public inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court judge into alarming DNA lab failures in the Blackburn murder investigation and other violent crimes going back nearly 20 years. Thomas says that the ramifications from the DNA lapses in Queensland amount to “the most alarming story I’ve broken in nearly 38 years as a journalist”.
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Ita chased by Nine and Ten after Queen’s death
She might be the chair of the ABC these days, but Ita Buttrose’s formidable knowledge of the royal family has seen her in big demand as an on-camera personality in the wake of the Queen’s death.
Diary is reliably informed that at least two commercial networks, Nine and Ten, wanted Buttrose to play a significant role in their blanket coverage of the Queen’s passing, with approaches made to her before and after the monarch’s death.
Buttrose is regarded as one of the country’s experts on the monarchy, hosting three royal weddings over three decades for three different TV networks.
In 1981, Buttrose anchored the wedding of the man formerly known as Prince Charles to Diana Spencer for Ten, back in her magazine days. Ita subsequently hosted Prince Andrew’s wedding to Sarah Ferguson for Seven in 1986, before completing the commercial network trifecta by joining Tracy Grimshaw on Nine in hosting Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011.
There was a thought at Nine that Buttrose could again travel to London to join Grimshaw, who is in transit to Buckingham Palace to anchor for the network in the lead-up to the Queen’s funeral on September 19.
But Buttrose knocked back all the commercial offers, because she was already committed to the ABC as part of the public broadcaster’s long-planned coverage of the Queen’s death.
Buttrose conducted a lengthy Sydney studio interview with Sarah Ferguson and David Speers as part of a special two-hour ABC news bulletin on Friday night to mark the Queen’s passing, and then again appeared on the Talking Pictures segment with Mike Bowers on Insiders on Sunday about how to put out a royal magazine cover.
Word around the traps is it’s unlikely to be the last time Buttrose lends her expertise to the ABC’s rolling coverage in the lead-up to the funeral.
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