
Issue No 41		26 November 1999

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Piers Watch

Out of His League

Piers' position as the bovver boy of the Australian media is looking increasingly shaky; what with the payola inquiry reaching its climax and shining a spotlight on the true excesses of advertorial indulgence.

Sure our hero's been more than happy to smear himself with the brown matter when crawling up to the Boss, but when it comes to self-serving dalliances with the truth, he has nothing on the talkback boys.

It must have been embarrassing for our hero to find that while he was smooching up to developers for a couple of bottles of mid-vintage wines; his more erudite colleagues were making hay while the sun shone.

To learn that through his column he had become a research assistant for the very well resourced Alan Jones Inc could only have added insult to injury.

A nice long lunch, a batting of the eyelids, is all our hero needs to wax lyrical. It's enough to make Harry M give up the game in disgust.

He has tried to turn it this into a virtue, claiming his failure to stitch up a Laws-size deal was a sign of his own ethics. But to our mind the only question to ponder is whether Piers is clean or just cheap?

All this high-rolling payola leaves our hero looking somewhat jaded and flaccid, the most rotund lightweight in the industry.

Look at his efforts this week: he's so predictable, he's fading away- sniping at Knight and his embattled offsider, Sandy Hollaway, as if attacking the SOCOG hierarchy is cutting edge commentary rather than the national past-time it's become.

Our free advice to Pier is if wants to regain his bite (and let's face it, its' all that he's got going for him), the time has come to take some serious action, Lawsy-style.

ONE: take lunch with some union-busters and get in there behind Reith's Second Wave. Law firm Baker & MacKenzie would be a good first port of call. Otherwise just call Paul Hoolihan.

TWO: make up with Howard. Since you've fallen out, there's been none of those crawling tributes and rewriting of Prime Ministerial press releases. Surely digital TV isn't that important.

THREE: sign up with the tobacco lobby and let's get some more of that suss "there's no causal link with cancer" research back into the public domain.

Whatever he decides, it's obvious he needs to do something. The experienced hands of talkback radio have shown the way - if you're in the media and don't have an agent, you're not really serious about milking your trade. So get on the gravy train, Piers. Give us something to shoot at, or we might just have to go looking for another object of our derision.

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Issue 41 contents

Interview: A Bob Each Way
ALP tactician Bob McMullan is responsible for charting Labor industry policy into the next millennium. He tells us where heï¿½s heading.

Unions: Organiser of the Year
Just ten days to go before entries close for our $2000 air ticket. Hereï¿½s another nomination.

History: Labour Daze
A report from the 6th National Biennial Conference of the Australian Society For The Study Of Labour and Community.

Politics: Tomorrowï¿½s Questions
While the turn of the century sees Sydney play host to the Olympic games, the International Youth Parliament 2000 will bring world focus to contemporary issues facing young people.

Health: Red Ribbons
December 1, World AIDS Day has a special place in the history of the AIDS pandemic.

International: Organised Chaos
Persistent rumours are floating around Jakarta that the former boss of the official pro-Soeharto Indonesian trade union movement is about to be charged with corruption.

Economics: Seattle Numbers Grow for WTO Protest
News of the agreement to smooth Chinaï¿½s entry to the World Trade Organisation has created its own "China Syndrome" for organisers of the Seattle WTO event.

Satire: Too Many Media Players!
The Productivity Commission has issued a report calling for the abolition of existing cross-media ownership laws.

Review: Leviathan
John Birmingham has lifted the lid on Sydneyï¿½s shady past - and found trade unions to be at the centre of the sordid tales.

Deface a Face: Reith Loses His Shine
With his Second Wave looking more like a splash in the bath-tub, Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith still reigns as the union movementï¿½s favourite bogeyman.

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