Mood:  lyrical

Pardon our reprise of talk-like-a-pirate day, as the rain patters down here in Sydney Town. Ain't it lovely.

We at SAM here wonder whether youngish Big Media blade Peter Hartcher - who like Stephen Mayne at crikey.com.au has the excellent capacity to see over the financial ramparts - has been stung into action by some stirring letters there at the Sydney Morning Herald today 18th May. Or maybe stung by our criticism Big Media including PH are pirates (just like Macquarie Bank) for amplifying matey corporate advertisers barracking for cruel AWA's. Or is PH simply taking corporate revenge with his column today on behalf of Fairfax against the govt for losing the AWA stoush beloved of corporate bean counters everywhere?

Indeed the dirty little secret of AWA's is that they have suppressed wages growth in a booming economy, as a sharp lad like Hartcher surely knows: Wages held down by IR laws - NEWS.com.au - 16 May 2007. If AWA are so good why are everyone's wages not growing with the profitability of the economy? Because it's a rip off obviously.

In our view that report of suppressed wages killed AWA's dead 2 days ago. Hence also our call for the Big Media commentariat to reveal their rare high AWA salaries while barracking for oppressive AWAs for everyone else on behalf of Big Capital/Govt/Media complex. 

The letter writers in the Herald today take umbrage at  the revealing but jarring opinion piece here only yesterday

pointing out no doubt accurately the home grown international pirate Macquarie Bank is small fish compared to the whale sharks on Wall Street, New York USA. '100 times our PM's salary' for their CEO is some 'small fish' apparently, but to make the point was always going to get Peter Hartcher a big reaction. And friction from us little guys.

Now also today the bleeding hearts in the Fairfax readership have been appeased in quick measure with a 'look over there' cannon fire at the PM while he's down in the polls by Peter Hartcher; a Howard Hating piece dense with facts re $1.7 billion of govt advertising in the life of the Howard regime. Ouch. It's a cracking read too.

Picture: PM Howard looks like he's in the crows nest of good ship Big Capital stuck in the canon sights of his critics, arms raised in surrender (adapted from Rocco, Sydney Morning Herald today)

Here it is:

Hey, big spender, that's our money

PETER HARTCHER | Government use of taxpayers' money to propagandise for political causes is utterly unjustifiable. It shows contempt for taxpayers.

But the sub text seems to be this: Big Capital are pirates with their crappy AWAs no one believes are generally fair. That's understood even in popular culture: mcleod's Daughters gets political

Big Govt are pirates with their propaganda adverts at our own expense and doing Big Business dirty work - that's understood as above.

And finally if you look through the gun smoke of real politik battle Big Media are pirates too: No matter how well senior journalists, even blades like Hartcher jig a sea shanty as a diversion with cracking political corruption stories like this one.

For up until yesterday Big Media commentariat and the Govt were singing the same song as Big Corporates that AWAs were best for the economy and the people. But something went wrong in the chorus. As the ALP win the politics on AWAs with polling and lowly wage growth figures, the Big Media have effectively avoided transparency on their own motives from ultra hierarchical pay structure and cost cutting, while barracking for oppressive AWAs for everyone else. Suddenly the burning torch of transparency was getting way too close to their own backs as the govt case fell apart.

The Big Media's moral exposure has only really emerged as they shifted to 'he said - she said' type reporting in the face of the ALP and the unions hanging tough.

Yes the Herald piece by PH today does sledge a juicy advertiser in the govt party (on the way out) but that won't stop the govt advertising drip this election period so no problem there. And Hartcher still gives comfort to big business advertisers with:

"...business has threatened to fund a campaign against Labor in this election campaign, which is surely its right"

But let's be real here. Cabin boy Pete and the pirate crew in Big Media have been doing the advertising on AWAs sans election endorsement for Big Capital/Coalition Govt at least up until 2 days ago when the govt raised the white flag and virtually to half mast now. Lest the polls go even further down, down to Davy Jones Locker.

Indeed Hartcher in this light virtually reads as a revenge story today with "unchain your anger" exhortation to voters in the last line, for the govt expensively losing the AWA argument and Fairfax cutting and running . Ouch again.

And only now do we read this other letter today about AWAs/Work Choices, which is the burr under the skin of Hartcher and all his Big Media/Govt/Corporate colleagues now for lack of their own transparency. Indeed a dirty little secret obscured by sound and fury:

By the by this writer lives on about $10K after tax per year. Perhaps its a fitting time to say "the workers united will never be defeated. Oi"

Posted by editor at 1:55 PM NZT

Updated: Saturday, 19 May 2007 1:07 PM NZT

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Mood:  blue

We received an intriguing letter from Lawyers Assistance Program yesterday not so much about high paid ambitious good looking 'lawyers in love', as the song goes here YouTube - Jackson Browne Lawyers in love, as lawyers in strife:

We called up the LAP Co ordinator Richard Gulley who advises the letter

1. is not related to a controversy running in crikey ezine at the moment about alleged drug use like footy players;

2. they send to 18,000 every 2 years or so

3. they get 2 or 3 calls per week from needy lawyers

This letter comes coincidentally (?!) on the heels of

- Big Media reports of depression in the profession especially in the younger cohorts leaving in droves apparently Lawyers most depressed: study | NEWS.com.au, and here Blake Dawson Waldron - Corrs Chambers Westgarth - Lander & Rogers ... and here Profession depression

- claim and counter claim by senior lawyers in the crikey.com.au ezine of alleged drug use like cocaine in the profession, like every other section of society. Lawyers Weekly are onto the story here Depressed lawyers turn to alcohol and drugs and we know what they mean with my lawyer father being a victim.

- official responses by the profession it's all under control and being monitored Lawyers row over drug use | Herald Sun

Our comment: Drug use amongst any group of 18,000 humans? Der. And good luck to the LAP too. Working with unhappy people as lawyers'clients often are is bound to make you unhappy. We wonder how doctors manage. Glad we got out of mainstream legal work in 1991.

Posted by editor at 11:43 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 18 May 2007 12:18 PM NZT

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Mood:  down

Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 10:09:02 +1000
To: narooma news
From: harriett swift.....Subject: letter to the editor

Julian Armstrong of Narooma (NNW 16/5) has written in support of logging the beautiful spotted gum forests at the foothills of Gulaga Mountain.
He has a right to do so, but I think he also has an obligation to tell us that he is an employee of Forests NSW.
Forests NSW spends $1.5 million a year on propaganda, which should be more than enough. Its employees should not be writing to the media as private citizens in their spare time without declaring who is paying them.
Yours sincerely
 
 
Harriett Swift
Convenor

CHIPSTOP campaign against woodchipping the SE forests, PO Box 797 Bega NSW 2550 Australia, http://www.chipstop.forests.org.au

Posted by editor at 2:18 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2007 2:43 PM NZT

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Mood:  vegas lucky

Macquarie Bank bosses paid 100x our political leaders just another name for corporate fascism
Mood:  irritated
Topic: corporates

Senior journalists' egregious failure to declare their own huge AWA conflict of interest
Mood:  sharp
Topic: big media

Posted by editor at 10:05 AM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:26 AM NZT

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Mood:  irritated

When Premier Bob Carr quit his 'low paid' job in mid 2005 as elected Premier of NSW within weeks he was working for the main organ grinder in Sydney, NSW and Australia - Macquarie Bank, as here

The Hon. Bob Carr joins Macquarie Bank as part-time consultant

And the whole political community understood the significance, with leading citizens asking whether he didn't care about his reputation after politics anymore, and wide coverage:

Stateline NSW

Bob Carr joins Macquarie Bank - Business - Business - theage.com.au

This confirmed the understanding of most experienced non government groups promoting the public interest here: That Macquarie runs land use, transport, planning policy.

Bob Carr joins the Millionaire Factory Bob Carr

Carr is one of a long line of very senior ex politicians who are on the Macquarie shill.

The reason we have a million extra cars serviced by tollways and air pollution and massive congestion in Sydney is Macquarie Bank.

The reason developers finance the major party gerrymander against authentic democracy is because of Macquarie's control of big planning decisions over infrastructure.

Indeed as the documentary The Corporation makes very clear such entities as Macquarie Bank are psychopathic organisations exhibiting:

Crikey.com.au published this table yesterday that tells you in rare form who in effect is running the government, and the parliament, and the corporate media, on their salary and benefits close enough to 100 times bigger than the most senior politican. Even PM John Howard an avowed supporter of capitalism was moved to say on ABC World Today show yesterday 'its a very big amount of money':

CHRIS UHLMANN: To another company, Mac Bank's announced its profit, and that's a great thing. But is Allan Moss, the head of that bank, worth $33.5 million?

JOHN HOWARD: Well I think some executive salaries are over the top and I can understand the…

CHRIS UHLMANN: Is that one?

JOHN HOWARD: Well I… well $33 million is a lot of money isn't it? I mean -

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's a lot more than you make, Prime Minister.

JOHN HOWARD: Ah yes, but more importantly, it's a lot more than most people listening to this program make. And I mean, I am in favour of the capitalist system, I really am, and I don't think it's the business of government to put caps on people's salaries.

But if you ask me as a citizen, do I think that's a lot of money, you bet I do. And I can understand why some people who are genuine battlers, and I'm not a battler, I mean I don't earn anything like that as you all know, but you know I have a comfortable salary, I'm not complaining.

I'm more worried about people who're trying to raise a family on $40,000 or $50,000 a year. They're the people I worry about and they're the people that the Budget was directed to helping.

Over to crikey here 15th May 2007 :

Business

26. Macquarie millionaires rolling in cash

By Stephen Mayne, inventor of the Millionaires Factory moniker

In what is probably the biggest remuneration report ever produced, pages 48 to 90 of Macquarie Bank’s 2007 annual review give chapter and verse on who is getting what at the Millionaires Factory.

And record profits mean record bonuses that will surely finally place a handful of Macquarie Bankers onto the 2007 BRW Rich List when it is released later this month.

If bankers collecting $20 million a year caused a storm 12 months ago, what will the $33.45 million pay packet of CEO Allan Moss do this year?

In fact, as the following table shows, the top six Macquarie Bank executives shared a staggering $160.32 million in the 12 months to 31 March, 2007.

Top Six Pay Packets

As usual, the bonuses represent more than 90% of all pay packets as none of these lads are guaranteed more than the $670,811 base pay of Allan Moss.

Chairman and co-founder David Clarke has gone out with a bang with a final payout of $18.96 million before he becomes Australia’s highest paid non-executive chairman on a base fee of $680,000 a year.

Clarke offloaded 326,135 shares during the year but retains 651,113 shares worth $58.3 million, albeit with a $30 million loan still owed back to the bank.

Despite the mind-boggling numbers, don’t be surprised when shareholders give the remuneration report another 90%-plus voted at the AGM because the disclosure is excellent and this group ahs lifted Macquarie Bank shares from $6 to $90 since the 1996 float.

The bank’s bonus system has a strong long-term focus which locks executives into the future, so it’s no coincidence that the same names have been appearing in Macquarie’s top pay packet lists for the last few years.

The bank finished the year with just over 10,000 staff who shared an average pay packet of $360,000. Exactly 50% of the bank’s $7.18 billion in income goes to employees and the remuneration report points out this as in line with its competitors and US consultant Towers Perrin has approved it.

Shareholders have absolutely nothing to complain about, it’s Macquarie customers, clients and counter-parties who should perhaps be scratching their heads about getting out-smarted by what is now arguably the world’s biggest private equity firm.

Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or submit them anonymously here.

Postscript #1

At the time of writing yesterday morning we didn't realise (believe it or not) that the front pagers of Sydney Morning Herald here

The fineprint: a $33m pay cheque Bank boss Allan Moss is worth 669 graduate teachers or 108 prime ministers.  ...but you will pay their tax bill 

and The Australian

Treasurer can't share Mac bankers' glee | News | The Australian

as pictured above 16th May 2007, both went the Big Sledge on sleazy Macquarie Bank with their huge salaries. To see these late last night was very heartening really because truly it is said the root of all evil is the love of money.

We felt it was a big story courtesy of Stephen Mayne's piece in Crikey.com.au a full 12 hours before the traditional press, and woke up keen to echo his work, having spent the night feeling beaten over the ongoing forest destruction in my state of NSW and East Gippsland  (Gulaga story as above and below), and it seems the Big Media were on their production timeline in parallel with the same concerns.

Postscript #2

Peter Hartcher get's it way wrong about Australian values in the Herald today here Peter Hartcher: Macquarie's small bickies compared with big boys. Not only does it prove there is a failure of moral values but by comparing with international rapacious capital of Wall Street all he is doing is explaining the economically cruel and unsustainable global business system that has led to vicious terrorist backlash, ecological collapse, and profound market failure via global warming. That's nothing to be proud of in Macquarie Bank or the western world.

But it does underline even a talent like Peter Hartcher doesn't get it on why he personally should declare his own excessively generous AWA with Fairfax when commenting on industrial relations, as all other Big Media should to show they are doing the advocacy of big business hierarchy, a tone set by Macqurie bank.

Posted by editor at 10:23 AM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2007 9:50 AM NZT

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