Crikey readers will recall Mark Day’s big splash in the Oz
at the end of April – that Communications Minister Helen Coonan was
considering winkling former frontbencher and Liberal communication
spokesman Warwick Smith out of the Millionaires Factory and into the
chair of the government’s new super-regulator, the Australian
Communications and Media Authority .

It was not to be. She tried, appears to be the general consensus. And
tried and tried and tried, we understand. Nothing’s been consummated,
despite four candidates being wooed.

Now it looks as if Communications Department head Helen Williams will
be dumped in the job – and that the Prime Minister’s Office has taken
over the running of policy. Are they looking after the new cross media
ownership laws, too?