Crikey

WYD supporter, Kath Day-Knight meet Pope. It’s good to know that the Pope had time in his busy schedule to meet with his higher profile fans:

From: John Denton
Sent: 21/07/2008 09:49 AM ZE10
To: All Corrs
Subject: World Youth Day: Corrs blessed by Pope Benedict

Colleagues

As anyone travelling to or living in Sydney last week would know, with our name emblazoned on the flags fluttering throughout the city, Corrs was one of the official supporters of the very successful World Youth Day (WYD) and of the first official visit to Australia by Pope Benedict.

Last night, accompanied by my spouse Jane Turner, I was invited to a special meeting with the Pope at Cathedral House in Sydney. We were formally and privately introduced to the Pope by Cardinal Pell for what was described as a “special audience”.

In introducing us to the Pope, the Cardinal formally recognised Corrs for all our work in support of WYD. In particular, the Cardinal expressed his gratitude for the work of our lawyers on secondment to WYD and commended the firm to his Holiness.

We were then formally blessed.

Congratulations to all our WYD lawyers and in particular to our secondees: *** and ***. …and thank you on behalf of the Pope.

 — john

John W.H. Denton
Partner & Chief Executive Officer
Corrs Chambers Westgarth

A major report to the Victorian Government appears to borrow (word-for-word) commentary from an amateur source on the internet. You will know that a major news issue in Melbourne at the moment concerns proposed road and rail tunnels recommended by the Eddington Report. Over 2000 responses to a consultation have been received. The report may have lifted (word-for-word) information from a rail enthusiasts website without acknowledgement: Chapter three of the Eddington report contains commentary on “What other cities are doing”. The commentary for Madrid, Buenos Aires and Shanghai appears to have lifted, word for word, from here, here and here. This is not cited in the Eddingon report’s references. If this is the case, it validifies the lack of respect that many appear to have in the document. The report was commissioned by John Brumby and proposed multi-billion dollar projects. That it may have lifted part of its response from the internet devalues its integrity.

Mark Vaile’s ministerial staff are spitting chips today after reading his press release which thanks his electorate staff but not them. This comes on top of him failing to tell any of them after the election defeat that he was resigning as leader and the first they heard of it was as he gave his press conference. Many of them hold some pretty damaging secrets so it will be interesting to see what comes to light over the next few weeks following this latest slap in the face…

Did you see Sol Trujillo receiving communion from the Pope on Saturday at St. Marys? Live on Sky!

Moving from a collective agreement to an AWA is a significant financial decision. If a Telstra Manager obtains a financial benefit from persuading an employee to move from a collective agreement to an AWA could this be construed as offering financial advice? If so, would there be an obligation on the Telstra Manager to disclose the remuneration arising out of or in relation to the provision of the financial advice? How about opening this question up for Senior Counsel comment. 

Whilst one could take issue with News on many fronts, they are trying to do something with One Degree to the extent that they are now trying to utilise hybrid hire cars in place of taxis whenever they can. The sticking point? Journos who’d rather pocket a cabcharge docket than make a carbon-neutral contribution by using one of the increasing fleet of silver Prius’ loitering in the carpark outside the main doors. But maybe it’s a convoluted political protest? Green Tomato Cars, the hybrid hirers in question, is the latest project of John Calvert-Jones — Rupe’s brother-in-law and former Federal Treasurer of the Liberal Party. So maybe the journos reluctance to get with the program is an attempt to hurt the extended Murdoch clan or to punish Calvert-Jones for being a Lib? Hold on, this is News. Surely neither possibility is credible. Is it?

Regarding the ABC’s John Cameron’s travels to Singapore — since when is tax payers money used for travel and accommodation to Singapore for an off-duty employee (i.e. during a period of leave, not official duty) sprung on drug charges, not to mention one of the ABC’s legal team as well? Would this be the case for any other ABC employee who was faced with a similar situation. Quite likely not. Quite a bit of consternation within the ABC about this issue and the apparent inequity when it comes to supporting some favoured employees with the use of tax payers money. For most employees of publicly funded organisations, if they were caught in a foreign country, whilst on leave, being involved in drug related activities, it would be their own responsibility to meet the costs of their predicament. Quite a discussion point within the ABC at the moment along with the topic of just how much is the organisation prepared to spend on this one matter.

According to the Sunday paper in Adelaide, Natasha Stott Despoja held a black tie dinner in Adelaide on Saturday night. Listed amongst the guests were the ACTU’s Sharon Burrow, the SA Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, the Greens Bob Brown, former Labor Senator Nick Bolkus and retiring Liberal MP Alexander Downer. Noticeably absent were any Democrat names. Two of her just retired Democrat colleagues, Lyn Allison and Andrew Bartlett, were in Adelaide over the weekend for a Young Democrat conference, so one can assume they just weren’t invited. Indeed, Natasha was noticeably absent from the entire Young Democrat event, as well as from the announcement of the party’s candidate for the by-election in Mayo which her party guest Alexander Downer is vacating.

I noticed that Channel Seven didn’t start Private Practise — a Grey’s Anatomy spin-off, that hasn’t had the success of it’s parent program — until 8.40pm on Sunday night, after Battle of the Choirs. The cynic in me might suggest that they were deliberately starting it late so that viewers wouldn’t flick over to Rove on Ten — both shows have the same target audience demographic. Similar fight to the “who can start the news the earliest” between Channel Seven and Nine at 5am, every week day.