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West Australian
17-07-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Tasmanian Greens buy AFL CEO Andrew Dillon a flight to Hobart as stadium row escalates ahead of election
The Tasmanian Greens party have chipped in to buy a flight ticket for AFL CEO Andrew Dillon in their latest publicity stunt to draw attention to the state's controversial proposed stadium. The $1 billion Macquarie Point stadium has been a sticking point for the Greens, who are vehemently opposed to the project despite it being a non-negotiable for the AFL to expand to the state. Despite bipartisan support from the major parties, the Greens could be crucial given another hung parliament is projected after Premier Jeremy Rockliff was forced to call a snap election for July 19. It could see the stadium remain in political limbo with the Greens urging Dillon to speak to locals on election day. 'Since the beginning of the stadium saga, the AFL has spent all their time talking to Liberal - and more recently Labor - politicians and ignoring the Tasmanian community. That needs to change. The AFL CEO should front up and listen to Tasmanians,' the Greens' statement read. 'The AFL CEO can come down, head out to some polling booths, and hear for himself what people think about the stadium. He could even head along to the Hawks vs Power game in the afternoon and remind himself of just how good a place York Park is to play football. 'We know Andrew Dillon is a busy guy, but given the huge turmoil the AFL's insistence on a stadium has caused for Tasmania, surely the least he can do is show up? 'While he might not be used to flying Jetstar, we've bought him extra leg room to make the trip a bit more like what he's probably accustomed to.' Hawthorn will face Port Adelaide at Launceston's University of Tasmania Stadium on Saturday . The original agreement between the state and the AFL was for the stadium to be finished in time for the 2029 season, with the state set to cop a $4.5 million penalty if it's not half finished by 2027. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the state to get on with the project and look at the wider benefits of a team. 'We support a stadium, not just because of what it will do for AFL, but for what it will do in Hobart,' the Prime Minister told the Two Good Sports podcast. The federal government has allocated $240m for the project, while the AFL has tipped in $15m for the stadium.
Perth Now
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Greens play political football over Tassie stadium
More than half of agents say drug use is an issue for their players. The Tasmanian Greens party have chipped in to buy a flight ticket for AFL CEO Andrew Dillon in their latest publicity stunt to draw attention to the state's controversial proposed stadium. The $1 billion Macquarie Point stadium has been a sticking point for the Greens, who are vehemently opposed to the project despite it being a non-negotiable for the AFL to expand to the state. Despite bipartisan support from the major parties, the Greens could be crucial given another hung parliament is projected after Premier Jeremy Rockliff was forced to call a snap election for July 19. It could see the stadium remain in political limbo with the Greens urging Dillon to speak to locals on election day. 'Since the beginning of the stadium saga, the AFL has spent all their time talking to Liberal - and more recently Labor - politicians and ignoring the Tasmanian community. That needs to change. The AFL CEO should front up and listen to Tasmanians,' the Greens' statement read. 'The AFL CEO can come down, head out to some polling booths, and hear for himself what people think about the stadium. He could even head along to the Hawks vs Power game in the afternoon and remind himself of just how good a place York Park is to play football. 'We know Andrew Dillon is a busy guy, but given the huge turmoil the AFL's insistence on a stadium has caused for Tasmania, surely the least he can do is show up? 'While he might not be used to flying Jetstar, we've bought him extra leg room to make the trip a bit more like what he's probably accustomed to.' Hawthorn will face Port Adelaide at Launceston's University of Tasmania Stadium on Saturday . The original agreement between the state and the AFL was for the stadium to be finished in time for the 2029 season, with the state set to cop a $4.5 million penalty if it's not half finished by 2027. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the state to get on with the project and look at the wider benefits of a team. 'We support a stadium, not just because of what it will do for AFL, but for what it will do in Hobart,' the Prime Minister told the Two Good Sports podcast. The federal government has allocated $240m for the project, while the AFL has tipped in $15m for the stadium.
Courier-Mail
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Courier-Mail
Project host confirms fate of ‘more than 50 staff' after show's dumping
Don't miss out on the headlines from TV. Followed categories will be added to My News. As stars of The Project prepare for their final show on Friday night, Sarah Harris revealed sad details about its axing — saying 'she's old enough' to cope, but that more than 50 job losses will devastate more junior workers. Harris opened up about her uncertain future this week but stopped short of confirming one media report claiming Ten had not sacked her but offered her a role on the program that replaces The Project from Monday. Harris twice dodged the question when close buddy and ex Studio 10 colleague Joe Hildebrand put the question to her on his The Real Story Nova podcast on Thursday. Rather than respond, Harris confirmed this column's exclusive report that more than 50 people lost their jobs when The Project was axed. Dozens more casuals are said to have been impacted. 'More than 50 people have lost their jobs now. I can cop it. I'm old enough and ugly enough to deal with that but the kids who've lost their jobs … Lots of people behind the scenes who are about to have babies – who have scrimped and saved and bought their first place …' she said. Former Studio 10 hosts and good friends Sarah Harris and Joe Hildebrand. Picture: Drew Dennis Sarah Harris with Project co-host Waleed Aly, with their last show to air on Friday night. Harris opened the interview with the line 'Hello, I'm Sarah Harris and I'm open to any sort of employment. You can check me out on LinkedIn.' She later acknowledged it was a tough time in the TV industry, that a 'reckoning' is occurring, and that 'social media killed the TV star.' Industry sources claim that while dozens of behind-the-scenes production staff were given a couple weeks notice, a number of presenters were offered contract extensions to the end of the year. Harris and co-presenters Waleed Aly and Georgie Tunny are believed to have been offered brief extensions. The Project's Georgie Tunny took to Instagram promoting her Two Good Sports podcast with Abbey Gelmi. Tunny, who had been a star in the making on ABC Breakfast before jumping ship in 2021 to Foxtel and subsequently making the move to Ten following Carrie Bickmore's resignation from the Project in 2022, has spent recent days doubling down on promotions for two podcasts she's associated with. Tunny took to Instagram to promote a sporting podcast, Two Good Sports, which she co-hosts with Abbey Gelmi, as well as a second Taylor Swift-inspired podcast, Ready For It. Harris flatly didn't rule out the likelihood a podcast might be in her future. X SUBSCRIBER ONLY KARL PARTIES AS TODAY TANKS Are executives at Nine hiding Karl Stefanovic's report card from newish CEO Matt Stanton? One has to wonder, given claims this week Stanton has inked a new deal with Today show host Karl Stefanovic. Someone at Nine is surely pulling the wool over Stanton's eyes, for when last we checked – on Thursday – the Today show's rating were plummeting and for the past three years had achieved record figures. To put this in the plainest terms, here's a graph which shows Today has been cascading downwards since the departure of Lisa Wilkinson in 2017. Karl Stefanovic's mooted pay rise comes as ratings show Nine's Today show has been shedding audiences by the "ton" since the departure of co-host Lisa Wilkinson in 2017 - the show's highest rating May/June in nine years. Source: Supplied Karl Stefanovich at a book launch in Sydney on Tuesday night. Picture: Thomas Lisson Back in 2017, in the two-month period of May and June, Today reached an average of 445,043 viewers nationally. In the five capital cities that figure was 294,255. In 2025, for the same two-month period, Today reached 267,422 viewers nationally and 177,621 in the five capital cities. That represents a decline of 60 per cent over nine years and, without exception, Today's consistent loss to the stronger Sunrise on Seven. Nine years of losses to Seven in the breakfast TV slot. And if you look back further, one finds that with Stefanovic at the helm Today has lost convincingly every year to Seven's Sunrise since he was moved into the anchor's chair (undoubtably after charming one of the blokes in the top job at Nine) in 2005. There was only momentary blip is that devastating record. That was in the opening months of 2016 when Today, with Wilkinson seated next to Stefanovic, topped Sunrise. After that, his marriage unravelled along with the gains the duo had started to make on Seven after a decade. New Today show co-host Lisa Wilkinson on set with Karl Stefanovic in 2007. Yet Wilkinson, one of the most eloquent and best researched commercial TV breakfast anchors the nation has known, would be shown the door in 2017 following a pay parity dispute with management. Stefanovic would survive for another (almost) decade. Surely it proves nothing's fair in love and war and television ladies, nothing. And maybe less than nothing if reports prove true that for his two decades of successive ratings failures, Stefanovic has been handed a $200k payrise taking his salary to more than three times that of his female co-anchor, Sarah Abo. Stefanovic may be able to fool his blokey bosses at Nine (firstly David Gyngell, then Eddie McGuire, then Gyngell again, the Hugh Marks, then Mike Sneesby, then Stanton), but as the ratings amply prove, you can't fool an audience. That's who should and will always determine the net worth of a performer. It should he said that in this year's May/June period, Today has achieved figures lowever even than it did in 2019 – the year declared a disaster by Nine bosses following the installation of two women, sterling newsreaders Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight, at the program's helm. An experiment deemed a failure at Nine and killed off after a year. BIVIANO NEXT BIG MOVE? In the midst of the emotional turmoil and high drama that engulfed – and for a while threatened to capsize – the latest series of Real Housewives of Sydney, came a whisper Terry Biviano had struck upon an idea. Sources close to the Real Housewives of Sydney (RHOS) production have told this column that as Rome was burning around Biviano on the set of the reality show the one-time 'It' girl Biviano was hatching a plan to pitch a programming idea to the program's broadcaster, Foxtel. The concept, or so we heard, would see the Sydney WAG star in a reality show alongside some of her 'friends'. By 'friends' our insiders believed Biviano meant members of the Housewives' cast with whom she's still on speaking terms. Terry Biviano with the cast of Real Housewives of Sydney. Picture: Supplied Terry Biviano with husband, former NRL star Anthony Minichiello at Justin Hemmes' Silver Party in Sydney. Picture: Tom Parrish When last we checked, that extended to two members of the cast, vet Kate Adams and reinvented wellness spruiker Sally Obermeder. Not so much Krissy Marsh, Nicole Gazal-O'Neil and fashion retailer Victoria Montano, with whom Biviano reportedly had a public spat at an eastern suburbs party earlier this year. We're unable to confirm the current status of Biviano's relationship with the feisty Caroline Gaultier and the one with the parasol. We note Biviano has already road-tested the title Real Girlfriends of Sydney to her 70k Instagram followers. This tag accompanied a post showing the one-time shoe designer lunching with Sydney pals including fashion designer Rebecca Vallance. The wife of retired NRL player Anthony Minichiello seemed surprised by the talk when Sharpshooting reached out to her for comment this week. 'News to me,' she said via text from a mystery 'family holiday' location, just days after a regular reader spied her taking a turn around an airport in Copenhagen. Anthony Minichiello and Terry Biviano's Vaucluse home, which is still under construction. Source: Supplied The couple snapped up the property for more than $3 million in 2011. A Foxtel spokesman declined to be drawn on any discussions the broadcaster may have had with Biviano. So maybe it is just talk. In the unlikely event such a concept might appeal to Foxtel's soon-to-be-hired new head of content, not to mention the honchos at production partner Matchbox who, so we hear, are still assessing the cost of the toxic cast feud that almost sank the final episodes of RHOS season three, there could be an issue finding a suitable location. When last we checked, Biviano's still-under-construction house in Vaucluse was, well, still under construction. That was March, some 11 years after the owners acquired and started designing their dream pile in 2014. We're awaiting word on whether the exclusive suburb's most detested front yard fixture, a green port-a-loo on the Biviano/Minichiello site, might finally have been cleared away so the couple can at last take up residence and get on with the task of dreaming up schemes to pay it off. JOINING FORCES The name of departed ABC executive Chris Oliver-Taylor was on everyone's lips this week as the court's verdict on Antoinette Lattouf was finally handed down. The man the court found to be chiefly responsible for casual presenter Lattouf's sacking was no where to be seen on Wednesday however, having departed the ABC in February to take up a job as global director of digital content monetisation platform Totem Global. Oliver-Taylor has landed on his feet in a role that will include international business development and company expansion. Antoinette Lattouf leaves the Supreme Court on Wednesday after winning her case against the ABC. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short Antointette Lattouf and Jan Fran launch their new business Ette Media. It's not clear meanwhile where Lattouf had landed although we were interested to learn this week that she's signed to an influencer stable. Stage Addiction, a company we'd not heard of until this week, is promoting the self-described 'human Headline Hottie' with the inducement 'Get your people to call my people etc'. Also in the stable is Abbie Chatfield, Jess Eva and a bunch of dudes we wouldn't recognise from Adam. Meanwhile Lattouf has joined Lebanese-Australian journalist and sometime ABC contributor Jan Fran in a new media enterprise called Ette which is derived from the women's names, Antoinette and JEANETTE. TAJER TATTLE Seven Media's chief commercial officer, Henry Tajer, is due to wind up his role today after just six months in the chair. According to well-placed sources Tajer has set his sights on winning the top job at ad company ooh! media. In April that company announced that CEO Cath O'Connor was stepping down after O'Connor and the ooh! media board decided it was the right time for a leadership transition. That followed a static year in revenue at the company to February. Seven Media's commercial officer Henry Tajer who will finish up with the Network on Friday. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian There's chatter about former Nine Sales boss Michael Stephenson being a good replacement of Tajer. Picture: Supplied This column was unable to reach Tajer for comment yesterday. Sources claim Tajer had long lusted after the top job of Seven CEO Jeff Howard, something that may have contributed to his quickie departure. From radio comes chatter that former Nine sales boss Michael Stephenson would be a good fit for Tajer's soon-to-be vacant role. Stephenson left Nine last year to move the radio company ARN as chief operating officer. Many believe the role, as chief wrangler for a company that has tied its success to the Kyle & Jackie O show, is an ill-fit for the longtime TV executive. Originally published as Project host confirms fate of 'more than 50 staff' after show's dumping
9 News
14-06-2025
- Politics
- 9 News
Albanese suggests some Olympic sports could be held outside of Brisbane
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here BREAKING Australian killed, another injured in Bali villa shooting incident Anthony Albanese has cast doubt over some of Brisbane's Olympic venues for 2032. Speaking on the Two Good Sports podcast on Friday, the PM suggested some sports could be played out of Sydney. "Are we really going to do rowing in Rockhampton on the Fitzroy River? When there are some pretty good facilities in Penrith?" Albanese asked. Speaking on the Two Good Sports podcast on Friday, the PM suggested some sports could be played out of Sydney. (Nine) Albanese hinted that some events could be on the move, less than three months after the reveal of Queensland's 2032 vision. "It might be that you can't just do everything in one spot," he said. The Queensland government begs to differ, rejecting calls to move rowing from the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton. "That is the plan; they are the venues. The plan is not changing," State Housing Minister Sam O'Connor said. While the Prime Minister's comments may have opened the door to changes to the Olympic plan, Tennis Queensland is sticking firm with its plans for a substantial upgrade at Pat Rafter Arena, including a new 3000-seat indoor arena. "The Premier confirmed in March that Olympic and Paralympic tennis will be played in Brisbane, and we've had productive discussions since," Tennis Queensland said in a statement. The housing minister also rubbished claims that a venue spat could put the joint $7 billion funding agreement at risk. Anthony Albanese has cast doubt over some of Brisbane's Olympic venues for 2032. (Nine) "I'm not going to buy into those hypotheticals, we have a plan, we have a great plan," O'Connor said. Rowing Queensland Chief Executive Anthea O'Loughlin said the body welcomed the PM's engagement in the discussion about rowing's location. "We support the decision to keep rowing in Queensland and look forward to continued discussion on legacy, value and long-term benefit to the sport." "We continue to engage and support the State Government, the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee and other key stakeholders to ensure rowing is delivered to international standards and leaves a meaningful legacy for our sport in Queensland." CONTACT US
Sky News AU
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Anthony Albanese suggests NSW and Victoria should be considered to host major 2032 Olympic events, sparking stern rebuke from Qld officials
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suggested consideration should be made for two 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games sports to be held outside of Queensland. The 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games plot has continued to thicken after the Labor leader said the tennis and rowing could potentially be held in New South Wales and Victoria and that the Sunshine State lacked the appropriate facilities to host the two sports. Appearing on the most recent episode of the Two Good Sports podcast uploaded on Friday, Mr Albanese said there was a 'bit of a debate going on' over the venue plan. 'I've been meeting with (2032 Organising Committee President) Andrew Liveris as well as with the Queensland Premier (David) Crisafulli about where it goes,' he told the podcast. 'For example, are we really going to do rowing in Rockhampton on the Fitzroy River when there are some pretty good facilities at Penrith (in Sydney's west)?' The PM, who has flown to Canada for the G7 summit, cast doubt on Queensland's ability to accommodate the two sports and questioned why taxpayer funds would be used to develop new facilities when there were existing amenities in Sydney and Melbourne. 'There's a debate over tennis and what's needed there in Brisbane as well," Mr Albanese told the Melbourne-based podcast. 'You have pretty good tennis facilities." However, the Crisafulli state government was quick to pounce on the unexpected comments, vowing that Brisbane would host all Olympic events. A Queensland government spokesperson told the Courier Mail on Friday that 'we are working with all levels of government to implement the 2032 Games Delivery Plan, which will see Rowing in Rockhampton and Tennis played at the upgraded Queensland Tennis Centre.' Mr Crisafulli previously stated that his government would guarantee 'Melbourne will not be taking the tennis from Brisbane'. Tennis Queensland CEO Cameron Pearson also weighed in on the stoush, and resoundingly backed his home state, saying 'the Premier confirmed in March that Olympic and Paralympic tennis will be played in Brisbane, and we've had productive discussions since'. Yet, despite vocal protest from high-ranking Queensland officials, the Prime Minister added 'it might be that you just can't do everything in one spot in the future' and that it was 'legitimate for there to be proper discussion'. Hosting the rowing in the notoriously crocodile "infested" waters of the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton has attracted ridicule and furore, with a recent hydrological study also concluding the river drops to almost zero flow in the winter months when the games are due to be held. A Brisbane 2032 spokesperson reiterated the venue master plan process was still ongoing and that many details were still yet to be determined. 'Delivering world-class fields of play that provide an optimal performance environment for athletes remains key for Brisbane 2032 and ensuring International Federations are involved in planning and delivery will help achieve this outcome,' a Brisbane 2032 statement read. In response to the row, an Albanese government spokesperson said there needed to be a 'common sense approach' in the planning of the games and that any changes to the scheduling would be decided in tandem with the Queensland government.
