Gillard, DJs, women, pokies, tracking political staffers, director lists, Northern Metro, Rich List and much more
July 7, 2010
Dear Readers,
Greetings for the first time since our last email edition on June 9 as we get used to Australia's first female prime minister.
Surely, but surely, the Gillard ascension will be the catalyst which breaks down the glass ceiling for women in Australia's board rooms.
We gave the women on boards issue a big burst on 774 ABC Melbourne during this chat with Drive presenter Lindy Burns the day before the Gillard challenge became public.
Female representation on boards is on the rise in 2010 with recent appointments such as a Caroline Hewson to BHP, Carol Schwarz to Stockland, Linda Nicholls to Fairfax and additions to Seek and David Jones referred to in this audio package.
The numbers have lifted from 8.3% to more than 9% so far this year but we need another half a dozen appointments to crack 10% of all ASX200 company directors. It should be done and dusted by the end of the year at the absolute latest and then the challenge moves to hitting 15% within a couple of years.
However, there remains endless obstacles in place, including from some unlikely quarters. It is certainly strange that the two top 20 companies chaired by women - Catherine Livingstone at Telstra and Elizabeth Alexander at CSL - both only have the solitary female director.
Surely these two women who feature prominently in our top 100 female director rankings are not over-compensating against perceptions of feminist bias and actively arguing against the appointment of a second female director.
Margaret Jackson's reputation may have suffered in recent years but she worked hard to promote other female directors when in the chair at places like Qantas and Victoria's Transport Accident Commission.
The other element of our direct action campaign to get female director numbers up is to continue the name and shame approach. The all male public company boards at the moment include the likes of Transurban, Oz Minerals, Leighton, Newcrest, Fortescue Metals, Alumina, JB Hi Fi and AWB.
And those with the solitary or token female include the likes of BHP-Billiton, Telstra, NAB, Crown, Seven, Fairfax, News Corp, Lend Lease, Westfield, Orica, Myer, Harvey Norman, Axa Asia Pacific, Worley Parsons and Wesfarmers. Not good enough, lads.
The best record sits with QBE Insurance which has 3 female directors out of 9 and will have a female chair in Belinda Hutchinson from next month. The only public company with four female directors is Pacific Brands with 4 out of 9 including CEO Sue Morphett.
Just Group used to have four female directors but then Solly Lew ditched the lot of them when Premier Investments took control in 2008 and the only new director added since then has been Dr David Crean, the former Tasmanian Labor Treasurer and brother of Simon Crean. Continuing the theme, it was Simon Crean rather than a female Cabinet member who got the biggest promotion from Julia Gillard yesterday.
We haven't made many recent adjustments to our list ranking the top 100 Australian female directors but have now come up with a top 20 blokes list and will soon get to full rankings of the top 100 blokes as well, so keep the feedback coming to stephen@maynereport.com.
David Jones, sexual harassment, golden parachutes and media tartery
The recent departure of David Jones CEO Mark McInnes has prompted a review of our 'golden handshakes' list. Payouts to executive fat cats are now a hot issue globally, so here is list of 50 excessive CEO payouts over the past 20 years in Australia, and our latest entry:
Mark McInnes: one of Australia's youngest and best performed CEOs, he resigned in 2010 from retailer David Jones amid sexual harassment claims. He collected an agreed $1.5 million termination payment and statutory pay of $450,000.
The McInnes departure on June 18 is a major moment in gender relations which should cause substantial cultural change. Well done to chairman Bob Savage and the rest of the directors for standing up for the 25 year old female staffer.
The event also caused the biggest media day I've had since the 2006 Glenn Milne assault at the Walkleys. It unfolded as follows:
7am: speech to Scotch College breakfast on "Power in Australia".
8.58am: David Jones announces McInnes axed.
9.15am: interviewed by Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne on the mobile whilst driving home from Scotch.
12.15pm: Today Tonight crew visit home and get a huge run that night.
1pm: drive to Channel Nine in Richmond for grabs used on A Current Affair that night.
2pm: pre-record interview with Martin King for Drive program on 1377 Melbourne Talk Radio.
3.05pm: live interview with Richard Glover on 702 ABC Sydney.
4.45pm: live interview on ABC News Radio.
5.30pm: live interview on 666 ABC Canberra.
5.40pm: live interview on 891 ABC Adelaide.
6.30pm: managed rare feat for a media tart in simultaneously appearing on Today Tonight and A Current Affair's lead stories.
Six radio spots and appearances on both prime time tabloid TV shows made for a rather full day and with some council commitments in the mix, I had to knock back requests to write stories for both Crikey and the ABC's commentary site, The Drum, which is now run by former Crikey editor Jonathan Green.
Still, it was a shocking example of media promiscuity, not unlike the day last March when former Billabong CEO Matthew Perrin went bankrupt, prompting this video from a self-confessed media tart.
New media and the history of Crikey
It was a sad day for independent publishing last Friday when New Matilda folded. They ran an interesting series from commentators about independent media in the lead up to their death, so check out this story I wrote explaining how Crikey survived and then thrived over the past 10 years.
Also, check out the farewell piece from New Matilda editor Marni Cordell who is still working on plans to revive the site at some point.
Gillard and the pokies
Check out this story in Crikey on Friday which attempted to apply some immediate pressure on Julia Gillard to reverse the government's pathetic response to the Productivity Commission's recommendations on gambling. It included the following lines:
Whilst the anti-pokies movement is no longer focused on defeating Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, running candidates to help deliver his seat of Melbourne and the sixth Victorian senate to the Greens, the only party with a decent anti-pokies policy, is now being actively considered.
However, it remains unclear whether Gillard will stiffen up the policy response and implement the all-important $1 pokies bet limit as recommended by the Productivity Commission. Pokies are arguably the greatest social scourge in Gillard's working class seat of Lalor, but it is not known if she cares. At least Rudd declared he “hates” the pokies before failing to do anything meaningful.
Lalor takes in the local council areas of Wyndham and Melton where working class people, many of them vulnerable females, lost $79 million and $42 million respectively on the pokies in 2008-09. Australians are the world's biggest gamblers in per capita terms and Victoria has the most lethal pokies in Australia.
Indeed, Gillard's Werribee electorate office is just down the road from The Werribee Plaza Tavern which is notorious for being Victoria's highest gambling losses venue with $10 million dropped by largely struggling Labor voters in the six months to December 2009.
This venue is run by the other Mathieson in Julia's life, pokies billionaire Bruce on behalf of Woolies, and is where a WWII veteran left and was held up just prior to ANZAC Day this year. Its creation offends every law of good planning and Woolies wants to make it bigger.
Meanwhile, check out the full Productivity Commission report into gambling, which is particularly damning when it comes to Clubs NSW. We're not confident Gillard will take any meaningful action as her photo appears at functions held in various NSW Clubs over the years.
Finally, watch this video of Rudd squirming at the Melbourne Press Club back in May when we asked if the government would act on the recommendations of the PC report. We're looking forward to asking Gillard a similar question at the first opportunity.
Victorian gaming minister copping full page ad
After the recent Victorian pokies auction fiasco, the issue is once again going to be a major topic in the coming state election.
Below is a full page ad to appear in The Whitehorse Leader, targeting gaming minister Tony Robinson who holds the marginal seat of Mitcham by less than 2% and is a serious candidate for defeat.
Finally, check out the latest from Paul Bendat's Pokieact website and this package of our past pokies coverage.
Underbelly damages reputation of police and judges: Morgan survey
This fascinating press release was distributed by pollster Gary Morgan yesterday afternoon:
In the annual Roy Morgan Image of Professions survey 89% (unchanged in a year) of Australians aged 14 and over rate Nurses as the most ethical and honest profession — the 16th year in a row since Nurses were first included on the survey in 1994.
Pharmacists (85%, up 1%), Doctors (79%, down 3%) and School teachers (73%, down 3%) have been consistently ranked near the top while Engineers (69%, unchanged); Dentists (68%, down 1%) also regularly rate highly.
Comparing 2010 results to the 2009 results show that the image of less than half the professions declined between 2009 and 2010. Of 30 professions surveyed in both years, 12 saw declines in 2010, seven professions were unchanged over the year and 11 professions rose over the year.
The biggest decliners over the year were led by State Supreme Court Judges (64%, down 4%) and High Court Judges (63%, down 4%). Other big decliners included Police (62%, down 3%); Federal MPs (16%, down 3%) and State MPs (16%, down 2%); Stockbrokers (12%, down 3%); Doctors (79%, down 3%) and School teachers (73%, down 3%).
Analysis by State of how Australians feel about Police reveals that Victoria (60%, down 8%), Queensland (54%, down 7%) and Western Australia (66%, down 7%) are most responsible for the overall fall, despite a surprising rise in New South Wales (63%, up 3%).
Many professions also rose strongly over the year with the strongest rise shown by Public opinion pollsters (27%, up 4%) and Talk-back radio announcers (19%, up 4%). Other professions to rise included Insurance brokers (14%, up 3%); Lawyers (32%, up 2%); Directors of Public Companies (19%, up 2%); TV Reporters (16%, up 2%) and Newspaper Journalists (11%, up 2%).
Although both professions achieved their first rises of more than 1% since 2003, Advertising people (8%, up 2%) and Car Salesman (5%, up 2%) still remained as the two professions the least number of Australian regard as the most ethical and honest.
Gary Morgan says: “Roy Morgan's annual Image of Professions survey for 2010 shows significant falls for some of Australia's most respected professions over the past 30 years. State Supreme Court Judges (64%, down 4%), High Court Judges (63%, down 4%) and Police (62%, down 3%) have all fallen strongly this year. It is likely that at least part of the fall in respect for these professions is due to the success of the TV series ‘Underbelly' and its dire portrayal of corruption throughout Australia's judicial and policing system. It is no surprise to see the medical professions of Nurses (89%, unchanged), Pharmacists (85%, up 1%) and Doctors (79%, down 3%) considered as the most ethical and honest professions. Of concern to religions in Australia however will be the continued slide in respect for Ministers of Religion (44%, down 1% and down 9% since 2004) — now at a record low since first being measured in 1996 and falling for a record equalling fifth survey in a row.”
CALPERS puts together trouble shooting directors' list - we should follow
I've been telling any Australian institution that will listen in recent times that they should put together a list of potential directors they can call in to help clean up tricky governance sitations inside Australian public companies.
Lo and behold, that is precisely what the giant Californian state pension fund CALPERS is doing if you can believe this recent story in The Wall Street Journal.
We're ready, willing and able to assist on this project when institutional Australia gets its act together.
A win for accountability at Wallace
Back in May we wrote about the lamentable situation at the Wallace Absolute Return fund where the share price had plunged from more than $1 to about 4c.
One of the major shareholders called an EGM to appoint two new directors, but the board rebuffed this tactic and then launched a dilutionary renounceable rights issue.
The major shareholder took this to the Takeovers Panel and the issue was recently settled with the rights issue canned and a takeover bid at 5.9c launched by the aggrieved major shareholder who will get a board seat once their stake tops 20%. Seems like a good outcome.
Have a listen to the audio from the May 17 EGM.
Tracking former federal government staffers
One of my favourite lists projects on Crikey over the years tracked what happened to former political staffers in Canberra since Bob Hawke's election in 1983. Nothing has happened to these lists for the last six years so we've spent many hours updating them and have also created a new list tracking where departed Rudd Government staffers finished up. The three lists are available here:
Tracking the former Hawke Keating staffers
Where Howard staffers finished up
Where Rudd government staffers went
Some of those who have already jumped from the Rudd Government include the following:
Simon Banks: served as Chief of Staff or Deputy Chief of Staff to three Federal Labor leaders, including Kevin Rudd, and has been Federal Labor's Director of Policy and a senior policy and media adviser, but moved on to become a director of lobbyist Hawker Britton.
Alex Cramb: former Chief of Staff to Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Communication Director for the ALP's 2007 Federal election campaign and as Media Adviser to then Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd. Since moved to be a director of lobbyist Government Relations Australia.
Simon Dowding: from press secretary to Immigration minister Chris Evans to government affairs at Worley Parsons.
Kate Cornick: former chief broadband adviser to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy who is now executive director at the Melbourne-based Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society, a $50 million centre opened in 2009 by her former boss.
David Epstein: from Kevin Rudd's senior adviser to head of government relations at Qantas.
Mia Handshin: a former ministerial adviser to Kate Ellis who is not an associate director of Government Relations Australia.
Peter Khalil: worked for Kevin Rudd as his Foreign Policy/National Security adviser and as Senior International Adviser to the Minister for Defence, then joined Hawker Britton.
Tim Watts: spent three years advising Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, including a period in opposition, before joining Telstra.
George Wright: from one of Kevin Rudd's press secretaries to senior media and government role at NAB.
We are looking to expand these lists so if you think you know of someone not on our lists, send through your tips to Stephen@maynereport.com or send your tips anonymously by clicking below:
Rupert's BSkyB mop-up bid
Below is some commentary around Rupert Murdoch's bid for BSkyB which will make for lively discussion if we can raise the funds to get to New York for the News Corp AGM in October.
Check out this package of all our battles with Rupert since 1999, and for some entertainment, have a look at our collection of videos of battles with Rupert - including the 2007 New York AGM:
Eight News Corp AGM battles
News Corporation makes $13bn pay-TV bid for BSkyB
James Chessell in The Australian
Rupert Murdoch reaches for the Sky with bid for full control of £12bn BSKyB empire
David Teather in The Guardian
Rupert's sure bet
Mark Day in The Australian
The Cornwall collection
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing to The Mayne Report since March 2009. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now also some amusing animations.
Firing up our Youtube channel again
When The Mayne Report first launched in 2007 we were posting daily videos on Youtube. Alas, the cost and time of in-house video production, plus the lack of any revenue, made this model unviable. Besides, daily videos wasn't necessarily the best way to campaign for better corporate governance through shareholder activism.
In the end, it made more sense to channel our efforts into appearing on other people's videos, such as these two recent appearance on Ten's The 7pm Project, rather than trying to build an audience from scratch.
However, when you look back at all the video we've got spanning our own productions, one-off interviews, profiles or lenthy interviews such as Nine's Sunday program or ABC TV's Talking Heads, the monthly spot on Sky's Business View and webcasts of AGMs, it turns out we've got a rather large library of material.
Cross-posting has become much easier now, so we have relaunched our youtube channel and hope you enjoy our many playlists of material. If you have the right app, you can view the videos on the go using any mobile device - free and easy, so subscribe today!
Victorian ALP, governance and Northern Metro
It was good to see DLP Victorian upper house member Peter Kavanagh getting stuck into the Brumby Government's dreadful government record when it comes to allowing political staffers to appear before political committees. Check out the video of the Stateline discussion below:
As was discussed in the last edition, we're having a close look at contesting the November state election in the upper house region of Northern Metropolitan.
Two Labor, one Liberal and one Green are foregone conclusions in Northern Metro but the fifth spot is clearly up for grabs. Labor's Nathan Murphy, the son of the plumbers' union boss, has the benefit of incumbency after replacing Theo Theophanous but he's still quite vulnerable given he is third on the Labor ticket.
Nathan is one of those hard lefties who recently told Parliament that the only illegal boats that came to Australia were to Botany Bay in 1788. You wouldn't hear something like that from fellow Victorian lefty Julia Gillard.
Meanwhile, in local Northern Metropolitan news, corporate governance kingmaker Dean Paatsch has had a win of sorts against SP Ausnet, with Moreland City Councillors rejecting the advice of their planning department and voting down the Singapore Government's request to put giant pilons in a suburban street over a junior soccer club.
SP Ausnet is now off to VCAT and may ask the Planning minister to invoke the essential services act.
Cornwall on the BP spill disaster
Donate to help keep us going
The Mayne Report costs almost $100,000 a year to run and we moved to a free model in June last year after struggling along seeking subscriptions for the first 21 months racking up almost $200,000 in losses.
It has been nice to receive more than $7000 worth of donations over the past year and if you fancy giving us a hand to help fund our activism and keep us going on the political and AGM circuit, just click on the image below:
The Mayne Report Rich List
BRW magazine does a great job with its various Australian Rich Lists but we've broadened their efforts to track any Australian who has ever been worth more than $10 million. We've got more than 1400 names with those who've fallen back below $10 million now italicised. Below are our latest new or updated entries:
Kim Cannon: founded one of Australia's leading alternative lenders of home mortgages to traditional financial institutions, FirstMac, as a Mortgage Manager. For over 30 years the business has grown substantially which pushes his wealth well above $20 million.
Brett McKeon: founding director of Australian Financial Group is reportedly worth more than $20 million.
Is ASIC heading for its best annual jail record since 2004?
We're the only media outlet in Australia which tracks ASIC's complete jail record since its formation in 1991 and you've got to say that Federal Labor doesn't seem to have changed anything much when you look at these annual figures:
2000: 31
2001: 18
2002: 22
2003: 15
2004: 28
2005: 17
2006: 19
2007: 14
2008: 19
2009: 15
2010: 12
However, after failing to trouble the scorers in May, June has actually been a better month than usual with four people locked up by ASIC as follows:
4 June 2010 - Kevin Pollock , of Perth, WA, was sentenced to five years, four months jail, with a non-parole period of three years four months. The former director of Perth-based property developers, the Pollock Group, was convicted on nine charges in relation to fraud involving over $3 million
8 June 2010 - Joseph Kieng Ho Wong, a Malaysian citizen and Australian permanent resident, was to sentenced to five years imprisonment, to be suspended after 18 months, for misappropriating $330,000 from Austpac Projects.
11 June 2010 - Rocco Mark Calabrese of Richmond, Victoria, has been jailed after pleading guilty to charges brought by ASIC for managing a corporation while disqualified. He was convicted and sentenced to a total of 8 months imprisonment to be released after serving 4 months on the basis that he give security of $1000 and be of good behaviour for period of 12 months.
15 June 2010 - Keith Smith of Officer, Victoria, was convicted and sentenced to four months imprisonment which he will serve by way of intensive correction in the community. He was charged with managing a corporation while disqualified under the Corporations Act.
If the plod can manage to put away another 8 people in the second half of the year, that'll make 20 for 2010 which would be the best effort since 28 were locked up in 2004. All we need now is some bigger fish to get porridge time, rather than the proverbial dodgy financial planner from Tookarook.
Tracking Federal Labor's debt binge
Surging public state and federal debt is a major issue for Labor Governments across the country and something Julia Gillard will have to confront regularly during the forthcoming election campaign.
I've still not ever heard Julia Gillard questioned in depth on issues of economic management. Jon Faine, the leading ABC radio presenter in Australia, was asking her all about religion and her boyfriend's employer this morning, but what about some basic financial questions.
Does Gillard support the Federal Government borrowing up to $42 billion to build the NBN? Is she worried about the current account deficit and household debt topping $1 trillion?
If journalists need any assistance on the debt questions, this list tracks all bond and treasury note issues by the Labor Government since it was elected in November 2007. The latest federal bond issues are as follows and you'll note that interest rates are still north of the 4% assumed in last year's budget papers. Sky-rocketing public debt is a worry and here is the detail from Canberra's latest efforts:
Friday, June 18, 2010: $700m tender of 3 year bonds expiring in December 2013 were sold for an average yield of 4.88% and was over-subscribed 3.8 times.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010: $500m tender of 9 year bonds expiring in March 2019 were sold for an average yield of 5.38% and was over-subscribed 2.1 times.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010: $500m tender of 12 year bonds expiring in July 2022 were sold for an average yield of 5.43% and was over-subscribed 3.3 times.
Cornwall on Polls
A mixed time punting the market
Firstly, check out all the trades so far this year.
We've been lightening our exposure to the stockmarket during the recent tremours and have reduced the margin loans from about $60,000 to $10,000. The total portfolio is now only worth about $40,000 and we've got one outstanding capital raising play on the table through a Gindalbie Metals SPP which should deliver a $2000 gain if the share price holds up for another week. The three other capital raising plays since the last edition have been as follows:
June 8
Mineral Deposits: $1000 into $15,000 SPP at 95c. Exited at 90c to lose $80.
June 10
CSG: $10,000 into SPP at $1.90. Exited at $1.92 to make net profit of $80.
June 24
Bradken: $5,000 into SPP at $7.05 and exited at $7.40 for a gain of $230.
Dyesold joins the SPP shame file
We continue to track companies since the beginning of 2007 which did cosy placements with big institutions but then treated retail shareholders with contempt by failing to follow through with a share purchase plan. Check out the list of offenders here with the latest addition to the list being:
Dyesol: raised $12 million in a placement at $1 in June 2010. Shares were offered at at 8.5% discount but only to domestic and international institutions.
Cornwall on Mining Tax
Congratulations to Peter Johnstone OAM
It is always interesting to follow the gongs and it was nice to see one dished out on the Queen's Birthday to someone who I serve with on the board of the Manningham Centre Association, our local community run residential and aged care service provider.
Peter John Johnstone received an OAM for services to Local Government and to Jesuit Social studies. Peter has worked in senior positions at all levels of government and his last full time gig was as chief executive for our neighboring City of Borondara.
He volunteers his time to the Manningham Centre Association and we're lucky to have him helping build a stronger community.
From the press room
RRR Melbourne - annual spot discussing the end on financial year on June 26.
774 ABC Melbourne - discussing women on boards, Kerry Stokes and China, IMF on June 23.
774 ABC Melbourne - discussing the African mining disaster on June 21.
Friday June 18: complete media tart with 6 radio appearances and two television spots on Today Tonight and A Current Affair discussing the big news of the star CEO from David Jones resigning amid sexual harassment rumours.
Jon Faine on 774
702 ABC Sydney
1377 Melbourne Talk Radio
666 ABC Canberra
891 ABC Adelaide
ABC News Radio
The last time we had such a day we made a video commenting on media tartery with some advice from my son Philip. Check it out below:
Crikey yarns since last edition
Will Gillard's policy stocktake include union power?
Friday, June 25
Four Corners saving the RSPT 1 million viewers at a time
Monday, June 7
The Melbourne Report
First appearance on the Sky News program The Melbourne Report discussing the week's issues ending June 11, 2010
Tales from the talk circuit
The feedback was good after a breakfast talk to some of the senior students from Scotch College on the rather broad topic of "Power in Australia":
Dear Stephen,
Our students felt privileged to hear you speak at Scotch this morning. There has been quite a buzz among the boys as they debate and consider the views you presented. Discussions have already started taking place in the staff room and the library and will no doubt continue in the days ahead.
It is difficult to gauge the impact that exposure to experts such as yourself will have on our boys' futures, but we do know that they embrace such opportunities enthusiastically. It was a pleasure to have you with us as part of our Breakfast Series.
Very best wishes, Rachel
Acting Head of Library
Scotch College
Check out other speeches feedback here.
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With more than 1500 followers on Twitter, we are regularly dropping out the latest developments from AGMs, capital raising plays and even Manningham Council. Sign up below to get the latest updates from all our activity and check out some of the latest tweets since the last email edition:
11.50am June 25: Those Labor hitmen are brutal. Check out this savage Hitler video parody done on Rudd: http://bit.ly/dfCtpT
11.27am June 25: Have submitted a story for Crikey today calling on Gillard to tackle pokies and union gerrymander within ALP. Hope it gets a run.
5.37pm June 24: Wrote this story for NewMatilda.com about how Crikey.com survived and thrived: http://newmatilda.com/2010/06/23/how-crikey-kept-trucking
4.07pm June 24: Value of BHP and Rio Tinto soars $6bn to $362bn in a falling market after Rudd rolled for Gillard and doors opened for negotiations on RSPT.
3.59pm June 24: The Greens will win Melbourne now that Lindsay Tanner has quit Parliament. What a day. Stand by for Adam Bandt to take the seat.
5.01pm June 23: 774 ABC Melbourne discussing the African mining disaster. Plane is missing with 5 mining execs http://tiny.cc/u2iz6
2.25pm June 21: Doing 774 ABC Melbourne on Afican mining disaster at 4.30pm then giving speech to 100 spindoctors on training course in Carlton tonight.
1.19pm June 21: Missed Sigma AGM today due to council stuff and long chat with mayor. Tabloid TV spots on DJs from Friday here: http://www.maynereport.com/
5.47pm June 18: Final DJs radio chat done. See package on 5 spots here: http://www.maynereport.com/ Now for shocking media tartery on both ACA and TT.
5.17pm June 18: Ousted DJs CEO Mark McInnes had been married at least twice and current partner is a Melbourne-based PR and events management operator.
4.03pm June 18: Just done MTR with Martin King on Mark McInnes, next up News Radio, then ABC Canberra, ABC Adelaide and finally, some tabloid TV at 6.30pm.
2.39pm June 18: Being a complete media tart over sacking of DJs CEO. Done two TVs and 2 radios so far with 4 radio chats to come. ABC Sydney next at 3.05pm.
11.37am June 18: Doing Today Tonight later this arvo on David Jones CEO sacking and see here for detail of Jon Faine chat: http://www.maynereport.com/
10.23am June 18: David Jones shares down 3.3% after CEO sacked for inappropriate comments to female staffer. Did 5 minute chat on Jon Faine at 9.15am today.
11.47pm June 17: Back from Canberra gab-fest, straight into council meetings on aquatic/b'ball facilities. Brekky speech to Scotch College year 12s in morn.
1.35pm June 16: ALGA conference in ACT going well. Fun dinner in Great Hall last night, shook Albo's hand and thanked for $5m. Off to hear Bob Brown now.
10.33am June 14: Heading to Canberra this afternoon for three day national conference on local government held at parliament house. Should be interesting.
3.27pm June 11: Battling tonsilitis. Appearing on Sky's Melbourne Report at 2.30pm. Done list of top 20 male directors. See: http://www.maynereport.com/
3.15pm June 10: Just sent out the latest cracking edition of the Mayne Report covering a range of current issues http://tiny.cc/0pry3
11.29am June 10: Lots of engagement with heavyweight directors. Brekky this morn with chair of two top 100 companies and coffee yesterday with top 20 female.
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.
Greetings for the first time since our last email edition on June 9 as we get used to Australia's first female prime minister.
Surely, but surely, the Gillard ascension will be the catalyst which breaks down the glass ceiling for women in Australia's board rooms.
We gave the women on boards issue a big burst on 774 ABC Melbourne during this chat with Drive presenter Lindy Burns the day before the Gillard challenge became public.
Female representation on boards is on the rise in 2010 with recent appointments such as a Caroline Hewson to BHP, Carol Schwarz to Stockland, Linda Nicholls to Fairfax and additions to Seek and David Jones referred to in this audio package.
The numbers have lifted from 8.3% to more than 9% so far this year but we need another half a dozen appointments to crack 10% of all ASX200 company directors. It should be done and dusted by the end of the year at the absolute latest and then the challenge moves to hitting 15% within a couple of years.
However, there remains endless obstacles in place, including from some unlikely quarters. It is certainly strange that the two top 20 companies chaired by women - Catherine Livingstone at Telstra and Elizabeth Alexander at CSL - both only have the solitary female director.
Surely these two women who feature prominently in our top 100 female director rankings are not over-compensating against perceptions of feminist bias and actively arguing against the appointment of a second female director.
Margaret Jackson's reputation may have suffered in recent years but she worked hard to promote other female directors when in the chair at places like Qantas and Victoria's Transport Accident Commission.
The other element of our direct action campaign to get female director numbers up is to continue the name and shame approach. The all male public company boards at the moment include the likes of Transurban, Oz Minerals, Leighton, Newcrest, Fortescue Metals, Alumina, JB Hi Fi and AWB.
And those with the solitary or token female include the likes of BHP-Billiton, Telstra, NAB, Crown, Seven, Fairfax, News Corp, Lend Lease, Westfield, Orica, Myer, Harvey Norman, Axa Asia Pacific, Worley Parsons and Wesfarmers. Not good enough, lads.
The best record sits with QBE Insurance which has 3 female directors out of 9 and will have a female chair in Belinda Hutchinson from next month. The only public company with four female directors is Pacific Brands with 4 out of 9 including CEO Sue Morphett.
Just Group used to have four female directors but then Solly Lew ditched the lot of them when Premier Investments took control in 2008 and the only new director added since then has been Dr David Crean, the former Tasmanian Labor Treasurer and brother of Simon Crean. Continuing the theme, it was Simon Crean rather than a female Cabinet member who got the biggest promotion from Julia Gillard yesterday.
We haven't made many recent adjustments to our list ranking the top 100 Australian female directors but have now come up with a top 20 blokes list and will soon get to full rankings of the top 100 blokes as well, so keep the feedback coming to stephen@maynereport.com.
David Jones, sexual harassment, golden parachutes and media tartery
The recent departure of David Jones CEO Mark McInnes has prompted a review of our 'golden handshakes' list. Payouts to executive fat cats are now a hot issue globally, so here is list of 50 excessive CEO payouts over the past 20 years in Australia, and our latest entry:
Mark McInnes: one of Australia's youngest and best performed CEOs, he resigned in 2010 from retailer David Jones amid sexual harassment claims. He collected an agreed $1.5 million termination payment and statutory pay of $450,000.
The McInnes departure on June 18 is a major moment in gender relations which should cause substantial cultural change. Well done to chairman Bob Savage and the rest of the directors for standing up for the 25 year old female staffer.
The event also caused the biggest media day I've had since the 2006 Glenn Milne assault at the Walkleys. It unfolded as follows:
7am: speech to Scotch College breakfast on "Power in Australia".
8.58am: David Jones announces McInnes axed.
9.15am: interviewed by Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne on the mobile whilst driving home from Scotch.
12.15pm: Today Tonight crew visit home and get a huge run that night.
1pm: drive to Channel Nine in Richmond for grabs used on A Current Affair that night.
2pm: pre-record interview with Martin King for Drive program on 1377 Melbourne Talk Radio.
3.05pm: live interview with Richard Glover on 702 ABC Sydney.
4.45pm: live interview on ABC News Radio.
5.30pm: live interview on 666 ABC Canberra.
5.40pm: live interview on 891 ABC Adelaide.
6.30pm: managed rare feat for a media tart in simultaneously appearing on Today Tonight and A Current Affair's lead stories.
Six radio spots and appearances on both prime time tabloid TV shows made for a rather full day and with some council commitments in the mix, I had to knock back requests to write stories for both Crikey and the ABC's commentary site, The Drum, which is now run by former Crikey editor Jonathan Green.
Still, it was a shocking example of media promiscuity, not unlike the day last March when former Billabong CEO Matthew Perrin went bankrupt, prompting this video from a self-confessed media tart.
New media and the history of Crikey
It was a sad day for independent publishing last Friday when New Matilda folded. They ran an interesting series from commentators about independent media in the lead up to their death, so check out this story I wrote explaining how Crikey survived and then thrived over the past 10 years.
Also, check out the farewell piece from New Matilda editor Marni Cordell who is still working on plans to revive the site at some point.
Gillard and the pokies
Check out this story in Crikey on Friday which attempted to apply some immediate pressure on Julia Gillard to reverse the government's pathetic response to the Productivity Commission's recommendations on gambling. It included the following lines:
Whilst the anti-pokies movement is no longer focused on defeating Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, running candidates to help deliver his seat of Melbourne and the sixth Victorian senate to the Greens, the only party with a decent anti-pokies policy, is now being actively considered.
However, it remains unclear whether Gillard will stiffen up the policy response and implement the all-important $1 pokies bet limit as recommended by the Productivity Commission. Pokies are arguably the greatest social scourge in Gillard's working class seat of Lalor, but it is not known if she cares. At least Rudd declared he “hates” the pokies before failing to do anything meaningful.
Lalor takes in the local council areas of Wyndham and Melton where working class people, many of them vulnerable females, lost $79 million and $42 million respectively on the pokies in 2008-09. Australians are the world's biggest gamblers in per capita terms and Victoria has the most lethal pokies in Australia.
Indeed, Gillard's Werribee electorate office is just down the road from The Werribee Plaza Tavern which is notorious for being Victoria's highest gambling losses venue with $10 million dropped by largely struggling Labor voters in the six months to December 2009.
This venue is run by the other Mathieson in Julia's life, pokies billionaire Bruce on behalf of Woolies, and is where a WWII veteran left and was held up just prior to ANZAC Day this year. Its creation offends every law of good planning and Woolies wants to make it bigger.
Meanwhile, check out the full Productivity Commission report into gambling, which is particularly damning when it comes to Clubs NSW. We're not confident Gillard will take any meaningful action as her photo appears at functions held in various NSW Clubs over the years.
Finally, watch this video of Rudd squirming at the Melbourne Press Club back in May when we asked if the government would act on the recommendations of the PC report. We're looking forward to asking Gillard a similar question at the first opportunity.
Victorian gaming minister copping full page ad
After the recent Victorian pokies auction fiasco, the issue is once again going to be a major topic in the coming state election.
Below is a full page ad to appear in The Whitehorse Leader, targeting gaming minister Tony Robinson who holds the marginal seat of Mitcham by less than 2% and is a serious candidate for defeat.
Finally, check out the latest from Paul Bendat's Pokieact website and this package of our past pokies coverage.
Underbelly damages reputation of police and judges: Morgan survey
This fascinating press release was distributed by pollster Gary Morgan yesterday afternoon:
In the annual Roy Morgan Image of Professions survey 89% (unchanged in a year) of Australians aged 14 and over rate Nurses as the most ethical and honest profession — the 16th year in a row since Nurses were first included on the survey in 1994.
Pharmacists (85%, up 1%), Doctors (79%, down 3%) and School teachers (73%, down 3%) have been consistently ranked near the top while Engineers (69%, unchanged); Dentists (68%, down 1%) also regularly rate highly.
Comparing 2010 results to the 2009 results show that the image of less than half the professions declined between 2009 and 2010. Of 30 professions surveyed in both years, 12 saw declines in 2010, seven professions were unchanged over the year and 11 professions rose over the year.
The biggest decliners over the year were led by State Supreme Court Judges (64%, down 4%) and High Court Judges (63%, down 4%). Other big decliners included Police (62%, down 3%); Federal MPs (16%, down 3%) and State MPs (16%, down 2%); Stockbrokers (12%, down 3%); Doctors (79%, down 3%) and School teachers (73%, down 3%).
Analysis by State of how Australians feel about Police reveals that Victoria (60%, down 8%), Queensland (54%, down 7%) and Western Australia (66%, down 7%) are most responsible for the overall fall, despite a surprising rise in New South Wales (63%, up 3%).
Many professions also rose strongly over the year with the strongest rise shown by Public opinion pollsters (27%, up 4%) and Talk-back radio announcers (19%, up 4%). Other professions to rise included Insurance brokers (14%, up 3%); Lawyers (32%, up 2%); Directors of Public Companies (19%, up 2%); TV Reporters (16%, up 2%) and Newspaper Journalists (11%, up 2%).
Although both professions achieved their first rises of more than 1% since 2003, Advertising people (8%, up 2%) and Car Salesman (5%, up 2%) still remained as the two professions the least number of Australian regard as the most ethical and honest.
Gary Morgan says: “Roy Morgan's annual Image of Professions survey for 2010 shows significant falls for some of Australia's most respected professions over the past 30 years. State Supreme Court Judges (64%, down 4%), High Court Judges (63%, down 4%) and Police (62%, down 3%) have all fallen strongly this year. It is likely that at least part of the fall in respect for these professions is due to the success of the TV series ‘Underbelly' and its dire portrayal of corruption throughout Australia's judicial and policing system. It is no surprise to see the medical professions of Nurses (89%, unchanged), Pharmacists (85%, up 1%) and Doctors (79%, down 3%) considered as the most ethical and honest professions. Of concern to religions in Australia however will be the continued slide in respect for Ministers of Religion (44%, down 1% and down 9% since 2004) — now at a record low since first being measured in 1996 and falling for a record equalling fifth survey in a row.”
CALPERS puts together trouble shooting directors' list - we should follow
I've been telling any Australian institution that will listen in recent times that they should put together a list of potential directors they can call in to help clean up tricky governance sitations inside Australian public companies.
Lo and behold, that is precisely what the giant Californian state pension fund CALPERS is doing if you can believe this recent story in The Wall Street Journal.
We're ready, willing and able to assist on this project when institutional Australia gets its act together.
A win for accountability at Wallace
Back in May we wrote about the lamentable situation at the Wallace Absolute Return fund where the share price had plunged from more than $1 to about 4c.
One of the major shareholders called an EGM to appoint two new directors, but the board rebuffed this tactic and then launched a dilutionary renounceable rights issue.
The major shareholder took this to the Takeovers Panel and the issue was recently settled with the rights issue canned and a takeover bid at 5.9c launched by the aggrieved major shareholder who will get a board seat once their stake tops 20%. Seems like a good outcome.
Have a listen to the audio from the May 17 EGM.
Tracking former federal government staffers
One of my favourite lists projects on Crikey over the years tracked what happened to former political staffers in Canberra since Bob Hawke's election in 1983. Nothing has happened to these lists for the last six years so we've spent many hours updating them and have also created a new list tracking where departed Rudd Government staffers finished up. The three lists are available here:
Tracking the former Hawke Keating staffers
Where Howard staffers finished up
Where Rudd government staffers went
Some of those who have already jumped from the Rudd Government include the following:
Simon Banks: served as Chief of Staff or Deputy Chief of Staff to three Federal Labor leaders, including Kevin Rudd, and has been Federal Labor's Director of Policy and a senior policy and media adviser, but moved on to become a director of lobbyist Hawker Britton.
Alex Cramb: former Chief of Staff to Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Communication Director for the ALP's 2007 Federal election campaign and as Media Adviser to then Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd. Since moved to be a director of lobbyist Government Relations Australia.
Simon Dowding: from press secretary to Immigration minister Chris Evans to government affairs at Worley Parsons.
Kate Cornick: former chief broadband adviser to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy who is now executive director at the Melbourne-based Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society, a $50 million centre opened in 2009 by her former boss.
David Epstein: from Kevin Rudd's senior adviser to head of government relations at Qantas.
Mia Handshin: a former ministerial adviser to Kate Ellis who is not an associate director of Government Relations Australia.
Peter Khalil: worked for Kevin Rudd as his Foreign Policy/National Security adviser and as Senior International Adviser to the Minister for Defence, then joined Hawker Britton.
Tim Watts: spent three years advising Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, including a period in opposition, before joining Telstra.
George Wright: from one of Kevin Rudd's press secretaries to senior media and government role at NAB.
We are looking to expand these lists so if you think you know of someone not on our lists, send through your tips to Stephen@maynereport.com or send your tips anonymously by clicking below:
Rupert's BSkyB mop-up bid
Below is some commentary around Rupert Murdoch's bid for BSkyB which will make for lively discussion if we can raise the funds to get to New York for the News Corp AGM in October.
Check out this package of all our battles with Rupert since 1999, and for some entertainment, have a look at our collection of videos of battles with Rupert - including the 2007 New York AGM:
Eight News Corp AGM battles
News Corporation makes $13bn pay-TV bid for BSkyB
James Chessell in The Australian
Rupert Murdoch reaches for the Sky with bid for full control of £12bn BSKyB empire
David Teather in The Guardian
Rupert's sure bet
Mark Day in The Australian
The Cornwall collection
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing to The Mayne Report since March 2009. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now also some amusing animations.
Firing up our Youtube channel again
When The Mayne Report first launched in 2007 we were posting daily videos on Youtube. Alas, the cost and time of in-house video production, plus the lack of any revenue, made this model unviable. Besides, daily videos wasn't necessarily the best way to campaign for better corporate governance through shareholder activism.
In the end, it made more sense to channel our efforts into appearing on other people's videos, such as these two recent appearance on Ten's The 7pm Project, rather than trying to build an audience from scratch.
However, when you look back at all the video we've got spanning our own productions, one-off interviews, profiles or lenthy interviews such as Nine's Sunday program or ABC TV's Talking Heads, the monthly spot on Sky's Business View and webcasts of AGMs, it turns out we've got a rather large library of material.
Cross-posting has become much easier now, so we have relaunched our youtube channel and hope you enjoy our many playlists of material. If you have the right app, you can view the videos on the go using any mobile device - free and easy, so subscribe today!
Victorian ALP, governance and Northern Metro
It was good to see DLP Victorian upper house member Peter Kavanagh getting stuck into the Brumby Government's dreadful government record when it comes to allowing political staffers to appear before political committees. Check out the video of the Stateline discussion below:
As was discussed in the last edition, we're having a close look at contesting the November state election in the upper house region of Northern Metropolitan.
Two Labor, one Liberal and one Green are foregone conclusions in Northern Metro but the fifth spot is clearly up for grabs. Labor's Nathan Murphy, the son of the plumbers' union boss, has the benefit of incumbency after replacing Theo Theophanous but he's still quite vulnerable given he is third on the Labor ticket.
Nathan is one of those hard lefties who recently told Parliament that the only illegal boats that came to Australia were to Botany Bay in 1788. You wouldn't hear something like that from fellow Victorian lefty Julia Gillard.
Meanwhile, in local Northern Metropolitan news, corporate governance kingmaker Dean Paatsch has had a win of sorts against SP Ausnet, with Moreland City Councillors rejecting the advice of their planning department and voting down the Singapore Government's request to put giant pilons in a suburban street over a junior soccer club.
SP Ausnet is now off to VCAT and may ask the Planning minister to invoke the essential services act.
Cornwall on the BP spill disaster
Donate to help keep us going
The Mayne Report costs almost $100,000 a year to run and we moved to a free model in June last year after struggling along seeking subscriptions for the first 21 months racking up almost $200,000 in losses.
It has been nice to receive more than $7000 worth of donations over the past year and if you fancy giving us a hand to help fund our activism and keep us going on the political and AGM circuit, just click on the image below:
The Mayne Report Rich List
BRW magazine does a great job with its various Australian Rich Lists but we've broadened their efforts to track any Australian who has ever been worth more than $10 million. We've got more than 1400 names with those who've fallen back below $10 million now italicised. Below are our latest new or updated entries:
Kim Cannon: founded one of Australia's leading alternative lenders of home mortgages to traditional financial institutions, FirstMac, as a Mortgage Manager. For over 30 years the business has grown substantially which pushes his wealth well above $20 million.
Brett McKeon: founding director of Australian Financial Group is reportedly worth more than $20 million.
Is ASIC heading for its best annual jail record since 2004?
We're the only media outlet in Australia which tracks ASIC's complete jail record since its formation in 1991 and you've got to say that Federal Labor doesn't seem to have changed anything much when you look at these annual figures:
2000: 31
2001: 18
2002: 22
2003: 15
2004: 28
2005: 17
2006: 19
2007: 14
2008: 19
2009: 15
2010: 12
However, after failing to trouble the scorers in May, June has actually been a better month than usual with four people locked up by ASIC as follows:
4 June 2010 - Kevin Pollock , of Perth, WA, was sentenced to five years, four months jail, with a non-parole period of three years four months. The former director of Perth-based property developers, the Pollock Group, was convicted on nine charges in relation to fraud involving over $3 million
8 June 2010 - Joseph Kieng Ho Wong, a Malaysian citizen and Australian permanent resident, was to sentenced to five years imprisonment, to be suspended after 18 months, for misappropriating $330,000 from Austpac Projects.
11 June 2010 - Rocco Mark Calabrese of Richmond, Victoria, has been jailed after pleading guilty to charges brought by ASIC for managing a corporation while disqualified. He was convicted and sentenced to a total of 8 months imprisonment to be released after serving 4 months on the basis that he give security of $1000 and be of good behaviour for period of 12 months.
15 June 2010 - Keith Smith of Officer, Victoria, was convicted and sentenced to four months imprisonment which he will serve by way of intensive correction in the community. He was charged with managing a corporation while disqualified under the Corporations Act.
If the plod can manage to put away another 8 people in the second half of the year, that'll make 20 for 2010 which would be the best effort since 28 were locked up in 2004. All we need now is some bigger fish to get porridge time, rather than the proverbial dodgy financial planner from Tookarook.
Tracking Federal Labor's debt binge
Surging public state and federal debt is a major issue for Labor Governments across the country and something Julia Gillard will have to confront regularly during the forthcoming election campaign.
I've still not ever heard Julia Gillard questioned in depth on issues of economic management. Jon Faine, the leading ABC radio presenter in Australia, was asking her all about religion and her boyfriend's employer this morning, but what about some basic financial questions.
Does Gillard support the Federal Government borrowing up to $42 billion to build the NBN? Is she worried about the current account deficit and household debt topping $1 trillion?
If journalists need any assistance on the debt questions, this list tracks all bond and treasury note issues by the Labor Government since it was elected in November 2007. The latest federal bond issues are as follows and you'll note that interest rates are still north of the 4% assumed in last year's budget papers. Sky-rocketing public debt is a worry and here is the detail from Canberra's latest efforts:
Friday, June 18, 2010: $700m tender of 3 year bonds expiring in December 2013 were sold for an average yield of 4.88% and was over-subscribed 3.8 times.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010: $500m tender of 9 year bonds expiring in March 2019 were sold for an average yield of 5.38% and was over-subscribed 2.1 times.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010: $500m tender of 12 year bonds expiring in July 2022 were sold for an average yield of 5.43% and was over-subscribed 3.3 times.
Cornwall on Polls
A mixed time punting the market
Firstly, check out all the trades so far this year.
We've been lightening our exposure to the stockmarket during the recent tremours and have reduced the margin loans from about $60,000 to $10,000. The total portfolio is now only worth about $40,000 and we've got one outstanding capital raising play on the table through a Gindalbie Metals SPP which should deliver a $2000 gain if the share price holds up for another week. The three other capital raising plays since the last edition have been as follows:
June 8
Mineral Deposits: $1000 into $15,000 SPP at 95c. Exited at 90c to lose $80.
June 10
CSG: $10,000 into SPP at $1.90. Exited at $1.92 to make net profit of $80.
June 24
Bradken: $5,000 into SPP at $7.05 and exited at $7.40 for a gain of $230.
Dyesold joins the SPP shame file
We continue to track companies since the beginning of 2007 which did cosy placements with big institutions but then treated retail shareholders with contempt by failing to follow through with a share purchase plan. Check out the list of offenders here with the latest addition to the list being:
Dyesol: raised $12 million in a placement at $1 in June 2010. Shares were offered at at 8.5% discount but only to domestic and international institutions.
Cornwall on Mining Tax
Congratulations to Peter Johnstone OAM
It is always interesting to follow the gongs and it was nice to see one dished out on the Queen's Birthday to someone who I serve with on the board of the Manningham Centre Association, our local community run residential and aged care service provider.
Peter John Johnstone received an OAM for services to Local Government and to Jesuit Social studies. Peter has worked in senior positions at all levels of government and his last full time gig was as chief executive for our neighboring City of Borondara.
He volunteers his time to the Manningham Centre Association and we're lucky to have him helping build a stronger community.
From the press room
RRR Melbourne - annual spot discussing the end on financial year on June 26.
774 ABC Melbourne - discussing women on boards, Kerry Stokes and China, IMF on June 23.
774 ABC Melbourne - discussing the African mining disaster on June 21.
Friday June 18: complete media tart with 6 radio appearances and two television spots on Today Tonight and A Current Affair discussing the big news of the star CEO from David Jones resigning amid sexual harassment rumours.
Jon Faine on 774
702 ABC Sydney
1377 Melbourne Talk Radio
666 ABC Canberra
891 ABC Adelaide
ABC News Radio
The last time we had such a day we made a video commenting on media tartery with some advice from my son Philip. Check it out below:
Crikey yarns since last edition
Will Gillard's policy stocktake include union power?
Friday, June 25
Four Corners saving the RSPT 1 million viewers at a time
Monday, June 7
The Melbourne Report
First appearance on the Sky News program The Melbourne Report discussing the week's issues ending June 11, 2010
Tales from the talk circuit
The feedback was good after a breakfast talk to some of the senior students from Scotch College on the rather broad topic of "Power in Australia":
Dear Stephen,
Our students felt privileged to hear you speak at Scotch this morning. There has been quite a buzz among the boys as they debate and consider the views you presented. Discussions have already started taking place in the staff room and the library and will no doubt continue in the days ahead.
It is difficult to gauge the impact that exposure to experts such as yourself will have on our boys' futures, but we do know that they embrace such opportunities enthusiastically. It was a pleasure to have you with us as part of our Breakfast Series.
Very best wishes, Rachel
Acting Head of Library
Scotch College
Check out other speeches feedback here.
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11.50am June 25: Those Labor hitmen are brutal. Check out this savage Hitler video parody done on Rudd: http://bit.ly/dfCtpT
11.27am June 25: Have submitted a story for Crikey today calling on Gillard to tackle pokies and union gerrymander within ALP. Hope it gets a run.
5.37pm June 24: Wrote this story for NewMatilda.com about how Crikey.com survived and thrived: http://newmatilda.com/2010/06/23/how-crikey-kept-trucking
4.07pm June 24: Value of BHP and Rio Tinto soars $6bn to $362bn in a falling market after Rudd rolled for Gillard and doors opened for negotiations on RSPT.
3.59pm June 24: The Greens will win Melbourne now that Lindsay Tanner has quit Parliament. What a day. Stand by for Adam Bandt to take the seat.
5.01pm June 23: 774 ABC Melbourne discussing the African mining disaster. Plane is missing with 5 mining execs http://tiny.cc/u2iz6
2.25pm June 21: Doing 774 ABC Melbourne on Afican mining disaster at 4.30pm then giving speech to 100 spindoctors on training course in Carlton tonight.
1.19pm June 21: Missed Sigma AGM today due to council stuff and long chat with mayor. Tabloid TV spots on DJs from Friday here: http://www.maynereport.com/
5.47pm June 18: Final DJs radio chat done. See package on 5 spots here: http://www.maynereport.com/ Now for shocking media tartery on both ACA and TT.
5.17pm June 18: Ousted DJs CEO Mark McInnes had been married at least twice and current partner is a Melbourne-based PR and events management operator.
4.03pm June 18: Just done MTR with Martin King on Mark McInnes, next up News Radio, then ABC Canberra, ABC Adelaide and finally, some tabloid TV at 6.30pm.
2.39pm June 18: Being a complete media tart over sacking of DJs CEO. Done two TVs and 2 radios so far with 4 radio chats to come. ABC Sydney next at 3.05pm.
11.37am June 18: Doing Today Tonight later this arvo on David Jones CEO sacking and see here for detail of Jon Faine chat: http://www.maynereport.com/
10.23am June 18: David Jones shares down 3.3% after CEO sacked for inappropriate comments to female staffer. Did 5 minute chat on Jon Faine at 9.15am today.
11.47pm June 17: Back from Canberra gab-fest, straight into council meetings on aquatic/b'ball facilities. Brekky speech to Scotch College year 12s in morn.
1.35pm June 16: ALGA conference in ACT going well. Fun dinner in Great Hall last night, shook Albo's hand and thanked for $5m. Off to hear Bob Brown now.
10.33am June 14: Heading to Canberra this afternoon for three day national conference on local government held at parliament house. Should be interesting.
3.27pm June 11: Battling tonsilitis. Appearing on Sky's Melbourne Report at 2.30pm. Done list of top 20 male directors. See: http://www.maynereport.com/
3.15pm June 10: Just sent out the latest cracking edition of the Mayne Report covering a range of current issues http://tiny.cc/0pry3
11.29am June 10: Lots of engagement with heavyweight directors. Brekky this morn with chair of two top 100 companies and coffee yesterday with top 20 female.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.