The Hun gets down to business. Following on from Crikey‘s item “Business on the slide at Herald Sun“ news just to hand from a well placed insider that Peter Taylor is the new Herald Sun business editor and State Rounds chief Stephen McMahon is returning to the section as deputy.

A most excellent education. Word that parents at Cranbrook, Sydney’s most exclusive private school (James Packer, Rodney Adler, David Gyngell, Kerry Packer, Jodee Rich, and many, many others) report that seven secondary students are or have been transferred to Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop school (Prince Charles and others) at a minimum cost to the parents of $50,000 a year. But the same parents are still paying over $30,000 a year to keep their son’s places at Cranbrook open and stop others from jumping the queue.

Uni of Queensland IT shake-up. Geeks at the University of Queensland are in for a shake-up. Our insider says the uni is drafting a “huge restructure” for its information technology services “super department”, with two proposals distributed to staff. About five associate directors will be cut, they say, along with several under-utilised departments. Cuts to some lower staff are also expected. Says the mole: “Let’s just say that NTEU [National Tertiary Education Union] membership saw a surge in the past fortnight.”

CEO quits VMIA. The CEO of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority, Steve Marshall, has resigned this morning amid a slew of bullying allegations levelled at the statutory body. Crikey has covered the issue inside the multi-billion dollar state government insurer this year, with a recent report by InSync surveys finding 40% of staff had found that either been bullied or witnessed the practice inside the organisation. Marshall’s contract was due to expire in September. In late April VMIA chairman and ex Labor Senator Robert Ray also quit the VMIA, blaming the change in government.

How rude. An eagle-eyed reader alerted us to this alarming request in the Checklist section on Page 2 of the NSW Minerals Council Call for Papers for its Environment and Community Conference…

ASIC AWOL on IAG & NRMA. A disgruntled shareholder has suggested that the reported stoush between listed insurer IAG and the NRMA could serve as a case study in why investors are losing confidence in Australian listed markets …

“The shares fell 3.8 per cent yesterday after publication of a story in the Fairfax press. The listed company issued a joint statement to the media denying some but not all elements of the story but in a dazzling display of arrogance, failed to communicate at all with shareholders and issue an ASX announcement  informing them as to the true position. The ASX failed to issue a price query despite the fact that the information was demonstrably price sensitive.

“Even more bemusing the Joint Statement to the media was not put up on either party’s website yesterday and investors were forced to rely on second hand media reports for information as to its contents. The original Fairfax SMH story was triggered by a reported deliberate breach by the Association of a business contract that was part of a court sanctioned scheme of arrangement entered into on demutualisation. The Association is reportedly attempting  to obtain a revenue stream from the sale of IAG insurance products to members despite the fact that it has already received an investment fund of nearly one billion dollars in shares on demutualisation in compensation for the commercial arrangements entered into by it on demutualisation. What are the potential balance sheet consequences of the reported breach for both companies? No clue on that one.

“Oh and how are the individual investments made by current NRMA board and management going? Well that’s hard to say because the Association refuses to publish accounts for subsidiaries such as Thrifty relying on an ASIC grace and favor exemption. Both entities are public corporations and ASIC now has responsibility for the listed market but the regulator to date has been missing in action. Where  does this leave hapless investors in the listed company IAG?”

Meanwhile, get your hand off it: a not so subtle try on — this “overheard” is laid on a little too thick ..

“An overheard conversation in the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge yesterday between two federal Labor MPs, both ministers, unearthed the startling revelation that Simon Crean will be PM by Wednesday of next week!  There was much swearing and dropping of “f” words in a brutally frank discussion on the current state of the Federal ALP.”