Week of the surprise goodbyes

"We'll develop our strategies going forward over the next couple of months," he said. "Obviously we need to take a view as to what they're saying about us and take some of that feedback on board."

Clyne's elevation followed a list of other surprise appointments and departures this week.

On Monday, Qantas announced its shock appointment of Alan Joyce, boss of Jetstar, as chief Geoff Dixon's replacement, three days after a gaping hole appeared in the side of a Qantas 747.

It is unclear if Joyce's appointment had anything to do with the strong support shown by some of his rivals for the top job for the ill-fated private equity buyout of the airline - among them Qantas's chief financial officer, Peter Gregg. Perhaps one hint Joyce was not as deeply involved in the proposed deal was when he forgot to sell his 67,383 shares into the Macquarie-backed buyout attempt until he was reminded by Macquarie at the last minute in May last year.

Coincidently, Aristocrat's chief executive, Paul Oneile, announced his resignation on Monday, a day before the pokies machine maker announced a shock profit downgrade. Oneile went on to assure the media his departure had nothing to do with the downgrade or plunge in Aristocrat's share price.

"If you are asking if the two are linked, the answer is definitely no," he informed the Herald.

It also appears the disastrous share price performance of the profit downgrade-prone property group Mirvac had nothing to do with the resignation of its long-serving chief, Greg Paramor. "I have enjoyed my time as managing director and I am proud of the achievements my team and I have made," Paramor said in a press release during the week.

Mirvac shares have plunged 60 per cent since December. Sadly, Paramor announced his achievements before the property group announced that redemptions from three of its unlisted funds had been frozen.

LESS BUST, LESS BOOM

Fears the resource boom could be nearing an end have been exacerbated by concerns the scantily clad barmaids of Kalgoorlie - known as "skimpies" - will be forced to show less cleavage.

The push comes after the Western Australian Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor recently warned the bars of Kalgoorlie would need to adhere to the standards enforced at other bars across the state. A department spokesman sent Reflux an outline of how it would enforce the state's Liquor Act.

"Under the act, the director of liquor licensing can impose conditions on a licence. This condition requires that employees are not to be dressed immodestly," it said.

"It is important to note, where the standard entertainment conditions are imposed, the minimum clothing a person selling or serving alcohol can wear is a bikini that does not expose the breast nor buttocks.

"G-strings, nipple stickers and see-through clothing (including crocheted bikinis) are considered to be immodest and are not acceptable as a minimum dress standard for those people who sell or serve liquor."

With a crackdown in the West Australian mining town now in full swing, there are concerns the police operation will put a serious dampener on next week's Diggers & Dealers conference, which will host up to 1800 mostly male delegates.

The crackdown might help Kalgoorlie's well-frequented brothels. However, they seem to be having their own problems.

Last month the Kalgoorlie Miner reported the town's brothel industry was suffering an acute "skills shortage".

Reflux fears that, like a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the world (that is, the butterfly effect), barmaids covering up their rude bits in Kalgoorlie could have a catastrophic effect on resource prices.

Since the skimpy crackdown was announced early last month, oil prices have fallen 15 per cent and the price of gold has dipped $US25 an ounce. It is unclear if the crackdown is also responsible for the recent rush of profit downgrades from companies such as NAB, ABC Learning and Aristocrat.

HARVEY'S CHEAP TACTIC

Hopes are high the communist-led television station ABC could soon lift its ban on advertising.

Despite having the socialist commentator Janet Albrechtsen and the historian Keith Windschuttle on its board, the broadcaster is beginning to show that its interest in advertising is not limited to The Gruen Transfer, a TV program which analyses the tactics deployed by the advertising industry.

During the week, the Lateline Business program allowed Harvey Norman's chief spruiker, Gerry Harvey, to provide his take on the state of the nation's retailing sector.

"I mean, I went through on the weekend and looked at our catalogues and I thought, 'Wow, that's cheap!' " reasoned Harvey.

"Like, TVs and fridges and washers and that, like we're selling them at a lower price than we were 10 years ago. It's just so cheap. And so there's no point in fixing the old one, just get a new one. Throw the old one away."

Harvey went on: "But, you know, the prices have ped so much."

In a startling piece of insight, he warned people should hurry to avoid missing out on his stores' cheap prices for flat-screen TVs and electronics.

"Freight prices because of fuel and that sort of thing, so we are going to see, you're probably seeing prices in Australia at the moment in all the products we sell at about as low as it's going to get, I think," he said. "In the next 12 months you will start to see quite a lot of price rises."