From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …
No-leak Logies cut dud awards. There was one tradition from television’s “night of nights” that wasn’t upheld last night: the Logies leaks. News websites had to wait with the stars to find out who won the Gold Logie; organisers used to hand out an embargoed winners’ list, but in the rush to publish first too many websites spoiled results. Still, TV Week might think again next year — it was hard to find Gold Logie winner Scott Cam in the papers today, as Cam didn’t get his gong on TV (the telecast is slightly delayed) until well after 11pm. But clearly one punter had the list — betting markets were suspended last night after a big (and now lucrative) plunge for Cam.
Mercifully, the telecast was shorter than previous years. For the first time in one veteran Logies watcher’s memory, a bunch of unlucky winners got their awards before the telecast started. Conveniently for host broadcaster Nine, five of the six awards barely mentioned (including Seven’s Better Homes and Gardens) went to rival networks. So there was plenty of time for a long acceptance speech from Nine’s resident chippy …
ABC movements. After five years atop the radio division, ABC Director of Radio Kate Dundas has just announced her resignation. She’ll step back from Aunty in July to pursue other things. “I have no other firm plans in place other than to take a short break,” she said today. ABC managing director Mark Scott said Dundas felt five years was an appropriate amount of time to serve as the head of radio — “and I am disappointed I have been unable to change her mind about that”. Also departing the national broadcaster is long-serving journo Jeff Waters — off to head-up a news startup. If you know of other ABC goss, you know what to do.
La Trobe woes. We hear the students are revolting at Melbourne’s La Trobe University. Sounds like the education faculty is over-enrolled and many students can’t find work placements. And don’t get us started on the university journalism schools churning out thousands of graduates into a field with few jobs.
Aussies hasty on cybersecurity. This from an anonymous mole — they’re talking about this club in Washington DC.
“I was sitting next to an American who worked for the US Justice Department on cybersecurity at a do at the Army and Navy Club in Farragut. Quite without any provocation from me he told me (several times) how much he liked working with the Australian government. ‘We can get a decision from your Prime Minister in four hours,’ he said. ‘If we want a decision from our department it can take weeks. Too many layers of bureaucracy. Your government is so much more efficient than ours.’ I think from something he said later he had Five Eyes clearance.”
If you’re not a John Le Carre type, “Five Eyes” refers to the Anglo spying alliance of Australia, Canada, NZ, the UK and the USA. This tip may be a reflection on the sclerotic nature of American bureaucracy — or the fact that Australia is over-hasty and subservient to its US masters? Spies and former spies can fill us in via this anonymous link …
Wilson’s right to a cheeseburger. Human rights commissioner Tim Wilson was hard at work on the weekend upholding people’s rights, as his Facebook page shows …
He was at the recently opened McDonald’s in Tecoma near Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges. The Maccas project hit controversy when the local council voted unanimously to oppose the construction of the fast food restaurant, based on the will of local residents, but the planning tribunal overturned that and said the Maccas must go ahead. Just one question, Tim. What about the rights of residents to express their will via their local government?
Anzac date quibble. You’d have noticed all the hoo-ha about the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day falling next year, and the need to spend lots of taxpayers’ money — $325 million, by one calculation — commemorating that time we unsuccessfully invaded Turkey because the Mother Country asked us to. A reader asked us this:
“If April 25, 1915 was the first Anzac Day why did we not celebrate the 100th Anzac Day, rather than the 100th anniversary of the first ANZAC Day?”
Now this may make your brain hurt, but our reader calculates if the first Anzac Day was in 1915, then the 100th Anzac Day is 2014, not 2015. Depends if you count the first Anzac Day as the 1915 invasion or the first anniversary of the invasion (i.e. 1916). Anzac centenary celebrations begin this year across the globe and will continue until 2018, with the main shebang set for 2015.
We’ll leave it to our pedantic readers to battle it out in the Tips comment section.
Stella up for grabs. The winner of the $50,000 award for Aussie women writers, the Stella Prize, will be announced in Sydney tomorrow night. Ms Tips’ prediction is Hannah Kent will win for Burial Rites. Stay tuned …
*Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form
Your reader who reckons that we should have commemorated the 100th ANZAC day last Friday, probably also celebrated the start of the 3rd millennium on December 31, 1999.
The 100th ANZAC day could be considered 25th Apr 2014 but are we celebrating that or the 100th anniversary which is 100 years after the landing? Did ANZAC day start at the landing or 1 year later when we “celebrated” that landing. i think the latter.
Alarmed that Tim Wilson doesn’t know that corporations don’t have human rights. They may be legal persons for other purposes, but not for human rights.
But then, he is IPA through and through, so he should perhaps be called Commissioner for Corporate Rights.
It all makes sense now.
‘McDonald’s exercising their human right to property’. So he does understand that McDonald’s is not a person right?
However, Paul and puddleduck, if you researched the Tacoma McDonald’s issue you would realise it is an individual who owns the block of land the restaurant is being built upon. A block of land from which fast food outlets have previously operated, and which was zoned commercial. They had their rights trampled on by a council that decided some developments are good, and others are not, after this person had bought the land. Good for land owner I’d say. If the locals don’t like it, don’t buy the food.