THE DISTILLERY: China silence
Controversy over Chinese inward investment continues to erupt, but today's commentators seem hardly to have noticed.
After yesterday's good showing, The Australian today lacks verve, originality and vision. Bryan Frith sits atop the pile with a detailed analysis of the elaborate "web” of connections enmeshing Mt Gibson Mining and its Chinese shareholders. The piece is nicely complemented by a comment from Glenda Korporaal about inward Chinese investment – "Canberra is angry that many would-be Chinese investors and their local counterparts are announcing deals without discussing them with FIRB in private – leaving no room for political manoeuvre or finessing.” Given the lack of guidance, the ducking, weaving and dissembling by the federal government over the past year, is it any wonder that dealers are trying it on?
These two pieces are slim pickings given the gravity of the issue. Where are the questions about FIRB's methods, structure and new policy? Where is the analysis of our shifting power relations with Beijing? What about comment on where mining shareholder interests and national interests diverge? If PR is the government's main concern, then serious questions must be asked about whether we have the institutional depth to handle the rise of China and real power we have over that nation. What will be the blowback to our capricious regulatory decision making? What long term impacts on global free-trade structures will populist investment decisions have? What about some suggestions for handling all of the above? Robert Gottliebsen of Business Spectator at least attempts a way forward with his pugnacious but questionable paradigm of 'show no weakness'.
Instead, John Durie does out-takes on pay issues surrounding Jerry Maycock and Matthew Quinn, as well as snippets on Centro and DJ's protesting too much. And Michael Stutchbury has a vignette on yesterday's RBA Financial System Review. A much better piece comparing big bank health emerging from recession is available from Stephen Bartholomeusz of Business Spectator.
But if The Australian is weak, Fairfax is flat on its back. The sounds of silence are deafening at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age where we find a solitary Elizabeth Knight offering a take on the exit of CanWest from Ten. She sees the cyclical benefits of the recovery offset by the structural issues of rising competition from pay TV. Has everybody else gone soul-searching after the shellacking handed-out by this column yesterday?
The Australian Financial Review's Chanticleer also avoids China, leaping instead into Panglossian bank celebration. This column has to ask how a commentary purporting to examine financial stability fails to mention the existence of a funding guarantee covering nigh on $150 billion, a figure close to the capital base of the entire system. Glen Mumford improves the tone with an update on the progress of quantitative easing (QE) in the US, UK and Europe which shows little sign of slowing, perhaps inflaming for now soothed inflationistas. To this column's pleasant surprise, the pick today is the AFR editorial, which has a sober and deeply considered take on the untangling of 'Chimerica' via the G20.
On the subject of Fairfax, Alan Kohler of Business Spectator today argues that Roger Corbett will make a good boardroom steward for the troubled publisher. Kohler rightly argues that the challenge facing Fairfax is "...to find a way to move from a high-cost, cartel business environment to a low-cost, highly competitive environment. It will be very difficult and journalism as we know it will suffer.” Surely this formulation militates against Kohler's own conclusion that a turnaround will "come down to costs and a pragmatic focus on the business”. Journalistic expertise is needed to reinvent content while retaining customers. As well as cost reduction, Fairfax needs publishing and advertising innovation to drive revenue growth, another specialist challenge. Fairfax has been through a string of McKinsey-trained pragmatists in management that has done little to arrest its decline.
These two pieces are slim pickings given the gravity of the issue. Where are the questions about FIRB's methods, structure and new policy? Where is the analysis of our shifting power relations with Beijing? What about comment on where mining shareholder interests and national interests diverge? If PR is the government's main concern, then serious questions must be asked about whether we have the institutional depth to handle the rise of China and real power we have over that nation. What will be the blowback to our capricious regulatory decision making? What long term impacts on global free-trade structures will populist investment decisions have? What about some suggestions for handling all of the above? Robert Gottliebsen of Business Spectator at least attempts a way forward with his pugnacious but questionable paradigm of 'show no weakness'.
Instead, John Durie does out-takes on pay issues surrounding Jerry Maycock and Matthew Quinn, as well as snippets on Centro and DJ's protesting too much. And Michael Stutchbury has a vignette on yesterday's RBA Financial System Review. A much better piece comparing big bank health emerging from recession is available from Stephen Bartholomeusz of Business Spectator.
But if The Australian is weak, Fairfax is flat on its back. The sounds of silence are deafening at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age where we find a solitary Elizabeth Knight offering a take on the exit of CanWest from Ten. She sees the cyclical benefits of the recovery offset by the structural issues of rising competition from pay TV. Has everybody else gone soul-searching after the shellacking handed-out by this column yesterday?
The Australian Financial Review's Chanticleer also avoids China, leaping instead into Panglossian bank celebration. This column has to ask how a commentary purporting to examine financial stability fails to mention the existence of a funding guarantee covering nigh on $150 billion, a figure close to the capital base of the entire system. Glen Mumford improves the tone with an update on the progress of quantitative easing (QE) in the US, UK and Europe which shows little sign of slowing, perhaps inflaming for now soothed inflationistas. To this column's pleasant surprise, the pick today is the AFR editorial, which has a sober and deeply considered take on the untangling of 'Chimerica' via the G20.
On the subject of Fairfax, Alan Kohler of Business Spectator today argues that Roger Corbett will make a good boardroom steward for the troubled publisher. Kohler rightly argues that the challenge facing Fairfax is "...to find a way to move from a high-cost, cartel business environment to a low-cost, highly competitive environment. It will be very difficult and journalism as we know it will suffer.” Surely this formulation militates against Kohler's own conclusion that a turnaround will "come down to costs and a pragmatic focus on the business”. Journalistic expertise is needed to reinvent content while retaining customers. As well as cost reduction, Fairfax needs publishing and advertising innovation to drive revenue growth, another specialist challenge. Fairfax has been through a string of McKinsey-trained pragmatists in management that has done little to arrest its decline.
David Llewellyn-Smith is the co-founder and former publisher of The Diplomat magazine. He runs a media business and communications consultancy in Melbourne and co-authored The Great Crash Of 2008 with Ross Garnaut, due for launch on October 12.
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