There has been more than one reshuffle in Queensland’s political and media circles in recent days.
Just as Annastacia Palaszczuk wielded the axe on Yvette D’Ath’s embattled term as Health Minister, the Nine newsroom was undergoing its own cabinet reshuffle in the wake of an extraordinary hiring spree by no less than the Premier herself.
The Nine newsroom has been decimated by Palaszczuk poachings over the last 18 months, with her government hiring up to a dozen of Nine’s most senior talent believed to have been seduced by six-figure salaries – some reputedly in excess of $200,000, and significantly above what they were on at Nine.
Chief political reporter Lane Calcutt; executive producer of the 6pm news bulletin, Cullen Robinson; senior reporters Natarjsha Kramer and Shannon Marshall-McCormack, and Gold Coast correspondent Charlton Hart have all recently disappeared into the web of Palaszczuk’s industrial-scale spin machine. In the latest dramatic development, Nine News’s Brisbane chief of staff Jordan Fabris, and his long-serving father, Tony Fabris, both departed Nine in the space of weeks – with Fabris the younger having been poached, for once not by Palaszczuk, but to an equally senior role in Seven’s Brisbane newsroom.
The departures come at a time when Nine’s Brisbane 6pm bulletin is trailing Seven’s equivalent in Brisbane’s cutthroat commercial news ratings battle in 2023.
Amid the chaos of continuous departures from her newsroom to the Premier’s office and elsewhere, Nine’s Brisbane head of news Amanda Paterson put her best foot forward. In an email sent out when most of her staff were still asleep at 4.51am (on the same day as news of Palaszczuk’s own reshuffle first made headlines), Paterson reeled off a spate of new appointments in an all-Brisbane staff email. Most notably, Sean Dalton was announced as being promoted to replace Fabris as chief of staff. Interestingly, Dalton is the son of another former Nine Brisbane news director, Mike Dalton, who retired from the role in 2017.
Paterson told the few staff who are still left in her shrunken Brisbane empire: “The renewed positive energy in the newsroom is contagious!”.
Watch out, Amanda! With such high-quality spin, it could be you who’s next in line to be headhunted by Annastacia for her ever-expanding media unit.
Lisa Wilkinson off TV screens until 2024
It’s almost exactly six months since Lisa Wilkinson made front-page headlines in late November by quitting Ten’s The Project on air, citing “relentless, targeted toxicity” in the media.
Ever since that night, Wilkinson has continued to be paid her full salary by Ten (reputed to be in the seven figures under what is said to be a watertight contract) during what was initially meant to be nothing much more than an extended summer holiday. But as we are about to hit mid-2023, there has been no sign of Wilkinson returning to air – despite some vague whispers emerging out of the network that she could “soon” be recording some high-profile interview specials.
How “soon” will Wilkinson return to Ten’s airwaves?
Diary has now received word that Wilkinson is unlikely to be back on TV screens until early 2024.
The reason is her continued involvement in the various cases involving the woman that Wilkinson helped to become a household name, Brittany Higgins, and Bruce Lehrmann.
In recent days, Wilkinson has come up in the board of inquiry being chaired by former judge Walter Sofronoff KC into the ACT criminal justice system, which has a particular focus on the Lehrmann criminal trial that was ultimately discontinued last year.
Among the subjects being dissected by the inquiry has been Wilkinson’s headline-making Logies speech praising Higgins last June, and the fact she has strongly disputed claims she was pre-warned by ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold not to deliver the speech.
Diary hears that part of Ten’s dilemma is that the Sofronoff inquiry won’t be the end of Wilkinson’s role in proceedings involving Lehrmann and Higgins.
Lehrmann last month was granted the right to pursue defamation proceedings against Wilkinson and news.com.au’s Samantha Maiden, with the case scheduled to be heard for 20 days from November 20 this year.
With Wilkinson likely to play a prominent role in the case, Diary understands that the current thinking at Ten is to wait until that case is over.
In the meantime, Wilkinson continues to collect pay cheques under her watertight multi-year contract with Ten, which this column revealed in June 2021 and is still believed to have some time to run.
ABC hearing unleashes Lidia Thorpe’s war on Greens
Last Wednesday’s Senate estimates hearing with the ABC may have been dominated by tense face-offs between Aunty’s managing director, David Anderson, and senators of all political persuasions over why Stan Grant stepped away from Q+A.
But just off the microphone, an equally big story was emerging between one-time close allies, departed Greens senator Lidia Thorpe and her former colleague, Sarah Hanson-Young.
The clear lingering enmity evident in that encounter culminated on Sunday morning in Thorpe’s explosive appearance on the ABC’s Insiders, in which she revealed she was planning to take the Greens to the Australian Human Rights Commission, claiming racism.
The ongoing feud became apparent after Hanson-Young asked the ABC boss for an explanation as to why Aunty hadn’t responded sooner to the “racism” encountered by Q+A host Grant on social media following the public broadcaster’s coronation coverage.
As Anderson conceded the ABC had “fallen short” in sticking up for Grant, another voice suddenly broke into proceedings, off the microphone and off-camera.
It turned out to be none other than the never-dull Thorpe, who decided to use the moment to seemingly accuse the Greens of hypocrisy in asking questions about racism.
“Why didn’t you stand up for racism in the party, against me?”, Thorpe interjected to Hanson-Young. “You’re asking ridiculous questions.”
Labor Senator Karen Grogan, who presides over the Senate’s Communications and Environment Committee, interjected to tell Thorpe that it was “up to each Senator” to ask whatever questions they liked.
Thorpe responded sardonically: “Yeah, well, she needs to take a look at herself.”
The exchange was initially lost amid the ABC boss’s first public appearance since the Grant furore, but on Sunday, Thorpe ensured that it got an airing.
Diary is told the beef goes back to the last few days leading up to Thorpe’s departure from the Greens in February, when Hanson-Young refused to publicly back Thorpe’s future as the party’s First Nations spokesperson.
The bone of contention was the proposed voice to parliament. Hanson-Young and other Greens have been a vocal advocate for the voice, while Thorpe has been staunchly opposed to it.
Diary contacted the Greens on Sunday by phone and text, but received no response.
Nine’s surprise plans to cut Hadley from Brisbane
Nine has just shelled out more than $3m a year to keep Ray Hadley on its radio stations until the end of 2026, as first revealed by this columnist. But a potential big change could be in the winds for Hadley in 2024.
Diary is reliably informed that in a surprise move, Nine is currently looking at not broadcasting Hadley on Brisbane’s 4BC at all from next year.
Hadley is one of a handful of talk radio broadcasters to make a success of simulcasting into both the Sydney and Brisbane markets. He has of course won 148 straight Sydney morning radio surveys. Meanwhile, in the last Brisbane survey in April, Hadley went within a whisker of winning the morning ratings with nearly 11 per cent of the audience, despite broadcasting from Sydney.
So why change a successful formula? Diary is told the reason is Nine’s stated national strategy of making its radio stations “live and local”.
Nine Radio apparently sees 2024 as a critical juncture to cement the “live and local” philosophy for Brisbane, with two major elections to be held in the city next year: the mayoral election on March 16 in which Liberal Adrian Schrinner is seeking a second term as the city’s Lord Mayor, and of course Annastacia Palaszczuk’s bid to win a record fourth term in October 2024.
Diary hears that after some high-level talks in Brisbane in recent days, the plan is to make a fresh start with a local mornings host by January next year, which would mean Hadley will only continue to be beamed into Brisbane until the end of 2023.
It’s understood that Hadley was made fully aware of Nine Radio’s likely intentions before renewing his contract earlier this month.
But Nine will apparently take its time on deciding a replacement for Hadley. After all, it has more pressing issues, with Neil Breen’s upcoming departure from the 4BC drive slot at the end of June.
We hear there could be up to five candidates in the running. In the mix are understood to be Nine Brisbane TV reporter Peter Fegan, Triple M breakfast co-host Greg “Marto” Martin, 4BC weekend breakfast host Bill McDonald, former Sky News presenter Peter Gleeson and veteran Brisbane radio personality Greg Cary.
Whoever misses out on the drive slot is likely to come under strong consideration for Hadley’s Brisbane mornings slot if Nine proceeds with its plans to go local. Watch this space.
3AW correspondent’s shock take on Rolf Harris
Virtually all media outlets in Australia and beyond found a rare moment of unity in their descriptions of the once-loved late entertainer Rolf Harris, whose death was revealed last week.
Outlets from The New York Times to The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC, news.com.au and The Australian all described Harris as “disgraced”, in the wake of revelations late in life that he had been a serial predator of young girls and women.
But one reporter out there had a shockingly more upbeat take on Harris’s life.
Malcolm Stewart, the veteran London correspondent for Melbourne’s dominant breakfast radio show, Breakfast with Ross and Russel (hosted by Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft), delivered a lengthy take on Harris’s life in his daily segment on Wednesday morning before 7am, hours after Harris’s death had been revealed.
But it was his conclusion about Harris’s legacy that left Stevenson and Howcroft audibly shocked: “In many ways, I think, the public will remember him (Harris) fondly – despite his downfall.”
Pausing after quickly wrapping up Stewart’s segment, Stevenson audibly gasped before saying: “Pardon me! I’m taken aback.” The moment has been taken off the show’s podcast from the day.
After the 7am news, Stevenson came back with a sterner take on Stewart’s comments.
“We just want to return to something from the last hour,” Stevenson started.
“Malcolm Stewart’s comments about Rolf Harris’s legacy caught us by surprise here because we obviously don’t know what Malcolm’s going to say.
“I think Malcolm’s view of Rolf Harris’s legacy is not shared by anyone I know, is not shared by anyone on this program, nor, I suspect, by anyone listening to this program.”
Paramount’s US email causes Ten confusion
There was some confusion in the ranks of Ten’s operations last week about an email out of the Australian network’s US mothership, Paramount.
Diary is told that among other things, the email suggested that if “non-critical” roles were currently vacant, they wouldn’t be replaced for the time being.
The missive from Paramount’s US head office led to fears in some quarters that there was some sort of “hiring freeze” on at Ten in Australia as well.
The concerns among staff at Paramount’s Australian satellite are understandable.
The US media giant’s share price has taken a pounding on Wall Street since the company’s first quarter result was announced in early May, revealing the company’s dividend was to be slashed by 80 per cent amid weaker than expected first-quarter results.
But Ten insiders now assure us that this was purely a US email which only applied to Paramount’s American operations, and not to Australia, where they are adamant there are currently no hiring restrictions.
A Ten spokesperson pointed out that there are nine jobs currently being advertised in Australia on the network’s website, including the role formerly occupied by Peter van Onselen as Ten’s network political editor, along with vacant jobs for technicians, graphic designers and sales executives.
Still, some nervous Ten types are watching closely to ensure that any belt-tightening at the mothership remains quarantined to America – and doesn’t spread Down Under.
AFL boss nails debut as newsreader
“Good morning, it’s 10 o’clock. I’m Gillon McLachlan.”
With those words, the deep, dulcet tones of the departing AFL chief executive took to 3AW’s airwaves, with McLachlan making a decent fist of reading a network news bulletin on Friday.
Only, Diary hears that the AFL’s censors went through the script to make sure there was nothing to cause the body any controversies.
Edited out was a story about alleged rorting on Dan Andrews’ much-vaunted, multibillion-dollar Big Build program that ran in other bulletins during the day. Gone also was a dummied-up AFL story where McLachlan was to read an item about himself.
Neil Mitchell, the 3AW morning host, wasn’t about to let the AFL chief off the hook for the story changes. “You’ve had your team’s censors go through the scripts,” Mitchell protested. “It’s the sanitised version.”
Apart from the script changes, McLachlan showed promise as a newsreader for when he finally hands over the AFL’s reins to Andrew Dillon at the end of the season.
In a stumble-free outing, McLachlan seamlessly wove from the Republican nominees for the 2024 US Presidential Election to the imposition of a $6.20 an hour parking fee on the Mornington Peninsula and, of course, an AFL story – Carlton’s team changes for its Friday night match against the Sydney Swans. All in all, it was a smooth outing.
McLachlan has had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek in joking about a possible media career after 2023 – but on the evidence of his newsreading efforts on Friday, stranger things have happened.
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