The Bowman ALP Federal Executive Council meeting held on Sunday roundly berated the intra-factionalism that saw the National Executive centrally pre-select Jenny Peters without a rank and file plebiscite. While delegates went spare at the lack of due process, no mention was made of the actual campaign proper itself. But rumour has it despite no campaign committee being established or monies donated, that the campaign manager position will be filled by Cameron Crowther, a senior adviser to the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh. Just how much time will Crowther be able to spend on a federal campaign?
I sighted a copy of a CASA intranet news release, advising CEO John McCormick has appointed Terry Farquharson as deputy director and Jonathan Alek as associate director. But there’s been no media announcement on the new recruits. Since the new CASA took effect from July 1 last year I’m perplexed why they have kept such a low profile as they attempt to remedy the significant regulatory shortcomings revealed in the Senate Inquiry report in September 2008. To my mind appointing a deputy director and associate director to act as a crutch for the director is a retrograde step towards the previous abysmal management failures of CEO Bruce Byron.
If the board is to be effective and follow normal governance it should be directly involved in all the CASA senior executive management appointments, including the issue of media releases in the public interest.
ABC Radio National and News Radio are becoming increasingly dependent on TV networks for their “stories”. Both are addicted to CNN and BBC World for clips and packages. One recurring problem is that the speakers are identified in captions not audio so, if it matters who is saying what, whether they are official spokespeople or “experts”, everyone has the status of an anonymous “vox pops”. One egregious offender on RN Breakfast this morning was a CNN/BBC (that too was not explained by the announcer Fran Kelly) report on the Stern Hu sentence with no identification of at least three speakers.
During the running leg of his ironman effort, Tony Abbott wore a Bernie Ripoll — Labor’s federal member for Oxley — cycling cap the entire way. Good to see some bi-partisan support for Bernie’s annual charity bike ride, the Brisbane to Ipswich Challenge being held on April 18.
Have a look at the front cover of this week’s London issue of Hello! Magazine with all the gorgeous people present. Which one of Rupert’s favourite pals was there but demanded all signs of their presence be removed?
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