From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

When the Bauer breaks … It looks like Bauer’s new Australian boss is in damage control following Rebel Wilson’s defamation win against the German publisher. Paul Dykzeul replaced Nick Chan as Australian CEO in June, just a week after a jury found that Bauer had defamed Wilson in a series of articles. And just days after the $4.5 million damages bill was announced, Dykzeul has stepped into the trade press — is he trying to convince advertisers to stick with the troubled company? His interview with AdNews was published on Friday, in which he declared the business “a long way from dead”. And to Mumbrella, the line published on Monday was, “this business is not in trouble, it’s just having some difficulties”.

Bauer took over ACP Magazines in 2012, and the company has been plagued by a bad reputation and high-profile departures. Chan left after just 18 months in the top job.

Credlin’s new hat. So you’re a former UK Tory adviser, the centre-right’s most prominent blogger, and a columnist for The Times. What do you call your new news/comment site from a liberal-conservative perspective? Why, UnHerd of course! Because Tim Montgomerie, a towering presence in UK comment and politics, is an outsider and a maverick, struggling for an audience — as, apparently, is 20-book historian Michael Burleigh, BBC/Fleet St A-lister Steve Richards and of course, novelist Lionel Shriver.  

Nevertheless, in typical UK fashion, this Heat Street of 2017 is well-written and interesting in parts, and also has some Australian parts. Those parts do not coincide because their Oz connection is … Peta Credlin. Answering the question: “Is the advance of left-wing politicians like Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders down to economic issues or are we seeing the long-term fruits of a gradual left-liberal ascendancy in education, arts and entertainment?”

Credlin writes: “There’s no doubt that the corrupting influence of the post-modernist left in universities has had an impact. How many high school students, for instance, have converted ‘everyone is entitled to an opinion’ into ‘all opinions are equal’? Still, you can’t design a car or build a bridge on the basis of gender studies and identity politics.”

Workers of the world. We have posted a lot of the more outlandish claims from the No side of the marriage equality debate, now one of the more bizarre things we have seen from the progressive side of inner-northern Melbourne politics. Socialist City of Yarra councillor (yes that City of Yarra) told his Facebook followers last night that he had declined the opportunity to be in a joint video with his fellow Greens and Labor councillors in support of marriage equality. It isn’t because he doesn’t support the Yes case; it’s because dirty capitalists like Alan Joyce at Qantas are involved and also something about a bin tax.

Greens leak? Has the Australian Greens Party stuck its nose in the New Zealand election (and its local email list)? A Crikey tipster got in touch after receiving this email from the leader of the Greens across the ditch, imploring them to get their Kiwi mates to vote Green — the email is authorised by the Australian co-convenor of the party, but it’s not clear if the New Zealand party had access to the party’s contact list. New Zealanders go to the polls on Saturday, and there has already been a level of interaction with Australia from the Kiwi Labour party after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made the comment that she would find it hard to trust a NZ Labour leader after questions were raised about the involvement of the party with the revelations about Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s New Zealand citizenship.

 

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