Monday 2nd June 1997
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The difference in the interviewing techniques by the same interviewer - depending on the agenda behind the story - is poles apart. In the case of Rivkin his new "mortgage broking business" was given a promotional opportunity worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars - with the bottom line that he now offered the "cheapest variable interest rates on the market" in Australia at 6.6%. There were no hard questions - to all intents and purposes it was an advertorial.
The segment started with the story behind the rise and rise of John Symons' Aussie Home Loans - with a nasty twist being put on his reputation when it was revealed that the stock market crash in 1987 nearly left him bankrupt. Much was said about Rivkin who had predicted the crash "and came through with his reputation intact".
Rivkin was pictured on his pleasurecraft ploughing under the Sydney harbour bridge while smoking cigars, playing with gold worry beads in his hand and chatting amiably to the interviewer as if this was a social event not a "hard hitting" interview. In fact I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't perhaps a member of the Packer family who was gaining the publicity.
But then the interview didn't reveal where the funding for Rivkin's new venture was coming from.....
One of Rivkin's more interesting claims was that house prices were now at their peak and it was "the worst time to buy" as interest rates would rise and house prices would fall leaving one wondering why he had decided to enter the market at all.
Now I don't know where this wealthy man with the unblemished record gets his information but a report by market forecasters BIS Shrapnel suggests different with the following increases in house prices predicted over the next three years:
| City | Price rise prediction | Change in real terms based on 4% inflation |
| Adelaide | 9% | 7% |
| Brisbane | 22% | 17.5% |
| Canberra | 12% | 9.5% |
| Hobart | 8% | 6% |
| Melbourne | 37% | 29% |
| Perth | 26% | 20% |
| Sydney | 38% | 30% |
Pauline Hanson's One Nation Official home page."It certainly illustrates a huge backflip by Kim Beazley (Labor leader), another inconsistency between what he said in government and what he is now saying in opposition," he said.
"If you say that compensation is not justified in government, you can't say it is then justified in Opposition."
Howard added that the Labor party don't have to sign the cheques and their change of heart was politically expedient.
This week Howard is planning to get together with his Labor counterparts to try to resolve the Wik ten point plan that he wants to put through the Parliament - both sides of government being keen to ensure that would be seen as a "racist" issue not become the cause of a premature Federal election.
I read with interest in the daily newspapers and on the net the article regarding Minister, John Sharp. From the transcript I cannot see any possible use, or misuse, of his position. As an executive of a business one is expected to use ones initiative to get the job done. Mr Sharp simply asked the question of whether there were any slots that could be used to get them in early. He did not use any of his authority to force Mr Morrin to provide a slot so as to arrive on time. What's all the fuss about. If the call was made by Mr Packer or any other private jet passenger (and they would have access to the number as well through their pilot) it wouldn't even make the social pages.
Stethen Sandor
Packer would probably have been able to use his influence to jump the queue as well!Editor
Subject: Pauline Hanson and 60 Minutes
Poor old Pauline Hanson is the victim once again. When she came to
Newcastle, it was the "Labor Party and Minority groups" that were picking
on her.
She gets so tiresome after a while. Would you take John Howard seriously
if, every ten minutes, he were to say, "Mr Kim Beazley and the media keep
attacking me, and I don't like it"?
Hanson is in politics: she has to take a certain amount of shit. Next time
you talk to her, tell her to stop whinging, and always remember the saying,
Kieran O'Donoghue
"If you sit under an elephant's arse, you get shat on".
"The Australian cricket selectors deserve all the criticism that has come there way after their weak handling of the Mark Taylor affair.
"It's simply not good enough for the selection panel to hand-ball the hot potato that is Taylor's future to tour selectors Steve Waugh and Geoff Marsh just as the issue reaches a shattering climax."
Beautiful day ahead of us though.
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