So much to talk about, so little time. And so it was on Sunday morning when our leading business shows jumped all over the place rather than providing some serious depth and analysis.

So much to do, so little time. The Nine Network’s Business Sunday resembles a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at times, rushing to one subject, then another, chasing down a third, a bit of chat here, a graphic there, not much insight and little in the way of forward progress.

The push for small segments, with colour and movement, means Business Sunday no longer has the time to tackle big stories or big issues in a meaningful and coherent way.

With the half hour they have, Inside Business and Alan Kohler again made a far better first of the situation on Sunday, but they fell into the trap today of trying for the big broad brush cover.

An interview with Ten Network’s Nick Falloon, then a story on selling Telstra, an interview with Federal Industrial Relations Minister Kevin Andrews. ACCC chairman, Graeme Samuel and Federal Communications Minister, Helen Coonan popped up in the story. Which was a pity and a shame given the importance of other issues, such as changes to media laws, airline competition and the battle for Australian Leisure and Hospitality.

Kohler and his team sort of did a Business Sunday in that story by trying to cram to much into it. The stand alone interviews with Coonan and Samuel, would have more impact and been more informative for viewers and the players at this stage in the debate

Inside Business’ story on the new National Australia Bank Headquarters in Melbourne however was a far superior ‘colour and movement’ segment, compared to Business Sunday’s fighter jet flights yarn. The ABC story was informative and interesting!

Business Sunday’s interview with Samuel showed the limits of its current approach. Limiting important interviews to six or seven minutes for a program that is supposed to be the industry leader is not particularly smart. Check out the transcript here.

There was also the Australian Competition Tribunal decision on the Qantas-Air New Zealand merger, the possible privatisation of Telstra and what that meant for the ACCC, the changes to the media laws that might flow from the Federal election result, and the Commission’s role, and the bidding war for Australian Leisure and Hospitality.

So much to talk about, so little time. And the ALH stuff was one quick question at the end!

The Twiggy Forest story and interview was colourful, as is Mr Forrest and his attempts at respectability by clambering into the booming iron ore industry on the backs of others!

But overall, Business Sunday could have done better. Perhaps they will do an election impact story next Sunday with more time to talk to players, regulators and the like.

Inside Business on the ABC looked at the impact on business of the Federal election result. Predictably its main story was the possible flogging of Telstra. How very ABC.

It promised much, but delivered little simply because it’s too soon after the poll for anything to emerge. That’s something BusinessSunday might like to consider if they tackle the issue this week.

And we’ve already seen some backtracking on the hardline industrial relations approach, Telstra and the media laws.

Either we are being fed another load of rubbish, or there will not be the swingeing reforms that business, the fee merchants and coat tuggers and consultants wanted before and straight after the election (Down Hugh Morgan, down boy!).

Nick Falloon from the Ten Network gave nothing away to Alan Kohler as you can see from this transcript. Ross Greenwood on Business Sunday also got little as you can see here.

Kohler got more from the former PBL CEO than Greenwood did with his once over lightly questions by looking at operational issues rather than the ‘sexy’ story of media law changes and big deals.

The Ten official line on media law changes was in the papers last Thursday after the Ten Network reported its year earnings the day before(and when both the ABC and Nine interviews were done.)

Inside Business then looked at the Telstra privatisation talk, again. It will no doubt be one of many to bore us in coming months.

Industrial Relations Minister Kevin Andrews was a good get. Whether he wants the gig in the new Howard cabinet is up in the air. It would have been a good area for Kohler to probe. Check out the transcript here.

But the Andrews interview should have been on Business Sunday. Kohler’s discussion with him suffered from the Business Sunday disease. Too short just when some interesting areas were waiting to be explored, especially the way he’s suddenly running dead on the macho reform approach we saw before the poll and swallowed by The Australian Financial Review.

On Seven’s Sunday Sunrise, Michael Pascoe’s commentary was a nice look at the ALH situation and John Fletcher’s change of heart at Coles Myer about his company’s ability to get benefits from making a high-priced acquisition like ALH. Check out the transcript here.

In the one question Business Sunday managed to get with Samuel on ALH, the ACCC chairman did seem to rule out any impact nationally, but would look at the ‘regional’ markets to try and avoid an adverse impact to competition.

Might Coles or Woolies try the Qantas-Air New Zealand line that won in the Australian Competition Tribunal: that the benefits to consumers outweighs any lessening of competition?

Now that would have been something to explore in some depth for Business Sunday, if only they had the time! There once was a time when time was its strength.