From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Memo to the ALP: do this. Tips likes this website, which compares the speeds of Labor’s NBN with the Coalition’s old-school alternative broadband plan (the red side shows Labor’s speeds, the blue side is the Coalition):

Tips wondered if it was an ALP site (perhaps surreptitiously), but apparently not. We got in touch with James Brotchie, who’s behind the site, and he claims to be a Liberal voter. This is what he told us:

“Unfortunately (from the comedic perspective) the ALP wasn’t involved with it whatsoever! I don’t think I know anybody involved with the party, and can’t recall if I have ever met a Labor politician! … Somebody from the ALP’s media section contacted me via Twitter a few hours after the site went viral and their internal response was ‘who the f-ck is this guy? This site came from nowhere.’ Cheers, James”

The site has already received over 28,000 Facebook “likes” 3500 tweets. Certainly shows how poor the ALP is at selling its policies. Get James on board!

Abbott the critic. Tony Abbott has found time to turn his hand to literary criticism, penning this rosy review for The Spectator on the latest book from The Australian‘s Nick Cater. Abbott uses the book as a launch pad to lambast “politically correct critics” (apparently they “don’t constitute an Australian ruling class at all”). “They are certainly influential and often have a corrosive influence on public morale,” he declared.

It’s a nice change to see a Lib embrace literature, as Labor types are writing a veritable library (mostly on the subject of what’s wrong with Labor).

The Liberals are revolting. This doesn’t bode well for Tony Abbott — colourful Liberal MP Dennis Jensen (he’s had a little trouble with preselections in the past) seems to be crowdsourcing support for his concerns that his party’s paid parental leave scheme is too expensive. Plenty of Coalition MPs agree with Jensen, but only a few are saying it publicly. Is there trouble brewing in paradise for the PM-elect? And please, Dennis — watch your apostrophe’s.

Those were the days. Yesterday Tips asked your for your reminisces of the golden days of company credit cards (we were inspired by the sad tale of the Nine Network cutting up its executives’ company Amex cards). Here are the best:

“Working for a financial services firm in NZ as the HR guy I once took a call from Showgirls Strip Club advising that the credit card of one of our senior business development executives was left behind the bar. My CEO’s view was along the lines of: ‘well, I suppose that’s where most of our customers would prefer to go for lunch so can’t really complain can we. Tell him to remember the bloody card next time.'”

“Back in the 60s I was a 26-year-old sales rep for an international company based in Sydney. One day a couple of suits from the UK arrived, they wanted to see Tom Jones at the Chevron Silver Spade room. The evening was uproariously drunken. The very best of Penfold wines and Para Liqueur port. When the bill came someone pulled out a Diners Card. Some weeks later in the HO bag a Diners Card came to me. I was single and living in Paddington at the time. They had unleashed a tiger. I never spent another dollar on taking girls to dinner. Out came the card and no complaints. I never took a customer out. Eventually went to work in Chicago where again the credit card was supplied on an even greater scale until Congress put a stop to it. It was magnificent while it lasted but how I miss the endless bottles of Henshke Hill of Grace, the fags, the top ports and expensive hotel rooms. This was after all the 60s and 70s and business was easy. Long lunches? We never came back.”

“When I ran a regional bureau for an American publisher, I’d put all airfares on my platinum Amex. This often meant one free seat or half-price seat. Given the stronger greenback in the 90s and early 2000s and my employees being clueless about foreign exchange, I’d travel first class on pan-regional rates (cheaper because of one or two extra stops) and call it business, got the free seat up the front, and quickly built up frequent flyer points via Amex and of course by travelling in 1A. It was a very pleasant and surprisingly long-lasting cycle. As for the five-hour lunches … well, that’s a given!”

“Many years ago I worked for a large company which had been taken over by a high-profile business whiz on a very large salary with hefty bonuses. He travelled frequently and charged everything to the card — often buying a suit a week and sometimes five shirts in a week. A mole in the accounts department who handled the credit card payment told me that the CEO often took his wife on overseas jaunts (sorry, business trips) and even charged her sanitary towels to the card.”

“I knew one businessman who not only took his wife on some overseas trips but racked up huge frequent flyer points — he travelled OS at least twice a month, flying business class around the globe. He accrued sufficient points to give his children holidays OS every year travelling business and staying in five-star hotels. Are frequent flyer points included when salaries are recorded in annual reports?”

“Back in the 1970s, land development in Sydney was hectic. One of the ‘developers’ enjoyed (many) a good lunch! Celebrating the completion of one particular industrial development at a restaurant in northern Sydney, he offered my boss his choice of a wine to have with lunch. The boss picked Grange Hermitage — even more than $100 RRP then.”

Working at Crikey is not without its perks, mind you. Here they are:

But it’s not just Crikey where austerity has hit the office — businesses generally have axed the trimmings. We’ve heard that journalists at The Herald Sun and The Age have to pay for the home-delivered copies of their own papers, so they can read their own stories. That’s $155 a year for hard-working Age journos. Still, it’s one way of sandbagging falling circulation …

*Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form