Mike Rann is attending a function at the Adelaide Intercontinental Hotel tonight at 7pm. Has Michelle Chantelois been tipped off, and will she make an appearance?

Have heard on the grapevine that 20% of Macquarie Bank’s staff in their New York office were recently (and quietly) let go.

The remaining 80% were allegedly told that this is not a cost-cutting exercise but rather about “upgrading” the human capital of the bank in the US … the 20% who were cut were allegedly the bottom performers who will be replaced over time by higher quality staff.

However, staff are reported to be sceptical — just as they are sceptical about claims by Macquarie management that the recent senior hires in the US that they have been bragging about are not all on very large “guaranteed” bonuses, which, of course, will eat in the pool left for everyone else.

When I called Channel Nine Brisbane the other evening to protest the point that the advertised new episode on Two and A Half Men was a repeat and added that it started eight minutes late or after the advertised time, I was curtly told that I wasn’t paying for it as it was “free to air” before the Nine staffer hung up.

She didn’t even bother with spin, take my details, etc.  A wonderful response after being on hold for nearly six minutes.  One can understand that live programs might run short or long but it seems that everything runs late from the end of the 6.30 current affairs rubbish.

In regard to yesterday’s tip about “Big spending ANZ”, here’s a story that a friend of mine told me that may give some insight into the corporate culture at HSBC HK, from where Mike Smith was poached.

A couple of years ago, HSBC had two staff canteens in its HK head office — one was for the plebs and the other was an executive canteen for more senior employees, which, not coincidentally, was nicer and not as crowded.  My friend and her team were working day and night on a big deal and were so busy that they were only leaving the office to grab some sleep at home.

My friend realised that their team secretary, who was also logging some mammoth hours in the office, was working on her birthday, and organised for the team to take the secretary to the executive canteen for a celebratory lunch.  Most of them were entitled to eat there but the secretary was not, however in light of her huge contribution to the cause my friend assumed that it would OK.

Within minutes of sitting down, they were approached by an English gent who announced that the secretary would need to remove herself immediately. Despite various attempts to explain the situation, the whole team had to slink out of the executive canteen.

Re ANZ’s limited parking at Docklands. The new ANZ building has the top six-star Green Star rating approval from the Green Building Council of Australia due to the building’s many energy-saving measures, including the limited number of car parks. Limiting the car parking was intended to encourage workers to use greener options such as public transport or cycling. Indeed a 2007 ANZ press release says:

To create a healthy workplace, the new building will also include more than 270 bicycle spaces, more than 100 motorbike/scooter spaces, a fully-equipped gym, convenient public transport access including an adjacent tram stop, open stairs and shared spaces creating greater connections, increased fresh air and work spaces that maximise natural light.

But if ANZ really wants to reduce its corporate environmental footprint, driving lazy workers a few hundred metres in private buses doesn’t really seem to be sending the right message.

Perhaps ANZ is more interested in its Green PR and potential Green tax-breaks generated by its six-star Green rating, than they are in the environment itself.

It seems that The Age are giving away papers, even to those who don’t want them. Last year I had a tertiary card with The Age, which enabled me to pick up a copy of the paper each day at Uni and get the weekend papers delivered all year for $20. As I work most weekends I found that was I was not actually reading the weekend papers. I cancelled the weekend delivery in mid-Jan but it seems that The Age is  continuing to send me weekend papers. Is Fairfax really getting that desperate?

One Rural Press paper came to work yesterday and couldn’t access search engines. No Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. This ban applies across the boards, from journos and advertising people. Haven’t heard from any other Rural Press papers yet, but it has all the restricted Rural Press logos across it and doesn’t seem localised. Interested to know if it is Fairfax-wide.

While plenty of sites have been banned for years — social media, gambling etc — there has been a tightening up in the past week and half, two weeks. Not a complete block of sites, but more bringing up a reminder about the internet policy, saying if you go through to this, it will be logged and you have to click to continue. If you revisited or spent an extended time on a site that was deemed dodgy, it was logged. The block seemed to be apply to fairly normal sites, such as  news articles that involved photos of semi-clothed people from the Haitian earthquake.

Have had no official word on the new search engine ban and can’t see a real cut-thrust reason behind it. But apparently much of the recent internet filtering has been tied into improving work efficiency. Ironic really, since blocking Google hampers efficiency for everyone. Much more difficult for journos to get contact numbers and do research and they’ll somehow have to manually do it. We don’t have those manual practices in place, they were killed years ago. Probably not even a White Pages in the building.

Crikey note: we contacted seven other Rural Press papers and none were having the issue. We’ve also contacted Rural Press for comment but have had no response.

David Tiley’s ongoing Screenhub campaign to fight the good fight for 10 Conditions of Love seems altruistic enough, until you realise his undeclared interest as the script editor. The most recent article where he states it to be a “well made documentary” would be argued by many.

The themes are generally accepted as interesting and worth the hour watch, but is it possible that ABC decided not to screen it because many critics agree that the story is very limited in its range and depth? An argument he seems to leave out when recounting the recent ABC/10 Conditions issues.

Have you thought of doing an article on Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) around Australia?  Before the anti-terror laws and bikie laws there was BSL. In Queensland authorised persons (not just cops) can enter dwellings without a warrant and in NSW access to courts has been removed. Victoria is looking at similar laws.

Dogs, being property, can be confiscated without compensation and killed even without doing anything wrong; animal cruelty at its worst, never mind the companion animal nature they play in people’s lives. If governments can do these things over the breed of dog you own, where does it end?

Needless to say, dog attacks have not been reduced by these types of laws, either in Australia and overseas.  They continue to escalate with children and the elderly being at risk.

There is a bit of a backlash growing in the federal Government about how a NSW Aids organisation has spent a grant to educate the gay community about legislative changes. You know, a look-at-what-we-did-for-you campaign. Not going down too well in some quarters.

As a person working on The White Room, and an avid Crikey subscriber, I’d just like to point out an error in Glenn Dyer’s column yesterday.

Channel 7 did a pilot for The White Room back in 2002 (with Chris Lilley, Charlie Pickering and Julian and Tony) and decided to go with a show called “The Chat Room” (a cross promote show featuring Austereo talent) instead.

The pilot always showed a lot of promise, so much so that Seven commissioned another pilot seven years later. In December they did a test record and pilot, which was green lit soon after. The ’02 and ’09 pilots have considerable differences. In no way did they pilot the same show four times.

There seems to be no attention given to the dangers of mineral fibre insulation. Handlers should wear masks and paper overalls. Packages should not be opened until within the installation area. The danger may be as great as that caused by asbestos.

If Noel Ashby really did receive a secret tip-off by a politician that another police officer was under surveillance, what did he do about that information at the time?

How is the Rudd Government’s stated agenda of social inclusion helped by a commercial conference that will cost an NGO or local government $2198.90 for two days (others will pay $3188.90) to hear a series of speakers from government and non-government agencies, many of whose time will presumably  be paid by their employer?

Towards Social Inclusion

A socially inclusive Australia is one where all citizens have the opportunities and resources required to learn, gain employment, engage with their communities and have a voice. It is a very different Australia to the one we live in today where approximately five per cent of citizens aged 15 years and over face multiple disadvantages.

Following their election in 2007 the Rudd Government announced a commitment to decreasing disadvantage and building a more inclusive society. They established a national Social Inclusion Board, put together the Social Inclusion Toolkit and put in place mechanisms that encourage greater collaboration between governments and NGO’s.

With the foundations laid, it’s now up to our Federal and State Government Departments/Agencies, Local Councils and the NGO sector to make social inclusion a reality. The question is: How do we do this most effectively?

The Towards Social Inclusion Conference has been designed specifically to answer this question. It will do this through a series of practically focused presentations from Federal and State Government Departments, NGO’s, Local Government and leading thinkers in this space.