From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …
Kathy Jackson pursued by HSU? “The Health Services Union is preparing a civil proceeding against Kathy Jackson for breach of fiduciary duty and to recover money from her.” So says an anonymous tipster to Crikey this morning. That would ring true, but we couldn’t get anyone at the union to confirm it by deadline. Stay tuned.
As a side note, it’s awfully hard to know who to speak to at the scandal-plagued organisation. The media release section of the HSU website is headed with undated bit of spin on spot checks in aged care facilities — with one Craig Thomson still listed as the media contact. We tried calling the number, but he was permanently engaged. Make up your own joke there …
Facebook post goes wrong at MMM. Well, that was ugly. A Facebook post from those funsters at Triple M — which we won’t republish — took aim at Justin Bieber’s arrest with an icky joke on prison love that managed to be both homophobic and racist. Naturally enough it was taken down fairly quickly. But there’s been no acknowledgement or apology …
Alcohol convenience for Age staff. And people say people in the media are a bunch of drunks … Fairfax’s Melbourne bunker, Media House, now features a variety of alcohol delivered straight to the desk. As captured by a cheeky in-house snapper, a Dan Murphy’s promotion in the foyer of The Age newsroom (which, due to downsizing at Fairfax, now hosts other businesses, including NBN Co.) allows staff to take a photo of the booze they’re after, dispatch an order via a mobile application and have their purchases delivered at their convenience — right to their desks if they desire. Which will be handy come the next round of redundancies …
Music to their ears at Tele. In the latest desperate campaign to get people to subscribe (admittedly, we do some of the same), The Daily Telegraph is luring in new readers with music downloads. Would you subscribe to the Tele with bonus Tina Arena?
Heat is on charity workers. Melbourne is set for another almost-4o-degree scorcher today. And while there’s attention the elderly and other vulnerable people, nobody thinks of those pasty charity workers. One Crikey reader does:
“Do charity mugging companies have any health and safety rules at all? Melbourne has had a run of record breaking days over 40 degrees but backpackers are still being sent out to harass people to sign up to charities. I came home one day to find a sunburned Englishman on my doorstep who tried to sign me up while I explained I was more worried about my one-year-old getting heatstroke. Who is employing them and do they really think it is remotely charitable to send English backpackers to do outside work in 43 degree heat?”
True. It doesn’t seem particularly charitable to us.
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Was there a mad dog with the englishman?
As a new arrival in Melbourne, I once spent a hideous couple of weeks trudging the outer suburbs trying to sell crap sunglasses for charity. We were told the shift would be cancelled if the temperature went over 35, and I remember sitting in the packed van on the way to wherever-the-hell-it-was, listening to the weather guy on the radio saying it was 39 outside, looking around thinking is anybody going to speak up and lose us all an afternoon’s work? Nobody did. I almost passed out on someone’s doorstep and my hungover English backpacker friend didn’t cope all that well either. Fun times. Made $15 though!