Lennon dumped for Rupert’s ranch

HAVE the Lennon family happy snaps been pulled from The Women’s Weekly for the second month in a row because the Premier is concerned about public perception of his “special deals” for mates in the middle of an election campaign?

Actually, no, Weekly’s editorial director Deborah Thomas told Crikey, the Lennon story was bumped to make room for the line of media moguls and celebrities queuing to invite readers into their homes. “We still intend to publish the story,” she told Crikey.

“We pulled it for the Kerry Packer tribute” because we needed the extra pages, said Thomas.

“We then secured Rupert Murdoch in his home the month after and with all due respect to Mr Lennon we thought that Murdoch was a bigger seller…And then in April we have a celebrity home special … so we didn’t need any more homes.”

But if the story was scheduled for February, wasn’t it lined up to coincide with the Tasmanian election? “When we did the story there had been no election campaign called … There’s no agreement to run it in line with the election campaign…”

The Tassie Liberals’ Michael Hodgman is sticking with his theory, even though the email correspondence between the Weekly and Lennon’s press office that Hodgman requested under FOI didn’t throw up any evidence that the article was promised by PBL as part of the Betfair deal.

Thomas told Crikey that readers will probably find the Stoneyhurst spread in the May edition.

That’s a good couple of months after the March 18 election, plenty of time for Lennon to shake that perception problem.

A HAG EXCLUSIVE:

Taking rather late chardonnay with a beloved friend the other early morning (does that make sense) Hag was told of a second planned photo-shoot for the Great Leader. As Hag vaguely remembers it … it was 4.30am, she was told:

There was also another story planned at the same time for another PBL publication — the Bulletin. A local photographer had an unusually suggestive and pointed brief for a photoshoot — “We want you to take photos of the Premier looking energetic, outdoorsy and out and about.”

The photographer hesitated and then said “You do know the Premier”, and the Photo Desk Editor said, “yes, we just want them”.

The said photographer went to Broadmoor and the Premier very generously gave 2 hours for the shoot and was overly cooperative. Having said that our cheeky photographer got him lolloping up the ridge and buggered him out.

This photographer is different to the one named in the Hodgman emails.

He has not heard a thing about the spread.

Fascinating!

Meanwhile what The Bulletin has run: On your marks

Hagnote: Meanwhile Hag and her mate are two very thirsty people … and the bar suddenly shut at the Caz where we were forced to imbibe by the closure — or eviction from — every other Hobart dive.

But the very helpful barlady said: “Madam you can still drink … Go down to the pokies gaming area … and we will bring you drinks.”

Indefensible, spooky, ghastly, cynical opportunists. Hag, who has a pathological hatred of pokies, spat her dummy and stormed out of what once was a rather pleasant place to play roulette.

Hag is absolutely in favour of the Greens’ pokie policy, herewith:

Media Release

Peg Putt MHA
Greens Opposition Leader
Lead Candidate for Denison

and

Kim Booth MHA
Lead Candidate for Bass

Thursday, 23 February 2006

GREENS RELEASE GAMBLING POLICY

And Call for an Independent Gambling Consumers Advocate to be Established- as ‘Pokie Monster’ is Unleashed in Launceston

The Tasmanian Greens today launched their Gambling Policy in Launceston and pledged to establish a new independent Office of the Gambling Consumers Advocate, which would take over responsibility for monitoring consumer protection to eliminate the current reliance on industry self regulation.

Greens Opposition Leader Peg Putt MHA joined with Greens Gaming spokesperson, Kim Booth MHA, to launch their policy, saying that the Lennon government’s addiction to gambling taxes, and its habit of striking secret deals such as extended pokies licences and Betfair, must be challenged.

The Greens then immediately took their campaign to roll back poker machines in pubs and clubs to the streets as they did a walk-through Launceston’s mall, trying to protect members of the public from the voracious one-armed bandit, called the ‘Pokie Monster’, determined to take their money.

Key aspects of the Greens’ Gambling: Safe Limits, Patron Care, Healthy Community Policy announced today include:

þ Biennial Independent Social and Economic Impact Studies;

þ Interactive Gambling to be subject to independent impact studies;

þ The establishment of a Gambling Consumers Advocate Office as an independent statutory body responsible for consumer protection;

þ Phased roll-back of pokies in pubs and clubs;

þ Reconstitute the Tasmanian Gaming Commission to focus on industry regulation;

þ Establish the Community Support Levy Foundation; and

þ Effective Patron Care and Harm Minimisation strategies.

“Problem gambling is a serious issue afflicting our communities, families, and businesses and the government persisting in turning a blind eye just goes to show how out of touch Premier Lennon is,” Ms Putt said.

“The Greens undertake to establish a new Gambling Consumers Advocate Office, which would be an independent statutory body, to take over the responsibility of ensuring the most rigorous standards of consumer protection are applied across all gambling venues and mechanisms.”

“This initiative counters the inappropriate and unacceptable reliance on industry self-regulation to decide whether patron care and harm minimisation standards are needed let along implemented.”

“We will have a staged removal of pokies from pubs and clubs.”

Greens Opposition Gaming spokesperson Kim Booth MHA said that the Lennon government was a habitual offender where it came to making secret deals and trading in the welfare of the community for a fistful of gambling royalties.

“Premier Lennon has form in favouring vested industry interests over the needs of the community.”

“Without any consultation Labor granted an exclusive new 20 year pokies deed to Federal Hotels in 2003 and rolled out an additional 287 machines for no good reason and without any social and economic impact study.”

“The sad legacy of successive Liberal and Labor governments is over 2200 pokies rolled out across the state, Tasmanians losing $500, 000, 000 between financial years 1997-98 and 2003-04, and Betfair being granted a licence without a transparent process.”[1]

“Regular independent social and economic impact studies are required urgently as more and more anecdotal evidence is brought to light of families breaking up, people losing their jobs and businesses crumbling due to problem gambling.”

“An important aspect of turning around the problem gambling trends is to wean the state coffers from pokies revenue and to challenge the culture of cronyism and secret deals between the government and their big end of town mates.”

“The Greens’ Gambling policy will restore transparency to the industry and implement responsible check and balances to ensure that harm minimisation and consumer protection priorities are not sold out,” Mr Booth said.

As with all election policy announcements, any costs to government and funding mechanisms will be released later in the campaign, as is standard practice.

Hag’s pathological hatred of all things pokie is partly based on this: Pokies: This is a scandal