Far from delicate balancing act for Sydney Writers’ Festival panel gabfest with Barrie Cassidy

The Sydney Writers’ Festival is pumping up this year’s drawcard political panel with Barrie Cassidy and friends, but we can’t help feeling the discussion will be a bit one-sided.

Barrie Cassidy will host a State of the Nation panel discussion at the Sydney Writers’ Festival just after the federal election. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

The Sydney Writers’ Festival, which stretches from May 19 to 27, coincides with the aftermath of the federal election, so the event’s organisers are really pumping up one of their annual money-spinners, the political panel gabfest with the catchy title “Barrie Cassidy and Friends: State of the Nation”.

As the title suggests, Cassidy, an ex Labor staffer and former ABC journalist (though he never formally held the two roles at the same time), will host the panel ­discussion on May 24 at the Sydney Town Hall, which can hold up to 2000 people.

Joining Cassidy on stage for the chat will be The Project co-host Waleed Aly, author and journalist George Megalogenis, ex-Guardian scribe Amy Remeikis (who is now the chief political analyst for The Australia Institute), and columnist Niki Savva, an ex-Liberal staffer who in recent years has taken a blowtorch to the Coalition.

A smart bunch, one and all.

Author Amy Remeikis

But you could be forgiven for thinking that the panel appears to be somewhat politically imbalanced. Because it is.

We asked the SWF organisers if they approached some noted conservative voices to participate in the panel discussion. SWF artistic director Ann Mossop explained that there are a few prerequisites for selection on the panel. “In collaboration with Barrie, the festival curates a diverse panel representing a range of political perspectives.

“Panellists are selected for their independence of thought, depth of expertise, and distinctive viewpoints.

“Just as important, they must be able to engage audiences, challenge one another constructively, and offer insights that spark meaningful discussion. We always welcome suggestions for journalists and commentators who embody these qualities.”

Diary will be interested to observe how much intra-panel challenging takes place. We suspect your $40 ticket might buy you a lot of furious nodding in agreement among the panellists.

It’s been a rough lead-up to this year’s SWF. Last month, Kathy Shand, who had been a festival board member for more than a decade, quit as chair, citing concerns about the SWF’s reputation for balance.

And in a further blow for SWF organisers, high-profile business columnist Joe Aston, who last year released his book The ­Chairman’s Lounge: The inside story of how Qantas sold us out, has cancelled his appearance at the festival.

Aston’s appearance on May 22 had been promoted as an opportunity to “unpick the dirty details of the downfall of the national airline with Joe”.

Unfortunately, Aston encountered a “scheduling conflict” and will be in the US at the time of his proposed SWF lecture.

How is Aston getting to the USA, we hear you ask? With the Flying Kangaroo of course!

“I fly them all the time,” Aston told Diary.

Aston added that he enjoys working the book festival circuit – his appearances this year have included writers’ events in Adelaide and Sydney’s Manly, with Sorrento and Byron Bay still to come later this year.

AFR for death tax

For a self-described “premium business masthead”, The Australian Financial Review has been flirting with some decidedly “anti-business” policies of late.

Its pre-budget editorial on March 24 set the tone.

“There is an ever-growing list of important fiscal challenges we need to be having a conversation about,” began the editorial – the responsibility for which lies with the masthead’s editor-in-chief, James Chessell.

AFR editor-in-chief James Chessell. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

So far, so good. The AFR boss was certainly on the money about the need for wholesale tax reform in this country, and Chessell is not the only Australian newspaper editor calling for the system to be re-imagined.

But here’s where his argument in the editorial took an unexpected turn.

“Genuine tax reform that asks different groups to give something up to make everyone better off overall could even put on the table a modest inheritance tax to help lower the tax burden on younger generations.”

Hey! Back up! Did the editor-in-chief of the AFR just advocate for a death tax?

Why yes, yes he did!

And can we get a quick show of hands among AFR readers as to how many of you agree with such an idea?

We’re willing to wager that not many of the masthead’s subscribers are in favour of slugging hardworking Australians with a final tax once they kick the bucket, after they’ve already spent a lifetime paying mountains of ­income tax.

The well-worn idea is an anathema to the Australian business community, and of course is not supported by either major ­political party.

Indeed, it’s a policy that is far more likely to be backed by an editorial in the Green Left Weekly, than the AFR.

Seven days later, in another editorial, Chessell threw up another idea that is also likely to be at odds with the vast majority of business executives in Australia.

“Alas, policy competition over budget repair to help sharpen the economy’s growth prospects and make everyone better off appears to be beyond Australia’s political duopoly. Championing economic responsibility is being left to independents such as teal MP Allegra Spender, who may be one of the crossbenchers holding the balance of power after the election,” Chessell opined.

“Perhaps a minority government would produce better fiscal results.”

Perhaps. Or perhaps not.

While Spender has been championing the cause for tax reform, last week, several Australian business leaders – including Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner, Garnaut Private Wealth executive chair Chris Garnaut, and pubs and pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson – expressed fears that a minority ­government could spell policy gridlock and economic disaster for the nation.

Hugh and cry

The freshly minted managing director of the ABC, Hugh Marks, has kept his powder relatively dry during his first month as the ­national broadcaster’s editor-in-chief, eschewing media interviews while settling into his new role.

But last week, he popped his head up publicly for the first time since taking over from his predecessor David Anderson on March 10, honouring a commitment he gave before starting the job that one of his first points of order would be to “get out into the organisation and get a feel for the things that are in the way of people doing their job well”.

ABC managing director Hugh Marks. Picture: Jane Dempster

Marks visited ABC in Brisbane last week, easing his way into public commentary by partnering with select staff members with whom to conduct his initial media forays.

First up was a 30-minute on-air chat with ABC Brisbane drive host Ellen Fanning.

Asked about criticism by Peter Dutton of the coverage of the Queensland floods, Marks backed his troops: “Our coverage of the Western Queensland floods has been excellent and it has been ­extensive.”

He was also frank, admitting at times the ABC did overreach, and sagely observed that the publicly funded organisation could be more “local” in its coverage, noting it should be a “core focus as others vacate that space”.

At times Marks deflected as well as he did when running a listed company.

Bias? “I don’t detect any bias,” he said.

When Fanning asked if the ABC was “too woke,” Marks replied: “Being audience-focused is important.”

He also touched on diversity, gender balance and funding.

Fanning inquired about Marks’ ruthlessness, and whether he would stand up to external pressure on the ABC. “I would never buckle to a view … but we need to own our mistakes if we make them,” he said.

Marks finished by repeating a claim he made to staff when he first arrived at the public broadcaster. “I can’t promise there will be no change,” he said, semi-­ominously.

Next month Marks is booked to speak to ABC’s Virginia Trioli at the SPA’s Screen Forever event on the Gold Coast.

TV fisho apologises for ‘appalling’ comments

Former TV weatherman turned outdoor adventure show guy Paul Burt has taken to Instagram to apologise for misogynistic comments that went to air during his program on 7mate last month.

“Burtie” posted a letter to the social media platform on Saturday, addressed to his “Loyal Viewers”, in a bid to smooth the waters after a regular cooking guest on Step Outside with Paul Burt made the following remarks: “Beat the egg like you beat the missus … that’s what I do. Tie her to a tree and beat her with fencing wire.”

The off-colour comments somehow made it to air on March 23, and were the subject of a subsequent viewer complaint.

Burt offered a “sincere apology” in his Instagram post. “They (the cooking guest’s comments) were uncalled for, appalling and contrary to everything I believe in.”

Former TV weatherman turned outdoor adventure show guy Paul Burt.

But the beloved Queenslander’s explanation of how the post-production process failed suggests his show is held together by a string of old fishing wire and a couple of rusty hooks.

“By way of explanation, and by no means an excuse, my show editor who would ordinarily have deleted the comments in editing, left without notice mid-production,” Burt wrote.

“Whilst searching for a replacement I have endeavoured to manage this aspect of the production and I had thought the ­offensive comments had been removed. I was clearly wrong in this assumption and as mentioned above I am absolutely appalled and upset that the show aired as it did.”

The offending episode has been removed from Seven’s digital platforms.

Burtie reassured his fans that he “intends to set structures in place to ensure that this occurrence or anything similar will never occur again”.

The slip-up comes less than a year after Burt was sacked by Channel 7 following an 11-year stint as the network’s 6pm weatherman.

At the time, Burt told Diary that he was upset that news of his sacking had been leaked to the media before he’d even had the chance to tell his family – a fact which prompted him to deliver a spicy sign-off during his final on-air appearance as the weather guy.

“If I’d had the opportunity I wouldn’t have wanted to go this way; it’s what happens when you get sacked,” he announced at the end of his final appearance on Seven’s 6pm news last June, before the bulletin awkwardly cut to a cheesy montage of the weatherman in happier times – doing belly flops into the pool at charity events, abandoning a live cross at the beach to save a drowning boy, and hamming it up on fishing boats.

In addition to his TV show, the 52-year-old last month launched an audio version of Step Outside With Paul Burt on Brisbane radio station 4BC on Saturdays and Sundays.

Meta probe

Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former Facebook policy director ­behind best-selling memoir Careless People about her time at the tech giant, will testify at a US Senate investigative subcommittee hearing next week. It will be the first time that Wynn-Williams has spoken publicly since Meta launched emergency legal proceedings in an attempt to prevent her from promoting her book.

Wynn-Williams’ appearance at congress was confirmed by Republican Senator Josh Hawley late last week, who flagged on ­social media platform X that the “Facebook whistleblower” will testify “re her explosive evidence of Facebook’s co-operation with the communist regime in China, including FB’s plans to build censorship tools, punish dissidents, and make American users’ data available for Chinese use”.

In her book, Wynn-Williams claims that in 2014 the company allegedly developed a “three-year plan” to gain access to the Chinese market. The initiative was codenamed Project Aldrin.

Nick Tabakoff is on leave.