Turned to writing at 60, reckon that'll do for the next 30 years, then I'll become a musician - after that, who knows, maybe a wizard...
Adelaide Writers Week: No decorum without a quorum.
Adelaide Writers Week, a core part of South Australia’s premier cultural event, the Adelaide Festival, is at risk of cancellation in its 40th year. Kim Wingerei and Michael West report. ** Update 9:05am: Writers Week Director Louise Adler has now resigned. ** There...
Yes. Optus is right, it’s not good enough. But outage points to deeper flaws.
Twelve months after Optus was hacked and exposed customer data in droves, it is back in the spotlight again for all the wrong reasons. An outage that even impairs emergency calls is not good enough. What’s the scam? The scam is not just the inadequate redundancies in...
Qantas shows how much it cares about its customers, sorry, shareholders
Qantas’ AGM was a sombre affair, with Chairman Goyder and CEO Hudson at pains to tell everyone how much they cared as Alan Joyce got a golden $21.4m kiss goodbye. But announcing a mammoth share buyback. What’s the scam? The scam is yet another share buyback worth just...
Welcome to West Air – our latest flight of Qantas fancy!
We are very excited to announce that Michael West Media will be starting an airline. We haven’t set a date yet, nor do we have any planes, pilots or stewards, but watch this space, tickets will be on sale soon! We made this decision after Qantas – an actual airline...
Announceables Galore: Albo cosies up to US on AUKUS, Microsoft and critical minerals
Despite a dysfunctional US Congress, PM Anthony Albanese is making the best of his America trip by announcing defence investments, a deal with tech giant Microsoft, and throwing the local minerals industry some bones too. Kim Wingerei reports. One could forgive...
The Voice. A simple proposition of empathy to be ruined by time and politics?
If the polls are to be believed, the referendum question will be soundly voted down this Saturday. It could – and should – have been so different. The Voice referendum is asking us to say yes or no to a simple statement of recognition of our Indigenous Peoples, and to...
Sacred Cow: are politicians’ many houses an impediment to property, rental reform?
Our elected representatives own a lot of property. Not counting their homes, 126 of Canberra’s 232 MPs and Senators own 297 properties between them, at least those that are declared. Nothing wrong with that, but does it affect their decisions? Michael West and Kim...
Ziggy Switkowski’s “independent” review of PwC is out – missing the obvious
When the tax scandal could no longer be ignored, the PwC board commissioned an “independent review” into its “governance, culture and accountability,” appointing former Kodak, Telstra and Optus CEO Ziggy Switkowski to conduct it. So what’s the scam? The scam is that a...
Stepping down? Will Chairman Emiritus Ruper Murdoch still pull the strings?
Rupert Murdoch has announced that he is becoming ‘Chairman Emeritus’ of News Corp and Fox Corporation, leaving his previous co-chair, favoured son Lachlan Murdoch, to be in charge of both, all by himself. What’s the scam? The scam is that public company boards are...
Bowing to pressure – Minns and Sharpe throwing crumbs to the Koalas
In response to public outrage, Premier Chris Minns and Environment Minister Penny Sharpe today announced that 5% of the proposed great koala national park would be protected from logging. What’s the scam? The scam is that this is a mere 8400 hectares of the 175,000 to...