When Ted Baillieu makes his pitch for re-election at the Victorian ballot box in 2014, the brains behind most of his infrastructure plans probably won’t get much of a mention. But Sir Roderick Ian Eddington, Infrastructure Australia chair, Victorian Major Events tsar, JP Morgan chairman and News Corporation director, sits very high indeed in Melbourne’s […]
Uncategorized
NYT debate: what would it cost to end he-said-she-said journalism?
The New York Times has raised the issue of he-said-she-said journalism. It should be discussed here, too, but it’s more complicated than media critics think.
The Power Index: Melbourne movers, Neil Mitchell at #6
At 5.30am each weekday for the past quarter century, Neil Mitchell has bowled up to the 3AW studios, three hours before airtime, to decide what Melbourne should be thinking. For 1000 minutes a week it’s Mitchell the city hears talking in its ear, starting with an 8.30am gee up and ending — after countless phone-ins and blow […]
Power couple: business and politics with Kev and Therese
If you’re looking for power twosomes that have managed to spread their tentacles across both business and politics, you needn’t look much further than Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein. The former first couple have had their ups and downs over the past year or so but still remain one of The Power Index’s most influential […]
The Power Index: Melbourne movers, Robert Doyle at #7
For a failed former opposition leader with no executive power, a limited budget and a minority on his own council, Melbourne’s talkaholic Lord Mayor Robert Doyle might seem a curious inclusion on a list of movers and shapers. Sure, he carries off the usual city hall duties, like ribbon cutting and sound biting, with aplomb. […]
Australia steals doctors, nurses from where they’re needed most
I have recently returned from South Africa where I had been invited to talk at a conference on the future of that country’s proposed National Health Insurance. That has got me thinking again about the “stealing” by Australia of health workforce personnel from sub-Saharan Africa and what might be done about it. In South Africa, […]
Who’s who in the Japanese-Australia whaling stoush?
The summer ritual of clashes in the Southern Ocean between Japan’s whaling fleet and environmental activists is on. Every year, Japanese research ships head south to hunt about 1000 whales while Australia fights to keep whalers out. But while the government and activists agree whaling must not take place in Australian waters, they have fights […]
Poh: slicing through TV’s lowest common denominator
By carefully avoiding bland cultural idiot box representations Masterchef contestant-cum-TV host Poh Ling Yeow is achieving a great deal more than whipping up delicious meals in the kitchen, writes Sukhmani Khorana.
Roxon in the news thanks to the new role
Nicola Roxon was off to a busy start to the year in her new role as Attorney General.
Sweeping the net: the economies of scale of filtering
The web filtering industry ranges from the innocuous to the ruthless in its quest to censor the internet.
If the Brits can speed towards rail connectivity, why can’t we?
The UK government’s decision to go ahead with the first stage of HS2 — a high-speed rail network that would ultimately link Scotland to southern England and the midlands at 400km/h — poses some hard questions for those for and against high-speed rail in Australia. For those in favour of a similar route structure in on the eastern seaboard, linking […]
The Power Index: Melbourne movers, Helen Silver at #8
Who holds the real power inside the Victorian government’s imposing headquarters at 1 Treasury Place? It’s definitely not Kim Wells, the Baillieu government’s bumbling treasurer. And it probably isn’t Michael Kapel, the shadowy svengali buried deep inside the premier’s private office. Some reckon it’s not even Ted Baillieu himself. In the 14 months since the Liberals […]
Assange: I, like all Aussies, don’t get enough govt support
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains frustrated by the lack of assistance from the federal government over his prolonged overseas legal plight, three weeks ahead of his appeal against extradition in the UK Supreme Court. In an exclusive interview with The Power Index, the platinum-haired whistleblower revealed Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s office had been in contact with […]
The Power Index: Melbourne movers, Bill Oliver at #9
No-one is more despised by Melbourne’s property tycoons than Bill Oliver. In Victoria’s $25 billion construction game, the stubbled Scotsman can shut down rogue building sites in a flash and, builders say, hold their projects to ransom. Each working day in bleak city, Oliver guides his 30,000-strong army of Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union […]
Retail data: an industry changing, not collapsing
Ignore the doomsters: Australia retail is doing OK — it’s just changing, and not in a way the Gerry Harveys of the world like.
The Power Index: why the food mafia rule Melbourne
Food culture is embedded in how power operates in Melbourne. You only have to observe the scenes any early evening at the eastern end of Flinders Lane, one of the city’s foodie sacred sites, to understand the importance of high-end food to powerful and wannabe powerful Melburnians. It’s there the city’s cabal of knife-wielding men — yes, […]
The Power Index: who holds the real power in Melbourne
Power in Melbourne, as interviewee after interviewee tried to convince The Power Index, is quiet and amorphous, lurking behind every deal and decision but never fully revealing itself. “It’s a bit like Chinese Guanxi,” reckoned Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, in reference to the Sino approach to business reciprocity. Infrastructure and major events tsar Sir Rod […]
Obama slashes military spending, focuses on Asia
Crikey media wrap: Barack Obama has announced hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts to US military spending over the next ten years and a renewed focus towards Asia and the Pacific region in a rare appearance in the Pentagon briefing room.
The Power Index: the 16 most powerful people in Melbourne
Who are the people shaping Australia’s cultural heartland? In January, we start counting down the Top 10 Most Powerful People in Melbourne. Here, Andrew Crook presents the shortlist … Andrew Demetriou As the intimidating head of the most powerful sport in the nation’s most sports mad city, Demetriou drives a hard bargain — whether its player payments, […]
Keane’s 2011: year of the flake
Politics in 2011 was characterised by an intense dislike of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, and rampant denialism.
Murray Murmurings: there’s no jobs on a dead river
When the Murray Darling Basin Authority held a meeting in Griffith last Thursday, irrigators tried to replicate their stunt of burning copies of the plan in the street. Luckily, the good folk at the MDBA had planned for this contingency and waxed the report to a high Charlie Sheen — neatly rendering the pages flame retardant. This […]
Authors beware: what’s wrong with Dymocks self-publishing
If you follow certain bookish sites, you may have seen the ominous warning “authors beware” quite a lot in the last few days. Dymocks Books, Australia’s largest bookselling chain, last week launched its widely anticipated self-publishing arm, D Publishing. Described in the promotional material as “author driven”, the service allows authors to upload draft manuscripts […]
The Power Index: the year’s memorable megaphone moments
In 2011, Australia’s media megaphones have been louder than ever. Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, Ray Hadley and Co have all had a say in how this country’s run — and caused plenty of controversy in the process. Here are their 10 most memorable moments … 10. Chris Smith helps co-ordinate an anti-carbon tax rally 2GB’s curly-haired king of […]
Who got the most media mentions this year?
Last year it was close to a three-way tie at the top, with Tony Abbott wedged between the two prime ministers of 2010, at the end of the year doubtless still cursing that he hadn’t become the third prime minister of 2010. At the end of this year Abbott’s party has moved to a commanding […]
