Tips and rumours

From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Press Freedom very free. The media industry in Sydney kicked up their heels on Friday at the annual Press Freedom dinner, with the hottest topic of the night the redundancies at Fairfax and how many people would be tapped on the shoulder. According to our tipster:

“[The] most ubiquitous person of the night was Sam Dastyari, who bounced out of his seat like a jack in the box to greet every single journalist he knew (his quads must have been aching the next day).”

With just over 300 people in attendance, the ballroom at Justin Hemmes’ Ivy complex was the place to be. Host Craig Reucassel warmed up the auction part of the evening with some well-received jibes at 60 Minutes, and there were also a few good digs at the Google table for staying silent during the auction, despite the fact that they clearly had the most money.

Former NBN newsreader Ray Dinneen paid $3750 for the dinner with five friends at Tetsuya with the boys from The Chaser, and also paid $2650 for dinner with four friends and Leigh Sales. True stayers headed up the cabanas at the pool bar at the Ivy. Our tipster says the Oz’s James Jeffrey appeared to stay dry this year, after entering the pool fully dressed last year.

Witness K gets international recognition. It’s one of the more disgraceful, and criminally underreported, examples of the current government’s war on whistleblowers (and one entirely supported by Labor): the harassment of Witness K, the former ASIS agent who revealed ASIS’ illegal bugging of the East Timorese government in 2004 for the benefit of Australian resources companies.

Later today, Witness K’s actions will be recognised at the Blueprint Prize for Free Speech awards in London. K, who, as a former ASIS agent, cannot be identified, will be acknowledged by the committee along with three other individuals “who displayed great bravery and integrity in revealing a truth for the greater public good”. The award committee says:

“In 2004, Witness K refused to be involved in an ASIS operation to ‘bug’ the cabinet rooms of Timor Leste during negotiations for a proposed oil and gas treaty between Timor Leste and Australia. Witness K determined that the operation’s main purpose was one of commercial espionage not a matter of national security. When Timor Leste commenced international arbitration proceedings against Australia in The Hague to have the oil and gas treaty overturned, Witness K was prepared to attend as a key witness for Timor Leste.

“To prevent him leaving the country ASIO raided K’s home and his lawyer’s office. K’s passport and other materials were seized from him.  His passport is still retained. Criminal proceedings have been threatened against him and the investigation is ongoing. Witness K’s courage in standing up to secret and powerful forces demonstrated his strong moral compass in the performance of his duties.”

It’s important to note that Witness K did not intend to act as a whistleblower in the traditional sense. Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, broke no laws in relation to the revelation; rather, they were acting in compliance with the advice of the former Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Ian Carnell about how Witness K should pursue a complaint about his treatment at the hands of ASIS. In response to the award, Collaery said:

“K, an Australian war veteran, was deeply moved by the suffering of the people of East Timor. Cheating the Timorese in revenue negotiations on behalf of major petroleum producers had no connection with Australia’s national security. K has been harassed, deprived of a passport and threatened with prosecution. K is an Australian hero. I am very proud that he has received this international acknowledgement.”

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Within hours of Malcolm Turnbull calling on the Governor General, television audiences were already being subjected to his campaign advertisements, leaving Ms Tips with the feeling that we’ll be mumbling “jobs and growth” in our sleep for the next eight weeks. While the slogans in this election are nothing new, there’s a few other reasons why the Liberal party’s first TV salvo is giving us a sense of deja vu. There’s this shot of Turnbull, Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison, Barnaby Joyce and Kelly O’Dwyer, which is the exact same shot used by Tony Abbott’s campaign in 2013, and multiple campaigns run by political consultants Crosby Textor.

There’s another similarity, though, which is a bit closer to home: the graphics theme is exactly the same as that used by NSW Mike Baird in last year’s election campaign — right down to “JOBS” in the biggest font possible.

If only Turnbull could follow Teflon Mike and become Teflon Turnbull.

Every dollar counts? The major parties also wasted no time in emailing their supporters asking for funds to keep the TV ads on air. Turnbull’s subject line was “Friend, It’s On” — as if there had ever been any doubt. Shorten’s missive was titled “It’s Time” so we could all reply “finally!”. The actual emails were unsurprising, but we noted one small difference: while the Libs asked for $50 donations upfront, the ALP gave the option of a $5 or $33 donation.

Laurie Ferguson passes the torch. Continuing our coverage of political correspondence, we have a letter from outgoing Labor MP Laurie Ferguson, introducing his successor as Labor candidate Anne Stanley. Ferguson’s letter makes it sound like Stanley doesn’t even need to be elected, she’ll just slot into his spot in Parliament:

We’re also told that the State Library of Victoria keeps all political parephernalia in its archives, so tipsters can share their political flyers with us here and with the library as well.

Daily Tele‘s policy analysis. Readers of The Daily Telegraph must feel like they are really getting their money’s worth to get cutting-edge analysis of the major party’s platforms:

While the Greens might actually be proud of the label (excluding the “leftie rabble” part), we wonder just how much insight the breakout box actually gives — “traditionally seen as” makes no reference to the current economic climate or the policies put forward by any of the major parties.

*Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form