Developer defamation threat, pokies, Woolies, councillor expenses, Future Fund, AWB and a great offer to campaign volunteers
November 24, 2010
Greetings one and all,
We've got loads of interesting stuff today so click here for the URL if you'd like to send it on. Alternatively, click here to unsubscribe.
First serious defamation threat in many years
Just five minutes after this special edition on the Future Fund's jihad against Telstra was sent out on Friday afternoon, we had our own shock development to deal with when a strongly worded legal threat lobbed from a group proposing a $15 million redevelopment in Manningham. Read on below for more.
Big pokies forum tomorrow
Crikey today ran this story about Woolies, Wilkie, pre-commitment and the pokies behind its paywall.
Woolies and the pokies industry are certainly fighting hard against pre-commitment which was set out by Andrew Wilkie and Prime Minister Gillard in paragraph 7.5 of their agreement.
Contrast that with this line from the Woolies board in the explanatory memorandum to the notice of meeting, which urged shareholders to vote against my nomination for the board at last week's AGM on the following grounds:
All the major parties have speakers and both Gambling Minister Tony Robinson and his shadow Michael O'Brien will be there presenting and taking questions.
The Greens, DLP and Family First will also be speaking along with myself and Lorraine Beyer as the two pokies-focused independents. Check out this press release on the forum for details if you plan to come along.
We got to practice a few lines with Education minister Bronwyn Pike, who before landing a cabinet post was a vociferous campaigner against the pokies, when she appeared on Sunday during Headley Gritter's The Party Show on community radio station RRR.
You don't expect these sorts of exchanges on radio at 1am on a Sunday morning but listen to the audio. The transcript was as follows:
Stephen Mayne: Bronwyn, you used to be such a great campaigner on the pokies until you got into the cabinet there.
Bronwyn Pike: Have you got a bug in the cabinet room do you Stephen? You know what I say?
Stephen Mayne: but you must feel disappointed that you haven't been able to win any of the arguments, and you've got a premier who has no empathy at all for the social disaster of $2.6 billion losses a year on the pokies.
Bronwyn Pike: I'm still very concerned about problem gambling and I've advocated pretty strongly for the kinds of measures we've put in place to provide extra services and support for people, and also to remove ATMs and those sorts of things. There are still further things that need to happen, and I've still got a profound personal concern for the issue. I do speak up and work pretty hard on those kinds of those things. As I said, unless you have a bug in the cabinet room, really it is a bit rough to say that I'm not still out there and active on the issue.
Host Headley Gritter: It's between pokies and alcohol that cause about 90% of the social misery out there isn't it? And the unenforceable ridiculous drug laws, which force people into crime.
Stephen Mayne: The thing that I don't get Headley is that we've got the lowest smoking rate in the world, the safest roads in the world yet we're the world's biggest gamblers, because the government continues to allow this massively dangerous product to suck in gambling addicts all over the state. Bronwyn you may be arguing valiantly, but really? World's biggest gamblers. $2.6 billion lost a year, massive social misery, and you're a part of the government which is doing it.
Bronwyn Pike: We've kept the cap on the number of poker machines. We don't have anywhere near as many as NSW and places like that. It is a legal activity, and I want to do everything I can to continue to stop problem gambling. I mean, I hate it!
Headley Gritter: We all hate it. Stephen's right there are other forms of gambling which are controlled to some extent, but the pokies, people sit there hypnotised and feed the machines until they are broke, and don't have money for the food and all that.
Sprint to the line in winnable Northern Metropolitan tilt
Heavy handed legal threats (see below) aside, we're endeavouring to sprint to the line in our attempt at becoming the first independent member elected to the Victorian upper house next Saturday.
Click on the image below to watch a video which explains the voting system, candidates and policies related to the eminently winnable run in the Northern Metropolitan region:
The biggest challenge will be manning the 180 booths and distributing the 100,000 how-to-vote cards which we picked up earlier today.
An electorate with 400,000 voters literally requires more than 300 volunteers to cover every booth all day.
We've now got commitments from more than 60 volunteers but will need at least 100 if we're to crack the 1.5% primary vote needed to have a serious chance of winning the fifth and final spot.
With fabulous preference flows from the left and right, there will never be another opportunity like this, although you wouldn't know it by following the mainstream media which is giving very little oxygen to small parties or independents with the exception of The Australian S*X Party.
If you fancy giving us a hand on Saturday or at the pre-poll on Thursday and Friday, please email Paula@maynereport.com. Even a two hour stretch any time between 8am and 6pm would be greatly appreciated.
All those who pitch in will get every Mayne Report subscription service for free from now until the end of 2011. If we lose, these will be cranked up next year and if we win, the Mayne Report will scale back. There will be a $100 Myer gift voucher for all volunteers involved in a winning campaign.
Folks, you've got to be in it to win it and Paula is waiting for your emails.
Do you know these 400,000 people?
The other way you can help is to identify voters who live within the 11 lower house seats pictured below that comprise the Northern Metropolitan region. Drop them an email and tell them an independent backed by the likes of Julian Burnside QC and Senator Nick Xenophon is in with a chance off knocking off "faceless man" Nathan Murphy, the little-known number three on the Labor ticket who got the gig partly because his dad is a powerful union boss.
As was explained in this missive to 3000 lawyers, the upper house could do with a lively independent rather than yet another union boss when 80% of ALP Senate positions will be filled by former union officials after June 30 next year.
With a campaign budget limited to about $10,000 we can't afford to write to individual voters, but we need at least 6000 of the 400,000 voters to vote for "Group C" on the big yellow ballot paper. So if you know any email addresses of voters in Northern Metropolitan, drop us a line to Stephen@maynereport.com or send an anonymous email by clicking on the image below:
Holding Northern Metropolitan councils to account
After serving for two years on Manningham Council and spending the last 12 years asking questions at almost 400 public company AGMs, there should be a useful role for an independent upper house MP to help hold the eight Northern Metropolitan councils to account.
However, to all those councillors and officers at Moreland, Hume, Darebin, Banyule, Yarra, Melbourne, Nillumbik and Whittlesea reading these reports, it should be stressed that, if elected, this role would be good for overall accountability and at times would be very positive.
For instance, check out this letter published in last week's edition of The Hume Leader:
Geoff Porter is a Labor mayor who has done well and deserves credit. However, that letter contrasts with this recent article and follow up letter in The Heidelberg Leader tackling Labor's Ivanhoe candidate Anthony Carbines for dishing out ward grants just before taking leave to campaign full time.
Councillor-controlled ward grants are bad governance and both the Auditor-General and Ombudsman have slated them after the Brimbank fiasco. We'll be campaigning hard against any council which persists with ward grants.
Good behaviour, good councils and quality councillors should be publically supported and promoted. Hume has got a great mayor and this should be recognised by giving him a second term.
Whilst Banyule mayor and former Liberal MP Wayne Phillips does a reasonable job, I got up at a recent council meeting and suggested he not run for mayor yet again in 2011. Being mayor for four of the last five years would be too much, especially when talented Banyule councillors like Peter McKenna and Jenny Mulholland are also running.
Shaming councillors into disclosing their expenses
As we pointed out in this video filmed outside the Fitzroy Town Hall, disclosure of councillor expenses is an easy reform that should be embraced by everyone.
During eight visits to Northern Metro council meetings over the past few months, the most resistance we've encountered so far was from veteran Labor Right Darebin councillor Steven Tsitas, whose wife works for local Northcote MP and Labor Party powerbroker Fiona Richardson.
We gave Tsitas a touch up in this Crikey tips section on October 5 for railing against such disclosure and then really put him on the spot at last week's council meeting.
Have a listen to this audio of Cr Tsitas fumbling around with lame excuses. It shouldn't be too long before Darebin follows the Hume or Moreland model of quarterly or annual online disclosures of councillor expense claims.
If there is to be a maiden speech delivered in the upper house, it will name all Victorian councils presently refusing to regularly disclose their individual councillor expense claims. Sadly, that still includes Manningham.
Working constructively with council officers
At my first meeting with Manningham CEO Lydia Wilson in December 2008 after the council elections, she said: "Stephen, there is an enormous amount of fear in the building about you."
This was quite a shock, so over the the past two years I've worked very constructively with officers. Indeed, much of the effort at Manningham has gone into defending council officers from often uncalled for attacks and criticisms by fellow councillors. Manningham is a well run council with a strong management team and all us councillors need to ensure this remains the case.
The Manningham CEO has been quite rightly calling for less public commentary in recent times, but in the context of a state election campaign with three councillors contesting, my view is that free flowing political exchanges are to be expected. It should settle down after polling day, although these shock legal threats (see below) have the potential to cause more explosions.
Wash up from the Future Fund's Telstra AGM dummy spit
The Telstra AGM on Friday was an amazing event and this special edition summed up the major issues surround the Future Fund's protest voting against all resolutions.
In the aftermath we did this interview on ABC News Radio, plus had this discussion with Richard Glover on 702 ABC Sydney. ABC radio's PM program also ran some direct audio from the webcast using the line about Future Fund chairman David Murray needing to "have his head read". That line was even running nationally on the midnight ABC radio news on Friday night.
Whilst we're used to having our AGM contributions written out of mainstream newspaper stories as occurred on Saturday after the Telstra AGM, it is quite surprising that our revelations about the Future Fund continuing to sell shares has not been picked up. The Future Fund's last substantial shareholder statement was on October 26 when it revealed the sale of 150 million shares and a holding of 1.228 billion shares or 9.86%.
But the total directed proxy votes against Nora Scheinkestel on Friday was only 1.1798 billion shares so unless the Future Fund didn't vote its entire stake, clearly there has been selling of at least 50 million shares over the past three weeks. No wonder fund managers like Anton Tagliaferro are publically bagging the Future Fund for depressing the Telstra share price.
Edited audio and transcripts from today's Telstra AGM
Here are the audio links to our three brief contributions at an extremely tedious Telstra AGM that lasted almost 4 hours:
Speaking in favour of re-election of Dr Nora Scheinkestel
Confirmation of Future Fund dummy spit during discussion about remuneration report
Has anyone else opposed this unremarkable new constitution and why is this government agency at war with Telstra?
Standing up for the Melbourne CBD
Part of the platform mentioned in the video at the top of this edition, includes the idea that we need someone in the upper house specifically standing up for Melbourne as a financial and commercial centre.
For example, it is most disturbing to have Sydney-based AMP bidding for Melbourne-based Axa. The job losses will be substantial if the efficiencies are to be achieved.
Back in 1992, Melbourne was home to 8 of the 10 largest companies. These days we've only got 4.
Similarly, it was sad to see Melbourne-based AWB disappear into the belly of a Canaidan raider last week. As former AWB director Colin Nicholl wrote in an email to The Mayne Report:
I was disappointed that shareholders were not given the opportunity to do a share exchange with Agrium so that we could have benefited from the growth in Agrium shares. This takeover will see another Australian icon company pass into foreign ownership. We have no Australian wheat exporter dedicated to the promotion and use of Australian wheat in overseas markets. I also believe that Agrium bought AWB very cheaply, for what I believe is the value of Landmark on its own. I know there are other shareholders that have similar feelings to mine.
A Cornwall reflection on Julia Gillard
A heavy handed legal threat threat
It came as a great surprise on Friday afternoon when this strongly worded legal threat lobbed in the email box.
The Collins Street lawyers acting for Chinese Community Social Services Centre Inc (CCSSCI), an organisation which is described on its website as "the largest government-funded, non-profit welfare service provider for the Chinese-Australian community in the state of Victoria" is clearly hell-bent on initiating defamation proceedings.
CCSSCI is the organisation behind a controversial $15 million proposal to triple the size of the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home in Manningham's Green Wedge. Nursing homes are expressly prohibited in the Green Wedge yet Planning Minister Justin Madden intervened with remarkable speed this year and changed our planning scheme to give it the green light.
CCSSCI is chaired by Fred Chuah, who also doubles as Manningham's deputy mayor and is a close associate of Manningham's Labor mayor, Charles Pick and fellow Koonung ward councillor Ivan Reid, who is Labor's candidate in the seat of Bulleen. Indeed, two weeks ago Justin Madden formally launched Charles Pick's campaign as the Labor candidate in the safe Liberal seat of Doncaster, hailing him as "rising star" of the Labor Party.
We've had our issues with Manningham's Labor Mayor, some of which were outlined in last Thursday's edition, and will be interested to see his response to these developments, especially after he too threatened civil litigation against Greens council David Ellis on the front page of The Manningham Leader last week.
The threat from CCSSCI leaves little rooms for compromise. The letter states:
"We are instructed that unless you provide to us an apology and a retraction for your remarks which can be drafted by agreement with your solicitors (the gist of which will be that you acknowledge that the defamatory material published by you was without foundation and apologises to our client for the hurt and distress caused by your publication) and agree to pay out client's reasonable legal costs to date, then, and without further warning, we are instructed to issue defamation proceedings against you and vigorously prosecute the same at the earliest opportunity."
In terms of the defamatory material alleged to have been published, some of it is just quoting from reports by our professional officers. The legal threat says the following:
"In particular we note your comments as published in The Manningham Leader on 17 February 2010 to the effect that our client had 'attempted to bypass regular council planning processes', and that our client's conduct set an 'undesirable precedent', was 'an inappropriate use of the planning tools', was lacking in 'transparency' and was not engaging with 'regular council planning processes'."
How can it be defamatory to quote from an officer report that was unanimously passed by the council, albeit with the deputy mayor absent. This is the publication in question:
Text of letter from Stephen Mayne published in The Manningham Leader on February 17
Kim Au, CEO of the Chinese Community Social Services Centre which manages the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home in Donvale's Green Wedge, was last week quoted in The Leader describing the planning Minister as the “appropriate authority to deal with the request” to triple the facility to 180 beds in a $10 million-plus expansion.
This is a highly contestable claim. Councillors last week unanimously passed a report from our professional planning officers which said: “An issue of particular concern to officers is the planning process being used. For greater transparency it is considered that a consistent approach by DPCD (Department of Planning and Community Development) is preferable to assess and approve any proposals for the expansion of non-conforming uses in the green wedge.”
“The planning process being used for the nursing home sets an undesirable precedent and is considered an inappropriate use of the planning tools.”
In the interests of transparency, it should also be disclosed that Kim Au is married to Manningham's deputy mayor Fred Chuah, who was the visionary behind the original development of On Luck and still chairs the board to this day.
Whilst I'm a strong supporter of expanding residential care bed numbers across Manningham, this situation is most unfortunate and On Luck should withdraw its request to the Minister and re-engage with regular council planning processes.
Cr Stephen Mayne
Heidi Ward
This whole situation really is an astonishing attempt to chill free speech. Ministerial interventions on major projects that side-line councils and communities are highly controversial in Victoria yet here we have the beneficiary of one threatening to sue a councillor who criticised the process.
For a site developer to demand a large sum of money from a councillor in this way is also quite extraordinary. I've sought clarification on exactly how much CCSSCI want to cover their legal expenses given the whole saga of the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home in Manningham has been swirling around all year.
The legal letter makes highly contentious claims about CCSSCI's approach to this issue given that a Councillor Conduct Panel brought against deputy mayor and CCSSCI chairman Fred Chuah is yet to release its findings. It's as if the panel has already concluded CCSSCI did nothing wrong.
Manningham is also spending $38 million building a brand new civic precinct on Doncaster Hill which will provide subsidised rent for this very organisation which is now proposing to go the legal knuckle against someone who continuously supported the investment and their involvement.
Bizarrely, I was also the councillor who expressed the strongest support for an additional $20,000 to go to CCSSCI for new programs as part of the mid-year budget review. It seems we're making additional grants to a service partner which has decided to spend scarce funds suing a councillor.
And at the last council on October 26 I went out of my way to make conciliatory comments about the On Luck expansion whilst supporting an officer report raising a whole series of concerns about the proposal which the local community now has little influence over. See item 9.4 in the minutes and note the officer criticisms were passed by a 5-3 majority with Mayor Pick voting in favour.
Sensitive issues: On Luck, Eastern Golf and Matthews property sub-division proposal
This latest blow-up at Manningham will be a major issue at next week's November 30 council meeting when we've got some sensitive matters to deal with about how the state government handles development of the 48ha Eastern Golf Club site in Doncaster and whether we'll apply to the state government to allow a sub-division on some privately held undeveloped land in Donvale (just down Tindals Rd from On Luck) which falls just inside the Urban Growth Boundary.
The community is up in arms about the proposed Amendment C83 related to the Matthews family property and will no doubt be looking on at this On Luck saga with amazement. What would the community think if the Matthews family started demanding money from councillors and threatening litigation?
Over the past 30 years, there has arguably never been a major privately owned project in Manningham that has received a fast-track Spring Street rails run quite like On Luck, yet those who take issue with it are now seemingly set to put their personal assets on the line in court.
Watch this space for developments in the coming weeks and we'll endeavour to keep readers fully informed.
Recent email editions and updates
For first time readers, here are links to our recent editions since the state election tilt was first revealed:
Future Fund goes to war with Telstra, Woolies AGM wash-up, council pokies taxes and much more
Friday, November 19, 2010
Woolies anti-pokies campaign speech, Manningham mayor boxes on, campaigning for women, Bob Brown, pokies forum, HTVs, Rich List and then some
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Preferences revealed, sleazy deals, Cleary, questioning Bob Brown, The Age, soaring debt, videos, Cornwall and then some
Monday, November 15, 2010
Campaign lift off, Fairfax AGM, councillor expenses, pokies, SP Ausnet, Rich List, women directors, Spark scale back and much more
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Xenophon backs anti-pokies tilt, Packer, Ten, BHP, women directors, Rich List, state debt and much more
Friday, November 5, 2010
How pokies giant attempts to frustrate competing supermarket in Manningham
Speaking of taking on major institutions in Manningham, here's the transcript of the exchange with Woolworths at last week's AGM in Brisbane about their attempts to frustrate development of a competing ALDI super market at Jackson Court in Doncaster:
Stephen Mayne: The experience we've had in the City of Manningham, was that, we used to have a Safeway store at Jacksons Court, and you walked away from the community. You turned it into a Dan Murphy's. The community was really upset.
The council came out and said, "okay we'll offer our carpark to a supermarket operator". ALDI came along and said "'yes, we will build a supermarket here".
You've now gone to the Supreme Court to frustrate this. Claiming that under some 1954 land transfer, this is some sort of public charitable trust, and we can't do it. Clearly, clearly, you are gaming the planning system to deny a community a new supermarket in the City of Manningham.
I cannot reconcile, how you can do deals with the state government to totally sideline councils rolling out your hardware stores, and when you walk away from a community and convert a supermarket to a Dan Murphy's, you run off to the Supreme Court and attempt to frustrate the entrant of a competitor who is widely supported by that community.
Why are you gaming the system in the Supreme Court to deny a community a supermarket service when you walked away from that community?
Chairman James Strong: For all those assembled here, I'll just remind you that this is the annual general meeting for Woolworths - not the City of Manningham, which it seems to have become the annual general meeting of the City of Manningham. Would you like to make a comment Michael?
CEO Michael Luscombe: We have a number of supermarkets in that area that well and truly service it. We don't actually have a problem with the ALDI supermarket opening near the Dan Murphy.
What we have a problem with is this very small car park, and this was one of the reasons why the supermarket was not all that successful, and that car park had been, by trust, given over to car parking in perpetuity, and to build that supermarket, would take away all of the parking - not just for our Dan Murphy store, but also for all the shopkeepers.
In fact I understand it is one of the small shopkeepers that first initiated the court proceedings, so we are well within our rights to protect the amenity of our business and the amenity of surrounding shopkeepers, and we'll do exactly that. If a space for ALDI can be found without reducing the car park, then that would be great for that shopping centre.
Ends
We also sent out this brief account of the Woolies AGM in Brisbane last Thursday and the meatier political elements were pulled together in this hard hitting piece for Crikey.
Around the grounds on the pokies
Jason Dowling had this cracking story in The Age today: Device dodges ATM ban at pokies
Have a listen to Jon Faine talking with executive director of clubs Victoria, Richard Evans, about ATMs in pokies venues.
Also, here are the links which explain the VLGA pokies position:
Major parties must make pokies and online gambling safe
VLGA State election platform
Launch speech by Whittlesea's Felicity Leahy
Meanwhile, check out this package of past encounters with Woolies and this interview with Senator Nick Xenophon about why the pokies matter in this state election.
Spend $50 for a season's ticket that helps keeps the directors and pollies honest
The coming weeks will be a very interesting time with the Australian AGM season and the Victorian election but things like contesting the state election and flying to New York to tackle Rupert Murdoch don't come cheap.
Therefore, why not sign up for a $50 Season Ticket that will now cover all of our subscription material through until the end of 2011.
Alternatively, email Paula@maynereport.com and offer to volunteer to hand out on election day and you'll receive a free subscription.
If you'd like to support robust political and shareholder activism and get an inside look at what should be a fascinating period, click here to purchase your season ticket.
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 check out his latest animation:
Donate to help keep us going
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Sign up for campaign and governance Tweets
Click on the image above to join more than 2700 followers on Twitter. Here are some recent tweets:
10.45am November 21: Nick Economou told Phil Cleary on RRR last night that he'll "struggle to get 4% in Brunswick". Dead wrong - Cleary is good for 10%-plus.
6.29pm November 19: Telstra AGM wrap http://urlm.in/gcvr. 702 ABC Sydney http://urlm.in/gcvs and ABC News radio http://urlm.in/gcvt discussing the AGM.
5.14pm November 19: Future Fund has dumped another 50m-plus Telstra shares since Oct 26 disclosure stake was down to 1.228bn. Total against Nora was 1.1798bn.
1.24pm November 19: Woolies and Brumby. A #Crikey story of #pokies, planning deals & hypocrisy http://urlm.in/gcvc 5:04 PM Nov 18th via web
5.53pm November 18: Had a good chat on 612 ABC Brisbane discussing the Woollies AGM and getting out of pokies http://urlm.in/gcqj
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by shareholder activist, local government councillor, Crikey founder and political candidate Stephen Mayne with regular email editions. This email was authorised by Paula Piccinini of 205 William St, Melbourne 3000. To unsubscribe from the free emails click here.
We've got loads of interesting stuff today so click here for the URL if you'd like to send it on. Alternatively, click here to unsubscribe.
First serious defamation threat in many years
Just five minutes after this special edition on the Future Fund's jihad against Telstra was sent out on Friday afternoon, we had our own shock development to deal with when a strongly worded legal threat lobbed from a group proposing a $15 million redevelopment in Manningham. Read on below for more.
Big pokies forum tomorrow
Crikey today ran this story about Woolies, Wilkie, pre-commitment and the pokies behind its paywall.
Woolies and the pokies industry are certainly fighting hard against pre-commitment which was set out by Andrew Wilkie and Prime Minister Gillard in paragraph 7.5 of their agreement.
Contrast that with this line from the Woolies board in the explanatory memorandum to the notice of meeting, which urged shareholders to vote against my nomination for the board at last week's AGM on the following grounds:
"The directors do not in any way endorse the platform on which Mr Mayne is standing. In particular, the Directors note that the Company's Hotels business has developed and published a Hotel and Gaming Charter which addresses, amongst other things, voluntary pre-commitment for gaming."There is a massive difference between voluntary and compulsory pre-commitment and this will no doubt get a big run at a two-hour pokies forum tomorrow morning, which has been pushed by Tim Costello, Nick Xenophon and others in this video.
All the major parties have speakers and both Gambling Minister Tony Robinson and his shadow Michael O'Brien will be there presenting and taking questions.
The Greens, DLP and Family First will also be speaking along with myself and Lorraine Beyer as the two pokies-focused independents. Check out this press release on the forum for details if you plan to come along.
We got to practice a few lines with Education minister Bronwyn Pike, who before landing a cabinet post was a vociferous campaigner against the pokies, when she appeared on Sunday during Headley Gritter's The Party Show on community radio station RRR.
You don't expect these sorts of exchanges on radio at 1am on a Sunday morning but listen to the audio. The transcript was as follows:
Stephen Mayne: Bronwyn, you used to be such a great campaigner on the pokies until you got into the cabinet there.
Bronwyn Pike: Have you got a bug in the cabinet room do you Stephen? You know what I say?
Stephen Mayne: but you must feel disappointed that you haven't been able to win any of the arguments, and you've got a premier who has no empathy at all for the social disaster of $2.6 billion losses a year on the pokies.
Bronwyn Pike: I'm still very concerned about problem gambling and I've advocated pretty strongly for the kinds of measures we've put in place to provide extra services and support for people, and also to remove ATMs and those sorts of things. There are still further things that need to happen, and I've still got a profound personal concern for the issue. I do speak up and work pretty hard on those kinds of those things. As I said, unless you have a bug in the cabinet room, really it is a bit rough to say that I'm not still out there and active on the issue.
Host Headley Gritter: It's between pokies and alcohol that cause about 90% of the social misery out there isn't it? And the unenforceable ridiculous drug laws, which force people into crime.
Stephen Mayne: The thing that I don't get Headley is that we've got the lowest smoking rate in the world, the safest roads in the world yet we're the world's biggest gamblers, because the government continues to allow this massively dangerous product to suck in gambling addicts all over the state. Bronwyn you may be arguing valiantly, but really? World's biggest gamblers. $2.6 billion lost a year, massive social misery, and you're a part of the government which is doing it.
Bronwyn Pike: We've kept the cap on the number of poker machines. We don't have anywhere near as many as NSW and places like that. It is a legal activity, and I want to do everything I can to continue to stop problem gambling. I mean, I hate it!
Headley Gritter: We all hate it. Stephen's right there are other forms of gambling which are controlled to some extent, but the pokies, people sit there hypnotised and feed the machines until they are broke, and don't have money for the food and all that.
Sprint to the line in winnable Northern Metropolitan tilt
Heavy handed legal threats (see below) aside, we're endeavouring to sprint to the line in our attempt at becoming the first independent member elected to the Victorian upper house next Saturday.
Click on the image below to watch a video which explains the voting system, candidates and policies related to the eminently winnable run in the Northern Metropolitan region:
The biggest challenge will be manning the 180 booths and distributing the 100,000 how-to-vote cards which we picked up earlier today.
An electorate with 400,000 voters literally requires more than 300 volunteers to cover every booth all day.
We've now got commitments from more than 60 volunteers but will need at least 100 if we're to crack the 1.5% primary vote needed to have a serious chance of winning the fifth and final spot.
With fabulous preference flows from the left and right, there will never be another opportunity like this, although you wouldn't know it by following the mainstream media which is giving very little oxygen to small parties or independents with the exception of The Australian S*X Party.
If you fancy giving us a hand on Saturday or at the pre-poll on Thursday and Friday, please email Paula@maynereport.com. Even a two hour stretch any time between 8am and 6pm would be greatly appreciated.
All those who pitch in will get every Mayne Report subscription service for free from now until the end of 2011. If we lose, these will be cranked up next year and if we win, the Mayne Report will scale back. There will be a $100 Myer gift voucher for all volunteers involved in a winning campaign.
Folks, you've got to be in it to win it and Paula is waiting for your emails.
Do you know these 400,000 people?
The other way you can help is to identify voters who live within the 11 lower house seats pictured below that comprise the Northern Metropolitan region. Drop them an email and tell them an independent backed by the likes of Julian Burnside QC and Senator Nick Xenophon is in with a chance off knocking off "faceless man" Nathan Murphy, the little-known number three on the Labor ticket who got the gig partly because his dad is a powerful union boss.
As was explained in this missive to 3000 lawyers, the upper house could do with a lively independent rather than yet another union boss when 80% of ALP Senate positions will be filled by former union officials after June 30 next year.
With a campaign budget limited to about $10,000 we can't afford to write to individual voters, but we need at least 6000 of the 400,000 voters to vote for "Group C" on the big yellow ballot paper. So if you know any email addresses of voters in Northern Metropolitan, drop us a line to Stephen@maynereport.com or send an anonymous email by clicking on the image below:
Holding Northern Metropolitan councils to account
After serving for two years on Manningham Council and spending the last 12 years asking questions at almost 400 public company AGMs, there should be a useful role for an independent upper house MP to help hold the eight Northern Metropolitan councils to account.
However, to all those councillors and officers at Moreland, Hume, Darebin, Banyule, Yarra, Melbourne, Nillumbik and Whittlesea reading these reports, it should be stressed that, if elected, this role would be good for overall accountability and at times would be very positive.
For instance, check out this letter published in last week's edition of The Hume Leader:
Geoff Porter is a Labor mayor who has done well and deserves credit. However, that letter contrasts with this recent article and follow up letter in The Heidelberg Leader tackling Labor's Ivanhoe candidate Anthony Carbines for dishing out ward grants just before taking leave to campaign full time.
Councillor-controlled ward grants are bad governance and both the Auditor-General and Ombudsman have slated them after the Brimbank fiasco. We'll be campaigning hard against any council which persists with ward grants.
Good behaviour, good councils and quality councillors should be publically supported and promoted. Hume has got a great mayor and this should be recognised by giving him a second term.
Whilst Banyule mayor and former Liberal MP Wayne Phillips does a reasonable job, I got up at a recent council meeting and suggested he not run for mayor yet again in 2011. Being mayor for four of the last five years would be too much, especially when talented Banyule councillors like Peter McKenna and Jenny Mulholland are also running.
Shaming councillors into disclosing their expenses
As we pointed out in this video filmed outside the Fitzroy Town Hall, disclosure of councillor expenses is an easy reform that should be embraced by everyone.
During eight visits to Northern Metro council meetings over the past few months, the most resistance we've encountered so far was from veteran Labor Right Darebin councillor Steven Tsitas, whose wife works for local Northcote MP and Labor Party powerbroker Fiona Richardson.
We gave Tsitas a touch up in this Crikey tips section on October 5 for railing against such disclosure and then really put him on the spot at last week's council meeting.
Have a listen to this audio of Cr Tsitas fumbling around with lame excuses. It shouldn't be too long before Darebin follows the Hume or Moreland model of quarterly or annual online disclosures of councillor expense claims.
If there is to be a maiden speech delivered in the upper house, it will name all Victorian councils presently refusing to regularly disclose their individual councillor expense claims. Sadly, that still includes Manningham.
Working constructively with council officers
At my first meeting with Manningham CEO Lydia Wilson in December 2008 after the council elections, she said: "Stephen, there is an enormous amount of fear in the building about you."
This was quite a shock, so over the the past two years I've worked very constructively with officers. Indeed, much of the effort at Manningham has gone into defending council officers from often uncalled for attacks and criticisms by fellow councillors. Manningham is a well run council with a strong management team and all us councillors need to ensure this remains the case.
The Manningham CEO has been quite rightly calling for less public commentary in recent times, but in the context of a state election campaign with three councillors contesting, my view is that free flowing political exchanges are to be expected. It should settle down after polling day, although these shock legal threats (see below) have the potential to cause more explosions.
Wash up from the Future Fund's Telstra AGM dummy spit
The Telstra AGM on Friday was an amazing event and this special edition summed up the major issues surround the Future Fund's protest voting against all resolutions.
In the aftermath we did this interview on ABC News Radio, plus had this discussion with Richard Glover on 702 ABC Sydney. ABC radio's PM program also ran some direct audio from the webcast using the line about Future Fund chairman David Murray needing to "have his head read". That line was even running nationally on the midnight ABC radio news on Friday night.
Whilst we're used to having our AGM contributions written out of mainstream newspaper stories as occurred on Saturday after the Telstra AGM, it is quite surprising that our revelations about the Future Fund continuing to sell shares has not been picked up. The Future Fund's last substantial shareholder statement was on October 26 when it revealed the sale of 150 million shares and a holding of 1.228 billion shares or 9.86%.
But the total directed proxy votes against Nora Scheinkestel on Friday was only 1.1798 billion shares so unless the Future Fund didn't vote its entire stake, clearly there has been selling of at least 50 million shares over the past three weeks. No wonder fund managers like Anton Tagliaferro are publically bagging the Future Fund for depressing the Telstra share price.
Edited audio and transcripts from today's Telstra AGM
Here are the audio links to our three brief contributions at an extremely tedious Telstra AGM that lasted almost 4 hours:
Speaking in favour of re-election of Dr Nora Scheinkestel
Confirmation of Future Fund dummy spit during discussion about remuneration report
Has anyone else opposed this unremarkable new constitution and why is this government agency at war with Telstra?
Standing up for the Melbourne CBD
Part of the platform mentioned in the video at the top of this edition, includes the idea that we need someone in the upper house specifically standing up for Melbourne as a financial and commercial centre.
For example, it is most disturbing to have Sydney-based AMP bidding for Melbourne-based Axa. The job losses will be substantial if the efficiencies are to be achieved.
Back in 1992, Melbourne was home to 8 of the 10 largest companies. These days we've only got 4.
Similarly, it was sad to see Melbourne-based AWB disappear into the belly of a Canaidan raider last week. As former AWB director Colin Nicholl wrote in an email to The Mayne Report:
I was disappointed that shareholders were not given the opportunity to do a share exchange with Agrium so that we could have benefited from the growth in Agrium shares. This takeover will see another Australian icon company pass into foreign ownership. We have no Australian wheat exporter dedicated to the promotion and use of Australian wheat in overseas markets. I also believe that Agrium bought AWB very cheaply, for what I believe is the value of Landmark on its own. I know there are other shareholders that have similar feelings to mine.
A Cornwall reflection on Julia Gillard
A heavy handed legal threat threat
It came as a great surprise on Friday afternoon when this strongly worded legal threat lobbed in the email box.
The Collins Street lawyers acting for Chinese Community Social Services Centre Inc (CCSSCI), an organisation which is described on its website as "the largest government-funded, non-profit welfare service provider for the Chinese-Australian community in the state of Victoria" is clearly hell-bent on initiating defamation proceedings.
CCSSCI is the organisation behind a controversial $15 million proposal to triple the size of the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home in Manningham's Green Wedge. Nursing homes are expressly prohibited in the Green Wedge yet Planning Minister Justin Madden intervened with remarkable speed this year and changed our planning scheme to give it the green light.
CCSSCI is chaired by Fred Chuah, who also doubles as Manningham's deputy mayor and is a close associate of Manningham's Labor mayor, Charles Pick and fellow Koonung ward councillor Ivan Reid, who is Labor's candidate in the seat of Bulleen. Indeed, two weeks ago Justin Madden formally launched Charles Pick's campaign as the Labor candidate in the safe Liberal seat of Doncaster, hailing him as "rising star" of the Labor Party.
We've had our issues with Manningham's Labor Mayor, some of which were outlined in last Thursday's edition, and will be interested to see his response to these developments, especially after he too threatened civil litigation against Greens council David Ellis on the front page of The Manningham Leader last week.
The threat from CCSSCI leaves little rooms for compromise. The letter states:
"We are instructed that unless you provide to us an apology and a retraction for your remarks which can be drafted by agreement with your solicitors (the gist of which will be that you acknowledge that the defamatory material published by you was without foundation and apologises to our client for the hurt and distress caused by your publication) and agree to pay out client's reasonable legal costs to date, then, and without further warning, we are instructed to issue defamation proceedings against you and vigorously prosecute the same at the earliest opportunity."
In terms of the defamatory material alleged to have been published, some of it is just quoting from reports by our professional officers. The legal threat says the following:
"In particular we note your comments as published in The Manningham Leader on 17 February 2010 to the effect that our client had 'attempted to bypass regular council planning processes', and that our client's conduct set an 'undesirable precedent', was 'an inappropriate use of the planning tools', was lacking in 'transparency' and was not engaging with 'regular council planning processes'."
How can it be defamatory to quote from an officer report that was unanimously passed by the council, albeit with the deputy mayor absent. This is the publication in question:
Text of letter from Stephen Mayne published in The Manningham Leader on February 17
Kim Au, CEO of the Chinese Community Social Services Centre which manages the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home in Donvale's Green Wedge, was last week quoted in The Leader describing the planning Minister as the “appropriate authority to deal with the request” to triple the facility to 180 beds in a $10 million-plus expansion.
This is a highly contestable claim. Councillors last week unanimously passed a report from our professional planning officers which said: “An issue of particular concern to officers is the planning process being used. For greater transparency it is considered that a consistent approach by DPCD (Department of Planning and Community Development) is preferable to assess and approve any proposals for the expansion of non-conforming uses in the green wedge.”
“The planning process being used for the nursing home sets an undesirable precedent and is considered an inappropriate use of the planning tools.”
In the interests of transparency, it should also be disclosed that Kim Au is married to Manningham's deputy mayor Fred Chuah, who was the visionary behind the original development of On Luck and still chairs the board to this day.
Whilst I'm a strong supporter of expanding residential care bed numbers across Manningham, this situation is most unfortunate and On Luck should withdraw its request to the Minister and re-engage with regular council planning processes.
Cr Stephen Mayne
Heidi Ward
This whole situation really is an astonishing attempt to chill free speech. Ministerial interventions on major projects that side-line councils and communities are highly controversial in Victoria yet here we have the beneficiary of one threatening to sue a councillor who criticised the process.
For a site developer to demand a large sum of money from a councillor in this way is also quite extraordinary. I've sought clarification on exactly how much CCSSCI want to cover their legal expenses given the whole saga of the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home in Manningham has been swirling around all year.
The legal letter makes highly contentious claims about CCSSCI's approach to this issue given that a Councillor Conduct Panel brought against deputy mayor and CCSSCI chairman Fred Chuah is yet to release its findings. It's as if the panel has already concluded CCSSCI did nothing wrong.
Manningham is also spending $38 million building a brand new civic precinct on Doncaster Hill which will provide subsidised rent for this very organisation which is now proposing to go the legal knuckle against someone who continuously supported the investment and their involvement.
Bizarrely, I was also the councillor who expressed the strongest support for an additional $20,000 to go to CCSSCI for new programs as part of the mid-year budget review. It seems we're making additional grants to a service partner which has decided to spend scarce funds suing a councillor.
And at the last council on October 26 I went out of my way to make conciliatory comments about the On Luck expansion whilst supporting an officer report raising a whole series of concerns about the proposal which the local community now has little influence over. See item 9.4 in the minutes and note the officer criticisms were passed by a 5-3 majority with Mayor Pick voting in favour.
Sensitive issues: On Luck, Eastern Golf and Matthews property sub-division proposal
This latest blow-up at Manningham will be a major issue at next week's November 30 council meeting when we've got some sensitive matters to deal with about how the state government handles development of the 48ha Eastern Golf Club site in Doncaster and whether we'll apply to the state government to allow a sub-division on some privately held undeveloped land in Donvale (just down Tindals Rd from On Luck) which falls just inside the Urban Growth Boundary.
The community is up in arms about the proposed Amendment C83 related to the Matthews family property and will no doubt be looking on at this On Luck saga with amazement. What would the community think if the Matthews family started demanding money from councillors and threatening litigation?
Over the past 30 years, there has arguably never been a major privately owned project in Manningham that has received a fast-track Spring Street rails run quite like On Luck, yet those who take issue with it are now seemingly set to put their personal assets on the line in court.
Watch this space for developments in the coming weeks and we'll endeavour to keep readers fully informed.
Recent email editions and updates
For first time readers, here are links to our recent editions since the state election tilt was first revealed:
Future Fund goes to war with Telstra, Woolies AGM wash-up, council pokies taxes and much more
Friday, November 19, 2010
Woolies anti-pokies campaign speech, Manningham mayor boxes on, campaigning for women, Bob Brown, pokies forum, HTVs, Rich List and then some
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Preferences revealed, sleazy deals, Cleary, questioning Bob Brown, The Age, soaring debt, videos, Cornwall and then some
Monday, November 15, 2010
Campaign lift off, Fairfax AGM, councillor expenses, pokies, SP Ausnet, Rich List, women directors, Spark scale back and much more
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Xenophon backs anti-pokies tilt, Packer, Ten, BHP, women directors, Rich List, state debt and much more
Friday, November 5, 2010
How pokies giant attempts to frustrate competing supermarket in Manningham
Speaking of taking on major institutions in Manningham, here's the transcript of the exchange with Woolworths at last week's AGM in Brisbane about their attempts to frustrate development of a competing ALDI super market at Jackson Court in Doncaster:
Stephen Mayne: The experience we've had in the City of Manningham, was that, we used to have a Safeway store at Jacksons Court, and you walked away from the community. You turned it into a Dan Murphy's. The community was really upset.
The council came out and said, "okay we'll offer our carpark to a supermarket operator". ALDI came along and said "'yes, we will build a supermarket here".
You've now gone to the Supreme Court to frustrate this. Claiming that under some 1954 land transfer, this is some sort of public charitable trust, and we can't do it. Clearly, clearly, you are gaming the planning system to deny a community a new supermarket in the City of Manningham.
I cannot reconcile, how you can do deals with the state government to totally sideline councils rolling out your hardware stores, and when you walk away from a community and convert a supermarket to a Dan Murphy's, you run off to the Supreme Court and attempt to frustrate the entrant of a competitor who is widely supported by that community.
Why are you gaming the system in the Supreme Court to deny a community a supermarket service when you walked away from that community?
Chairman James Strong: For all those assembled here, I'll just remind you that this is the annual general meeting for Woolworths - not the City of Manningham, which it seems to have become the annual general meeting of the City of Manningham. Would you like to make a comment Michael?
CEO Michael Luscombe: We have a number of supermarkets in that area that well and truly service it. We don't actually have a problem with the ALDI supermarket opening near the Dan Murphy.
What we have a problem with is this very small car park, and this was one of the reasons why the supermarket was not all that successful, and that car park had been, by trust, given over to car parking in perpetuity, and to build that supermarket, would take away all of the parking - not just for our Dan Murphy store, but also for all the shopkeepers.
In fact I understand it is one of the small shopkeepers that first initiated the court proceedings, so we are well within our rights to protect the amenity of our business and the amenity of surrounding shopkeepers, and we'll do exactly that. If a space for ALDI can be found without reducing the car park, then that would be great for that shopping centre.
Ends
We also sent out this brief account of the Woolies AGM in Brisbane last Thursday and the meatier political elements were pulled together in this hard hitting piece for Crikey.
Around the grounds on the pokies
Jason Dowling had this cracking story in The Age today: Device dodges ATM ban at pokies
Have a listen to Jon Faine talking with executive director of clubs Victoria, Richard Evans, about ATMs in pokies venues.
Also, here are the links which explain the VLGA pokies position:
Major parties must make pokies and online gambling safe
VLGA State election platform
Launch speech by Whittlesea's Felicity Leahy
Meanwhile, check out this package of past encounters with Woolies and this interview with Senator Nick Xenophon about why the pokies matter in this state election.
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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 check out his latest animation:
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10.45am November 21: Nick Economou told Phil Cleary on RRR last night that he'll "struggle to get 4% in Brunswick". Dead wrong - Cleary is good for 10%-plus.
6.29pm November 19: Telstra AGM wrap http://urlm.in/gcvr. 702 ABC Sydney http://urlm.in/gcvs and ABC News radio http://urlm.in/gcvt discussing the AGM.
5.14pm November 19: Future Fund has dumped another 50m-plus Telstra shares since Oct 26 disclosure stake was down to 1.228bn. Total against Nora was 1.1798bn.
1.24pm November 19: Woolies and Brumby. A #Crikey story of #pokies, planning deals & hypocrisy http://urlm.in/gcvc 5:04 PM Nov 18th via web
5.53pm November 18: Had a good chat on 612 ABC Brisbane discussing the Woollies AGM and getting out of pokies http://urlm.in/gcqj
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by shareholder activist, local government councillor, Crikey founder and political candidate Stephen Mayne with regular email editions. This email was authorised by Paula Piccinini of 205 William St, Melbourne 3000. To unsubscribe from the free emails click here.