The Kovco crackdown: Army bans soldier phones

It seems the paranoia gripping the defence force has reached our forces in Timor. Australian soldiers serving in East Timor have had their mobile phones confiscated by the hierachy in a knee-jerk response to the recent Kovco scandal in Iraq, according to independent defence writer Sasha Uzunov.

On previous missions, soldiers have been permitted to use mobile phones during off-duty hours to contact family back in Australia. But the fear is soldiers will be able to relay information back to relatives if any major incident were to occur in East Timor.

"Several family members of serving personnel have contacted me with their concerns," Sasha told The Hugog today. "They have my trust because I'm a journalist and a former Australian soldier."

But it appears our soldiers serving in the latest regional troublespot do not enjoy the trust of the military. This, of course, is the same defence establishment that managed to screw up just about every aspect of the aftermath of Jake Kovco's death last month.

Instead of confiscating phones from the troops on the ground, maybe the military hierachy should be taking a good look at itself. Or would this be too hard?

Sasha Uzunov is a freelance photo journalist who has worked for the British and Canadian media in the Balkans and Iraq. He has been published in the major Australian newspapers as well as appearing on television and radio providing perspective on defence and security issues.

Costello brings in the cash

It was a little too early in the day for the meeeja - but this morning's 500 Club Liberal fundraiser breakfast featuring Peter Costello at Melbourne's Crown Palladium ballroom was worth getting up on a frosty winter's morning for.

The Treasurer attracted more than 1000 paying guests, delivering a commanding oration that reeked of ambition.

Former Coles Myer and Fosters boss, and current chairman of the Australian Sports Commision, Peter Bartels, was MC - and he welcomed his friend the Treasurer warmly. As might a man whose organisation was one of the big winners from Tuesday's Budget; the ASC got an extra $55 million.

Founded in 1982, the 500 Club is, in its own words "the largest, most infuential and most successful supporter group of the Liberal Party in Australia." At $1100 a year, membership's for the Top End of town, and the Sports Commission has demonstrated how very astute having a 500 Club leader and friend of the Treausurer at the helm can be.

Lucky guests were given a showbag featuring a selection of Budget documents, a mouse mat and cap and sports socks from property developers Bensons. The event was also a key fundraiser for Costello's local fundraising arm, the Higgins 200 Club, which charges members $300 a year to schmooze with like-minded businesspeople, with this promise: "Of course it isn't possible to place a value on the network of contacts you will make."

200 Club coordinator, Gail Wallman, looked delighted with the turn-up to the event. And the event wasn't solely a Liberal affair: we spotted Law Council president John Cain Jr listening attentively. And Wallman ensured the grassroots were being nurtured carefully, too. Some 100 invited private school students were sprinkled through the crowd, though not a public student was to be seen.

How much did the function raise? Well, Brendan Nelson charged $200+ a head for his Budget night function at Parliament House. At $200 a head, Costello has tipped up to a cool $200,000 into Liberal coffers.

That is the power of incumbency.

Gruesome Twosome:

New Liberal leader Ted Baillieu strolling into the function slapping backs with one John Dorman Elliott. Big Jack is just shameless, swapping banter with Ted and exclaiming: "Jeez, hope it's not bacon and eggs again!" After a wooden and unconvincing start to his job, is it really wise for the Party's Great White Hope to be seen schmoozing with a dodgy businessman like Elliott?

The Concat - a new media perspective

It's time to welcome a new independent voice to the media scene! The Concatenate is an online news service that updates breaking stories throughout the day and - most importantly - critically analyses who's making news and why.

It's the brainchild of John Griffiths, a longtime Press Gallery denizen and a founder of The Riot Act who's taken his blogging and news gathering skills and put them together (Concatenated them!) to produce a smart and lively service for savvy media consumers.

And it's online now, making its debut with a sterling coverage of this week's Budget. A disclosure: I'm contributing to The Concat because I've seen John in action in his previous role as a news and information manager in the Press Gallery for information broker Capital Monitor - and been impressed by his astute understanding of the political process and the news business.

This country desperately needs fresh and independent sources of news. The Concat is a welcome arrival, and during May you can get a free subscription. Check it out here.

Hiding behind the uniform

by Sasha Uzunov

Veterans Affairs Minister, Bruce Billson, recently announced appointments to the council of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. These people are entrusted with safeguarding our national military heritage. One of those named is former newspaperman, Les Carlyon, author of the hugely successful and crituically acclaimed book Gallipoli.

Carlyon, born 1942, is a media legend and an institution. He has been showered with honours and awards as a journalist, author and newspaper editor. Les is quoted in the media as an expert on the Gallipoli campaign and regularly writes on military issues for the Bulletin.

Yet, considering his enthusiasm for the Anzac legend and now his position as official custodian of our the national ethos, it's suprising he never volunteered for military service in Vietnam in the 1960s.

I've emailed him a number of times asking why he did not, but get no response. As a council member of the AMW he owes an explanation to war veterans.

I believe that if you passionately believe in the AZNAC legend then you need to practice what you preach, volunteer and serve in uniform.

In other words, you have to put your money where your mouth is. The ANZAC legend, forged in blood at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, has become a popular topic for some of our leading authors. The notion of mateship, compassion, and courage under adversity resonates with a younger generation of Australians who are learning about the feats of the Kokoda Track or at Tobruk in World War II or the Battle of Kapyong in Korea or the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam.

The generation who fought in Vietnam in the 1960s probably had the worst end of the stick. It was a time of questioning, when some of our society began scrutinising and rejecting the very notion of the ANZAC legend.

Ironically, some of the anti-war protestors back then are now staunch Iraq War supporters -- funny how the times change people. The ANZAC legend does not need to be over-eulogised because it can stand on its own. As a journalist who is paid to be sceptical I believe that the ANZAC ethos does exist. I saw it with my own eyes as an Australian infantry soldier serving in East Timor in 2001.

During a patrol on the border with Indonesia, our section came across four suspected militiamen or possibly smugglers. Three ran away and left behind an old man with a machete who was swinging it wildly, probably out of fear rather than in malice. Our forward scout, a young bloke with the surname of L... but whom I will call Dougy, was right next to the old man and under the rules of engagement could have shot and killed him in self-defence.

Instead Dougy wrestled the man to the ground. We were glad that no blood was spilt that day. In fact Dougy's actions made me so proud of him, as I used to think he was very immature and ahot head. We once had a punch up during a game of touch rugby.

You just do not know how men will react under pressure. Our section commander, a NSW Policeman in civilian life, grabbed the man and threw him across the border and told him with the use of body language not to come across the border again. I wonder if that old man is still alive today? If so, he has Dougy to thank.

Hugo says: Sasha Uzunov has reported from the Balkans and Iraq for newspapers in Australia and the UK and served as an Australian soldier in East Timor. While you may disagree with his thesis that serving your country is a pre-requisite for those who want to represent our military history via the War Memorial, there's no doubt his passion about the subject. It's a perspective that deserves an airing.

Death by Foie Gras

Vale Richard Carleton. The hard-living hack died on the job yesterday, surrounded by his, er, media friends down at the Beaconsfield mine rescue site. At last night's Logies after-party there were commiserations – and wry observations – from those old enough to remember his greatest hits. Which counted out 80% of the crowd.

It was a bitchy TV awards ceremony, so naturally after the tear-jerking official tributes were over, we remembered the Richard Carleton everyone loved to hate.

We recalled his performance in East Timor during the 1999 elections when, fuelled by a gourmet food hamper, he turned up on polling day to do vox pops with frightened locals as they lined up to vote – while armed TNI glared at them. Undeterred, Carleton asked the locals how they were going to vote, oblivious to the potential threat to their safety.

"Vale Richard - death by foie gras," said one ABC type. "We stuff the goose – and the goose stuffs us."

A life lived full, he will be celebrated long and heartily at his funeral later this week.

Living the Logies

Sunday night, and we're undercover at television's night of nights - The Logies. Rubbing shoulders with The Ennertainment Industry's glitterati is a tough gig, but someone's got to do it. Here are some highlights:


Dial Eddie: 0434 836 585

The Chaser Boys once published John Howard’s home phone number on the front page of their weekly newspaper. Tonight they trumped it by running what appeared to be the private mobile phone number of someone REALLY important – Eddie McGuire. And during the Logies telecast, for the benefit of 2.1 million viewers on Channel Eddie.

There it is, on top of this post. Go on, call him. Maybe you’re upset at the network’s yo-yo scheduling treatment on ‘ER’ on Wednesday nights? Or you want a return for ‘Burke’s Backyard?’ Or you want a job? Go straight to the top.

OK, it looked like a set-up, and probably was. No doubt Eddie set up a fresh number for the boys for the stunt - but it's worth calling just to get through to the voicemail message.


Molly's Meltdown

The Chaser lads were on fire at tonight’s 50th anniversary bash, arriving on the Red Carpet in a trailer labelled "Naomi's Makeup truck."

Their goal: "borrow" as many Logie statuettes as possible.

Not unlike the handsome statuette I've relieved ABC TV's Tim Palmer of (left). He won the silver Logie for best news report for his work in Aceh after the tsunami, and is tipped as a leading candidate to replace Richard Carleton on 60 Minutes.

The Chaser lads also had their eyes on that perennial scavenger hunt favourite, Molly Meldrum’s cowboy hat.

So when Chaser’s Craig Reucassel snatched the hat from an unsuspecting Meldrum as the stars filed from Crown’s Palladium Ballroom a few minutes after John Wood received his Gold Logie, mayhem ensued.

Molly was most unhappy. Unsteady on his feet, he set off in chase of the Chaser. A bemused observer asked: “who’s that bald bloke chasing the fella carrying Molly Meldrum’s hat?”
But it wasn’t Molly who caught the Chaser Craig – it was Molly’s bouncer. The burly brute confiscated the hat and camera, ripping out the tape. Molly was not mollified, giving the Chaser crew the finger and advising them: "Do yourselves a favour - f*ck off!"

Fortunately, the encounter happened early in the evening. Molly lurched off back to the bar for more free booze, while the Chaser team retrieved more film from the Naomi Robson trailer.
We keenly await their Logies special on Friday night.


Logie lie down

Which blonde starlet collapsed in the ladies at the fag end of after party and couldn’t be moved? She was shuffled out the back in a wheelchair as one of her mates observed: “She’s had too much to drink – or something”.

Vizard Reborn

It was very nice of Channel Eddie to give Steve Vizard a gig on last night’s show. The disgraced funnyman-turned-inside trader appeared with Michael Veitch in his old gay flight attendant character.

It pays to have friends in high places. While Eddie gifted him the airtime, Vizard arrived at the Logies accompanied by another influential high-flyer – state Liberal powerbroker Michael Kroger and his wife, Crown marketing queen Anne Peacock.

Jeff – the backdown

Jeff Kennett has enjoyed his 24 hours of attention, and now he is about to announce he will NOT be standing for the State Liberal leadership.

A Kennett comeback was always the longest of longshots, as we pointed out when we broke the story ten weeks ago for New Matilda.

And a few minutes ago, Kennett's protégé Ted Baillieu announced he was standing for the leadership – snuffing out any chance Jeff had of running.

This afternoon, Jeff will release a statement announcing he will not run for the job.

This despite John Howard going on radio this morning lauding Jeff as the best man for the job: "If he is available, he is overwhelmingly the best person to do it."

It is clear that Jeff has realised, after talking to his wife Felicity, that the obstacles facing a Kennett comeback were insurmountable. As we surmised back then, those barriers were (not exclusively):

*Felicity, has told him she’d leave him if he got into politics again;

*He's just taken over as President of the Hawthorn Football Club (in Melbourne, where football is bigger than politics, this is a high profile job);

*Significant elements of the Liberal Party despise him after his autocratic leadership resulted in the 1999 election loss. They would fight his reinstatement;

*He is recovering from a recent hip replacement and was attacked in a bar owned by his son earlier this month.

The washup? Ted Baillieu emerges as the front-runner for the right to lead the State Liberals to a crushing election loss on 25 November. Albeit faintly damned as only the second-best candidate by the words of the PM this morning.

Jeff's 24-hour splash has unleashed a crowd of demons that echo from his tenure as Premier. The Kennett legacy is still a controversial one. The ghosts have not yet been laid to rest.

And for Jeff Kennett? There's talk of a Federal tilt. And you would have to consider it as very remote a possibility - given the PM's cheeky comments this morning talking up Jeff.

But that was always about making Peter Costello uncomfortable, wasn't it!

Doyle quits - Jeff preens

Jeff-Jeff-Jeff-Jeff! Does anyone else hear the Jeff Train-a-comin?

Robert Doyle's demise this morning was mercifully brief and understated – but still more like the drowning of a haggard cat than the dignified end of a political career.

So who to take on the seemingly invincible Steve Bracks in the November 26 State Election?

Terry Mulder? Who he? Doyle's recently installed deputy Louise Asher? Or Ted Baillieu? The Planning spokesman's got to overcome the perception he's born to rule, and had been reluctant to challenge in recent months. Because, let's face, it who wants to jump in the State Liberal caboose and lead the train wreck?

And then there's Jeff. Peter Costello confirmed this morning that the party's constitution allowed Kennett to take the leadership without first gaining a seat in Parliament. Or he could nominate for Doyle's now vacant seat of Malvern.

The pros and cons of Kennett taking over are outlined in my piece for New Matilda way back on February 22 when I broke the news that of the concerted moves behind the scenes to install him as Liberal Leader by midyear. You can check it out HERE.

Kennett was in a meeting of AFL presidents this morning in his capacity as Hawthorn president, and not commenting.

Costello gave a hillarious interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell this morning where he managed to deny influencing events in the State party – the party the Federal Treasurer controls with his mate Michael Kroger.

Oh no, said Costello, "I've been stuck in the Treasury preparing next week's Budget." That hasn't stopped Kroger pulling the levers behind the scenes – and even plotting publicly over coffee this week with deputy leader Louise Asher.

Monday's party room meeting will vote on the leadership. Whether Kennett makes a spectacular comeback will depend, among other factors, on the base fears of the rump of Liberal MPs.

If enough of them see doom for their seat on November 26, the whisper for Jeff may – just may – become a roar.

Rates up - 17 of 21 economists wrong

The RBA has this morning announced that interest rates are rising .25% to 5.75% - up for the first time since last March.

So there go the goodies in next week's Costello Budget Mk XI. What Costello gives with one hand, the RBA takes out via higher interest with the other. The decision is a sign of a bank that doesn't want to be raising rates after the Budget - and risk provoking a backlash against the Treasurer's next platform to lever himself into the Lodge.

Not only has the bank pre-emptively melted away those anticipated Budget giveaways, they've also snubbed most of the economists lobbying for a continued pause in rates. Bloomberg surveyed 21 economists yesterday - and only four picked the rise.

The mess within Defence

By Sasha Uzunov,
warrior journalist

Former soldier and freelance journalist Sasha Uzunov has broken major defence stories in recent years. Today, he unveils and analyses the "civil war" racking the Defence Department. Urgent action is needed - and the first head to roll should be Brendan Nelson. Read on:

THE controversy surrounding the cause of death of Private Jake Kovco in Iraq and the subsequent mix up with his coffin is an outrage - a bloody outrage. As a journalist and ex-serviceman who served in East Timor the time has come for me to tell it as is, no holding back.

The Kovco family and the Australian people need to know the truth about the stinking mess within the Defence Department.

The time has come for some tough talking and for heads to roll. The Prime Minister, John Howard, needs to demonstrate once and for all he takes defence issues seriously.

He needs to bring in Mal Brough as Defence Minister immediately. No pussyfooting around this time! Brough is an ex-Army Officer and knows his stuff.

It is time for the amateurs and “desk warriors” to go. I would urge Prime Minister Howard to hire experts like David Horner and Clive Williams, ANU academics who both have combat experience in the Vietnam War.

The mess in which Defence finds itself can be traced back to the 1990s when the Hawke-Keating Labor governments started sending troops on various missions in an attempt to act tough on the world stage after Australia had for a long time retreated since the Vietnam pull-out in 1972.

The rise of the "desk warrior", that is a defence expert without any hands on military experience, is the root cause of the problem.

Desk warriors could not wait to send Australian troops into Rwanda in Africa in 1994 in order to score international brownie points. The mission was a disaster because our troops were undermanned and had crazy rules of engagement, which didn’t allow them to stop the inter-ethnic massacre of rival Hutu-Tutsi tribes.

The ALP government sent Australians sailors to the first Iraq War in 1990-91, of which some ended up suffering from Gulf War syndrome. A civil war - that is those in civilian clothing versus those in uniform - within defence has erupted. This war has been going to this day with disastrous results.

The Kovco scandal is a symptom of the "civil war" raging within the department between desk warriors and those in uniform. There is a disconnect, as each side tries to out-do each other.

This is best demonstrated by Defence Minister Brendan Nelson's performance after Kovco's depth: he has been out of his depth, and showed this clearly with his initial blunder - wrongly explaining Kovco's death.

I was the first Australian journalist to raise the issue that many of our leading media commentators and defence experts do not volunteer for military service, and that this would eventually lead to disaster. The Kovco fiasco means the chickens have now come to roost, sadly.

The irony and hypocrisy is that those very same "respected defence writers" without military service who took umbrage at my scrutiny have now been ringing me wanting background information.

I once asked a "desk warrior" in an email a few years ago why he never served in the military. "If those in uniform can get involved in management civilian roles in weapons acquisitions for the Defence Department, then why not civilians as defence experts," he said.

That to me sounds like tit for tat, rather than civilians working harmoniously hand in hand with those in uniform for the benefit of the nation. It goes to the heart of the problem.

The Kovco family and the Australian people should be putting the heat on the current government - but they should also be asking questions of the Desk Warriors. But don't hold your breath waiting for out media to ask such questions, as it would raise too many embarrassing questions about the so-called highly paid experts.

The Kovco scandal has even reached the Balkans, as Kovco's father, is an ethnic Croat from the Western Bosnian town of Tomislavgrad, according to Sydney based freelance journalist Branko Miletic.

Hugo says: Unlike the Desk Warriors, Sasha Uzunov served two tours in East Timor with the Australian Army, using his experience to report from the Balkans and Iraq. His views are not colored by ideology or political expedience - but by an understanding of what it takes to maintain an effective defence force. Check out his website