...] the new Director of Radio, replacing Sue Howard, whose departure was one of the first news stories I covered on this blog. Dundas’s appointment is no surprise. She has been acting in the post since Howard’s [...

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On the substance of this. I have read the follow up stories but I did hear Scott on Conversation Hour local radio in Sydney about 3 weeks back (?). A most revealing aspect was: He used to work for Terry Metherell MP in the 1990ies. What exactly does this mean? Well Metherell’s brief for Griener was to bring management jargon and restructure to the union dominated education sector. Scott even mentioned roaring protests out in the Domain or Macq street and wondering ‘what have we done’ or similar.

Scott is a hard man in a hard man’s job, appointed by then PM Howard’s proxy board (?). The fact he is now still on the deck while Howard is well past the ‘Kiss me Hardy’ moment doesn’t change the uniform or the discipline he’s learned his later career.

In short Marg, if it looks like, walks like, quacks like … then it is a power player, for real. That I should say is the message. It’s not about skills, merit, facts, or fairness, or indeed public interest (though good politics requires a dose of that to keep up the cover). It’s about power and hierarchy and whose got it. The rest is just trimmings. Now I will see your follow up reports and consider how true this analysis really is.

My questions at this point are: What is lost with Sue Howard. What has Scott got, not got, to replace her? It’s not a sentimental question. If he has compromised the taxpayer’s media service then he better look out because his figleaf is pretty small 12 months in to the Rudd regime.