If I can’t post, I don’t want your revolution
Just like anything that involves even semi-direct contact with actual humans, politicians engaging in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) can be fraught. Even if you avoid any major blunders or controversies, you risk revealing that you are just profoundly dull. Dull is not something we’d call newly independent Senator Gerard Rennick, but he did experience the other side of the process: getting a fairly savage down-voting and some pretty hostile questioning about his views on COVID-19 and climate change. But what really caught our attention was Rennick’s username, the absolutely weapons-grade handle “Cool_Revolution_4559“.
We asked Rennick where he came up with the account name, and alas, it wasn’t his idea. “I had to create an account and that’s the name they gave me — no planning on my part” Rennick, who recently ditched the Liberals to form the People First Party, told Crikey over text. But he obviously quite liked it, saying: “Maybe I should have used that for the party name,” followed by the cry-laughing emoji.
Keeping their council
They may be difficult to hear over the crescendo of catastrophe booming from the New South Wales Liberals’ windows like a clown orchestra ahead of the state’s local council elections, but there are many other issues and interested parties involved in the race. There is Better Council, for example, a newly set up group attacking Greens-led councils for their “fixation” on the horrors taking place in Gaza at the expense, the group argues, of issues more directly under their responsibility. Those councils should focus on “rubbish not radicals!” announces the website, a sentiment echoed on a reported 50,000 flyers going out to voters in the lead-up to the September 14 vote.
We got a little curious. Some digging reveals the website was registered by a company called DBK Advisory Pty Ltd, with its director listed as Alexander Polson. On his LinkedIn, Polson describes the company as a “boutique advisory firm specialising in corporate strategy and public affairs”. Boutique is right — the website is, shall we say, a little basic, with just a contact sheet.
Polson’s CV is impressive — he was a staffer for Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham before becoming manager of government and industry affairs for the Commonwealth Bank, a role he held in the aftermath of the banking royal commission.
Sophie Calland, one of the group’s organisers, told Crikey Better Council was a “non-partisan grassroots group of young professionals who are passionate about keeping local government focused on local issues”.
“Our campaign is concerned with some of the priorities of certain Greens councillors, who we strongly believe are focusing too much on international issues rather than on what matters to local residents,” Calland told Crikey in an email.
“Our concern isn’t with any specific stance on international issues like Gaza. Instead, it’s about councillors spending valuable time and resources debating these topics, which can lead to divisive narratives and tensions, rather than addressing pressing local concerns.”
A spokesperson for the NSW Greens told us in an email: “They’re doing this because they’re scared of the political power of the Greens and the community trust we have to make kinder and more connected communities. Greens local council candidates and councillors have a proud record of standing up for local communities’ rights to have a say.”
For a song
Remember the ARK music factory? They were a pay-to-play outfit that gave rich parents the opportunity to shell out up to four grand to provide their kids with a theme park experience of pop stardom. It achieved brief notoriety in early 2011, when Rebecca Black’s Friday broke containment to become a ubiquitous mini-phenomenon, and we’d definitely read a piece about the lingering impact on culture trailing the 13-year-old simulacra pop star powered entirely by irony.
We bring it up because Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara has a new music video out, called “Hero”, and it called to mind ARK’s efforts as though remembered through the haze of sleep paralysis.
There’s the faintly synthetic edge to her otherwise utterly anonymous vocals. The strange cheapness of the video (didn’t you marry into a billionaire family?). The decidedly “first draft” lyrics — a tribute to firefighters — and chord progression that sounds like a jingle writer being asked to evoke the Twilight soundtrack for an insurance ad. And perhaps most of all, the sense that the majority of the work has been outsourced to a professional — in this case, Florida-based singer Madeline Jaymes.
Incidentally, we wonder if Erin Molan asked Lara about it during the pair’s recent hang.
Molan has secured a “world exclusive” interview with Lara and husband Eric for Sky News Australia this Friday. We wouldn’t want to guess at the tone of the chat, but the picture above, the hug-filled promo and Sky News’ reliably sycophantic interactions thus far with the Trumps may hold some clue.
Kyle and Jackie O ARN’t having a good time
ARN Media has had a torrid time of it lately. The company fired its Melbourne breakfast duo, Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips, in favour of beaming the Sydney-based Kyle and Jackie O into Melbourne, hoping that the shock-based style would garner the same success it does in the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is the capital of New South Wales.
Instead, Sandilands and Henderson have limped to sixth spot in the most recent Melbourne ratings, comfortably trailing their predecessors (who have moved to Nova).
Questions continue to circle about the decision-makers at ARN. The company’s chief content officer, Duncan Campbell, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to one count of common assault against his ex-partner, but this week we learnt that when The Australian’s Jenna Clarke put questions to ARN about Campbell, she was instead met with the offer of another story. ARN’s CEO, Ciaran Davis, provided a character reference for Campbell in court, with News Corp reporting he praised Campbell as a valued employee.
We asked ARN whether it would provide us with Davis’ character reference, and whether it was standard practice for the company’s communications staff to trade answers to journalists for other stories. We also asked whether the company intended to retain Campbell.
A spokesperson for ARN said they wouldn’t comment as it was a private matter and didn’t even offer us any other stories for our trouble.
