Food fight to get Greenhouse finished. Tensions were simmering, we’re told, at the 20th anniversary of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Green is the colour of the key attraction but there were red faces when the $1 million Greenhouse restaurant and bar by “Melbourne visionary and sustainable designer” Joost Bakker was half-finished for the grand opening […]

A big loser in Julia Gillard’s shake-up. Speculation is in overdrive around Parliament House as Julia Gillard prepares to name her new-look front bench this afternoon. A Crikey mole who just flew out of Canberra reports: “If the rumour mill is anything to go by, then a certain young Labor MP — with a very high opinion of […]

Taking it to the top, if only to stop the death metal: This tipster got in touch in response to our ‘Forty days of protest’ tip from yesterday, which asked if police would be called in should the protesters swell in numbers and vitriol. In this case, the tipster has reported behaviour to the police: […]

Forty days of protests. One Crikey tipster regular passes the Preterm Abortion Clinic on Elizabeth and Randle streets in Sydney’s Surrey Hills, and it seems the number of anti-abortion demonstrators are increasing in recent days. “I noticed on my way to work that the usual gaggle of idiots who protest outside this abortion clinic in Surry Hills had swelled and […]

Letting their voice be heard … for Gillard. We reported on Friday that there wasn’t exactly a flood of calls to electorate offices following Kevin Rudd’s call for the people to let their voices be heard. But what if the office doesn’t like the answer? One caller writes: “I phoned Mark Butler’s office this morning to […]

Tips and rumours Albo goes to ground in Labor spill. Is Anthony Albanese in hiding? He’s yet to show is hand in the Labor leadership dispute, and we hear a planned announcement today (months in the planning) with cruise ship operators Carnival in Sydney has been cancelled. Too busy counting numbers, no doubt, but we’re not […]

Perrett ‘committed’ to Labor cause … for now. So will Labor MP Graham Perrett follow through on his threat to quit the party — and destabilise its hold on power further — if Julia Gillard is rolled on Monday? We’ve been reporting whispers from Perrett’s camp that he’d already given up on Labor — and alternatively that he was talking to Rudd about […]

Cash-for-gifts fund feeds LNP. Campbell Newman’s Liberal-National Party machine is generating plenty of cash in corporate donations. A Queensland political insider reports: “Not only are they managing to squeeze significant sums out of major Queensland corporates vying for the recognition of a potential new government, they’re taking things one step further by leaning on the business […]

Heartland Anonymous Donor revealed. Crikey yesterday reported The New York Times would today reveal the “anonymous donor” of the Heartland Institute — an individual who has given over US$13 million since 2007. The Times didn’t, but here’s a hot tip: Chicago industrialist Barre Seid. You can read all about Seid, a highly conservative and but publicity shy man, […]

Perrett resigned to Rudd re-ignition? Labor MP Graham Perrett vowed to quit the party if Julia Gillard is rolled and Kevin Rudd returned to the leadership. And with that prospect growing more likely by the day, apparently Perrett is preparing the way. As one local whispered to Crikey: “Perrett seems so sure of a Rudd comeback, he is making […]

How many really leave Qantas? Some 500 Qantas jobs will go in the embattled company’s latest cost-cutting drive. But how many departed in the last round of redundancies? “To my knowledge,” says one insider, “not one single pilot was made redundant. Is Qantas making phantom announcements to make it look like its doing something?” We would […]

Willesee only making friends at Seven. No truth to the rumours — started, no doubt, by rabble-rousing TV rivals — that there’s tension in the offices of Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program. Veteran newsman Michael Willesee may have swanned in from retirement to conduct a headline-grabbing interview with Julia Gillard, with more good gets to come, but resident investigative reporter Ross Coulthart isn’t […]

Where will Barry O’Farrell cut next? The recent drama around cuts to foster carer payments in NSW is just the tip of the iceberg, reckons one anonymous insider from Macquarie Street: “After a weird post-election twilight zone in 2011, it seems like the O’Farrell government is finally moving and people are being made to work on […]

Gaga’s ‘campaign’ for Aussie gay marriage. Forget the mining bigwigs, a controversial pop star in crazy outfits may be the this year’s best political campaigner. Notes one pop insider, Lady Gaga is probably going to make some noise on her upcoming Australia tour in June/July: “With her 70 million social media followers she is a fiercely […]

Concerns over NSW govt outsource deal. The NSW government is apparently in discussions with an offshore firm to outsource functions including customer service, possibly with the loss of hundreds of jobs. NSW Businesslink —  the internal government agency that provides IT, financial and HR solutions for various departments — is in negotiations with US-based BMC to transfer its entire helpdesk database to […]

Surging Labor annoys radio Liberal? Could Campbell Newman win government for the Liberal-National Party in Queensland but remain locked outside parliament? That prospect is gathering momentum with new polling out of the crucial seat of Ashgrove, where the former Brisbane mayor is taking on Labor’s Kate Jones for a seat in Parliament. ReachTEL has been running […]

Sky News newsroom under attack! Disturbing news from the Sydney headquarters of Sky News: the place has been overrun with fruit flies. “Presenters swallow them on air, studio guests are forced to swat them away and the hard-working newsroom crew have to put up with them buzzing around whenever food appears,” the desperate staffer reveals. “Unfortunately, […]

Lachlan in for Rupert at News? No comment. Remember our suggestion on Monday that Mark Day was probably cutting close to the bone when he dropped news in his column that Rupert Murdoch was keeping the News Limited chairmanship warm for son Lachlan? Well a News spinner got back to us yesterday on whether Day was on the money — with a […]

Rudd’s campaign diary shores up support. Kevin Rudd’s I’m-very-happy-being-the-foreign-minister campaign collides with the Queensland election battleground where the former PM is pitching in to help out local candidates. Party moles tell us he’s made it clear to Anna Bligh that he will go anywhere and do anything to keep the state in Labor hands. His choice […]

Rupert ‘warming the seat for Lachlan’. Did Mark Day make a major News Limited corporate announcement in his column in The Australian today? He writes: “It is today widely understood that Rupert Murdoch would like his son to return to the business. When Williams was appointed chief executive, Rupert took the chairmanship of News Limited, leading […]

Are the mentally ill still in need? A local from the flood-hit regions of Queensland relays a sad story: a raft of people throughout the Lockyer and Brisbane valleys plus Ipswich and greater Brisbane continue to suffer post-traumatic stress, they say, either knowingly or unknowingly. “They need to have psychological and economic assistance attention. Particularly children. The […]

Abbott appearance long promoted. Asks one Crikey reader: “Wasn’t Tony Abbott’s name listed outside the Lobby as attending the Australia Day ceremony for at least a week beforehand?” We’re not sure, was it? Can-Do’s first task: pulling back payouts. If Campbell Newman has the chance to stride into the rather dowdy premier’s office after the Queensland election, one of […]

Premier prefers lunch female-free. Which state premier still enjoys taking lunches in the opulent confines of an establishment gentleman’s club? Want to hack for the government? The Defence Signals Directorate, the Defence Force spy unit that vows to “reveal their secrets — protect our own”, must be in the market for white-hat hackers. A Crikey operative noted a glossy […]