Stephen Mayne
Journalist and Crikey founder @MayneReport
Stephen Mayne founded Crikey in February 2000, and has remained as a contributor since selling it in 2005. He’s a former political staffer and local government councillor who also pursues shareholder advocacy as a two-time former director of the Australian Shareholders’ Association. He also spent two years working for the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
We all know that James Packer doesn’t get out much in public, so The Australian Financial Review was clearly chuffed that he agreed to give yesterday’s star-studded "Chanticleer Chairman’s Lunch" in Sydney some extra gravitas.
One of the biggest problems with Australia’s corporate governance over the past few decades has been the way a clubby network of powerful Melbourne-based directors have worked against the basic principle of accountability for poor performance.
If the makers of At Home With Julia are looking for a sequel, then the last few days would provide plenty of illuminating material for a comedy called At Home With The Bolts.
So why did AMP, which manages $158 billion of investments, pull its punches on News Corp?
It is hard to remember a time when so much public debate focused on one journalist as what Andrew Bolt is going through at the moment.
As with any public debate, the challenge in the pokies reform will be getting participants to put all their cards on the table and declare these conflicts as they arise. Stephen Mayne declares their interests on the public's behalf.
The pokies debate has exploded over the past 24 hours after Clubs NSW used its influence over the NRL to try and impose its campaign against Andrew Wilkie's reform agenda on the AFL's grand final week program.
There is a degree of sadness in the takeover of Foster's, which will strip the ASX of one of its most storied top 20 companies. But they had it coming.
Despite Crikey alerting the world of his failure to disclose an association with the pokies lobby after this hysterical September 3 column, News Ltd's biggest columnist has repeated the effort in today's paper.
With annual revenues of $2.2 billion, Victorian dairy co-operative Murray Goulburn is one of the biggest mutuals left in Australia.
