Mark McInnes, Hanson, conflicts, MAV election, expense claims, Boomers, Manningham, defamation and our biggest losers
March 28, 2011
Hello you!
Greetings for the first time since our last bumper edition on March 7. This edition is focused on some interesting local government issues but there's also this lively Cornwall animation and a link and extract from this hard-hitting Crikey story slamming Solomon Lew's decision to appoint Mark McInnes CEO of Premier Investments.
Also, don't forget you can unsubscribe from these occasional email missives here.
Time to take a stand on McInnes
Here's an extract from today's Crikey piece on McInnes which is available in full online:
Just Group was a unique outfit because it was the first listed Australian company to have four female directors, a feat achieved in July 2007 when Susan Oliver was appointed to the board.
When Premier secured control in August 2008 after a contested takeover battle, the entire Just Group board was sacked in this terse two-paragraph statement.
While Alison Watkins had resigned a few months before the Premier bid, the three remaining female directors, Oliver, Bronwyn Constance and Laura Anderson, were all dismissed without a public word of thanks, as was chairman Ian Pollard and Ian Dahl.
More than two years later, Premier still hasn't got a female director, even though the vast majority of its staff and customers are female. Two additional blokes, investment banker Tim Antonie and Simon Crean's brother David Crean, were added to the board in December 2009 after what was claimed to be “an extensive and lengthy selection process”.
The other blokes on the seven man Premier Investment board including trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox, Arnold Bloch Leibler managing partner Henry Lanzer, Gary Weiss and Solly's long-time accountant Frank Jones.
Joe Hockey was right to claim on Q&A earlier this month that it is incredible Australia still has 85 ASX200 companies with no female directors.
While you could make an exception for a few Perth-based mining companies, it is ridiculous that a female-focused company such as Premier Investments hasn't got with the program and joined the likes of Newcrest, Alumina, Transurban, Ausenco, SP Ausnet and Asciano, which ended their all-blokes status by appointing solitary female directors over the past year.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Premier has no female directors because surely only a bunch of blokes could decide to hire Mark McInnes. If Premier doesn't appoint a female director in the next six months, then you can be assured that a female candidate will emerge at the 2011 AGM in October.
That said, the blokey board will now find it extremely hard work recruiting a new female director to sit around the table with McInnes after all the claims, publicity and litigation surrounding his exit from David Jones.
It should not be forgotten that McInnes admitted to conduct unbecoming, resigned as CEO, fled the country for a while and then contributed to the $850,000 payout to his victim, David Jones publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk.
You have to wonder what the women who shop at Just Jeans, Portman, Jacqui E, Smiggle, Dotti, Peter Alexander and Jay Jays think about all this. Maybe Get-Up should get behind a boycott campaign by female shoppers.
ends
I just did a 10 minute interview with Lindy Burns on 774 ABC Melbourne about all this. Some of the lines pushed in an earlier phone call from McInnes PR Sue Cato were trotted out, but overall I still think it reflects very poorly on the Premier Investments board. Good luck to Mark McInnes for not only landing a CEO gig but negotiating a big package out of Solly Lew. The blame lies with those doing the hiring.
Sure, McInnes has suffered enormously at the hands of the tabloid media and much of the evidence was contested, but even the stuff he admitted to was surely enough to keep him side-lined.
If you want cultural change in Australia on workplace bullying, then those who admit to doing the wrong thing should not be rehabilitated so quickly.
It is amusing that the biggest independent Premier Investments shareholder is Perpetual with 13%. And who is the immediate past chair of Perpetual? None other than David Jones chairman Bob Savage.
Finally, wouldn't it be great if one or all of those sacked female Just Group directors came out and slammed the Premier board or, better still, nominated for the board at the AGM. I've already emailed one of them about this and am chasing down contact details for the others.
Local government update - contested peak body elections and Supreme Court writs
We sent this special edition on February 22 analysing the candidates for the board of the Municipal Association of Victoria and were a little surprised that Presidential candidate Reid Mather fired back with this missive to the voting delegates from Victoria's 79 councils, which included the following:
Many of you would have received the latest Mayne Report via email. My program directs them to my junk mail box; I can see no reason to alter that. In my view the current report is bias (sic) and was not an accurate reflection on the Presidential Forum.
The votes have been counted and we're delighted that the MAV has publically released the details for the first time. Click here for the complete report by returning officer Ron Ritchie.
Mather, a National Party member and five time Buloke Shire mayor, was confident of winning the Presidency and campaigned hard driving the length and breadth of the state seeking votes. Alas, something didn't quite work out because he only secured 18 of the 70 formal votes.
Seven of Victoria's 79 councils didn't bother to vote, there were 2 informals, incumbent President Bill McArthur scored a majority in his own right with 37 votes and Labor's Jane Rowe landed 15 votes.
The 13-member board is fairly finely balanced with the two vice-presidential votes both apparently being secured by narrow margins.
Manningham mayor and veteran Liberal Geoff Gough was elected metropolitan vice-president defeating Labor's John Sipek, who is tipped to contest the preselection contest when Rob Hulls vacates his seat of Niddrie in the relatively near future.
But the voting didn't go all the way of the non-Labor forces, which is probably a good thing, because Labor's Lisa Mahood defeated Rod Fyffe and Ken Gale to secure the post of regional vice-president. It's also good to have a female vice-president when there are only 3 women on the 13-person MAV board.
Clarifying VLGA disclosure position
In our last local government update, we wrote the following:
The Victorian Local Government Association (VLGA) initially adopted a similar non-disclosure position about their recent board elections but after some lobbying the board agreed to disclose the full results. Check them out here.
Former VLGA President and current Vice-President Heinz Kreutz clarified the situation in the following email:
The VLGA does not, and never did, entertain a "non-disclosure position". While such a position may have been initially conveyed at an officer level, or perhaps assumed, construed and interpreted by some, it is now a matter of public record that at its first board meeting, the new VLGA board unanimously instructed the organisation to make public all election results. Good governance and transparency is important to us, and you as a VLGA member understand this, of course. It would be good if our position could be disambiguated.
Best wishes, keep up the good work.
Heinz
Indeed, it was terrific that the VLGA disclosed the voting results for the firm time and in primary vote terms, this is how the Presidential 1st perference votes finished:
Samantha Dunn: 64
Vince Fontana: 47
Frank O'Connor: 44
Paul Klisaris: 32
Steve Staikos: 31
For the full preference distribution, go here.
In terms of the councillor board members, the five successful candidates are asterixed in this list of those who made it to double figures in 1st preference votes:
* Heinz Kreutz: 39
Vince Fontana: 23
* Luba Grigorovitch: 22
* Collin Ross: 22
* John Doull: 18
* Christine Richards: 18
Cheryl Bromfield: 12
Lambros Tapinos: 11
Jeanette McRae: 11
Steve Staikos: 10
Frank O'Connor: 10
You can see the profiles of statements from all 15 candidates here.
Update on nursing home developer's Supreme Court defamation writ
Before leaving local government matters, here's a brief update from the last edition when we disclosed that the developer of a nursing home in Manningham's Green Wedge zone has issued this Supreme Court writ against me and another Manningham councillor, David Ellis, alleging defamation.
The writ only runs to 8 pages but was drawn up by Simon Wilson QC, one of the top Victorian silks who costs about $8000 a day. Litigation must be initiated within one year of the publication in question to beat the so-called statute of limitations and my writ was served with just one day remaining.
Since then, council's insurer has agreed to provide cover and law firm HWL Ebsworth has been retained, along with counsel. The defence must be filed within 28 days of being served and that will be a public document that can be viewed online.
There have also been some related developments with our former deputy mayor Fred Chuah, President of the group pushing the nursing home development and the associated defamation action.
Firstly, here are links to recent coverage in the local paper:
Chuah avoids court, plays race card
Manningham council backs councillors in legal stoush
Nursing home owner claims Manningham council grudge
Municipal Inspector decides against prosecution
David Wolf, the Chief Municipal Inspector at the Department of Planning and Community Development, came to Manningham two weeks ago and briefed the councillors on why his 12 month investigation of former councillor Chuah would not lead to criminal charges being laid over two alleged undeclared conflicts of interest at the council meeting held on December 15, 2009. (See minutes here.)
The investigation started after a complaint from a member of the public in February 2010 and then a further complaint was lodged from within council in September 2010.
There are three possible responses from the Municipal Inspector after an investigation.
1. No evidence to prosecute
2. Insufficient evidence to prosecute
3. Prosecute
A brief of evidence was presented to the Victorian Government Solicitor but the advice came back that there was "insufficient evidence to prosecute".
The letter I received from the Chief Municipal Inspector explained the situation as follows:
I write to inform you that the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate has concluded an investigation into allegations that Cr Fred Chuah, formerly of the Manningham City Council, failed to declare conflicts of interest in relation to agenda items 8.2 and 11.2 at the ordinary council meeting of 15 December 2009.
The Inspectorate considered a number of the conflict of interest provisions with the Local Government Act 1989 in relation to the allegations made about Cr Chuah's conduct in this matter. The standard of proof required to be met in conflict of interest cases is beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, it is incumbent on the Inspectorate to present cogent evidence to the satisfaction of a court to demonstrate that Cr Chuah was likely to directly or indirectly benefit as a result of his behaviour as a councillor when he voted in relation to these agenda items.
In this case, the Inspectorate has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support a prosecution for breaches of the Act. As a result, the Inspectorate will not initiate criminal proceedings in the courts in this case.
Conflicts related to proposed review of MCA, Manningham's own nursing home facilities
The essence of the conflict of interest charge related to Cr Chuah voting against a rival nursing home proposal in Park Orchards and also prosecuting a hostile campaign against the Manningham Centre Association (MCA), the not for profit operator of council's own nursing home facilities.
Here is an extract from my 5000 word submission to the separate Councillor Conduct Panel hearings which ended up making three "misconduct" findings against Fred Chuah that he is currently appealing through VCAT:
"After endless mediation sessions and discussion, the final resolution on MCA for the December 15 council meeting read as follows:
MOVED: REID
SECONDED: CHUAH
(A) Council resolves to proceed with an independent review of the Manningham Centre in line with the principles of continuous improvement. In doing so, Council undertakes to enter into meaningful and genuine ongoing discussion with the MCA Board, to resolve upon a consultancy brief for the review.
(B) Council confirms the components of the review of the Manningham Centre as:
1. Charitable Status
2. Financial and Operational Performance
3. Options for future management
4. Governance Review
The components of the review of options will not consider the sale of the land currently occupied by the Manningham Centre.
(C) Council authorise the consultancy for the clarification of the charitable status of the Manningham Centre Association Incorporated to proceed immediately.
(D) Up to $150,000 be allocated as part of the mid-year budget review to enable officers to implement the consultancies listed in part (B) of the recommendation.
PUT and CARRIED
DIVISON: A Division having been demanded the Council divided as follows:
FOR (5): Councillors Reid, Chuah, Downie, Macmillan and Pick
AGAINST (4): Councillors La Vella, Mayne, Gough and Ellis
The Motion was declared CARRIED
It is very clear that the consultant's brief to consider “options for future management” would open the possibility of a public tender for management rights. In this situation, CCSSCI could potentially be a tenderer.
So here was the deputy mayor, 4 days after meeting with the DPCD to discuss a Ministerial Amendment to facilitate On Luck becoming the biggest nursing home in Manningham, voting against a rival nursing home application in Park Orchards and, later the same night, voting to spend up to $150,000 on a sweeping and hostile review of council's own nursing home operation which would potentially lead to management of the facilities being opened to public tender.
I privately asked the deputy mayor to give a commitment that On Luck or CCSSCI would never tender to manage MCA's two residential facilities and he declined on the basis that he couldn't make such a commitment on behalf of the entire board.
ENDS
Pauline Brasher said during the briefing that for a prosecution to take place, the MCA motion needed to be specifically approving a contracting out decision, rather than just opening up the option amongst a range of options. In other words, it was one step removed.
PARK ORCHARDS DECISION
David Wolf and Pauline Brasher said that the Park Orchards nursing home developer needed to apply for Federally funded nursing home beds in 2009-10, directly competing with CCSSCI, for the conflict to be sustained as evidence beyond reasonable doubt in a court. It didn't so, in hindsight, there was no conflict in terms of directly competing for bed licences.
However, David Wolf said there was "merit" in the argument that Fred Chuah shouldn't have voted against the Park Orchards nursing home because at the time he didn't know whether it would apply for bed licences over the balance of 2009-10 when he knew CCSSCI would be.
Again, here is an extract from my Councillor Conduct Panel submission:
"At their presentation to councillors on February 9, 2010, the On Luck team clearly stated that an applicant's prospects of success in any bed licence bid is strongly improved if they have planning approval for the facility. This was the main reason given for the pressure cooker time frame because bed licence applications had to be in by March 15, 2010, and On Luck needed as much planning certainty as possible by that time.
Given that there are only 230 bed licences available in 2010 for the Eastern region (comprising Manningham, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges), it is clear that if Park Orchards had support from a majority of councillors on top of the officer recommendation, they would have been a stronger competitor for these scarce licences. The Federal department's website clearly states that there is only one pool of bed licences although it does flag that some preference in 2010 will be given to CALD groups, veterans, dementia sufferers and the like."
As you can see, there's been plenty of hostility at Manningham but after Fred Chuah resigned and four of us councillors reached a peace agreement last December, the situation has improved significantly. With that in mind, I provided the following on the record statement last week to The Manningham Leader in relation to the Municipal Inspector not launching a criminal prosecution:
"Given that Fred Chuah has resigned from council and the Councillor Conduct Panel reached very firm conclusions, my preference was for all these issues to be resolved and I'm pleased the Chief Municipal Inspector has decided not to proceed with a criminal prosecution.
"I still believe Fred Chuah should have declared a conflict of interest and absented himself from both votes and remain of that view after hearing all the arguments in a briefing from the Municipal Inspector last week."
"However, an expensive and contested criminal prosecution against a former councillor battling significant health issues would not have been in anyone's interests. It's time to move on from these issues."
Lo and behold, I pick up The Manningham Leader this week and Fred Chuah is effectively calling councillors who challenged his conduct racists, which is both outrageous and highly defamatory. Naturally there was no detail on his claims of "racially insensitive comments" and our leader responded with the following in the paper:
Mayor Geoff Gough said he was "personally outraged" by the claims. "First of all, it's just not true," Cr Gough said.
"Secondly, I find that insulting to the integrity of the Manningham council and community. It's a very destructive thing to say, because councillors have never behaved that way. Every councillor has a different background and we work for the community harmoniously."
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Boomers triumph a victory for self-help in a sexist sports funding world
This story didn't make the cut at Crikey last week but is relevent to both local government and those interested in gender equity:
In a country with a male-dominated media constantly pushing sports coverage focused on male-dominated sports, wasn't it great to see the huge run given to the Bulleen Boomers after they secured their first WNBL Premiership in 28 years on March 13?
The win also represented the first national sporting championship won by a team in the City of Manningham in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Congratulations to 8-time premiership coach Tom Maher, assistants such as the legendary Michelle Timms, all the players and the administration led by Ron Carlton.
Australia has quite an astonishingly record when it comes to taxpayer largesse funding elite sports, yet the Boomers have taken an obscure suburb in Melbourne's eastern suburbs to national basketball pre-eminence with very little assistance from any level of government.
The spiritual home of the Bulleen Templestowe Basketball Club is a sub-standard 2 court facility known as “Sheahans Rd”, the quiet suburban street in Bulleen on which it was built in the 1970s with council-backed loans which were repaid in full.
From this base, Bulleen has become a powerhouse which fields more than 300 teams across the junior and senior competitions. The spillover benefits for the local community are large. Basketball participation rates are higher than elsewhere, Michelle Timms assists with sporting programs in the local schools and superstars such the 203cm teen sensation Liz Cambage run holiday clinics at Sheahans Rd where awe-struck 196cm parents and their kids (Alice, then 7) can take pictures such as this:
Unlike arch-rivals and seven time WNBL champions the Canberra Capitals, the Boomers weren't able to shell out $200,000 for 10 games from the world's best player Lauren Jackson in 2009-10.
This funding courtesy of Capitals chief sponsor Transact, with some ACT Government assistance thrown in, enabled Jackson to return from Russia after her club's owner was murdered to snatch a last gasp victory over the Boomers just as the worst hail story in living memory struck Melbourne.
The Capitals also nailed Bulleen by 3 points in the 2009 grand final when Jackson wasn't playing.
Jackson didn't play last week but she enjoyed a few drinks in a corporate box throughout the one-sided contest and confirmed during a mid-game interview that she's considering a new 5-year contract with the Capitals, which already has other players earning six figures a year.
The best Boomers players don't get anything like six figures and with star teenage centre Liz Cambage tipped for the big time in the US this year, stand by for a Jackson-led Canberra to win more premierships in the years ahead.
The first Boomers premiership comes at a time when Manningham City Council is contemplating spending more than $10 million on two so-called “highball facilities”.
The Boomers are potential beneficiaries of both given that there are plans to convert their spiritual home at Sheahans Rd into an expanded five court facility whilst another multi-purpose venue in nearby Donvale would potentially incorporate a show court which could seat more than 1000 for their home games.
At the moment, the Boomers are renting a make-shift show court from the Italian Veneto Club in Bulleen which is the worst home court in the national competition.
Given the amount of taxpayer money which pours into other national clubs and facilities it would be great if the state and Federal Government would step up with a little bit of assistance for Manningham to help fund some much-deserved better facilities for the all-conquering Bulleen Boomers.
After all, governments of all persuasions have been extremely sexist in the way public dollars have been expended on sport over the years, so is it any wonder female participation rates remain much lower than men.
For instance, councils across Victoria spend many millions each year maintaining turf cricket wickets on council owned ovals.
Cricket Victoria understands the value of this huge subsidy and allocates day 4 of the annual Boxing Day test at the MCG to entertaining local government councillors and CEOs from across the state in the largely government-funded Members Pavilion.
Women's basketball and women's sport in general doesn't have such largesse or luxury at their disposal.
· Disclosure: Stephen Mayne is a Manningham councillor who attended the WNBL grand final as a guest of the Boomers. The other four Maynes attended as paying punters. Manningham is hosting a much-deserved celebratory function for the Boomers on May 3.
The Cornwall collection - new animation on educating migrants
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing toThe Mayne Report since March 2009. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now also some amusing animations.
Indeed, click here to check out Cornwall's latest animation on Youtube which is an edgy parody of an appropriate education regime for new migrants set against the national anthem.
Woolies vs Manningham in the Supreme Court in a case many councils are watching
This is part of a Crikey story from Wednesday about a court case in which Woolworths is attempting to establish what some in local government regard as a dangerous precedent:
Manningham City Council has been quite shocked at the aggressive approach Woolworths has taken to prevent an Aldi supermarket opening at Jackson Court in Doncaster.
Woolworths caused outraged in the local community when it closed the Jackson Court Safeway supermarket in 2008 and converted it into a giant Dan Murphy's liquor outlet.
The loss of the supermarket adversely affected trade at the centre and, responding to numerous requests from traders and local residents, Manningham attempted to resolve the problem by offering its car park land to an alternative supermarket operator.
After Aldi was selected as the preferred applicant in 2009, Woolworths initiated proceedings in VCAT and then issued this writ in the Victorian Supreme Court attempting to prevent council from proceeding with its plans.
Manningham has filed this defence and believes the Woolworths claims have little merit.
Woolies CEO Michael Luscombe made the following comments about this matter at the company's 2010 AGM in Brisbane last November:
Yet then they turn around and hire a QC to produce this extraordinary writ, which, if successful, would create a dangerous legal precedent. It looks like blatant gaming of the planning and legal system to suppress a competitor.
Customer traffic into the Dan Murphy's at Jackson Court is dramatically reduced from what the old supermarket used to produce and the car parking issue is a furphy because Manningham will require Aldi to deliver appropriate decked parking to actually increase the overall level of parking capacity at Jackson Court.
Relations between Woolworths, Manningham and the local community are pretty toxic at the moment with many residents refusing to shop at Dan Murphy's, but who would have thought that the company's behaviour would even lead its biggest beer supplier to decline deliveries for a few days in protest after also being treated appallingly.
Donate to help keep us going
The Mayne Report has notched up $300,000 in losses over the past four years and we do rely on donations to help keep us going.
It has been nice to receive more than $12,000 worth of donations over the past couple of years 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 here or on the image below:
Tales from the local government talk circuit
It was fascinating to read Andrew Crook's big feature for Crikey recently on the Australian speakers circuit. It's a really interesting place involving big money and often undisclosed payments.
As a Manningham councillor, it is pretty obvious that you should accept all speaking requests in the municipality and never charge. You wouldn't charge Probus and Rotary groups anyway, but it's important to not have a means by which someone could buy a service from a councillor.
Indeed, I was once offered $1500 just to have dinner with a major pharmacy chain with no speech required. Given that this coincided with Woolworths trying to break into the pharmacy business, I offered to attend for free. However, that would have meant no commission for the agent, so it didn't happen.
When it comes to speaking gigs related to local government, they can usually be accepted. For instance, I'm charging $500 for a lunch time address to the staff of one metropolitan council in the next couple of weeks.
And Manningham is actually saving money courtesy of the agent booking me in for the following gig:
Wednesday, May 25: closing keynote address at Local Government Managers' Association annual congress in Cairns. Title is: "Good governance: from public companies to local government".
This will include accommodation, flights and the conference paid for, whereas any other Manningham councillor who comes to this event will be costing ratepayers close to $2000. This is not to say they shouldn't go, but the expense claims should be disclosed.
Meanwhile, click here to read feedback after some speeches and click on the image below if you fancy an engagement as the talk circuit is emerging as a modest offset to the losses of The Mayne Report:
And here is a list of upcoming speaking commitments.
Manningham discloses councillor taxi claims, so why not go all the way?
It was good to see Manningham mayor Geoff Gough recently responded to a request from our local paper about taxi claims and voluntarily released the following figures for the 18 month period up until December 2010 which were published in this story:
Charles Pick: $3228
Meg Downie: $2801
Ivan Reid: $1455
Graeme McMillan: $1417
Geoff Gough: $1294
Stephen Mayne: $228
David Ellis: $183
However, the figures are not always what they seem. Former mayor Charles Pick is absolutely right to point out that his mileage claim on the mayoral car was very low. He was an active mayor with many commitments in town and it wasn't as if he was just booking cabs because he liked to drink at council functions.
Similarly, some councillors may have low taxi claims but submit large petrol bills for driving their own cars around.
The debate that has followed publication of taxi expense claims just highlights the need for councillors to regularly publish all expense claims. The City of Melbourne and Hume do this quarterly without any problems at all. I'll be pushing hard for such a reform over the course of 2011.
Will Pauline Hanson emerge as the biggest loser tomorrow?
Pauline Hanson, incoming Greens senator from Victoria Richard Dinatale and Stephen Mayne are Australia's three biggest political election losers, who have also scored at least one win.
There are other serial candidates with more defeats, but for those who've had a win, the count currently sits as follows:
Hanson: 1 win, 6 losses and another contest tomorrow
Dinatale: 1 win, 7 losses and a long Senate career ahead of him
Mayne: 1 win, six losses
If Hanson wins a spot in the NSW upper house tomorrow, which I reckon is a serious prospect, then I'll probably take over as the biggest loser, given that the Senate is obviously 100 times more credible as a win than a spot on Manningham council. Here is a chronological rollout of the loser records:
Hanson 1: March 2, 1996: elected as an independent for the Federal seat of Oxley.
Hanson 2: October 3, 1998: defeated as an independent in Oxley despite 36% primary vote.
Mayne 1: December 11, 1999: by-election for Jeff Kennett's seat of Burwood, 6.7% to finish 3rd out of 5 and beat the Green. See results.
Mayne 2: July 2001: Melbourne Lord Mayor, 13th out of 19 with primary vote of 4.3%
Dinatale 1: Deputy Mayor, Melbourne City Council election, 2001
Hanson 3: November 10, 2001: Queensland Senate candidate for Hanson party. Got 148,930 votes or 7.07%. Public funding of about $250,000. See results.
Dinatale 2: Federal seat of Wills, 2001.
Dinatale 3: Melbourne district, state election, 2002
Hanson 4: March 2003: NSW state election. Ran for One Nation which scored 55,396 votes or 1.5%. See results.
Hanson 5: October 9, 2004: Queensland Senate candidate for One Nation. Got 71,043 votes or 3.14%. No public funding given threshhold of 4%. See results.
Dinatale 4: Mayor, Melbourne City Council election, 2004
Dinatale 5: Senate (number two), federal election, 2004
Mayne 3: November 25, 2006: Victorian election, disappointing 1.33% for People Power in upper house Southern Metro region. See results.
Dinatale 6: Melbourne district, state election, 2006
Hanson 6: November 24, 2007: Queensland Senate candidate. Received 81,260 votes or 4.16% which generated about $160,000 in public funding. See results.
Mayne 4: November 24, 2007: Federal election in Higgins, 2% and finished 4th out of 8, getting more than Family First, the Democrats and the two other independents, which was a good outcome. See results.
Dinatale 7: Senate (lead), federal election, 2007.
Mayne 5: November 2008: was elected to Manningham Council in the Heidi ward where 3 of the 10 candidates got up. Received 19% of primary vote. See results.
Hanson 7: March 2009: Queensland state election. Received 5998 votes or 21.25% to finish third in Beaudesert. See results.
Mayne 6: August 21, 2010: Federal election as senate candidate, 0.19% of the vote and finished 13th out of 23.
Dinatale 8: Senate (lead), federal election, 2010. Victory at last.
Mayne 7: November 27, 2010: Victorian election - polled 0.98% in Northern Metro when needed about 1.7% to win on preferences.
Hanson 8: March 26, 2011: contesting NSW upper house as an independent.
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Greetings for the first time since our last bumper edition on March 7. This edition is focused on some interesting local government issues but there's also this lively Cornwall animation and a link and extract from this hard-hitting Crikey story slamming Solomon Lew's decision to appoint Mark McInnes CEO of Premier Investments.
Also, don't forget you can unsubscribe from these occasional email missives here.
Time to take a stand on McInnes
Here's an extract from today's Crikey piece on McInnes which is available in full online:
Just Group was a unique outfit because it was the first listed Australian company to have four female directors, a feat achieved in July 2007 when Susan Oliver was appointed to the board.
When Premier secured control in August 2008 after a contested takeover battle, the entire Just Group board was sacked in this terse two-paragraph statement.
While Alison Watkins had resigned a few months before the Premier bid, the three remaining female directors, Oliver, Bronwyn Constance and Laura Anderson, were all dismissed without a public word of thanks, as was chairman Ian Pollard and Ian Dahl.
More than two years later, Premier still hasn't got a female director, even though the vast majority of its staff and customers are female. Two additional blokes, investment banker Tim Antonie and Simon Crean's brother David Crean, were added to the board in December 2009 after what was claimed to be “an extensive and lengthy selection process”.
The other blokes on the seven man Premier Investment board including trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox, Arnold Bloch Leibler managing partner Henry Lanzer, Gary Weiss and Solly's long-time accountant Frank Jones.
Joe Hockey was right to claim on Q&A earlier this month that it is incredible Australia still has 85 ASX200 companies with no female directors.
While you could make an exception for a few Perth-based mining companies, it is ridiculous that a female-focused company such as Premier Investments hasn't got with the program and joined the likes of Newcrest, Alumina, Transurban, Ausenco, SP Ausnet and Asciano, which ended their all-blokes status by appointing solitary female directors over the past year.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Premier has no female directors because surely only a bunch of blokes could decide to hire Mark McInnes. If Premier doesn't appoint a female director in the next six months, then you can be assured that a female candidate will emerge at the 2011 AGM in October.
That said, the blokey board will now find it extremely hard work recruiting a new female director to sit around the table with McInnes after all the claims, publicity and litigation surrounding his exit from David Jones.
It should not be forgotten that McInnes admitted to conduct unbecoming, resigned as CEO, fled the country for a while and then contributed to the $850,000 payout to his victim, David Jones publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk.
You have to wonder what the women who shop at Just Jeans, Portman, Jacqui E, Smiggle, Dotti, Peter Alexander and Jay Jays think about all this. Maybe Get-Up should get behind a boycott campaign by female shoppers.
ends
I just did a 10 minute interview with Lindy Burns on 774 ABC Melbourne about all this. Some of the lines pushed in an earlier phone call from McInnes PR Sue Cato were trotted out, but overall I still think it reflects very poorly on the Premier Investments board. Good luck to Mark McInnes for not only landing a CEO gig but negotiating a big package out of Solly Lew. The blame lies with those doing the hiring.
Sure, McInnes has suffered enormously at the hands of the tabloid media and much of the evidence was contested, but even the stuff he admitted to was surely enough to keep him side-lined.
If you want cultural change in Australia on workplace bullying, then those who admit to doing the wrong thing should not be rehabilitated so quickly.
It is amusing that the biggest independent Premier Investments shareholder is Perpetual with 13%. And who is the immediate past chair of Perpetual? None other than David Jones chairman Bob Savage.
Finally, wouldn't it be great if one or all of those sacked female Just Group directors came out and slammed the Premier board or, better still, nominated for the board at the AGM. I've already emailed one of them about this and am chasing down contact details for the others.
Local government update - contested peak body elections and Supreme Court writs
We sent this special edition on February 22 analysing the candidates for the board of the Municipal Association of Victoria and were a little surprised that Presidential candidate Reid Mather fired back with this missive to the voting delegates from Victoria's 79 councils, which included the following:
Many of you would have received the latest Mayne Report via email. My program directs them to my junk mail box; I can see no reason to alter that. In my view the current report is bias (sic) and was not an accurate reflection on the Presidential Forum.
The votes have been counted and we're delighted that the MAV has publically released the details for the first time. Click here for the complete report by returning officer Ron Ritchie.
Mather, a National Party member and five time Buloke Shire mayor, was confident of winning the Presidency and campaigned hard driving the length and breadth of the state seeking votes. Alas, something didn't quite work out because he only secured 18 of the 70 formal votes.
Seven of Victoria's 79 councils didn't bother to vote, there were 2 informals, incumbent President Bill McArthur scored a majority in his own right with 37 votes and Labor's Jane Rowe landed 15 votes.
The 13-member board is fairly finely balanced with the two vice-presidential votes both apparently being secured by narrow margins.
Manningham mayor and veteran Liberal Geoff Gough was elected metropolitan vice-president defeating Labor's John Sipek, who is tipped to contest the preselection contest when Rob Hulls vacates his seat of Niddrie in the relatively near future.
But the voting didn't go all the way of the non-Labor forces, which is probably a good thing, because Labor's Lisa Mahood defeated Rod Fyffe and Ken Gale to secure the post of regional vice-president. It's also good to have a female vice-president when there are only 3 women on the 13-person MAV board.
Clarifying VLGA disclosure position
In our last local government update, we wrote the following:
The Victorian Local Government Association (VLGA) initially adopted a similar non-disclosure position about their recent board elections but after some lobbying the board agreed to disclose the full results. Check them out here.
Former VLGA President and current Vice-President Heinz Kreutz clarified the situation in the following email:
The VLGA does not, and never did, entertain a "non-disclosure position". While such a position may have been initially conveyed at an officer level, or perhaps assumed, construed and interpreted by some, it is now a matter of public record that at its first board meeting, the new VLGA board unanimously instructed the organisation to make public all election results. Good governance and transparency is important to us, and you as a VLGA member understand this, of course. It would be good if our position could be disambiguated.
Best wishes, keep up the good work.
Heinz
Indeed, it was terrific that the VLGA disclosed the voting results for the firm time and in primary vote terms, this is how the Presidential 1st perference votes finished:
Samantha Dunn: 64
Vince Fontana: 47
Frank O'Connor: 44
Paul Klisaris: 32
Steve Staikos: 31
For the full preference distribution, go here.
In terms of the councillor board members, the five successful candidates are asterixed in this list of those who made it to double figures in 1st preference votes:
* Heinz Kreutz: 39
Vince Fontana: 23
* Luba Grigorovitch: 22
* Collin Ross: 22
* John Doull: 18
* Christine Richards: 18
Cheryl Bromfield: 12
Lambros Tapinos: 11
Jeanette McRae: 11
Steve Staikos: 10
Frank O'Connor: 10
You can see the profiles of statements from all 15 candidates here.
Update on nursing home developer's Supreme Court defamation writ
Before leaving local government matters, here's a brief update from the last edition when we disclosed that the developer of a nursing home in Manningham's Green Wedge zone has issued this Supreme Court writ against me and another Manningham councillor, David Ellis, alleging defamation.
The writ only runs to 8 pages but was drawn up by Simon Wilson QC, one of the top Victorian silks who costs about $8000 a day. Litigation must be initiated within one year of the publication in question to beat the so-called statute of limitations and my writ was served with just one day remaining.
Since then, council's insurer has agreed to provide cover and law firm HWL Ebsworth has been retained, along with counsel. The defence must be filed within 28 days of being served and that will be a public document that can be viewed online.
There have also been some related developments with our former deputy mayor Fred Chuah, President of the group pushing the nursing home development and the associated defamation action.
Firstly, here are links to recent coverage in the local paper:
Chuah avoids court, plays race card
Manningham council backs councillors in legal stoush
Nursing home owner claims Manningham council grudge
Municipal Inspector decides against prosecution
David Wolf, the Chief Municipal Inspector at the Department of Planning and Community Development, came to Manningham two weeks ago and briefed the councillors on why his 12 month investigation of former councillor Chuah would not lead to criminal charges being laid over two alleged undeclared conflicts of interest at the council meeting held on December 15, 2009. (See minutes here.)
The investigation started after a complaint from a member of the public in February 2010 and then a further complaint was lodged from within council in September 2010.
There are three possible responses from the Municipal Inspector after an investigation.
1. No evidence to prosecute
2. Insufficient evidence to prosecute
3. Prosecute
A brief of evidence was presented to the Victorian Government Solicitor but the advice came back that there was "insufficient evidence to prosecute".
The letter I received from the Chief Municipal Inspector explained the situation as follows:
I write to inform you that the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate has concluded an investigation into allegations that Cr Fred Chuah, formerly of the Manningham City Council, failed to declare conflicts of interest in relation to agenda items 8.2 and 11.2 at the ordinary council meeting of 15 December 2009.
The Inspectorate considered a number of the conflict of interest provisions with the Local Government Act 1989 in relation to the allegations made about Cr Chuah's conduct in this matter. The standard of proof required to be met in conflict of interest cases is beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, it is incumbent on the Inspectorate to present cogent evidence to the satisfaction of a court to demonstrate that Cr Chuah was likely to directly or indirectly benefit as a result of his behaviour as a councillor when he voted in relation to these agenda items.
In this case, the Inspectorate has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support a prosecution for breaches of the Act. As a result, the Inspectorate will not initiate criminal proceedings in the courts in this case.
Conflicts related to proposed review of MCA, Manningham's own nursing home facilities
The essence of the conflict of interest charge related to Cr Chuah voting against a rival nursing home proposal in Park Orchards and also prosecuting a hostile campaign against the Manningham Centre Association (MCA), the not for profit operator of council's own nursing home facilities.
Here is an extract from my 5000 word submission to the separate Councillor Conduct Panel hearings which ended up making three "misconduct" findings against Fred Chuah that he is currently appealing through VCAT:
"After endless mediation sessions and discussion, the final resolution on MCA for the December 15 council meeting read as follows:
MOVED: REID
SECONDED: CHUAH
(A) Council resolves to proceed with an independent review of the Manningham Centre in line with the principles of continuous improvement. In doing so, Council undertakes to enter into meaningful and genuine ongoing discussion with the MCA Board, to resolve upon a consultancy brief for the review.
(B) Council confirms the components of the review of the Manningham Centre as:
1. Charitable Status
2. Financial and Operational Performance
3. Options for future management
4. Governance Review
The components of the review of options will not consider the sale of the land currently occupied by the Manningham Centre.
(C) Council authorise the consultancy for the clarification of the charitable status of the Manningham Centre Association Incorporated to proceed immediately.
(D) Up to $150,000 be allocated as part of the mid-year budget review to enable officers to implement the consultancies listed in part (B) of the recommendation.
PUT and CARRIED
DIVISON: A Division having been demanded the Council divided as follows:
FOR (5): Councillors Reid, Chuah, Downie, Macmillan and Pick
AGAINST (4): Councillors La Vella, Mayne, Gough and Ellis
The Motion was declared CARRIED
It is very clear that the consultant's brief to consider “options for future management” would open the possibility of a public tender for management rights. In this situation, CCSSCI could potentially be a tenderer.
So here was the deputy mayor, 4 days after meeting with the DPCD to discuss a Ministerial Amendment to facilitate On Luck becoming the biggest nursing home in Manningham, voting against a rival nursing home application in Park Orchards and, later the same night, voting to spend up to $150,000 on a sweeping and hostile review of council's own nursing home operation which would potentially lead to management of the facilities being opened to public tender.
I privately asked the deputy mayor to give a commitment that On Luck or CCSSCI would never tender to manage MCA's two residential facilities and he declined on the basis that he couldn't make such a commitment on behalf of the entire board.
ENDS
Pauline Brasher said during the briefing that for a prosecution to take place, the MCA motion needed to be specifically approving a contracting out decision, rather than just opening up the option amongst a range of options. In other words, it was one step removed.
PARK ORCHARDS DECISION
David Wolf and Pauline Brasher said that the Park Orchards nursing home developer needed to apply for Federally funded nursing home beds in 2009-10, directly competing with CCSSCI, for the conflict to be sustained as evidence beyond reasonable doubt in a court. It didn't so, in hindsight, there was no conflict in terms of directly competing for bed licences.
However, David Wolf said there was "merit" in the argument that Fred Chuah shouldn't have voted against the Park Orchards nursing home because at the time he didn't know whether it would apply for bed licences over the balance of 2009-10 when he knew CCSSCI would be.
Again, here is an extract from my Councillor Conduct Panel submission:
"At their presentation to councillors on February 9, 2010, the On Luck team clearly stated that an applicant's prospects of success in any bed licence bid is strongly improved if they have planning approval for the facility. This was the main reason given for the pressure cooker time frame because bed licence applications had to be in by March 15, 2010, and On Luck needed as much planning certainty as possible by that time.
Given that there are only 230 bed licences available in 2010 for the Eastern region (comprising Manningham, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges), it is clear that if Park Orchards had support from a majority of councillors on top of the officer recommendation, they would have been a stronger competitor for these scarce licences. The Federal department's website clearly states that there is only one pool of bed licences although it does flag that some preference in 2010 will be given to CALD groups, veterans, dementia sufferers and the like."
As you can see, there's been plenty of hostility at Manningham but after Fred Chuah resigned and four of us councillors reached a peace agreement last December, the situation has improved significantly. With that in mind, I provided the following on the record statement last week to The Manningham Leader in relation to the Municipal Inspector not launching a criminal prosecution:
"Given that Fred Chuah has resigned from council and the Councillor Conduct Panel reached very firm conclusions, my preference was for all these issues to be resolved and I'm pleased the Chief Municipal Inspector has decided not to proceed with a criminal prosecution.
"I still believe Fred Chuah should have declared a conflict of interest and absented himself from both votes and remain of that view after hearing all the arguments in a briefing from the Municipal Inspector last week."
"However, an expensive and contested criminal prosecution against a former councillor battling significant health issues would not have been in anyone's interests. It's time to move on from these issues."
Lo and behold, I pick up The Manningham Leader this week and Fred Chuah is effectively calling councillors who challenged his conduct racists, which is both outrageous and highly defamatory. Naturally there was no detail on his claims of "racially insensitive comments" and our leader responded with the following in the paper:
Mayor Geoff Gough said he was "personally outraged" by the claims. "First of all, it's just not true," Cr Gough said.
"Secondly, I find that insulting to the integrity of the Manningham council and community. It's a very destructive thing to say, because councillors have never behaved that way. Every councillor has a different background and we work for the community harmoniously."
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Boomers triumph a victory for self-help in a sexist sports funding world
This story didn't make the cut at Crikey last week but is relevent to both local government and those interested in gender equity:
In a country with a male-dominated media constantly pushing sports coverage focused on male-dominated sports, wasn't it great to see the huge run given to the Bulleen Boomers after they secured their first WNBL Premiership in 28 years on March 13?
The win also represented the first national sporting championship won by a team in the City of Manningham in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Congratulations to 8-time premiership coach Tom Maher, assistants such as the legendary Michelle Timms, all the players and the administration led by Ron Carlton.
Australia has quite an astonishingly record when it comes to taxpayer largesse funding elite sports, yet the Boomers have taken an obscure suburb in Melbourne's eastern suburbs to national basketball pre-eminence with very little assistance from any level of government.
The spiritual home of the Bulleen Templestowe Basketball Club is a sub-standard 2 court facility known as “Sheahans Rd”, the quiet suburban street in Bulleen on which it was built in the 1970s with council-backed loans which were repaid in full.
From this base, Bulleen has become a powerhouse which fields more than 300 teams across the junior and senior competitions. The spillover benefits for the local community are large. Basketball participation rates are higher than elsewhere, Michelle Timms assists with sporting programs in the local schools and superstars such the 203cm teen sensation Liz Cambage run holiday clinics at Sheahans Rd where awe-struck 196cm parents and their kids (Alice, then 7) can take pictures such as this:
Unlike arch-rivals and seven time WNBL champions the Canberra Capitals, the Boomers weren't able to shell out $200,000 for 10 games from the world's best player Lauren Jackson in 2009-10.
This funding courtesy of Capitals chief sponsor Transact, with some ACT Government assistance thrown in, enabled Jackson to return from Russia after her club's owner was murdered to snatch a last gasp victory over the Boomers just as the worst hail story in living memory struck Melbourne.
The Capitals also nailed Bulleen by 3 points in the 2009 grand final when Jackson wasn't playing.
Jackson didn't play last week but she enjoyed a few drinks in a corporate box throughout the one-sided contest and confirmed during a mid-game interview that she's considering a new 5-year contract with the Capitals, which already has other players earning six figures a year.
The best Boomers players don't get anything like six figures and with star teenage centre Liz Cambage tipped for the big time in the US this year, stand by for a Jackson-led Canberra to win more premierships in the years ahead.
The first Boomers premiership comes at a time when Manningham City Council is contemplating spending more than $10 million on two so-called “highball facilities”.
The Boomers are potential beneficiaries of both given that there are plans to convert their spiritual home at Sheahans Rd into an expanded five court facility whilst another multi-purpose venue in nearby Donvale would potentially incorporate a show court which could seat more than 1000 for their home games.
At the moment, the Boomers are renting a make-shift show court from the Italian Veneto Club in Bulleen which is the worst home court in the national competition.
Given the amount of taxpayer money which pours into other national clubs and facilities it would be great if the state and Federal Government would step up with a little bit of assistance for Manningham to help fund some much-deserved better facilities for the all-conquering Bulleen Boomers.
After all, governments of all persuasions have been extremely sexist in the way public dollars have been expended on sport over the years, so is it any wonder female participation rates remain much lower than men.
For instance, councils across Victoria spend many millions each year maintaining turf cricket wickets on council owned ovals.
Cricket Victoria understands the value of this huge subsidy and allocates day 4 of the annual Boxing Day test at the MCG to entertaining local government councillors and CEOs from across the state in the largely government-funded Members Pavilion.
Women's basketball and women's sport in general doesn't have such largesse or luxury at their disposal.
· Disclosure: Stephen Mayne is a Manningham councillor who attended the WNBL grand final as a guest of the Boomers. The other four Maynes attended as paying punters. Manningham is hosting a much-deserved celebratory function for the Boomers on May 3.
The Cornwall collection - new animation on educating migrants
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing toThe Mayne Report since March 2009. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now also some amusing animations.
Indeed, click here to check out Cornwall's latest animation on Youtube which is an edgy parody of an appropriate education regime for new migrants set against the national anthem.
Woolies vs Manningham in the Supreme Court in a case many councils are watching
This is part of a Crikey story from Wednesday about a court case in which Woolworths is attempting to establish what some in local government regard as a dangerous precedent:
Manningham City Council has been quite shocked at the aggressive approach Woolworths has taken to prevent an Aldi supermarket opening at Jackson Court in Doncaster.
Woolworths caused outraged in the local community when it closed the Jackson Court Safeway supermarket in 2008 and converted it into a giant Dan Murphy's liquor outlet.
The loss of the supermarket adversely affected trade at the centre and, responding to numerous requests from traders and local residents, Manningham attempted to resolve the problem by offering its car park land to an alternative supermarket operator.
After Aldi was selected as the preferred applicant in 2009, Woolworths initiated proceedings in VCAT and then issued this writ in the Victorian Supreme Court attempting to prevent council from proceeding with its plans.
Manningham has filed this defence and believes the Woolworths claims have little merit.
Woolies CEO Michael Luscombe made the following comments about this matter at the company's 2010 AGM in Brisbane last November:
"We don't actually have a problem with the Aldi supermarket opening near the Dan Murphy ...In addition, Woolworths was quoted as follows in the local paper in July 2009:
"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 ...
If a space for Aldi can be found without reducing the car park, then that would be great for that shopping centre[1].
"Woolworths spokesman Benedict Brook told the Manningham Leader last week that the addition of a grocery store alongside the company's new Dan Murphy's would bring in more customers and ensure the future viability of a much-liked neighbourhood shopping centre."[2]So here you have Woolworths abandoning a community and then publicly claiming to be relaxed about Aldi filling the void.
Yet then they turn around and hire a QC to produce this extraordinary writ, which, if successful, would create a dangerous legal precedent. It looks like blatant gaming of the planning and legal system to suppress a competitor.
Customer traffic into the Dan Murphy's at Jackson Court is dramatically reduced from what the old supermarket used to produce and the car parking issue is a furphy because Manningham will require Aldi to deliver appropriate decked parking to actually increase the overall level of parking capacity at Jackson Court.
Relations between Woolworths, Manningham and the local community are pretty toxic at the moment with many residents refusing to shop at Dan Murphy's, but who would have thought that the company's behaviour would even lead its biggest beer supplier to decline deliveries for a few days in protest after also being treated appallingly.
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Tales from the local government talk circuit
It was fascinating to read Andrew Crook's big feature for Crikey recently on the Australian speakers circuit. It's a really interesting place involving big money and often undisclosed payments.
As a Manningham councillor, it is pretty obvious that you should accept all speaking requests in the municipality and never charge. You wouldn't charge Probus and Rotary groups anyway, but it's important to not have a means by which someone could buy a service from a councillor.
Indeed, I was once offered $1500 just to have dinner with a major pharmacy chain with no speech required. Given that this coincided with Woolworths trying to break into the pharmacy business, I offered to attend for free. However, that would have meant no commission for the agent, so it didn't happen.
When it comes to speaking gigs related to local government, they can usually be accepted. For instance, I'm charging $500 for a lunch time address to the staff of one metropolitan council in the next couple of weeks.
And Manningham is actually saving money courtesy of the agent booking me in for the following gig:
Wednesday, May 25: closing keynote address at Local Government Managers' Association annual congress in Cairns. Title is: "Good governance: from public companies to local government".
This will include accommodation, flights and the conference paid for, whereas any other Manningham councillor who comes to this event will be costing ratepayers close to $2000. This is not to say they shouldn't go, but the expense claims should be disclosed.
Meanwhile, click here to read feedback after some speeches and click on the image below if you fancy an engagement as the talk circuit is emerging as a modest offset to the losses of The Mayne Report:
And here is a list of upcoming speaking commitments.
Manningham discloses councillor taxi claims, so why not go all the way?
It was good to see Manningham mayor Geoff Gough recently responded to a request from our local paper about taxi claims and voluntarily released the following figures for the 18 month period up until December 2010 which were published in this story:
Charles Pick: $3228
Meg Downie: $2801
Ivan Reid: $1455
Graeme McMillan: $1417
Geoff Gough: $1294
Stephen Mayne: $228
David Ellis: $183
However, the figures are not always what they seem. Former mayor Charles Pick is absolutely right to point out that his mileage claim on the mayoral car was very low. He was an active mayor with many commitments in town and it wasn't as if he was just booking cabs because he liked to drink at council functions.
Similarly, some councillors may have low taxi claims but submit large petrol bills for driving their own cars around.
The debate that has followed publication of taxi expense claims just highlights the need for councillors to regularly publish all expense claims. The City of Melbourne and Hume do this quarterly without any problems at all. I'll be pushing hard for such a reform over the course of 2011.
Will Pauline Hanson emerge as the biggest loser tomorrow?
Pauline Hanson, incoming Greens senator from Victoria Richard Dinatale and Stephen Mayne are Australia's three biggest political election losers, who have also scored at least one win.
There are other serial candidates with more defeats, but for those who've had a win, the count currently sits as follows:
Hanson: 1 win, 6 losses and another contest tomorrow
Dinatale: 1 win, 7 losses and a long Senate career ahead of him
Mayne: 1 win, six losses
If Hanson wins a spot in the NSW upper house tomorrow, which I reckon is a serious prospect, then I'll probably take over as the biggest loser, given that the Senate is obviously 100 times more credible as a win than a spot on Manningham council. Here is a chronological rollout of the loser records:
Hanson 1: March 2, 1996: elected as an independent for the Federal seat of Oxley.
Hanson 2: October 3, 1998: defeated as an independent in Oxley despite 36% primary vote.
Mayne 1: December 11, 1999: by-election for Jeff Kennett's seat of Burwood, 6.7% to finish 3rd out of 5 and beat the Green. See results.
Mayne 2: July 2001: Melbourne Lord Mayor, 13th out of 19 with primary vote of 4.3%
Dinatale 1: Deputy Mayor, Melbourne City Council election, 2001
Hanson 3: November 10, 2001: Queensland Senate candidate for Hanson party. Got 148,930 votes or 7.07%. Public funding of about $250,000. See results.
Dinatale 2: Federal seat of Wills, 2001.
Dinatale 3: Melbourne district, state election, 2002
Hanson 4: March 2003: NSW state election. Ran for One Nation which scored 55,396 votes or 1.5%. See results.
Hanson 5: October 9, 2004: Queensland Senate candidate for One Nation. Got 71,043 votes or 3.14%. No public funding given threshhold of 4%. See results.
Dinatale 4: Mayor, Melbourne City Council election, 2004
Dinatale 5: Senate (number two), federal election, 2004
Mayne 3: November 25, 2006: Victorian election, disappointing 1.33% for People Power in upper house Southern Metro region. See results.
Dinatale 6: Melbourne district, state election, 2006
Hanson 6: November 24, 2007: Queensland Senate candidate. Received 81,260 votes or 4.16% which generated about $160,000 in public funding. See results.
Mayne 4: November 24, 2007: Federal election in Higgins, 2% and finished 4th out of 8, getting more than Family First, the Democrats and the two other independents, which was a good outcome. See results.
Dinatale 7: Senate (lead), federal election, 2007.
Mayne 5: November 2008: was elected to Manningham Council in the Heidi ward where 3 of the 10 candidates got up. Received 19% of primary vote. See results.
Hanson 7: March 2009: Queensland state election. Received 5998 votes or 21.25% to finish third in Beaudesert. See results.
Mayne 6: August 21, 2010: Federal election as senate candidate, 0.19% of the vote and finished 13th out of 23.
Dinatale 8: Senate (lead), federal election, 2010. Victory at last.
Mayne 7: November 27, 2010: Victorian election - polled 0.98% in Northern Metro when needed about 1.7% to win on preferences.
Hanson 8: March 26, 2011: contesting NSW upper house as an independent.
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Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
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