By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
It was a jolly old affair at the ABC Melbourne outpost in Southbank on Tuesday, with the national broadcaster’s chair, Kim Williams, in town for his first Melbourne meeting of its board, and a whole bunch of the town’s movers and shakers in attendance at an official reception to mark the occasion.
So, we had former premiers Ted Bailieu and John Brumby; a bloke who’d quite like to be premier, John Pesutto; Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie (not widely considered a friend of the ABC, but there you are) acting Lord Mayor Nick Reece; “teal” independent MP Monique Ryan; and Australian Olympic Committee president Ian Chesterman to name but a few.
ABC chair Kim Williams on stage at the State Library on Wednesday night.Credit: Francine Schaepper
Raf Epstein was MC for the night and mornings radio funnyman Sammy J even sang a song. Sounds nice, if you like that sort of thing.
But where the bloody hell – sorry Scott – was the state Labor government? CBD was told, though not by anyone allowed to discuss such things publicly, that Premier Jacinta Allan; her deputy, Ben Carroll (another bloke who wouldn’t mind being premier); and Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks were all invited to the soiree.
But none of them rocked up, and the failure of the state government to be represented on the night stuck out like a dog’s whatsits. Our snouts tell us there was some unhappiness at the broadcaster over the government’s no-show.
So we called Aunty on Thursday to see what it made of this apparent snub. A spokesbloke there expressed the broadcaster’s appreciation for all those who made the effort.
“We are grateful for all who attended,” he told us.
Now, it should be conceded that state parliament is sitting this week, as was noted when Brooks was slightly late attending a function on Wednesday night at the State Library, where Williams was again holding court to deliver a speech on where the ABC is headed.
So what did our missing persons from Tuesday have to say for themselves? When they respond to our questions, we’ll let you know.
WRATH OF KHAN
Readers might remember Melbourne restaurateur and jewellery designer Jamal Mohammad as the bloke pursuing a private prosecution against underworld figure Mick Gatto, amid an entertaining feud between the two former mates, but it turns out that Mohammad has other legal fish to fry.
Jamal Mohammad.Credit: A Current Affair
This time, the 61-year-old businessman has named an impressive array of defendants in an application for a judicial review of a Melbourne Magistrates’ Court decision. That decision waved through the dropping by Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd of Mohammad’s private prosecution of his former landlord at the city’s Block Arcade, Grant Cohen.
The court, the DPP and Cohen are all listed as defendants in the application for review.
Mohammad, also known as Jamal Khan Mohammad, alleges the director engaged in an act of “tyranny and despotism” when her office took over his prosecution of Cohen and dropped it. Judd’s office does that to most private prosecutions, usually – as is the case here – because it reckons there’s no hope of conviction and the matter is not in the public interest.
The plaintiff also wants a stay on the $15,000 costs order imposed on him by poetically named magistrate Brett Sonnet last month as Sonnet approved the discontinuation of the prosecution.
The beef between Mohammad and Cohen relates to a lease of space in the landmark arcade which Mohammad alleges was unfit for occupation because of water damage and mould, with the jewellery designer claiming resulting losses of $4 million.
The damages claim is the subject of a separate VCAT matter, while Mohammad sought the criminal prosecution of Cohen over what the former tenant alleges was the provision of “false and misleading information”.
In the back and forth over the claimed water damage, Mohammad alleges he was called “a clown” by Cohen, a detail important enough to have made it into the judicial review application, which is due in the Supreme Court for directions next month.
Cohen did not respond to a request for comment, while the Office of Public Prosecutions said it had every intention of fronting court early next month when the fresh application is to be heard. And as for the man himself, he told us he was feeling confidence in his various cases and was looking forward to his next day in court.
BANK ON IT
We reckon Gaven Morris has earned a little bit of the quiet life. In the ex-ABC news boss’s years in the hot seat he regularly came under attack from Liberal and Nationals senators in the Senate estimates combat zone, to say nothing of the constant pot-shots from the US-owned Murdoch media.
Since he stepped down from that job three years ago, Morris has been doing some consulting for Google, a little work with universities and even bobbed up recently conducting a strategic review of Nine’s – that’s our lot – broadcast TV division.
Gaven Morris has a new role.Credit: John Shakespeare
And we hope, but can’t guarantee, that he finds the sailing smoother in his new gig – head of corporate affairs at the Commonwealth Bank, if you please, announced on Thursday.
Now, obviously all the unpleasantness surrounding the dodgy dealings of the bank’s wealth management division – and the dirty tricks campaign waged by CommBank against our former colleague Adele Ferguson over her efforts to expose those shenanigans – is all in the past.
But as frontman for the largest player in Australia’s very significant banking sector, and one of the nation’s most recognisable brands, Morris will have to expect the odd curly one to lob across his desk.
We gave him a shout on Thursday to see how he was feeling about the whole thing. We didn’t hear back.
WRITTEN OFF
And, finally, one half of your CBD team, Noel, comes off the tools for the last time today after a wild couple of years that took us to all sorts of unexpected places we hope you found nearly never dull.
So a huge thank you to everybody out there – and you know who you are – for the tip-offs and the slag-offs, the big-ups and the put-downs, and to all those who tuned in every day for your support, encouragement, your occasional, ahem, constructive criticism, gentle guidance and every so often, how you say, the cracking the shits.
You will be missed.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.