from Crikey …..

Rudd cuddles up to greedy extreme capitalists

Crikey founder Stephen Mayne writes:

In a week when the focus should have been on the annual deluge of political donations data, another cut in official interest rates to record lows, continuing bailouts of mid-sized countries and Barack Obama's remarkable attempt to curb executive pay on Wall Street, Kevin Rudd has played a bizarre game.

There he was last night in Sydney joining with Rupert Murdoch to pay tribute to Frank Lowy. Surely the author of that essay in The Monthly should have instead been slating both of these ageing billionaires for their greed and extreme capitalism.

The Westfield founder still hasn't adequately addressed his questionable tax haven behaviour which was explored by Four Corners last October and led to his son Peter Lowy pleading The Fifth. Given that the ATO is now having another look at Lowy’s tax affairs, it is inappropriate for the PM to be eulogising his contribution to society whilst continuing to accept cash contributions from Westfield to fund his party's political campaigns.

Instead, surely the PM should be calling for Frank to cut his greedy $16 million annual salary, something which was debated at last year's Westfield's AGM. Even worse, it is Westfield which has been privately leading the charge for the establishment of Ruddbank to bail out the commercial property sector and Westfield which benefits enormously from all these cash handouts to shoppers.

No wonder Frank praised Rudd's $42 billion spending spree in front of Malcolm Turnbull last night. The PM has also repeatedly quoted from Westfield's February 3 update on retail sales to justify December's $10 billion welfare handout and the plan to do another $12 billion next month.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised by all this given that on Monday we learnt Lowy's empire had made the usual $200,000-plus donation to the ALP in the 2007-08 financial year.

In today’s dollars, Lowy has slipped more than $5 million to the ALP since Bob Hawke, who also attended last night, became Prime Minister. Sadly, we haven’t even had a decent debate about it because the PM has created the mother-of-all diversions.

The Murdoch press has been surprisingly soft on Rudd's spending spree and, not surprisingly, Rudd has been grovelling away to the Murdochs.

Rather than calling for Rupert to cut his outrageous $US28 million salary, our Kevin instead dropped in to hand-deliver a birthday card to his mum and joined Rupert to salute the equally greedy Mr Lowy last night.

News Corp has this morning revealed a $10 billion loss -- the second biggest in Australian history after Rupert’s $12 billion effort in 2000-01 as this list shows.

However, none of the journalists or analysts on this morning's 66-minute conference call bothered to ask about the $US8.4 billion in writedowns or whether Rupert would be shedding some of News Corp’s jets or cutting his $US28 million salary.

This sort of weak journalism is just sad -- the PM and Rupert Murdoch should be under extreme pressure for their behaviour right now.

I let fly at the press gallery in this debate with Michelle Grattan and Lenore Taylor on Fran Kelly's Radio National Breakfast program this morning. Hopefully, some other braver hacks will take up the fight.

and judging by the company we keep …..

Lowy's inner circle celebrates Ruddism

Glenn Dyer writes:

Yes, it was a glittering group in Sydney last night who paid tribute to Frank Lowy, the Westfield shopping mall king. Rupert Murdoch was there on the eve of his admission he isn't immune to the savagery of the global economic downturn, after News reported a near-$10 billion loss this morning.

Lowy himself has already been forced to accept reality and book a $3 billion writedown. That could double (making a gross $9 billion in all) when Westfield reports its 2008 results later this month. Sales are down in the US, UK and New Zealand, and weren't all that healthy here until the December stimulus hit home.

The guest list included Kev Rudd, who was there to honour Frank. Kev's a real fan. He used Westfield's trading update earlier this week for the fourth quarter in Australia to point out how the spending stimulus in December pushed Australian retail sales up. That was a day before the official figures confirmed it.

But other names on the list raised an eyebrow or three. Convicted cartel king Dick Pratt (the $36 million man) and son Anthony were both there.

I wonder if Kev and Dick gazed at one another across the room, or perhaps Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull happened to glance the way of the cardboard price fixing magnate?

Bill Wavish, the downsizing and staff-cutting privately-owned department store chief, was also there. Trevor Rowe, head of the powerful Queensland Investment Corporation and a big holder of Westfield shares, was also in the room. Rowe's the chairman of Brisconnections, the cheapest share in Australia at 0.01 cents (it can't fall any lower). The company has been an unfolding PR disaster since April, when shareholders have to cough up millions on what is now a worthless bit of paper.

Sol Trujillo was there, the man who is about to depart for the US, but won't tell anyone. David Gonski was there, ASX chairman and a former board member of Westfield and one of the most powerful people in the Sydney business community. Nick Moore of Macquarie was there, hours after owning up to another profit drop, revenue slump and another $900 million in provisions and the trimming of staff by a further 1047 souls.

Brain McCarthy was a there from Fairfax, the incredible shrinking media company whose credit rating was placed on negative watch yesterday by S&P.

Turnbull's heroic presence was almost required, seeing as how Frank's one of his big backers and funders in Wentworth. But will Frank's fandom last if the Rudd $42 billion package is compromised and punters don't get as much, or lose confidence because of the Turnbull's stance and stop spending in Frank's malls (where Westfield is still pushing up rents, despite the tough times)?