Lies about the movements of Anna Bligh’s chief of staff, Mike Kaiser, to the National Broadband Network came without a hint of subtlety, greyness or a plausible get out.
November, 2009
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Worst. Editorial. Ever.
Crikey readers: not fans of Friday’s editorial on race and immigration. Plus responses from Melbourne Uni and the ABC’s Mark Scott.
Virgin’s Velocity Gold blue
Personalising a free upgrade in writing and then rescinding it entirely is just a “douche-bag move”, writes a Crikey reader angered at Friday’s Virgin Blue stuff up.
China’s dirty Yuan devaluation
China’s dirty devaluation of its currency to allow it to move in value with the fall in value as the US dollar is hurting its rivals in recovering Asia, such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Qantas dodges BA-Iberia tie-up
The proposed 4.4 billion pound merger between British Airways and Iberia of Spain is so full of holes that it could very well sink without a trace at the slightest bit of opposition.
leaked SBS: Your chance to come up with ideas for us for free!
An internal email from SBS management announces an exciting opportunity for SBS staffers: come up with some TV show ideas, which may or may not be used, and you almost certainly won’t get paid for. Where do we sign up?
Australian newspapers following the US in steep decline
The declining revenues of Australian newspapers will spell trouble locally, just as the same trend has resulted in disaster for many US titles, writes Niki Scevak.
Media briefs: Reality TV, Arab style … Belle du Jour outs herself
How Arabic reality TV is reviving traditional dress, dance, music and poetry, call girl blogger Belle de Jour is revealed to be a geeky scientist, China’s Facebook goes global, Conrad Black has some lessons for his fellow inmates (literally), and more media news.
National newspapers fall off a cliff, bury news
Australian newspaper buyers have punished the national papers, The Australian Financial Review and The Australian in the latest audit period, but basically spared the rod on their state-based competitors.
Crikey editor moves to ABC Online
The editor of Crikey, Jonathan Green, has resigned to take up a new post with the ABC. Inside sources say he will be sorely missed.
Dust off your Smiths albums, it’s 1988 and the Australia Card all over again!
Stock up on the ammo and canned food! Bernard Keane’s conspiracy theories on electoral reforms are flat out wrong, says Peter Brent.
Sorry, but Kevin and Malcolm pulled it off
Well done to both Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, who this morning made excellent speeches in Parliament’s Great Hall, to representatives of the Forgotten Generation.
Joe Tripodi’s smoke and mirrors finally exposed
It was almost possible, but not quite, to feel sorry for Joe Tripodi as he resigned yesterday, writes NSW ALP watcher Prue Believer. The real power in the NSW Right now rests with Canberra.
Credibility of Qantas on line over “unusual vibrations” aka a flaming engine
The scorched engine at the centre of the latest allegations about safety standards at Qantas is now being examined by the independent air safety investigator, and the credibility of two unions, the airline’s management and the air safety regulation enforce are all on the line.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Who will replace Merrick and Rosso?
The shortlist of presenters to replace Merrick and Rosso on Nova revealed, Gareth Evans sings a sour song, battle-lines drawn in Woollahra, and the John Hartigan-Tim Burrowes lovefest.
Where’s the warning for investors from the big polluters?
Some of Australia’s biggest polluters continue to say one thing in public about the CPRS and tell their shareholders another.
Victorian ALP facing fresh dissent on branch stacking
The Victorian Branch of the ALP’s branch-stacking inquiry has been branded a failure by a leading party member who helped set it up, because the same people who benefit from branch stacking wrote the report.
Aboriginal Australia: like the poorest of Africa, says Amnesty chief
The Secretary General of Amnesty International has likened conditions in Central Australia to the poorest parts of Africa and Asia, and described the gap between rich and poor in this country as the most stark she’s even seen.
The Australian climate movement needs to take a good, hard look at itself
Following Copenhagen, the Australian climate movement needs to take a hard collective look at itself, with the aim of achieving unity around the crucial goal of reducing Australia’s greenhouse house gas emissions to zero by 2030.
Political snippets: Climate change, coast to coast
Australia’s Department of Climate Change has finally started seriously looking at future options for when Australia’s temperature rises, and further evidence of global warming from the US.
Mungo MacCallum: Minchin has no excuse for his ignorance
The most depressing statistic of modern times is the one that tells us that well over 50% of adult Americans do not believe in evolution. Or it was — until Nick Minchin came along.
Take your CPRS and shove it
Bernard Keane is sick of Penny Wong’s tedious droning, Kevin Rudd’s sanctimony, Coalition climate denialists, Barnaby Joyce, rentseekers and everything else tied up in the never-ending CPRS debate.
Guy Rundle: What is forgotten in Rudd’s latest apology
The Forgotten Australian apology makes the state the agent of a set of acts — compassion, sympathy, pity, reparation, remorse — that are properly human, and should be expressed between individuals or groups.
