For a lucky few, it's a case of profit down and bonus up
Canavan will this week host a rival event inside the great house, promising economists, former Treasury officials and former business group representatives.
Then there's former Reserve Bank governor and current Macquarie Group chairman Glenn Stevens, who has blamed Australia's poor productivity on weakness in the mining sector.
'What's happened is that mining productivity has been going down,' he told an investor conference in June. Who will tell Gina Rinehart?
Stevens also reckons Australia's had a list for improving productivity for about a decade, but politicians have done not much about it.
'More competition, less regulation, more flexibility, including in IR [industrial relations] things,' he says. 'These are things that are not politically easy to do.'
More Al Muderis spin news
CBD brought word last week that disgraced orthopaedic surgeon Munjed Al Muderis had spent $19,000 on just nine days of crisis communications advice from PR veteran Peter Wilkinson after an investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes found (among other things) that he'd left patients with maggot-infested wounds.
As we reported, Al Muderis ignored Wilkinson's advice, which was to prioritise a media strategy over a legal one, and called in the defamation big gun, Sue Chrysanthou, SC.
He then proceeded to lose an epic trial against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes, leaving the doctor on the hook for some $19 million in legal bills.
It turns out another PR firm worked for Al Muderis, before abruptly parting ways. CBD hears that Mark Hawthorne, a former senior editor at The Age and managing partner of pricey PR firm Civic Partnership, worked with Al Muderis for a few months during the first stages of his trial in 2023.
You might recall Civic's work representing Israel Folau during his clash with Rugby Australia. Word on the street is the firm's top managing partners charge up to $7000 a day.
Civic stopped taking calls from journalists about the case in October 2023, as the trial gathered pace. Asked for comment, Hawthorne responded: 'At Civic, we do not discuss client matters.'
Cop, pollie, ambulance chaser?
Never let it be said Brad Battin runs from a challenge. The former police-officer-turned-leader of the Victorian opposition has raised eyebrows with his gung-ho approach to politics.
On Tuesday morning, Battin decided to do a press conference near a body at a crime scene in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong. He told reporters he was passing by on his way to work and had decided to stop. At the time of the press conference, the next of kin had yet to be identified.
Allan government minister Colin Brooks described the move as 'appalling behaviour from someone who aspires to be the leader of this state'.
'What we don't need is politicians heading out to crime scenes,' Brooks told reporters. 'That's a real error of judgment, and he should apologise.'
Asked later why it was appropriate to rock up at a crime scene, Battin doubled down and said he'd headed to the crime scene as he'd heard about it on the radio.
'I did a press conference with the cameras to highlight the fact crime is out of control,' he said.
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