Tips and rumours, Jul 04, 2014

ABC appointments history repeating ... pollies love Les Mis ... tax return problems return ...

From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

ABC appointments deja vu. The appointment of conservative footsoldier Janet Albrechtsen, along with that of ’80s Liberal hack (and, for five minutes, Fraser government communications minister) Neil Brown to the nomination panel overseeing ABC and SBS board appointments was, we now know, made by the Prime Minister’s Office, without any involvement from Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The official line is that it was made by the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Ian “dob your colleagues in” Watt, but that, shall we say, strains, if not tortures and kills, credulity.

As ABC watchers know, Janet Albrechtsen is no stranger to the ABC board, where she served without any impact from 2005 to 2010. Albrechtsen’s appointment was made by then-communications minister Helen Coonan, a matter not entirely irrelevant given Coonan’s chief of staff when Albrechtsen was appointed is also Tony Abbott’s chief of staff — Peta Credlin. With Credlin having gone back to the reactionary well for Albrechtsen, we may be able to look forward to some other old names reappearing at the ABC — with any luck, noted hoax victim and vanity publisher Keith Windschuttle will get another go round, though of course SBS board appointee Christopher Pearson is no longer with us. So perhaps it’s on to the next generation of The Australian’s op-ed stable: Nick Cater, Chris Kenny, Henry Ergas and Judith ”Entertaining Mr” Sloan. Sloan’s already had a go — Howard put her on in 1999, but the rest would make glittering adornments.

Unlike the others, Kenny even knows something about broadcasting, so he certainly wouldn’t make a dog’s breakfast of the role.

Do you hear the pollies sing? Melbourne’s shivering glitterati walked the red carpet last night for the premiere of Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Les Miserables, braving frigid temperatures for the reward of dashing revolutionaries, reformed convicts and Mumm champagne. Partygoers had to traverse five city blocks after the show from Mike Walsh’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in Exhibition Street to the after-party at the faux-Rococo Forum Theatre in Flinders Street, owned by Walsh’s business competitor David Marriner.

One of the first to arrive was Patti Newton, having sailed serenely past the trudging hoi polloi in a white (Australian-made) limo with a white-haired companion, who, sadly, was not Bert. Inside the party was ubiquitous entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins, with his mauve-haired son as his date. Victorian Premier Denis Napthine seemed rapt to be there (see tweet below), and rightly so, as he’s said Les Mis is his favourite musical. We saw no sign of boned premier Ted Baillieu, usually first in line at such events, and wonder if the staff of premiers past and present confer to decide which will attend, to avoid any awkward confrontations.

Winners and Losers star Melissa Bergland looked lovely in an elegant green frock (and we noted her eyes were as red as her hair at the closing curtain — there were many discreet hankies out during the tearjerker second act). Songstress Deborah Conway was there with one of her taller daughters amid a clutch of fashionistas, including the top-hatted milliner Richard Nylon, accessory queen Christine Barro, and her concreting mogul husband, Peter Barro.

Recently dumped radio host Ian “Dicko” Dickson was also there, and perhaps all the tuberculosis and misery put his own woes into perspective. Making a grand entrance in a frilly black number and a fur-collared coat was parliamentary Speaker Bronwyn “No laughing” Bishop. Our reporter has a soft spot for handsome rebels and lost causes, so kept her own red eyes well away from Bishop for fear of being ejected from the theatre for overt displays of emotion.

Cuts and cracks at SAlt. More evidence of internal struggle at Socialist Alternative,with the promulgation, and then withdrawal, of a cover for their magazine Red Flag, featuring Tony Abbott getting his throat cut with a disembodied razor. The visual pun is obvious, regarding cuts, but the image is bloody and individualistic nevertheless, and something that Trotskyist groups have usually steered clear of. Indeed, SAlt leader Mick Armstrong has often been critical of the violence-chic that sometimes bubbled up in the student Left in the 1990s and 2000s, when Italian “autonomism” and gunplay was all the rage. Does the tussle over the image represent a rethink or a strategic misstep? Or signs that the group is engaged in a factional and power struggle, preparatory to another split?

More e-tax bugs. After yesterday’s tip on troubles with the new government websites designed to make tax returns easier, we are seeing multiple reports that the program e-tax has a bug. When users are asked if they expect to lodge a tax return in the future, all answers are recorded as “no” even if “yes” was selected. Tax returns are always tedious, but it seems that this year is more so — perhaps we should take a leaf out of Malcolm Turnbull’s book and just invest our money overseas …

Unbalanced finances. Unrelated to problems with e-tax and myGov, we hear that some public servants at Finance have little to do but twiddle their thumbs:

“Could the Minister of Finance and the Commissioner of Taxation please explain why, when there is a financial emergency, there is still a plethora of staff performing higher duties (higher wages) whilst there are staff at substantive levels sitting around with no duties to perform?”

Could we suggest getting them on to the IT problems with e-tax?

One small step for MPs, one giant leap for the Greens. It was a good day when Facebook introduced the edit function for statuses and comments and those pesky typos could be changed before they became too embarrassing. Perhaps Victorian state Greens candidate Ellen Sandell might also like to edit this status, in which she seems to say that Victoria is yet to have a single lower house MP. We think she means “first lower house Greens MP” …

Hockey’s musical career. We know that Treasurer Joe Hockey has a propensity for dancing, but maybe he’s also got some skills on the guitar. Check out his recent release below.