‘That was really fucking rude’
The ABC’s Laura Tingle is copping a lot of heat for her comments at the Sydney Writers’ Festival over the weekend, but another interesting exchange set tongues wagging over the potato gems at the Old Clare Hotel, where authors stay.
On Friday afternoon, the festival hosted award-winning authors Melissa Lucashenko and David Marr, both promoting their respective new releases, Edenglassie and Killing for Country: A Family Story. The session — titled “Colonial Truths” and hosted by The Australian’s Matthew Condon, reportedly went a little too close to home at a point.
After a robust conversation about reparations for First Nations peoples, Crikey’s spies told us Marr was visibly irritated, and allegedly later berated Lucashenko backstage with some choice words.
Lucashenko, a Bundjalung woman, confirmed the pair had an argument, and claims the newly announced RN Late Night Live host swore at her, telling her that she had been “really fucking rude”. She also claims he told her “ad nauseam how generous he is with his money, apparently failing to distinguish between middle-class charity and negotiated compensation for attempted genocide.”
“He was also at pains to point out that he ‘spent five years unpaid’ writing his book — no doubt living in his car and eating from food banks — and indicated that this was a great financial impost for which Aboriginal people might be more grateful,” she told Crikey.
Crikey asked Lucashenko whether, as rumoured, the source of Marr’s irritation was being asked if any proceeds from his book would be put to reparations for Indigenous communities.
“It’s not true that I asked anything at all about the proceeds from his book. That’s how he took me asking him about his personal relationship to the Aboriginal dead, after I spoke in general terms about the need for reparations,” she said.
“I was looking for some indication that he saw the Butchulla his ancestor slaughtered as anything more than writerly material … I doubt enough people are going to buy his boring book to make any hypothetical proceeds worth considering.”
Marr admitted to Crikey he “certainly exploded backstage”, but said that “negotiated reparations were never discussed”.
“[Lucashenko] was clearly telling me I had to pay, and I pointed out that four years work without a salary was a pretty big contribution,” he said.
Marr also told Crikey he had since unsuccessfully attempted to contact Lucashenko.
News Corp? A beat-up? No way!
Overnight, The Australian reported that board members at the national broadcaster were in “emergency talks” over 7:30’s Laura Tingle’s remarks at another Sydney Writers’ Festival session, declaring Australia a “racist country” in reference to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s most recent culture war on migration.
The grandiose headline from media writer Sophie Elsworth read: “ABC board holds emergency talks over Laura Tingle outburst”.
While the ABC board is not due to meet till June, according to the article, The Australian reported it understood Tingle’s colleagues on the board (she sits on the board as a staff-elected member) have been discussing the controversy.
Crikey asked Elsworth if she had contacted the ABC for comment before publication, as is standard practice. We also asked whether the ABC board had held any formal meetings that could reasonably be described as “emergency talks”, or whether she had simply described board members having a coffee as such.
She did not respond before publication, but an ABC spokesperson told Crikey on Tuesday morning that “reports of an emergency ABC board meeting are incorrect and baseless”, and the article in question only states that the ABC was contacted for comment in reference to an Instagram post from earlier this month.
Tingle did not appear on her usual Monday night slot on Late Night Live this week, replaced by Crikey’s political editor Bernard Keane.
The grown-ups are back in charge
Liberals have told Crikey the Senate preselection held by the party’s NSW division at the weekend was an “upset” that shows the centre-right faction is losing steam while the party’s conservative wing is reasserting itself.
“The two most surprised people in that room were Hollie Hughes and Jess Collins,” said one party member, who requested anonymity to comply with Liberal secrecy rules.
Another Liberal said Collins told her colleagues in the room she hadn’t prepared a speech, saying: “I didn’t think I was actually going to win.”
Hughes, a sitting senator from the party’s centre-right faction, was voted out in favour of Collins, a newcomer aligned with the conservative wing.
Moderate Andrew Bragg — who some Liberals expected would have a tough time staying in his seat — took the number one spot (it seems attempts at anti-Bragg mudslinging before the vote had a limited effect).
There were 538 votes cast, and Bragg ended up with 180 after the final count. Collins finished with the same number, while Hughes received 178 in the end.
According to one Liberal source, the result shows the party is being “realigned, getting back to its normal axis”.
“I think we saw evidence on the weekend that the centre-right faction is ebbing away. There’s more coherence on the conservative side now, and some of the more disruptive elements are no longer in the party,” the person said.
Those who wish to understand what Liberals mean when they talk about disruptions should go back and read Crikey’s coverage of the High Court shitfight over Scott Morrison’s attempts at making captain’s picks during preselections ahead of the 2022 election. Morrison, the centre-right faction’s most prominent member, is now gone from Parliament. And Matthew Camenzuli, the conservative who took him to court over the 2022 preselections, has been expelled from the party.
Camenzuli, who enjoys a degree of freedom of speech as a non-member, said “the factions are losing control of the party”.
“[It’s happening] at all levels, across the board — the Liberal members want to have a greater say in their own destiny. You’ll see more of this, more unpredictable results will follow. The party needs to further democratise for the good of Australia,” he said.
