From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Slash and grab at Vic election. Which prominent SDA-aligned Victorian ALP political scion was accused of slashing a Greens banner in plain sight during polling day at Moreland City Council’s recent election? Witnesses reported the accused wandering casually away from the defaced banner brandishing a Stanley knife.

Wallet’s empty. Is it true that a former senior employee of an investment firm (which may have run into some trouble) has defaulted on their home loans? A clue: this is no millionaires factory.

Redundo dramas. Sounds like the paring back of the NSW public service is not easy. This comes from an anonymous bureaucratic mole:

“If the Office of Environment and Heritage is any guide, the O’Farrell government’s drive to slash the NSW public service is hopelessly bogged down. The announced intention of slashing thousands of jobs naturally caused a great deal of anxiety among disillusioned public servants, already facing a 2.5% wage freeze and rollbacks of award conditions such as sick leave, holiday loadings and parental leave. Many rushed to lodge expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy. Work in some areas has ground to a halt due to demoralisation and uncertainty.

Meanwhile, reality has bitten the government, the cost of payouts looks formidable and few are being handed out, leading some to jump ship without waiting for their entitlements. Staff whose jobs were abolished months ago have not been offered payouts. There are numerous reports of restructuring being used to intimidate staff into leaving without a payout, as they have been told their jobs have significantly changed and would be readvertised. In some cases existing positions have been filled without normal merit selection processes. Some higher ups are known to be preparing lifeboats. For example, consultancy proposals bearing the names of senior managers have been circulating since May in indigenous community bodies. The office, which has a relatively high proportion of indigenous staff and is responsible for preserving indigenous heritage, has been hit particularly hard by uncertainty about the future of the office and its staff. Are current senior managers of the public service be touting for work outside the public service?

Meanwhile, lower down the ladder, lifeboats are not so easily available to frontline staff such as National Parks area managers and staff, including rangers, with few prospects of alternative work in their local areas. National Parks area offices have been reduced and staff positions have been cut without redundancies yet being offered to displaced staff. Many of these people are expert firefighters, and their absence will be felt during the coming summer’s fire season.”

Man with the wrong van. Crikey was rather tickled by the story of two Melbourne removalists who were tackled by police who thought they were burglars. You know, ‘cos they were moving stuff. But it’s no joke, says this industry insider:

“Having owned a business in the removal industry for a number of years I am aware of regular occurrences of criminals posing as removalists turning up to people’s homes while they’re on holidays and taking the lot … not surprising the police reacted like this.”

Which bank is a bastard? The Commonwealth Bank seems to have found a new way to screw small businesses — but some are fighting back. The bank has been a pioneer in convincing small business to use its eftpos machines, thanks to low monthly fees (typically a starter fee of $19 a month a few years ago). For many small businesses, the CBA was cheaper than a machine from their own bank. But over time that fee has edged up, and earlier this year the CBA got really greedy and boosted the charge to $120 a month, or 10 times the original fee.

Despite complaints, the bank refused to budge. And it hides behind the fact that the installation, maintenance and comms associated with the machines is contracted out to a third party which is the contact point for complaints. The contractor typically says, “It’s not us, contact the bank”.

But we hear some businesses have been telling the CBA to take their machines back. Machines from other banks are cheaper, but not by much and the service levels are also variable. A source who told the CBA to take their machines back earlier this year tells Crikey that when the contractor arrived to disconnect the machine, they were told the contractor had done the same at more than 60 other small businesses in the NSW South Coast. Some businesses have gone back to cash and cheques because it is cheaper than having to pay the CBA’s fees, on top of the usual bank fees, charges and expensive overdraft fees and interest rates.

Who’s that girl? Crikey has been having fun running photographs from politicians’ younger years, and we got some interesting responses to our mystery pic run in Friday, showing a cheerful blond child on a horse (see the pic here). We asked you to guess who it was, and we enjoyed this entry: “Krudd, the balloon head was too obvious, even then.” In fact, that child is Christine Milne.

There was also a rather unkind entry suggesting the horses in the pic were Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey, which raised a chuckle here at Tips … one of the horses has their blinkers on, so who would that be? If you’ve got any amusing old pics of politicians, email us — extra points for ’80s hair, flares and shoulder pads.

*Do you know more? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form.