Weird and wacky King’s Birthday honours
The King’s Birthday honours list always gets people talking, and this year is no exception, with the likes of former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and Test cricketer Glenn McGrath on the list. Buried deep in the depths of the list, however, are some colourful characters that don’t get the same airtime.
Sydney’s Barbara Ramjan, who has worked as a lawyer as well as teaching people with disabilities how to row, was made an OAM for services to rowing and the law. But Ramjan is perhaps best known for an infamous encounter with former prime minister Tony Abbott.
In a 2012 essay by journalist David Marr, Ramjan said that after defeating Abbott for presidency of the University of Sydney’s Student Representative Council in 1977, he had put his face close to hers and punched the wall either side of her head. “It was done to intimidate,” she told Marr.
Abbott has denied the claims, and has previously blamed a Labor “dirt unit” for their publication.
Other notable award recipients this year include South Australia’s Donald Hurley, made an OAM for “services to model railways and to rail history”, and Newcastle’s Ruth Wilson, made an OAM for “services to hot air ballooning”.
Axes still swinging at Holt St
Even as the reverberations from the bombshell redundancies at News Corp earlier this month continue to ring around Holt Street, more staff have lost their jobs.
Sources told us that news.com.au, which Crikey first reported would lose editor in chief Lisa Muxworthy, will see further leadership changes, with the departure of ecommerce managing editor Stephanie Raethel. An industry veteran of over three decades, Raethel first began her career in 1993 at The Daily Telegraph as a political reporter, and over the years has served as The Sydney Morning Herald’s online editor, as well as in the role of an executive producer at Bauer Media.
Also gone are Brodee Myers-Cooke, the head of News Corp’s food masthead taste.com.au, and Alice Bradbury, digital network director at news.com.au. Myers-Cooke has led food publications for News Corp and NewsLifeMedia for almost two decades, while Bradbury spent almost seven years as a general marketing manager at The Australian.
It is understood a number of sales staff are facing uncertain futures, with one source told that staffing cuts may not be clear until the end of the financial year.
A News Corp spokesman told Crikey “We don’t comment on employment matters.”
The call is coming from inside the house
Every year the St Vincent de Paul Society, better known as Vinnies, runs the CEO Sleepout, where prominent executives and public figures sleep rough-ish for a night in order to raise awareness and funds for homelessness.
While it’s undoubtedly a good cause, sometimes the occupations of the figures participating in the sleepout raise an eyebrow or two.
One real estate agency director in Melbourne will be sleeping rough outside Port Melbourne’s Timber Yard, and has even solicited donations from her own tenants.
Wendy Steel, of Woodards Croydon, got in touch with tenants and noted the federal government’s $300 per household energy bill rebate announced in this year’s budget.
“I’m inviting you to join me in paying it forward by donating your rebate to those experiencing homelessness,” Steel said in a letter to tenants.
Renter advocate Jordan van den Berg, known by the online alias Purplepingers, was scathing of Steel’s request, calling it “ridiculous”.
“The irony of being asked by someone who is a cause of this problem to help fix the problem instead of them just fixing the problem is kind of ridiculous,” van den Berg told Crikey.
Steel told Crikey that “the energy rebate was an idea that Vinnies posted on their sites, that [she] adopted.”
“If I have offended anyone my sincere apologies,” she said.
“My only intention was (and still is) to make a change, and help break the cycle of homelessness, as everyone deserves the fundamental needs, such as shelter and food.”
‘Stupid white bastard’
A tipster got in touch to alert us to an interesting movement in the halls of trademark filing and registration.
A trademark application was filed on March 8 this year for the words “stupid white bastard”. The filing came just two days after the revelation that those were the words allegedly used by Matildas star Sam Kerr in a bust-up with a UK police officer. The matter remains before the courts and is next set down for February 2025, with Kerr charged with using insulting, threatening or abusive words that caused alarm or distress to a police officer. Kerr denies the charges.
The trademark application, which will be accepted or rejected by August 2025, seems to have been lodged by Melbourne man Anthony Shaw, for use of the phrase on t-shirts. While we were unsuccessful in tracking down Shaw, a spokesperson for Football Australia told us that the organisation had “no knowledge or involvement” in the application.
“We do not condone any racist connotations, and any attempted association of such activities with our game is strongly opposed,” a spokesperson said.
