Save it for later

KIM Williams argues it was his launch of Chris Bowen’s book that finally cooked his goose as News Corp Australia chief.

KIM Williams argues it was his launch of Chris Bowen’s book that finally cooked his goose as News Corp Australia chief — or at least switched on the oven into which the goose had already been stuffed. So you might have thought Bowen would reciprocate and lob at the launch of Williams’s tome yesterday. Alas, it was not to be and Rules of Engagement was sent out into the world Bowenless. Melbourne University Press chief Louise Adler passed on Bowen’s regrets to the audience at Sydney’s Mitchell Library (a broad-spectrum crowd ranging from Maxine McKew to Kevin Sheedy and former NSW premier Nick Greiner), explaining that along with his colleague Tanya Plibersek, the shadow treasurer had remained in Canberra. Said Adler, “They said they would move heaven and earth to be here, but couldn’t because parliament is apparently more important than heaven or earth.” As for Williams, he confessed to the audience he’d received a text message from Adler yesterday morning complaining his launch speech contained nothing hard about politics or News Corp, pleading, “Couldn’t you put in something in there that’s actually a little newsworthy?” Anyone hoping for that will have to wait. The News part of his book, Williams said, was not written in a “curmudgeonly or get-even sense”. And the director’s cut, as it were, is in a time capsule. Said Williams, “I have written an account of my time at News Corp. It’s very detailed and will be released probably in 10 more years when the atmosphere is cleansed of (what) permeates too much of media life in Australia: a surfeit of emotion and a deficit of fact and analysis.” Given Williams’s love for the arts, we suggested to him that the proper format for it would be opera. “It’s for media historians,” he demurred. “It’s much too dry and stripped of all adjectives.” Not to be discouraged, your Strewth correspondent left Williams to his book-signing and — bearing in mind what he had said in his speech about Adler’s utter relentlessness — went and made the suggestion to her instead, whereupon a strange and enthusiastic gleam entered her eyes. It’s possible Williams will have no peace from this moment on. Our work here is done.

Business model

THE launch speech by former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou touched on the Top 10 lists in Rules of Engagement — and his bewilderment at not finding his name on any. “I started to think I was the 11th person you asked to launch this book,” he said. Nor was there an index to help him. Adler joked an index only killed book sales: “You look yourself up in the book in the bookshop and that’s it, you’re satisfied.”

Let the next door open

GIVEN the Liberal Party’s recent fixation on Bob Hawke, it was droll to hear Joe Hockey complaining yesterday that “the Labor Party still believes in the 1980s Australia”. Still, Hawkie is never far from our minds. It was the Silver Bodgie who properly tested out the ABC’s Jim Middleton at the start of the 1990 federal election campaign. With Hawke’s press conference to kick off the campaign about to begin, Middleton went live to air. “There was no script and I was talking off the top of my head,” he recalled to Strewth yesterday. “I kept talking and talking — for 11 minutes in the end. I’d gone through everything I had to say more than once.” It must have been a fairly compelling performance, not least for the still absent Hawke. “We discovered he was in the PM’s office watching me.” As so many of us have through the years. Middleton has been with Aunty since 1970, his latest incarnation being main current affairs anchor on the Australia Network. Alas, that came to an end yesterday thanks to federal funding cuts. Middleton says he feels a sense of bereavement but is hopeful he’ll find a new home for his skills and experience. With his freshly minted baby apparently emphasising the point over the phone, Middleton says, “Retirement is not an option.”

Bill’s Vlad-o-meter

BILL Shorten dubbed Tony Abbott “the most out-of-touch PM since the top hat-wearing Stanley Bruce ”. Which brings to mind one of those anecdotes that lingers in the brain, even if its source does not. It concerns Gough Whitlam being chipped for wearing a top hat. “Comrade,” he replied, “under socialism, everyone will have one of these.” Moving on, Shorten also did some number-crunching: “It’s not a simple matter of just saying yes or no to (Vladimir) Putin. I don’t want to meet Putin. I’ve got no time for what he’s done ... So am I 100 per cent about this matter? No, but I’m 90 per cent about what I think about Putin and whether or not he should come to Australia.” Unquote.

The wagers of skin

WE should probably be reluctant to mention Sportsbet.com.au is offering $101 on Clive Palmer being the next celebrity to suffer the leaking of nude photos.

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