McGauran's pokies venue, religion in politics, aged care, HTV card, Slaters EGM, Rich List, staffers, ASIC jail list and much more

I'm a director of the Manningham Centre Association which is a uniquely integrated aged care service provider with 150 low and high care beds plus a range of other services such as rehabilitation, respite, home and community care, home maintenance and planned activity groups. The peak body for our sector is encouraging participants to send a letter to local candidates seeking commitments identifed on the grand plan website which is strongly endorsed by John Safran and Father Bob Maguire. Some of the specifics commitments sought include the following:

· An independent cost of care study to establish pricing and indexation structures that work

· Interim funding to bridge the gap in funding immediately for both residential and community care by providing a 1.75% supplement from 1 July 2010
· Flexible payment options for accommodation which could be at no cost to Government, including refundable accommodation deposits for high care
· Removal of the distinction between high and low care, at no cost to Government; and
· The creation of one community care program to provide a range of flexible funding levels to meet individual and changing client needs.

The sector is after continued long-term reform of the industry and the current Productivity Commission Inquiry into aged care is clear recognition that reform is essential and must now lead to action and a plan for renewal.

It is also very encouraging that both Julia Gillard and her mother used to work in an aged care facility in Adelaide. They would know that residential care providers often rely on migrant labour and the proposed cuts in immigration will make staffing challenges even more difficult for the sector.

Slater & Gordon EGM and the "Julia Gillard meeting room"

This slightly dormant shareholder took time out from the Senate campaign yesterday to attend a special shareholders meeting called by Julia Gillard's alma mater, Slater & Gordon.

And what a buzz it was to get chair Anna Booth snap a photo of your truly sitting in the "Julia Gillard meeting room":

Just to prove it's for real, here's the photo I took seconds earlier of the Slaters chair outside the same room which was "vacant" at the time:

The Julia Gillard room was pretty unimpressive and right next door to a rather extravagant board room on level 12 of 485 Latrobe St Melbourne which is about 5 times as big. Given the PM's strong performance on Q&A last night, if she wins the election perhaps they'll consider naming the board room in her honour.

I was the only shareholder who spoke on the three resolutions up for discussion which approved the issue of $43.7 million worth of stock at $1.40 to finance the $57 million acquisition of Brisbane-based personal injury law firm Trilby Misso.

Managing director Andrew Grech batted away my complaint that this $57 million deal was the world's most expensive legal purchase, citing the fact that most law firms aren't listed and claiming it only represented 5 times earnings.

Indeed, after the Trilby Misso acquisition Slaters will only have about 20% of Australia's personal injury market with annual revenues of about
$150 million. Maurice Blackburn is number two with revenue of about $60 million.

However, these personal injury law firms are tiddlers compared to the big end of town of the $12 billion annual legal market where revenues exceeding $400 million a year are not uncommon for the likes of Mallesons.

That said, Grech maintains Slater & Gordon is indeed the world's largest listed law firm with a market capitalisation of $180 million. If Julia Gillard hadn't departed in 1995 after an eight year stretch, including 5 years as a partner, she most probably would today be a multi-millionaire given the piles of $10m plus that have been accumulated by the likes of Grech and other key partners.

The world's next biggest listed law firm is Perth-based Integrated Legal Holdings with a market capitalisation of just $8 million and a chairman in former Federal Treasurer John Dawkins who was at the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday supporting Wayne Swan in his debate with Joe Hockey.

There were several other questions posed to Anna Booth yesterday, including about regulatory risks if a future LNP Government in
Queensland clamped down on plaintiff lawyers given the enormous value scooped up by the three major shareholders in Trilby Misso: Nigel Munt, William Andrews and Hilton Misso.

All three have left the business and shared in almost $40 million of cash from Slaters, something I suggested might irk the current six
senior managers of Trilby Misso who are taking 95% of their consideration in Slaters shares.

Gender diversity on boards: an AICD perspective

Steve Burrell, a former AFR economics correspondent turned chief spinner for the Australian Institute of Company Directors, sent through the following missive after hearing this discussion about David Jones and women on boards with 702 ABC Sydney's Deborah Cameron last week:

Stephen, I listened with interest to your comments on ABC radio this morning on the DJs sexual harassment case issue, and your linking back from this to the issue of the number of women on corporate boards in Australia.

Your mentioned a figure of 9 per cent for the proportion of women on ( I think) ASX 200 boards. As you may be aware, AICD has been tracking these figures for the ASX 200 on a daily basis, based on real time ASX data. Our current figures are:

· 9.7% of directors on ASX200 boards are women (compared to 8.3 % on 1 January)

· 29 women directors have been appointed to ASX200 boards so far in 2010 (in contrast to 10 in the whole of 2009)

· Women currently comprise 25% of all director appointments in 2010 (compared to 5% in 2009, and 8% in 2008 and 2007)

While the recent improvement is encouraging, of course this is still way too low and more needs to be done.

As you'd also be aware, we have been pushing gender diversity on boards as in issue for the director community and have a been pursuing a range of practical initiatives to try to do something about the problem.

I've attached a couple of media releases on some recent initiatives in this area (our ASX200 Chairmen's Mentoring Program and a new scholarship program on which we are working on with the Federal Government's Office for Women), as well as the broader policy announcement we made last November.

Good luck in the Senate tilt.

Regards,
Steve Burrell
General Manager, Communications & Public Affairs
Australian Institute of Company Directors

These figures do indeed represent progress but there will need to be a lot more female appointments and male retirements before we get up into the teens, which would only then start to be defendable. It was good to engage with a female chair at Slaters yesterday and also heartening that she wasn't the only female director.

Our July 22 edition first mentioned Hilton Misso from Trilby Misso joining out 1400-strong Mayne Report Rich list tracking Australians worth more than $10 million. Today we add the two other key shareholders who no longer work in the business but share in almost $40 million of cash being shelled out by Slaters. Step forward:

William Andrews: one of the three major shareholders who profited from the $57 million purchase of Brisbane-based plaintiff law firm Trilby Misso by Slater & Gordon for an eye-popping $57 million in 2010. He stopped working for the firm several years earlier.

Nigel Munt: one of the three major shareholders who profited from the $57 million purchase of Brisbane-based plaintiff law firm Trilby Misso by Slater & Gordon for an eye-popping $57 million in 2010. He first became a partner in 1995 and retired several years before the sale.

Getting the McGauran pokies situation onto 3AW

After a big round trip on Friday which included filming at Bruce Mathieson's controversial Richmond pub the Royal Oak, Julian McGauran's The Miller's Inn and Victoria's most lucrative venue, the Werribee Plaza Tavern in Julia Gillard's seat of Lalor, I was listening to Derryn Hinch on 3AW Drive when he asked for callers who would sledge Tony Abbott given that Julia Gillard had been copping a shellacking in the previous few minutes.

The traffic was bad so I pulled over and called and made it to air as "Steve", the final of four callers shortly before the 5pm news.

We haven't got a copy of the audio yet but the one minute exchange started by complaining that Tony Abbott was a religious man who was soft on gambling. Hinch then interrupted pointing to the various State Labor Governments, so I came back saying that the Coalition was putting up a pokies operator in Senator Julian McGauran and any conservative voter concerned about the pokies should support Family First's Steve Fielding ahead of the pokies operator Julian McGauran.

Hinch was most unimpressed declaring Fielding had "conned" his way into office and he'd be happy to see the back of him next June.

Other anti-pokies candidates - DLP and two Queensland independents

The DLP are also very strong against the pokies as demonstrated by this package of parliamentary contributions by Peter Kavanagh, the party's only Australian MP who represents Western Victoria in the state upper house. We particularly liked this opening contribution to the pokies auction debate in the Legislative Council on May 26 this year:

In terms of this motion, I believe we should not be having an auction system for pokie licences because we should not even have pokie licences. As I have argued several times before, I believe pokies are a scourge on Victoria and indeed right throughout Australia.

There are almost twice as many machines per person in New South Wales as there are in Victoria. Having said that, most of the other states have fewer machines per person than Victoria does.

Pokies do a lot of harm to our society. They contribute to family breakdowns, bankruptcies and crime. I understand that when the temporary casino was built in Southbank the crime rate jumped enormously because people who went into the temporary casino and lost all their money would then come out and mug somebody for the cab fare to go home. Tragically it also leads to suicide. I have discussed this before, and I think there could not be a stronger condemnation of any activity than that it actually leads to people killing themselves.

Go Peter Kavanagh and the DLP!

Meanwhile, we received an email from Queensland independent John Pyke and liked his anti-pokies pitch. Check out his flyer no 1 plus this press release slamming Tabcorp for its latest pitch to expand the Gold Coast and Brisbane casinos if they are given licences for another 1000 pokies.

Mark Smith is another anti-pokies candidate in Queensland and his website is available at marksmithforsenator.com.

Other community opposition to the pokies: step forward Mansfield and Hoppers Crossing

It has also been good to hear from several community groups who are galvanising around proposed pokies expansions in Victoria.

For instance, the Mansfield Anti Pokies Alliance (MAPA) attracted 180 people to hear Tim Costello speak last Friday night. They have gathered 2300 signatures from people concerned about a proposed pokies venue in the main street of a town with 8000 residents.

The local council commissioned a survey which showed over 80% of people were opposed. This will be an issue which runs right through until the state election on November 27.

We've also heard from a group in Julia Gillard's electorate of Lalor who wrote as follows:

Dear Stephen,

We are writing to you to offer our property as a site for a campaign poster supporting your stand as a Senate candidate in the upcoming election.

We have always been strongly opposed to poker machines on the basis that they are an insidious device to collect scarce funds from the poorer members of our society and redistribute them to wealthy individuals and companies, and also to government coffers. It is scandalous that the Labor Party presents itself as the champion of the working classes and yet supports this harmful and inefficient means of additional taxation.

There is an application presently before the Victorian Commission for Gaming Regulation seeking approval for 65 electronic gaming machines at a new venue to be constructed immediately opposite our home in Hoppers Crossing. We are, not surprisingly, against the establishment of such a venue and along with many other local residents have made representations to the Wyndham Council expressing our concern over this matter. It is therefore timely and appropriate that we, and our neighbours, support your candidacy in a public manner.

Good luck with your campaign; your certainly have the support of our family.

Best wishes, Liz and Maurie

Cornwall on where to dump 100,000 pokies



A few more packages and links on the pokies

Nick Xenophon speech to the pokies moguls - if only Gillard and Abbott could speak like this

Any Labor Party person with a social conscience only has to watch the video of the speech given by veteran problem gambling counsellor Bernie Durkin at a conference held at Manningham's council offices on May 6, 2010 to gauge the true sickness of this government-sponsored problem.

Check out this package of our past pokies coverage and this playlist of pokies related videos, including the time we "kidnapped" Nick Xenophon during the 2007 federal election campaign.

Also, check out the latest from Paul Bendat's Pokieact website, and this 30 second anti-pokies ad made by Paul Bendat last year featuring our daughter Alice, who was 6 at the time:




Cornwall having fun with Abbott and Gillard

Cartoonist Mark Cornwall is having a fabulous time drawing our two federal political leaders. Check out this collection of his best Gillard and Abbott efforts which include these latest offerings:









An avalanche of surveys and questionaires

Candidates in most political elections receive questionnaires from interest groups seeking to gauge positions because giving voting advice. There have certainly been plenty hit my in-box and we're packaging them up on one web page for analysis. Here's an example of what David Flint and the monarchists are sending through:

Dear Candidate,

Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM) is an unaligned, grassroots association which has a support base of over 20,000 Australians. In the 1999 referendum we played a leading part in the No campaign with over 50,000 of our supporters volunteering to help.

ACM's mission is to preserve, to protect and to defend our heritage: the Australian constitutional system, the role of the Crown in it and the Australian Flag. So that our supporters and the general public may know your views and policies on these matters, we are writing to you to inquire whether you support these important aspects of our heritage, and any plans you may have to change them.

According to some legal opinion, it would be possible for the Commonwealth Parliament, acting at the request or with the concurrence of the Parliaments of all the States to repeal section 8 of the Statute of Westminster, 1931 and then to amend the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900, without the need for a referendum.

Accordingly, we are requesting a pledge from you that you would strongly oppose any bill to circumvent the requirement for the need for a referendum to effect change to the Australian Constitution.

In addition, we request your confirmation that, in the event of proposed changes being referred to a vote by the people, you would support the adequate funding of both the yes and no cases.

As regards the Australian National Flag, are you prepared to promise that any proposed change only be effected following a popular vote in accordance with the provisions of section 3(2) of the Flag Act, 1953, as in force on 2 August 2010?

To help you to provide a response you may complete the form enclosed with this letter. It can be posted back to us, or faxed to us on (02) 9261-5033. Alternatively, you may prefer to write a letter.

An early response would be appreciated.

David Flint
National Convenor




Cornwall on the election trail




The rather thin ASIC jail list

Is ASIC an effective corporate cop? You be the judge as this is the list of 353 people they have sent to jail since it was established in January 1991. There were only 15 incarcerations in 2009, and so far in 2010 we have only already reached 14, one of the lowest figures in years. So much for justice being served swiftly against all those wrong-doers exposed by the global financial crisis. Below is the only new addition since we last reported:

22 July 2010 - Mr Christopher Koch of Point Cook in Victoria, was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court to 13 years and 2 months jail on charges brought by ASIC. Between 1996 and 1999, Mr Koch promoted a fictitious, international, high-yield investment program where investors were told they would receive returns of between 50 and 150 % in periods as short as 90 days. Mr Koch received $1,742,000 from 11 victims and is required to serve a minimum of ten years before release.





The debt issues continue as debate rages

Surging public state and federal debt is a major issue for Governments across the country and it was surprising that neither Wayne Swan or Joe Hockey mentioned the $200 billion of state debt during their debate at the National Press Club in Canberra today.

If anyone needs assistance on the debt questions, this list tracks all bond and treasury note issues by the Rudd-Gillard 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, albeit from a low base, is a worry and here is the detail from Canberra's latest efforts:

Friday, August 6, 2010: $700m tender of 6 year bonds expiring in June 2016 were sold for an average yield of 4.92% and was over-subscribed 2.8 times.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010: $500m tender of 10 year bonds expiring in April 2020 were sold for an average yield of 5.13% and was over-subscribed 4.2 times.

Friday, July 30, 2010: $500m tender of 9 year bonds expiring in March 2019 were sold for an average yield of 5.12% and was over-subscribed 2.7 times.

Tracking former federal government staffers

We're still tracking former political staffers in Canberra since Bob Hawke's election in 1983. Updates rely on emails to Stephen@maynereport.com or use of the anonymous tips box and here's an example of some fresh information:

Brendan Blomeley: he first worked for Eric Abetz in 1998/99 and then worked for Paul Calvert. Following these stints he served the Clarence City Council for seven years as an alderman and also joined The Federal Group as Corporate Affairs Manager in 2000.

There have been a few other updates so check out the three lists below and send through any corrections or feedback:

Tracking the former Hawke Keating staffers

Where Howard staffers finished up

Where Rudd government staffers went





Missing in action at Macquarie Group AGM

It was a real shame to miss the first Macquarie Group AGM since 2004 on July 31 and here is a brief report from another regular attendee:

It was fairly predictable, as you've doubtless heard - although I was pleasantly surprised at Nick Moore's realistic tone - that 2011 looks
like being no better than 2010, with no firm signs of longer-term recovery in sight yet although they are buying various complementary
operations at the bottom of the cycle, to reinforce their ability to benefit from future recovery whenever it comes, especially in USA.

Some blood sport came in the directors' re-election process: Ms Livingston was harried at length at the wider range of non-exec directorships she continues to accumulate - many felt her re-election for MQG was justified, but only if she sheds some of the others. She defended her position, but neither did she set out what would be "too many" such other board positions.

Most savaged of all was a surprised Michael Hawker - his first time around, no doubt expecting a smooth passage. But some people who
obviously were IAG shareholders, past or present, really went to town on his failures and apparent ineptness in that role - and why should MQG take on such a loser ? He was ashen faced as this went on for some time, before the chair-held proxies let him through.

Regards, Geoff

Check out our questions and coverage of past Macquarie Group encounters, and watch this collection of videos about the millionaire's factory.

Cardno keeps scale back formula secret

Engineering services company Cardno has taken the disclosure low road in explaining how the scale back will apply for investors who offered up $18.3 million for the relatively small shortfall of just $3.5 million.

Cardno investors were clearly aware the 1-for-6 entitlement offer at $3.25 was more than 20% in the money so a very impressive $45.5 million of the $49 million maximum was taken up. The "overs" facility was well supported with $18.3 million of applications including $15,000 from yours truly.

However, all we got in the scale back policy was this: "The scale-back of applications for New Shares under the Top Up Facility will be at Cardno's discretion and Cardno's decision on the number of New Shares allocated will be final."

Yes, but what's the formula? Are the board giving all the top up shares to their favourite institution or stockbroking firm? Whenever shares are dished out in a discretionary way that is not pro-rata, the disclosure needs to be strong.

Press Room

Crikey

Pokies billionaire shafts Gillard's Doggies for Blues
Friday, 6 August 2010

Radio

Triple J - talked religion on Sunday Night Safran on Sunday August 8 2010.

774 ABC Melbourne - conference call discussing the role of the media in the election on Sunday August 8 2010.

RRR The Party Show - phone interview about the election.

ABC Radio National - contributed to story on Fran Kelly's breakfast program about the pokies.

702 ABC Sydney - discussing women on boards.

702 ABC Sydney - discussing the former David Jones CEO Mark McInness.

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With almost 2000 followers on Twitter, we are regularly dropping out observations from the federal election campaign, including preference negotiation meetings, forthcoming media and other developments. Click on the image above to get the latest updates from all our activity and here are some recent examples:

9.29pm August 8: Good chat with James O'Loughlin & Mark Colvin on media bias tonight and pre-recorded session with Safran about religion on JJJ at 10.30pm.

9.27pm August 8: Paul Murray Live on Sky has just plugged this week's program guest highlights as Mark Latham and Chas Licciardello. Says it all about trivia

9.13am August 8: George Mega really stuck his neck out on Insiders spraying Laurie Oakes for being unfair on Gillard coz she's a women. Cheryl K would agree.

10.57pm August 7: About to do The Party Show on RRR where Senators Feeney, McGauran and Richard di Natale are the guests with Hedley until 2am. Will go pokies

5.47pm August 6: Back from filming Sen McGauran's Altona pokies venue for video on Australian Christian Lobby website. Bagged Lib Senator on 3AW peak hour.

11.23am August 6: Interesting Hun yarn 2day on pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson shafting Julia's Doggies and Tigers by shifting pokies to Blues for free.

5.37pm August 4: Listen to interview on 702 ABC Sydney with Richard Glover about ex DJs CEO Mark McInness here http://tiny.cc/263hy

4.39pm August 4: Doing 702 ABC Sydney at 5.10pm with Richard Glover about ex DJs CEO Mark McInness fighting back and returning to OZ to contest KFK's claims.

11.05am August 4: Just sent missive to 10,000 on Gillard's pokies/tobacco donation hypocrisy: http://www.maynereport.com/articles/2010/08/03-1057-2600.html

That's all for now.

Do ya best, Stephen Mayne

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