Andrew Bolt, Paul Keating, Southern Cross AGM protests, seek AGM, Goldberg found
July 28, 2008
Here are Stephen Mayne's 6 stories from the Crikey edition on Thursday, 10 November, 2005.
6. Bolt's latest bald distortion - "It isn't about Iraq"
By Stephen Mayne
While the likes of Andrew Bolt fanned prejudicial feelings against Muslims with this inflammatory column yesterday, the PM and Philip Ruddock were busy trying to hose down a community backlash after Tuesday's over-the-top effort from our political and police elite. Bolt's opening paragraph baldly declared the following: "So it wasn't a political stunt. It isn't about Iraq. And the threat of Islamist terror right here is more real than many pretend."
The political stunt line is fair enough and so is the threat of Islamist terror, but how can Bolt declare that none of these potential terrorists were motivated by Iraq? This is the third paragraph from The Guardian's coverage, courtesy of Associated Press, of the terror raids story yesterday:
One of the suspects, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court. Australian Prime Minister John Howard was a strong supporter of the US-led invasion of Iraq and still has hundreds of troops in the country. Opponents of Howard say that has raised the likelihood of terrorists striking Australia.
Isn't that a statement of the bleeding obvious? Yet people like Bolt can somehow declare Iraq has nothing to do with Islamist terror attacks even when police have just plainly told the court that one of the suspects is motivated by Iraq.
There's no suggestion of militant Muslims plotting to bomb and kill innocent New Zealanders. The unpalatable fact remains that the most damaging terrorist attacks have all been in countries which have supported the Iraq invasion with troop commitments, most notably Spain and the UK.
Muslim community anger will only be magnified if the likes of Bolt continue to collectively beat up on Muslims and the mainstream politicians keep talking up the threat and compromising trials. Such actions will just serve to breed more potential terrorists, when our commitment to Iraq is clearly already doing this.
Why did the NSW police run decoys, according to Sky News, when shifting the Sydney suspects to higher security prisons? The implication is that these Muslims have organised and armed guerrilla movements that are poised to swoop and free them.
And why did the NSW police call in that robot to check if the critically wounded Omar Baladjam's backpack had a bomb in it? That's a bit over the top, isn't it?
Similarly, the use of the word "catastrophic" by NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney and NSW Police Minister Carl Scully was clearly reckless. The concise Oxford definition of catastrophic is: "sudden or widespread or noteworthy disaster; event subverting system of things; disastrous end, ruin."
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was clearly catastrophic for those cities. The death of 52 people in the London attacks was not, nor was the 2002 Bali bombing or the Madrid bombing. More than 52 people will die on Australia's roads between now and Christmas. That is not a catastrophe either.
How can people charged with criminal offences get a fair trial with the top cop and police minister both grossly exaggerating the scale of what was being planned? Today The Age and The SMH reported that the Sydney group had stockpiled enough chemicals to build 15 bombs. Serious stuff, but wrong because AFP commissioner Mick Keelty denied it on AM this morning when he called for more responsible media behaviour. Indeed.
Finally, isn't it funny how Bolt can go in so hard attacking people for questioning the PM's claims yesterday, yet only the week before Bolt himself was launching a feisty attack on claims about global warming by Federal Environment Minister, Senator Ian Campbell. Journalistic and political scepticism is a healthy thing and people should not be denounced for simply asking questions and raising debate.
Neil Mitchell was predictably ripping into Bob Brown and Lynn Allison in today's Herald Sun, but there was only a gentle slap for things like the NSW police inviting television crews along for the supposedly top secret raids and no mention of the "catastrophic" exaggeration.
8. Paul Keating sets the record straight on his piggery play
By Stephen Mayne
Paul Keating got on the blower yesterday to set the record straight over his piggery investment in the 1990s. Over 15 entertaining minutes, the former PM was happy to answer any number of questions about the piggery as he rejected this inaccurate line of mine from Tuesday's Crikey edition:
David Murray's own record on corporate governance and disclosure isn't that great. Remember that $7 million bonus for ten years of good performance which wasn't disclosed until the very end. And what about personally doing that debt forgiveness deal with Paul Keating over the piggery when Keating had personally intervened to get him appointed CEO of the Commonwealth Bank ahead of Macquarie Bank's Tony Berg?
There was no famous Keating swearing or abuse, but his two main points were as follows:
- While Keating did reject the board's wish to appoint Tony Berg as CEO, he never spoke to David Murray or any of the Commonwealth Bank directors about his piggery investment. All his dealings were with regular line managers.
- The Commonwealth Bank got all its money back from the piggery company, Brown & Hatton, plus penalty interest.
Crikey then tried to get an answer to this question that went unanswered at the 1999 Commonwealth Bank AGM: "Why did the CBA never seek any security over Keating's personal assets when its exposure to Brown & Hatton peaked at $26 million?"
Keating says that he rejected requests for his personal assets to be offered as security during meetings with CBA line officers when he was on the back bench in 1991. His reasoning was again good because the CBA had lent the original two proprietors of the piggery, who weren't exactly high net worth individuals, $12 million on limited security at a high point in the interest rate cycle.
Keating risked some of his net worth investing in the piggery and wasn't going to volunteer the rest of his assets as security for the folly of bank lending policies well before he arrived on the scene. Again, fair enough. The late Paul Lyneham was the source of that AGM question and Keating also contested his figure, saying that Brown & Hatton's CBA exposure never got above $23 million as the penalty interest mounted up.
Then there's the question of Keating getting more cash out of the sale than his estranged partner, Al Constantinidis. Keating says that Constantinidis had illegally hocked his piggery shares in separate deals with Westpac and NAB, so much of his share of the settlement went to satisfying those debts.
And the 60 Minutes suggestion that Keating heavied the CBA to forgive debts owed by Constantinidis as part of the settlement? Keating says that Big Al's involvement with the CBA was deep and complex. There was an exposure through a business called Taiwan Sugar, which was fully repaid, but the bank did reach a cents-in-the-dollar settlement over a shopping centre development in Maitland, although this had nothing to do with Keating.
Having listened yesterday and now gone back and read Keating's big interview with Michelle Grattan responding to the 60 Minutes attack in 1999, it does seem the former PM's case against the late Paul Lyneham and camp Packer is stronger than ever. How can you produce a massive 50-minute prime time attack and only approach the target on the Wednesday before it goes to air? Keating emphatically denies that he did anything wrong and says his record on ministerial standards is higher than John Howard's when you consider issues like the conflicted post-Ministerial ventures of Peter Reith and Michael Wooldridge.
Finally, Keating said that the CBA did indeed at one point make a $4.7 million bad debt provision against its Brown & Hatton exposure, but the hairy chested lads in the credit department ended up getting all their money back, plus interest, plus penalty interest, even though the original loan was highly risky.
As Keating said yesterday: "I should have been paid a fee as liquidator in possession for getting a full recovery."
Still, after five years of struggle, Keating did walk away with a handy $4 million, although the former PM believes he would have made much more if he'd stuck with it.
12. Big protest at Southern Cross AGM
By Stephen Mayne
He might have built the company into a diverse $1 billion media mini-empire over the past 13 years, but that didn't stop Southern Cross Broadcasting's institutional shareholders from almost voting down two pay resolutions for CEO Tony Bell at the AGM in Melbourne this morning.
A controversial resolution to reprice down last year's 243,000 options from an out-of-the-money strike price of $14.08 to an in-the-money $12.35 was almost defeated despite pages and pages of justification arguing that the board stuffed up and Bell needed to be on the same deal as all the other senior executives. The proxies were 18 million in favour and 14.68 million against.
A seemingly less controversial proposal to issue Bell with another 50,000 performance rights with performance hurdles suffered a similar fate with 18.73 million votes in favour and 13.77 million against.
Chairman John Dahslen was more upbeat about the 90% vote in favour of the remuneration report although we had quite a lively argument about his archaic understanding of director retirement schemes, something which put an extra $190,000 into his pocket last year.
Dahlsen claimed these schemes are like normal superannuation for ordinary workers which is absolute rubbish. No one gets regular superannuation (as directors do) plus a lump sum of five times their annual salary just for hanging around for 15 years as the most lucrative schemes have offered in the past.
Crikey explained that these schemes operate like good behaviour bonds, rewarding directors for hanging around and providing a disincentive to resign and blow the whistle over a matter of principle. Dahlsen angrily denounced this view as "naive."
The rest of the meeting was quite lively. Asked about ethics at Big Brother, Dahslen joked that "there aren't any" and then simply said that Channel Ten is responsible for what goes to air, even though Southern Cross owns 49% of the Southern Star Endermol outfit which produces the program.
He said the company's stable of shock jocks across the country are not stopped from criticising things like Big Brother's soft-p*rn and he'd even heard Neil Mitchell hopping into it.
Asked if 3AW was still the most profitable radio station in the country and whether 2UE is profitable at all, CEO Tony Bell said he didn't know about rival station profits and 2UE was only at break-even.
Dahlsen wasn't worried about Macquarie Media dumping John Laws for Charles Wooley and said they can now distribute Laws through rival stations to Macquarie.
As to speculation about Macquarie Media taking over Southern Cross, Dahlsen said they'd had no discussions and that the valuations they were placing on their stations was very high and suggested Southern Cross's stations were worth "an awful lot of money."
If media ownership laws were deregulated, Dahlsen said lots of media companies would be interested in talking to Southern Cross.
22. How Seven milked the attack on their own cameraman
By Stephen Mayne
Glenn Dyer's television report yesterday included the following:
And Seven winning in Sydney was not the big story – these days that is the "ho-hum" news from the daily Oztam figures. The big story was in Melbourne where viewers are "rusted" on to Nine News, especially when there's a big news story. But not last night, as Seven News in Melbourne toppled Nine, 424,000 viewers to 384,000 on average. It was a comprehensive win and follows wins on three nights last week in Melbourne (something of a rarity).
Did the dramatic beating of cameraman Matt Rose play a big part in that victory? Rose's bashing featured prominently on talk-back radio in the afternoon and the network made him available for media interviews ahead of the news bulletin.
Naturally, Rose didn't speak to Channel Nine so Seven had the better story. You only had to look at the big run Seven gave the story again last night, complete with another interview with their brave employee, who didn't miss a day's work, to know they were onto a ratings winner. However, Nine News in Melbourne resumed its normal ascendancy last night, with an average of 446,000 viewers to 354,000 for Seven.
Meanwhile, I paced out 60 steps between the exit of the Melbourne Magistrate's Court complex and Tuesday's melee on William St yesterday. There is a minor issue about media harassment, although this in no way justifies the brutal thuggery.
Remember all the media outrage, especially from Seven's Today Tonight, about the bouncer who followed David Hookes down the street. Following family or friends of those charged almost 50 metres away from the court is clearly excessive, and whilst some of the pack had dropped off, the vision shows there were still plenty doing the stalking.
As Hugo Kelly pointed out yesterday, the Muslim community desperately needs a decent spin doctor. Whilst overt Muslim community anger with the media subsided slightly in Melbourne yesterday, aggressive attacks on television crews continued in Sydney, where the tipping off of the media about the location of the raids was clearly an inflammatory mistake.
More punched cameramen and reporters
There have been a few new new entries to our attacked cameraman list, which we're expanding to include journalists of all descriptions. One curious is trend is the fast-track that Channel Nine seems to give those who get attacked. Eddie McGuire, Karl Stefanovic and Helen Kapalos are the three examples we cite. Keep the new entries and corrections coming to smayne@crikey.com.au:
Three man SBS crew: reporter Adrian Flood, cameraman Mick O'Brien and sound engineer Andrew Smailes were all brutally ambushed and bashed by about 10 men after interviewing Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Keysar Trad in his office across the road from the Lakemba mosque in August 2002. Trad's staff tried to stop it.
Eddie McGuire: Tony Lockett threw one of his crutches when injured at then Channel Ten reporter Eddie McGuire back in the late 1980s.
Damien Barrett: The Courier Mail's AFL reporter was elbowed in the stomach by Brisbane Lions football director Scott Clayton in the carpark after a tribunal hearing in August 1998.
Karl Stefanovic: The Today show host was a Brisbane-based reporter in December 2001 when he was king hit by the brother of Gary Paul, who was on trial for car stealing, dangerous driving and assaulting police. When Ten reporter Paul Kennedy asked an A Current Affair cameraman why he was being so friendly with someone who had just whacked his own colleague, the ACA cameraman tried to pick a fight with Kennedy, who walked away.
Joe Barbaro: the career criminal and father of kidnapped baby Montana lashed out at a camera crew outside court last year as the Media Watch introduction reminds us every week.
29. Crikey, James Packer and the Seek AGM love-fest
By Stephen Mayne
James Packer was praising everyone in sight at the first Seek AGM in Melbourne yesterday, so much so that he almost expressed appreciation for Crikey's questions.
"Thank you, I think", the Seek chairman said after he, CEO Paul Bassatt and the two other executive directors seeking re-election, Andrew Bassatt and Matthew Rockman, all handled Crikey's questions without any problems.
As with many maiden AGMs, Seek would have been a boring no-questions affair without Crikey's presence, as no other shareholder spoke and the small room at the Stamford Plaza Hotel was full of Seekophiles who loudly applauded the CEO's address and the conclusion of the meeting. The same thing happened in the same room at Austereo this morning. I was 15 minutes late but it was already finished, with no questions for the third year in a row.
The 20 minutes of Seek exchanges panned out as follows – although this is paraphrased as it's hard to take comprehensive notes standing at the microphone:
Crikey: Why did Yahoo dump its Seek stake? Wouldn't they make a great partner?
James Packer: You'll have to ask them. Maybe 6% wasn't meaningful enough. They did very well.
Crikey: Good to see you're getting paid for your efforts, unlike your dad's mean approach at PBL. What's the full year whack for you and the other directors?
James Packer: I'll be getting $80,000, although that goes straight to PBL and the other directors will get $50,000.
Crikey: You're the busiest director in Australia being executive chairman of PBL, chairman of Seek and a director of Qantas and Challenger. Why not give the chair to someone else, such as fellow PBL representative Chris Anderson.
James Packer: I was honoured and flattered when the other directors asked me to be chairman. I'm not sure I am the most appropriate person. Some of our old directors like Bob Watson probably would have done a better job. (And I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think the rest of the team were capable of doing 150% of the work so I didn't have to do anything.)
Crikey: Why didn't Seek make the recent carsales.com.au investment? Isn't there a potential conflict with News Ltd and PBL talking about teaming up to corner the online car classified markets at the same time as Seek is trying to cut News Ltd's lunch in the jobs market.
James Packer: The Seek directors actually introduced PBL to the carsales people to make the investment. So there. ("That's a good answer," came the reply.)
Crikey: That leaked Fairfax document at the time of the float suggested newspaper-online hybrids are the way of the future in the US. What's your response?
Paul Bassatt: Did read the document but US pure play Monster.com remains number one ahead of the second placed Careerbuilder.com which is owned by three newspaper groups. US online market share is at 22% whereas Australia is about 18 months behind at 15%.
Crikey: Co-founder Andrew Bassatt sold $15 million shares into the Seek float. Is he a long term holder of his remaining $35 million worth of shares?
Andrew Bassatt: Will be brief as don't like the sound of my own voice. Escrow restricts selling until next year and have no current intention of selling beyond that period either.
Crikey: Co-founder Matthew Rockman sold $22 million shares into the float and his dad has been selling recently. What's the story with the family's long term commitment?
Matthew Rockman: Irvin can speak for himself but I have no present intention of selling any more shares and think Seek is a good investment.
As he lavished praise on everyone, James Packer said Irvin "is a fantastic guy" and "we should all be very grateful" so "good luck to him" about those profits on selling. The management team has done "an amazing job", it has been "a real delight" to work with new director Colin Carter in recent months and fellow new director Neil Chatfield has been "a terrific asset".
Staying with the love-in spirit Crikey told James not to step down as chairman any time soon because it is "a real thrill to ask you questions".
Even the mother of the Bassatt boys said hello after the meeting and chatted about her high-achieving but very modest sons
James clearly takes a more relaxed approach than his father as he even allowed two newspaper photographers, both from News Ltd, and a crew from the ABC's Inside Business to attend the meeting.
The Age was pathetically missing in action and The AFR wrote their Seek story out of Sydney, based on the speech given by CEO Paul Bassatt. The Herald Sun actually reported some of what happened at the meeting, as you can see here.
35. Goldberg found – now for some answers
By Stephen Mayne
The Bulletin's fabulous effort to catch fugitive Abe Goldberg in Poland raises so many issues in Australia but has also generated some interest around the world.
Rzeczpospolita, Warsaw's quality newspaper, splashed with the story yesterday and also produced this think piece. If anyone can translate it we'd love to know what they've written.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is top of the list of questions. How on earth did his department issue Goldberg with a new Australian passport in 1997? It's a shame AM did not think to ask about this when Downer was discussing removing the citizenship of terrorists this morning? Bankrupts who owe more than $1 billion can get a passport renewed but the same might not apply to some Muslims terrorist suspects.
Another issue worth exploring is the question of the Australian lawyer who advised Abe Goldberg to stay away from Australia? Goldberg claims he went on to be appointed a judge. Any names anyone?
The Bulletin is justifiably proud of its effort and editor Gary Linnell was certainly talking it up, as you can see from this piece sent out through Interfax, a prominent wire service in Eastern Europe.
Eric Ellis used to do this sort of investigative work for John Fairfax, until Michael Gill punted him from The AFR in the late 1990s. Ellis has his detractors and certainly cost Fairfax plenty with some of his expensive projects, but you can't doubt his record as the modern day Hercule Poirot of Australian journalism. It was Ellis who found Christopher Skase in Mallorca, Alan Bond in London, Tony Oates in Gdansk and now Abe Goldberg in Warsaw. No-one else gets near such a record.
His main gig is as Fortune's south-east Asia correspondent, but this clearly gives him latitude to go a-wondering on other projects and he's certainly helped land a big one for The Bulletin.
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