Cormann’s calls go unanswered but next acting PM is sure to outshine Barnaby anyway
Mathias Cormann speaks to reporters in Canberra, yesterday:
I have left a voicemail message for him (Barnaby Joyce), we haven’t had a chance to talk, no.
Barnaby did answer someone else’s call. The Deputy Prime Minister talking to The Age, yesterday:
I’m not going anywhere … I’ve been in heaps of fights in my political life; this is another one.
We don’t know if the call was a peace offering. Stevie Wonder, August 1, 1984:
I just called to say I love you / I just called to say how much I care / I just called to say I love you / And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
Or if Cormann had a tough message for his wayward cabinet colleague. Blondie, September 1978:
I’m in the phone booth, it’s the one across the hall / If you don’t answer / I’ll just ring it off the wall / I know he’s there, but I just had to call / Don’t leave me hanging on the telephone.
But we think Barnaby’s replacement as acting prime minister should try ringing him again. Just to gloat. The Australian, February 16:
Cormann is almost certainly the first acting prime minister to speak German, Flemish, French and English.
Talking of big step-ups, congrats to ex-media executive Marina Go. 7-Eleven’s press release, yesterday:
7-Eleven is delighted to announce the appointment of Marina Go to the 7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd Board.
Go may be able to revamp the chain’s image after many damaging stories. The Australian, February 15:
Fairfax and the ABC accused 7-Eleven’s head office of presiding over systematic underpayment of workers.
She does know a little bit about dealing with allegations of underpaying workers through her time as chief executive of Private Media. The Australian, November 11, 2013:
… freelance writers … have issued an open letter imploring other writers not to contribute to (Private Media flagship) Crikey’s new arts portal … They state Crikey’s new arts website … “has no contributor budget”.
In other media news, Paul Barry tells off ABC colleague Emma Alberici for her controversial news story on tax. Media Watch, Monday night:
You can still see Alberici’s news story online, but it has now been drastically rewritten … to get rid of gratuitous swipes.
What gratuitous swipe? Alberici’s quote about Goldman Sachs reported on Media Watch, Monday:
… like this depiction of Goldman Sachs as “the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”.
Media Watch failed to say Alberici was actually quoting someone else in the original copy. ABC News online, February 14:
Described by Rolling Stone magazineas, “the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity …”
A big difference from saying it herself, we would have thought. Barry on Media Watch, February 6:
Once upon a time facts were facts.
We almost feel sorry for Alberici after Barry’s “gratuitous swipe”. Almost … Nick Cater in The Australian, yesterday:
For Alberici … the notion that corporations must be punished for wickedness rather than rewarded for taking risks with capital is self-evident.