Notes on a radio scandal

Radio hasn’t been having the best week.
In case you missed it, Super Radio Network Newcastle’s general manager Guy Ashford was suspended after being filmed storming the stage at the Australian Audio Awards in Sydney and groping an employee accepting an award.
The audience could be heard gasping as Ashford slapped a hand on 2HD presenter Cheralyn Darcey’s backside during a congratulatory hug. She later told the Daily Mail his actions had ‘wrecked’ a milestone moment for her.
The episode has sparked fresh soul-searching about the dinosaurs still roaming the radio industry – figures clinging to an anything-goes culture reminiscent of the freewheeling ’80s and ’90s, when revenue was booming and management was all too willing to look the other way.
But what interested us most was chatter of what was allegedly said at the station’s table before Darcey won Best On-Air Newcomer for her show The Nightline.
A well-placed source tells us a well-hydrated Ashford was ‘hammering’ Darcey with backhanded remarks about how she wasn’t likely to win in her category.
When she eventually proved him wrong, his behaviour escalated from belittling to boundary-crossing.

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Radio host Cheralyn Darcey, who was groped by her boss at an industry awards ceremony, says the episode ‘wrecked’ receiving a major accolade

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The groping incident, which shocked the crowd at the Australian Audio Awards, was captured on video and veteran executive Guy Ashford (above) was subsequently stood down

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As Darcey went to collect her award at Carriageworks, 2HD general manager Guy Ashford rushed on stage, hugged and twirled his employee around, then grabbed her backside (above)

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P.S. Inside Mail suspects Ashford’s antics won’t have come as a great surprise to his ex-wife Lisa.
The former couple, who share three children, separated about five years ago, with friends quickly rallying around her at the time.
While Lisa did not publicly announce the split, she quietly changed her Facebook profile photo to one of herself.
A loyal friend commented, ‘You have always been too good for him, sweetness,’ to which Lisa replied: ‘Thank you.’
The telling exchange remains visible online. Inside Mail contacted Lisa for comment.
A former colleague of Ashford’s also weighed in on the situation, commenting on a LinkedIn post about the awards show incident.
She suggested his move to regional radio may have contributed to his behaviour being overlooked and that he would ‘never have’ got away with it in Sydney…

La dolce vita

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An industry source tells us that Jackie ‘O’ Henderson plans to take off for Europe soon. It comes as her relationship with manager Gemma O’Neill ‘cools’, according to insiders

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Meanwhile, Henderson is reportedly set to be served with a subpoena by ARN as it seeks documents to use in its separate case against her former co-host Kyle Sandilands (pictured)

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EXCLUSIVE

 Sky News nukes damaging Karl Stefanovic story… Plus, rift murmurs between Jackie O and manager

We exercised some restraint last week in reporting on the rift between Jackie Henderson and her bestie-turned-manager Gemma O’Neill.
After all, the radio business is rife with idle talk that often has a tenuous link to reality.
But we’re feeling more confident now.
Our story was picked up by respected industry podcast Game Changers, whose hosts Irene Hulme and Craig Bruce said they had also heard the chatter.
Since publishing, we’ve heard another tantalising twist.
An industry source tells us that Henderson plans to take off for Europe soon.
Word is she needs to ‘clear her head’ after her contract was terminated and the uncertainty over where things stand with O’Neill.
Henderson has long said she plans to split her time between Australia and Italy once her contract ends – so all signs point to la dolce vita.
The timing is curious: she is reportedly set to be served with a subpoena by her former employer as it seeks documents to use in its separate case against her former co-host Kyle Sandilands.
To be clear: we aren’t suggesting that Henderson is jetting overseas to avoid providing ARN with documents (which the broadcaster is seeking through a legal process known as a notice to produce), only noting that she is leaving the country at a time when the legal standoff appears to be entering a crucial phase.

‘Amateur hour’

As Southern Cross Austereo and Channel Seven settle into their newly merged future, tales are leaking from inside the bunker about the ‘innovative’ ideas the radio crowd had for the network.
Top of the list was a single national news service being rolled out instead of local news at 6pm – same show, coast to coast.
The SCA guys apparently thought viewers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth wouldn’t care – or notice – that they were watching the same stories.
Had the plan gone ahead, it would have certainly slashed costs… but at the price of local relevance and, most likely, viewers.
‘Ratings would have tanked, and Nine would have been laughing all the way to the bank,’ a source told Inside Mail. ‘It was amateur hour.’

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In the early days of the SCA/Seven merger, the radio guys floated the idea of a single national news service being rolled out instead of local news at 6pm. Had the plan gone ahead, the national hosts would most likely have been Sydney duo Mark Ferguson and Angela Cox

Anyone with even a flicker of TV news experience knows localism is do-or-die at 6pm. Mess with the formula and viewers disappear, taking ad dollars with them.
The TV veterans fought hard behind the scenes to shoot the plan down, and it was only killed off when Kerry Stokes reshuffled the board and put his foot down.
That move led to the return of Angus Ross – the much-respected programmer who had been made redundant by the radio execs’ short-lived power play.
Ross doesn’t officially start until July 1, but don’t be surprised if he’s back in the building before then.
For now, TV staff are breathing a sigh of relief as the division regains control. The war may not be over, but for the moment, they’ve decisively won this battle.

Mamamia survivors club

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Claire Murphy, a popular podcast host for Mamamia until her redundancy last month, has found immediate success with the launch of her solo podcast

The sacking of Claire Murphy – one of Mamamia’s best-known podcast hosts and a voice behind Well. and The Quicky – sent shockwaves through the company two weeks ago.
After seven years at the network, Murphy was made redundant, and she hasn’t been quiet about her exit, speaking to Money Magazine and Mediaweek about her ‘weirdest last day at work ever’, as well as AI being pushed ‘like it was life or death’.
But anyone who’s worked in the trenches at Mamamia knows the tie that binds them. There’s a reason some (jokingly) call it the ‘Survivors’ Club’.
Former colleagues have rallied around Murphy since her exit, and on Monday, she launched her own news podcast: The Solo Bureau.
Its tagline? No Agenda, No AI, Just News.
Murphy opened her debut episode with a pledge: she would never let artificial intelligence write her stories or imitate her voice, using it, at most, as a research tool.
While there’s no suggestion Mamamia engages in those practices, the company’s energetic embrace of the technology makes it difficult not to read her stance as a pointed dig at her former employer.
Support from ex-Mamamia staff has been vocal.
Keryn Donnelly, who blasted Mia Freedman’s company last year over its lack of diversity in podcasting, promoted Murphy’s new show on Instagram, calling her ‘incredibly smart’. Other former staffers have rushed to listen, rate and share.
On Wednesday, Murphy told Inside Mail she was overwhelmed by the support she had received from ex-Mamamia staffers – which helped propel her podcast to the top of the Apple charts, even beating loudmouth Karl Stefanovic.

The ‘no AI’ mission statement of The Solo Bureau seems to be in response to strategic changes at her former workplace

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On Wednesday, Murphy told Inside Mail she was overwhelmed by the support she had received from ex-Mamamia staffers – which helped propel her podcast to the top of the Apple charts, even beating Karl Stefanovic

‘It’s been incredible. I’m floored,’ she said.
Among the gossipy ex-Mamamia set, the question now is whether Murphy will join the club of company alumni who have gone on to bigger things after Freedman and management failed to recognise their potential.
Who could forget that the women behind Shameless, Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald, had pitched their idea of a podcast for ‘smart women who like dumb stuff’ to Freedman while working as writers at Mamamia only to be told, effectively, to pull their heads in because they hadn’t earned their stripes yet.
They left, launched Shameless in 2018 and, in what the kids today call a ‘generational fumble’, the millennial female audience slipped clean through Freedman’s fingers.
Meanwhile, Mamamia looks to be feeling the strain.
The popular lifestyle podcast You Beauty has been trimmed from two episodes a week to one. Parenting series Eat Sleep Repeat, hosted by Kelly McCarren and Kee Reece, and acquired by Mamamia, has been put on hold indefinitely.
‘We have decided to pause the show. We are unsure of the dates as to when the show will be finishing and we’re unsure of whether it’s forever, or whether it’s just for a time,’ Reece said on Friday’s episode.
‘We wanted to make sure we brought you in on this information sooner rather than later so that when we do have our final ep, you’re not just like… what the hell was that?’

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Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald (above, in February) had pitched their idea of a podcast for ‘smart women who like dumb stuff’ to Mia Freedman while working as writers at Mamamia only to be told they had not earned their stripes yet. They went on to launch Shameless in 2018

Reece said it had ‘been a struggle to make the show profitable’.
‘We literally do not make $1,’ McCarren added, stating that the co-hosts had only made $4,000 each in the show’s entire four-year run.
Industry insiders are starting to ask whether the company is going through a transitional phase – though Mamamia would hardly be alone in that regard.

What’s in a name?

It seems Murphy isn’t the only ghost haunting Mamamia.
Inside Mail has learned that two journalists whose bylines regularly appear on the website don’t exist. At least not in the earthly realm.
We’ve done a deep-dive and can find zero evidence that writers Ella Morgan and Isabella Thompson are real, human reporters.
None of our sources within the company say they have ever met or commissioned work from either Morgan or Thompson.
We asked around this week and discovered they are house bylines.
These are bylines used by publishers for generic or team-written pieces when attribution is tricky, or when using the author’s real name would pose some kind of personal risk.

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We’ve done a deep-dive and can find zero evidence that Mamamia ‘writers’ Ella Morgan and Isabella Thompson are real, human reporters. (Morgan’s author page is shown)

Typically, they take the form of ‘Staff Reporter’ or some variation. Everyone has them, but Mamamia differs by instead using a pair of realistic-sounding female names.
Whether you believe this is misleading or not comes down to personal opinion. Interestingly, the Morgan byline has been used as far back as 2014, which suggests it has been retroactively slapped on old stories.
While we could stick the boot in here about transparency, it has been suggested to us that Mamamia’s predominantly female workforce may not put their names on every story they write for personal or security reasons.

[Redacted]

The Sayers vs Sayers saga playing out in Melbourne’s courts is throwing up more questions than answers.
Last week, explosive text messages emerged between ex-Carlton boss Luke Sayers and his estranged wife Cate, exchanged after his infamous 2025 d*** pic scandal.
The texts are certainly embarrassing for Sayers, who had tried to have proceedings moved to the Family Court to avoid just this kind of exposure, but it’s a redacted name in the messages that has media types buzzing.
The messages were sent after Carlton put out a statement saying Sayers’ X account had been ‘compromised, resulting in the posting of the image’ of his penis. The statement also confirmed that Sayers was stepping down as club president but that he had been cleared following an investigation by the AFL Integrity Unit.
Sayers tells Cate: ‘I’ve left Carlton just announced.’
She replies: ‘Wondered why I just received a swuillion messages from people in oz.
‘Also, I don’t like the last line – everyone now thinks I posted it ‘someone who has access to his account’.’

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Redactions in an affidavit tease the possibility that Luke Sayers (right, with his girlfriend) had named a specific person as responsible for his ‘d*** pic’ leak in his frantic texts to wife Cate

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Cate Sayers (right) alleges her husband Luke falsely implied she was responsible for posting a photo of his penis from his X account during last year’s scandal

Sayers insists: ‘No they don’t… I was very clear about pursuing this hack privately from this day forward…which I am on.’
Cate snaps: ‘No Luke – read the media. You are once again cleared – you looked after yourself well but your media people have left it on me – thanks.’
Sayers: ‘Babe no no no… it’s [redacted]… it couldn’t have been clearer in the statement.’
Cate: ‘Ffs read the statement. The world thinks I posted it. Thanks.’
Here’s the part no one seems to have picked up on yet: the way Sayers refers to ‘[redacted]’ seems to confirm he named an actual person – not a faceless hacker – in his frantic texts to his estranged wife.
By redacting this word, the court has inadvertently set off a witch hunt to find out who Sayers might have identified by name as the supposed leaker.
In his texts, Sayers claims that the truth about the leak ‘couldn’t have been clearer in the statement’. We’ve read Carlton’s statement countless times looking for clues and possible hidden meanings and are drawing a blank.
He is obviously not blaming himself, and he makes a point of saying the statement did not implicate Cate – so who did he accuse?
The lawyers obviously believe they deserve a cloak of anonymity for now. Whether that will remain so is another question.

Speeding off

It is with enormous pleasure that Inside Mail has learned of the departure of former Seven sport editor Matt Carmichael from his post-TV gig spinning for Supercars.
Carmichael was made redundant from Seven in September. At the time, we spoke to former staffers who said that his robust management style wasn’t to everyone’s taste.
The ex-employees had approached the Mail because they were irked by media reports describing Carmichael as a ‘popular’ presenter. As the Queen famously said, ‘recollections may vary’.
Our report was not published due to unresolved legal concerns.
Whatever the circumstances of his exit, all signs pointed to a soft landing for Carmichael in November as he was parachuted into the communications chief role at Supercars.

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Matt Carmichael was made redundant from Seven in September. At the time, we spoke to former staffers who said that his robust management style wasn’t to everyone’s taste

But it wasn’t meant to be. Chief marketing officer Charlotte Valente told staff last month that Carmichael had ‘made the considered decision to step away’.
His last day will be June 4.
News of his brief tenure in the world of PR has been met with some schadenfreude among industry peers. However, Inside Mail makes no suggestion Carmichael was pushed from Supercars and Valente noted it was his own decision.
Carmichael told industry website Speed Cafe he was ‘grateful’ to have learned the PR side of sport and that he wants to get back to the ‘journalism side’ again.
We will be following this story with extremely keen interest.

Hughesy has a problem

Dave Hughes’ takedown of Labor’s tax backflip cuts so much deeper than the usual scripted outrage echoing through Canberra

Dave Hughes is hardly a card-carrying right-wing culture warrior – which is precisely why his blistering takedown of Anthony Albanese’s tax backflip cuts so much deeper than the usual scripted outrage echoing through Canberra.
When a mainstream comedian points out a glaring political deception, it resonates with the electorate far more than opposition talking points. Albo didn’t merely break a minor policy promise, he bulldozed an explicit election pledge less than a year later.
Worse still, the government buried these major capital gains tax and negative gearing hikes within an omnibus bill, a deliberate parliamentary manoeuvre designed to dodge proper scrutiny and force the changes through with maximum political trickery.
This debate is no longer just about the economic merits of the policy – and, to be fair, many serious economists support the changes – but rather about dishonourable conduct and broken trust.
Labor knows it didn’t take these changes to the voters, relying instead on a weakened Liberal Party and a fractured crossbench to muddy the waters of accountability. It was a deliberately deceptive act.
For years, Albo painstakingly built a personal brand as a straight shooter, but that brand has been blown to pieces. Hughesy didn’t overreact; he simply spotted the trickery and the lying.

Feeling hangry?

A rare moment of levity in the Senate on Wednesday.
After a morning of pretty dry chat, Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee Raff Ciccone decided to wrap things up.
Jacqui Lambie had just finished saying her piece when Ciccone declared: ‘Alright, excellent. Well, on that note we’re gonna break for lunch and I’ll see everyone back here in one hour.’
He then muttered under his breath, ‘Thank f*** for that,’ and shut his laptop. We get it.

Senator Raff Ciccone caught muttering as Senate breaks

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Can’t be Tamed

The ABC’s decision to hand Grace Tame her own podcast is almost too perfectly on-brand for a public broadcaster that repeatedly struggles with reading the room.
A taxpayer-funded institution already bleeding public credibility and facing persistent accusations of poor editorial judgment has decided the ultimate fix is to give a microphone to one of Australia’s most polarising activists.
While the network might find comfort in the fact that the show is pre-recorded – presumably allowing a team of editors and lawyers to sanitise the output Tame comes up with – the underlying institutional mindset remains deeply flawed.
The ABC chronically confuses raw activism with professional broadcasting, consistently mistaking manufactured controversy for journalistic courage, and treating culture-war grenades as edgy content.
The most damning aspect of this saga isn’t the predictable right-wing outrage about Tame’s appointment, but the internal discomfort it has generated among ideological allies.
When a progressive figure like The Weekly host Charlie Pickering – a Jewish convert – publicly labels the move as problematic, specifically citing Tame’s divisive pro-Palestinian activism and inflammatory language, the network can no longer dismiss the backlash as just a conservative pile-on.
Who greenlit this? A network-wide clean-out at the ABC is long overdue.
P. S. Inside Mail also notes that in her first podcast with Yumi Stynes, Tame solved the riddle that has been following her for a while now.
After being married to a man, and a failed engagement to another man, the activist confirmed to Stynes that she was now ‘exploring relationships with women’.
It was a curious move given that only weeks ago she shared an Instagram post that looked a lot like she was coming out as a lesbian, only to delete it without explanation.
Anyway. We applaud her bravery.

Park St update

It’s been all quiet on the Are Media front for a few weeks… but our magland ‘deep throat’ has been in touch again with more scuttlebutt from Park St.
Here’s the rundown.
They’re still hunting for a replacement for former technology director Daniel Tisi, a 25-year company veteran before his exit in February.
Word is his former team isn’t too happy – some have left, others are looking for a way out. However, we have been assured that an announcement could be imminent…
There’s also talk of turf wars between sales director Anna Quinn’s more recent hires and other parts of the business, particularly Head of Audience Zahra Campbell-Avenell and Jocelin Abbey, the General Manager of Homes and Lifestyle.
Are Media’s PR was contacted for comment but didn’t want to go on the record.

Double clangers on Sky

It was an awkward moment on Sky News Australia for Cheng Lei, after two segments failed to air live.
On Monday, Lei was hosting as usual, reading an introduction before throwing to a report on one of the ISIS brides.
‘Officers arrested the 34-year-old on Thursday and charged her with terror offences, using evidence they had obtained since the return of four other so-called ISIS brides last month,’ she said.
‘The Australian Federal Police has not elaborated on how that evidence was collected.’
Then… nothing.
The expected footage didn’t roll, leaving Lei momentarily staring down the camera before she moved swiftly on.
‘Now, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has been grilled during budget estimates over the secret court case of a former minister. Let’s go live to Aspen Blomfield in Hobart.’
But Blomfield wasn’t there either.

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Cheng Lei (pictured) was left out to dry after two back-to-back segments failed to go to air

‘We don’t have Aspen for you at the moment, but do stay with us, we’ll be back after the break.’
Inside Mail applauds Lei for her professionalism under pressure, and can’t help but wonder whether a line producer received a stern talking-to.
Either that or someone at Sky News has a grudge against her.

TikTok… boom

We love nothing more than seeing two hot-headed editors go for each other like it’s gladiatorial combat.
So you can imagine our delight when grizzled editor-at-large of the Betoota Advocate, Errol Parker, took aim at The Daily Telegraph’s Ben English.
English has been on top of his social media game lately, briefing his followers on the day’s front pages and offering a glimpse into the decision-making process behind each edition.
Some clips are filmed from his car; others see him talking to the camera as he strides purposefully from his office to the newsroom (Ed – editors have their own offices?)
Not everyone in the industry is enthralled. Fuelled by a schooner or six, Parker took to Facebook to blast the videos as ‘a bastardisation of our format’ and declare that ‘newspaper journos should be read and not seen’.
‘It’s horrific what the top brass at major daily newspapers are making their journalists do these days,’ Parker fulminated.
‘Not even editors are spared, with Ben English from the Tele having to do these bizarre videos from the comfort of his leased BYD ATTO. For f***’s sake, man, he’s the editor.’
We asked English if he had any response, and he didn’t hold back.
‘Errol’s a funny guy, so it’s a little sad to see him angling for clout on LinkedIn,’ he said.
‘And by the way, no Daily Telegraph editor would be seen dead driving a cheap plastic EV.’
P.S. For the avoidance of doubt: yes, we are aware Errol Parker isn’t a real person.

Rivals to friends

Big moves in the world of public relations this week, with The Comms Department being acquired by Sound Story, the PR agency run by media Swiss army knife Jake Challenor.
The Comms Department founder Bec Brown is staying on as a Strategic Adviser at Sound Story, whose clients include radio stations, music festivals and streaming giants – as well as a few colourful industry characters Inside Mail has crossed paths with over the years. (Hi, Katerina!)
Brown’s name is a familiar one in newsrooms, having handled PR for The Kyle and Jackie O Show for years. That role later went to Mango Communications before ARN took the position in-house with Kiana Harvey holding the fort.
(Harvey was made redundant in March after KJO imploded and was offered a life raft a month later from… you guessed it, Sound Story.)
The acquisition of The Comms Department marks a full-circle moment for Brown and Challenor, who often biffed about KJO stories back in the day when Challenor was publisher of Radio Today.

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The Comms Department, founded by Bec Brown (pictured) in 2012, is being acquired by Sound Story, the PR agency run by media Swiss army knife Jake Challenor

Show trial at Senate Estimates

Senate Estimates can produce genuine revelations – or devolve into time-wasting theatre. Last week, it did both.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi used her questioning time to grill ABC boss Hugh Marks and News Executive Gavin Fang about a recent interview: 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson’s conversation with activist Neve O’Connor.
O’Connor had just returned from Israel, where she was detained for trying to deliver aid to Gaza as part of the pro-Palestinian Global Sumud Flotilla.
Faruqi zeroed in on Ferguson’s interview style, quoting her guest’s account of Israeli forces threatening to shoot her and demanding to know why Ferguson cut O’Connor off and asked for details of ‘actual violence’.
It was clear neither Marks nor Fang had seen the interview – which had aired only days earlier. Surprisingly, two ABC executives hadn’t watched their own flagship current affairs program.
Fang answered diplomatically: when guests make strong claims, journalists must ask for enough detail so the public can judge the facts. He’s right. Inside Mail watched the interview: Ferguson was measured, fair and far from combative.
Ferguson was explicit about the standard required. ‘In these matters, there is a history of mistreatment of prisoners in Israel, well-sourced reporting, but it all comes down in the end to evidence when we are not there,’ she said. O’Connor seemed to agree.
Despite this, Faruqi doubled down, accusing Ferguson of bias and even ‘re-traumatising’ her guest: ‘The entire interview gives off the impression that Ms O’Connor… is not to be believed. There’s clearly scepticism and a demand for evidence that is quite frankly something I have never seen in any other interview of an Australian citizen who has been imprisoned and abused… on ABC ever before.’
Actually, O’Connor didn’t appear traumatised. She understood Ferguson’s questions and why she was asking them. Ferguson was compassionate and professional; requesting evidence is what journalists do. That’s not bias – it’s standard practice.
It’s baffling this interview is even a source of controversy, considering Ferguson’s body of work.
This felt more like a senator’s political agenda than a genuine concern about ABC standards. Senate Estimates time could surely be better spent.
Want to challenge the ABC? There are far worthier targets than Ferguson doing her job.

Albo cops a warning

Talk about awkward! Labor’s own hand-picked advisory committee has responded to the government’s planned NDIS cuts by essentially suggesting Albo is out of his mind if he goes ahead with what’s planned.
Labor is desperate to slash ballooning costs and overhaul eligibility, politically understandable goals for a scheme in desperate need of financial repair. However, Labor’s own experts have now explicitly warned that these ‘rushed’ changes risk causing ‘material harm’ to people with severe disabilities.
Labor wanted to execute some budget cuts while continuing to sound compassionate, but that’s off the table now.
Albo’s hand-picked review says rushing eligibility changes and relying on automated bureaucratic systems risks engineering a catastrophic human services scandal while insisting it is merely ensuring sustainability. Remember the Robodebt scandal Labor took great joy using against Scott Morrison? This could be much worse, apparently.
Reforming a bloated scheme by terrifying disability advocates, alienating human rights bodies and ignoring your own advisors isn’t a model example of careful consultation, is it?
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the PM’s office when that review dropped!

Bargain bin defence

AUKUS was originally sold as the grand strategic bargain for a dangerous new century – a visionary pact built on cutting-edge nuclear-powered submarines and unshakeable alliances.
Today, that lofty rhetoric has devolved into a humiliating public haggle over how many second-hand submarines the United States might eventually toss our way.
Defence Minister and Deputy PM Richard Marles insists that acquiring used Virginia-class subs was always part of the deal, but it really wasn’t. He’s starting to sound like a cash-strapped buyer settling for a used car after being knocked back for finance on a new one.
And Marles’ former colleague Ed Husic certainly hasn’t missed in his criticism, openly savaging the current arrangement during Labor’s caucus meeting. There’s no love lost; it was Marles’ factional manoeuvring that saw Husic dumped from Cabinet. Revenge, as they say, is best served cold.
Labor desperately wants credit for ‘strategic maturity,’ but true maturity means more than just chanting ‘the alliance, the alliance!’ while bleeding hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars for second-hand kit.
If Australia is going to reshape its defence posture, the public deserves a lethal deterrent – not second-hand subs wrapped in first-class spin.

‘Slay besties’

Alarm bells are ringing inside Labor HQ, with growing concern the Budget ‘sell’ isn’t exactly landing as planned (what a shock!)
In response, MPs have been encouraged by leadership to dip into their taxpayer-funded communications budgets to push the message directly to constituents.
Each MP gets between $100,000 and $200,000 annually for outreach and comms, and it’s a use-it-or-lose-it situation every financial year.
But if social media is anything to go by, amplifying the voice of Labor backbenchers is anything but a good idea.
Inside Mail has seen a string of posts that suggest the strategy is… uneven, to put it kindly.
While there’s no shortage of examples, a few have really stood out.
There’s Bonner MP Kara Cook, whose attempt to connect using Gen Z slang was questionable.
‘Slay besties – we’re making housing more affordable.’