Plus: ABC v News Corp round 753; Council Watch spares Lord Mayor Nick Reece and deputy Roshena Campbell; Albanese scrupulously ensures everyone gets a piece of the pie.
Plus: ABC v News Corp round 753; Council Watch spares Lord Mayor Nick Reece and deputy Roshena Campbell; Albanese scrupulously ensures everyone gets a piece of the pie.
By Stephen Brook, Melissa Cunningham, Kishor Napier-Raman and Lachlan Abbott
February 27, 2025 — 4.00am
Former player agent Ricky Nixon made a bizarre appearance (how could it be anything other?) at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where he demanded to call about 50 witnesses – including AFL players – to fight allegations he sold fake premiership memorabilia.
The 61-year-old clashed with respected magistrate Brett Sonnet during the brief hearing on Wednesday, where the former AFL player told the court he had 48 witnesses listed in the brief of evidence. Oh, and five others he wanted to subpoena.
Nixon did not stand up when addressing the court, which did not go down well with Sonnet, who swiftly reprimanded him: “When you talk to me … stand up. Uncross your arms. This is a court of law.”
Sonnet told the court in his 35 years in criminal law he had “never, ever heard of any defence calling 50-odd witnesses”.
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“I want to say this to you,” Sonnet continued. “I understand you seek to defend these charges, but they are serious charges. The court will accommodate a hearing, but it’s not going to be a hearing which has effectively turned into a circus.”
This did not deter Nixon, who was adamant he would call every witness to fight claims he fraudulently sold footballs in October 2021.
“My understanding is that my legal rights are to subpoena any witness that is part of this case … that’s that’s my decision,” Nixon told the court.
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“The most important people I want to get to the court are not Melbourne footballers, that’s for sure. It’s the police that leaked information to the media … it prejudiced the case, and it’s put my family member in hospital.”
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Nixon is representing himself in court in a DIY legal effort. Earlier this year he sacked his lawyers only three weeks before he planned to fight the allegations. The next court appearance/circus is scheduled for June.
ABC v News Corp round 753
Senate estimates is where the politicians get to turn the tables and cosplay Sarah Ferguson by peppering people with attack-dog questions. So, good to see ABC news director Justin Stevens turning it up a notch and flinging aside the ABC playbook of playing it straight.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked, as she regularly does, about the impact News Corp coverage has on ABC staff.
“I can confirm that News Limited do have a strange obsession with taking scrutiny beyond scrutiny and regularly agitating against the work of our journalists,” Stevens told the hearing.
“We’re flooded with their interest, but, despite the very small readership, we do engage and respond to a lot of their queries, quite regularly.”
Very small readership? Dissing the readership numbers of your opponents is positively Trumpian.
Let the record show that figures from Ipsos for the Top 20 news website rankings in January showed ABC News sitting pretty at number one with 12.48 million readers last month, just ahead of News Corp’s news.com.au at number two with 11.76 million readers.
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Of course, everyone knows that Stevens was really talking about The Australian, which can’t quite land a spot in the first XI after landing in 12th place with 3.56 million readers.
Stevens said he accepted that the public broadcaster must be subjected to scrutiny and self-reflect when it gets things wrong.
“I must say that by and large, the queries being raised are disproportionate to the issues that are being realised.”
Boyish grin
Update: the motion by Moonee Valley councillor Rose Iser against the controversial Council Watch website was passed by councillors five votes to four on Tuesday.
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The motion called for an investigation into Council Watch to see if it is really a “third-party campaigner organisation”, and also called on the Municipal Association of Victoria to condemn the “personal abuse directed at individuals” and the misinformation the site regularly conveys.
Two prominent councillors spared abuse were Lord Mayor Nick Reece and deputy Roshena Campbell, who granted the website run by Dean Hurlston an interview, despite more and more councillors lining up to attack it.
The result came only be described as Mills and Boon in its tone.
“Roshena just may be the brains trust to Nick’s boundless enthusiasm and boyish grin; they are each other’s yin and yang. Their relationship exudes trust and honesty. They admit they often disagree but always work to solve problems together.
“They will hold a hose, they will clean the footpath, they will deal with a problem – they aren’t scared of getting their hands dirty. They will do it when no one is looking, it’s not all about the photo opportunities for them.”
Feeding the chooks
How the media works: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was neatly updating former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s strategy of feeding the chooks on the pre-election trail on Wednesday.
The PM was spruiking a Medicare urgent-care clinic in Sunbury, but clammed up when questions began to get dangerously close to gatecrashing the big $3.3 billion infrastructure “road and rail blitz” announcement he was planning to make later at the Herald Sun’s Future Victoria forum.
An awkward silence ensued when the PM asked the tiny room: “Is anyone here for the Herald Sun?”
(Everyone looks around.)
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PM: “I am a guest of the Herald Sun at lunchtime, and I’ll do the right thing by the Herald Sun and give a speech to them, as I would if I was invited and a guest of any of your particular outlets. What outlet are you from?”
Surprised reporter: “Channel 10.”
PM: “Channel 10? Well, if Channel 10 had a forum, what I won’t do is come and tell Channel Seven and Channel Nine, before I tell Channel 10 what I’m going to do.”
That’s Albo, scrupulously ensuring everyone gets a piece of the pie.
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Stephen Brook is a special correspondent for The Age and CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously deputy editor of The Sunday Age. He is a former media editor of The Australian and spent six years in London working for The Guardian.Connect via Twitter or email.
Melissa Cunningham is a crime and justice reporter for The Age. She has previously covered health.Connect via Twitter or email.
Kishor Napier-Raman is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a reporter for Crikey, covering federal politics from the Canberra Press Gallery.Connect via Twitter or email.
Lachlan Abbott is a reporter at The Age.Connect via email.
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