By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nick Reece, in the midst of an election campaign, has taken to contacting some media outlets with a friendly request: “Please don’t call me Nicholas.” Nick is now the preferred mode of address.
We didn’t get the call ourselves, but given this column is a recent Nicholas offender, we are happy to oblige.
One of the infamous zombie renders of a City of Melbourne park.Credit: Twitter
Are you thinking what we’re thinking, readers? This is sounding a bit Daniel “call me Dan” Andrews. The comparison is unwelcome but unavoidable, given Adam Sims – a former media director to former premier Daniel, sorry Dan, Andrews – is aiding Reece’s lord mayoral campaign as part of FMRS, the newish firm he launched with Andrews’ ex-chief of staff Lissie Ratcliff, her deputy Jessie McCrone and strategy director Ben Foster.
Meanwhile, Reece’s profile couldn’t be higher. His tweet announcing a plan to build 28 city parks if re-elected has gone global, with more than 500,000 views, thanks to the AI renders from Hassell Architects depicting the new green spaces unfortunately populated by zombies, with their limbs merging into other limbs while lying in the middle of one of the mayor’s proposed children’s play areas.
Even The Latin Times, based in New York, has carried the yarn.
“I am trying to see it in a positive light. It is more eyeballs on my positive plan to build 28 more parks across Melbourne if re-elected,” Reece told CBD.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece.Credit: Justin McManus
We felt duty bound to inform him that there was one corner of the internet yet to get the Nick-not-Nicholas memo – the City of Melbourne’s own website. It proudly states: “On 2 July 2024 Nicholas Reece was sworn in as Lord Mayor at a Special meeting of Council.”
And given the city is in caretaker mode until the election, there’s no power on earth that can change it.
WORKERS’ RIGHTS
Since it was founded, Guardian Australia has prided itself on standing up for workers’ rights and highlighting underpayment.
Now there’s a new group of workers crying out for its campaigning journalism: its very own staff.
More than 95 per cent of union members at the digital publisher just voted for protected industrial action – including the option for an indefinite strike, reports the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance.
Local staff of the famously left-wing news organisation headquartered in London are unhappy with an offer of a 4 per cent pay increase in the first year of a deal, followed by 3 per cent rises in the second and third years.
And more than 120 freelancers who work for the website have also pledged to stand with employees during any action, the MEAA said.
We wonder what staff will make of the local organisation’s accounts for the year to March, noting that the total pay for its directors – editor Lenore Taylor; chief financial officer Matt Connor; managing editor Alison Rourke, who arrived in August last year; managing director Rebecca Costello, who was appointed in January; and former managing director Daniel Stinton, who resigned in August last year – lifted to $1.43 million in the year 2024, up from $1.3 million in 2023.
And UK magazine Private Eye reports that Katharine Viner, the publication’s global editor-in-chief and founding editor of Guardian Australia in 2013, now earns an annual salary of £584,000 ($1.14 million).
Her husband, columnist Adrian Chiles, received a 10 per cent pay rise while most UK staff only received 3 per cent. Chiles – once a big TV star who now works on radio – files a slice-of-life column for The Guardian, with recent output including “After decades of trial and error, I think I’ve nailed the perfect handshake” and “Would you row across the Atlantic with someone like me? I certainly wouldn’t”.
We reached out to The Guardian about local negotiations. “Guardian Australia is continuing productive negotiations with our Australian staff,” a spokeswoman said.
The MEAA said it was making progress on negotiations but management had not done enough to address pay, career development and job security concerns.
Local staff had waited a decade for their wages to catch up to the rest of the industry, the acting director of MEAA media, Michelle Rae, said. The union will be hoping management improves its offer.
TALKING HEADS
The grand final is upon us, and for coaches and players who have soared to the heights of victory only to crash to earth the next year and fail to make the finals, it is the best of times and worst of times.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae this week recounted both as the guest speaker at the 30th annual MCG Sporting Sections Lunch in the Members’ Dining Room.
McRae told the audience that his wife went into labour while sitting alongside him during the grand final parade but told no one because she didn’t want to become a distraction.
The baby (Maggie, of course) was born on grand final morning. At the ’G, McRae said, his eight-year-old daughter, Charlie, was asked by captain Darcy Moore to run through the banner.
Rock stars KISS were coming off the ground as the Magpies ran on and, as McRae tells it, the drummer threw away his drumstick. Charlie caught it and ran through the banner clutching it in her hand.
Later, she asked her dad if they could do it all again next year. History will show that alas, the answer came to be no.
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