Stephen Mayne

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Stephen Mayne (born July 23, 1969) is an Australian journalist and self-described shareholder activist, who also ran unsuccessfully as a People Power Party candidate in the Victorian legislative election, 2006. Mayne also ran as an independent for the seat of Higgins, against incumbent treasurer Peter Costello.[1] He received a primary vote of 1.98 percent (1,615 votes).

Contents

[edit] Journalism

Mayne jumped for a number of media outlets and as a media adviser to then Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett, but fell out with his former boss and started the website jeffed.com devoted to complaints about him in September 1999 to support his abortive candidacy in the 1999 election.

He is best known for founding Crikey.com.au, an online independent news service. The combination of gossip and anti-establishment reporting got Mayne into legal (and consequent financial) trouble several times. Despite considerable financial pressures, Mayne persisted and Crikey gradually attracted subscribers and a fair degree of notoriety. It was announced on February 1, 2005 that Crikey had been sold for $A1 million to another independent media operator, Private Media Partners. [2]

Mayne continues to write for Crikey and was a regular business commentator on ABC Radio. Mayne also regularly runs for elections to the board of directors of various Australian public companies to draw attention to issues concerning good corporate governance. He is also a trenchant critic of what he perceives as excessive conflicts of interest in corporate and political Australia.

In October 2007, Mayne launched The Mayne Report -- a daily videoblog and subscription newsletter focusing on shareholder activism and corporate governance issues. [3]

[edit] Politics

In 1999, Stephen Mayne resigned from his job at the The Australian Financial Review in order to run against then Premier Jeff Kennett as an independent, protest candidate. After moving to Melbourne and making preparations for the campaign, he discovered he was unable to run because he was not entitled to be enrolled and was not actually enrolled.

Mayne later ran as an independent candidate in a subsequent Burwood by-election, caused by Jeff Kennett's immediate resignation from politics straight after his 1999 State election loss. Mayne attracted a primary vote of 1975 votes (6.63%), and Bob Stensholt of the ALP won the seat with a 3.63% margin.[4]

He later came to be central to the formation of the People Power party and while not formally on its board became its principal financial supporter. The Age reported that he "would play a key role in recruiting, organising and funding the People Power campaign."

In 2006, he ran as the lead Southern Metropolitan Upper House candidate for the People Power party.

However, on 29 November 2006, after a poor election showing, People Power co-founder Vern Hughes condemned Mayne as a "cavalier journalist" whose "trivialisation" of serious issues undermined the party electorally. This resulted in expulsion procedures initiated against Mayne, resulting in Mayne's eventual expulsion by the People Power board. Mayne has since denied that his expulsion was legitimate and has published attacks against prominent members of People Power who supported his expulsion [1].

[edit] 2006 Walkley Awards incident

Image of the infamous altercation between Glenn Milne (right) and Stephen Mayne (left) (2006)
Image of the infamous altercation between Glenn Milne (right) and Stephen Mayne (left) (2006)

Australian journalism's most prestigious night descended into a shambles [5] when Glenn Milne pushed Stephen Mayne off the stage at the 2006 Walkley Awards.[5]

As Stephen Mayne prepared to present an award to Morgan Mellish of The Australian Financial Review, [6] a "red-faced"[5] and "seemingly intoxicated" [7] Mr Milne lurched onto the stage and began a diatribe of verbal abuse. On national television, Milne then lunged at Mayne, pushing him off the stage,[6] and screaming at Mayne that he is "a disgrace".[5]

"I could see from his sort of wild eyes, and his red face, that he was clearly very drunk, and I thought, you know, heck, this is going to be out of control,"[7] said Mayne, who suffered a sore ankle from the altercation. [8] "And next thing I know, I'd been shoved off the stage and I was hurtling through the air, in a four-foot drop onto the floor."[7]

Milne tried to run at Mr Mayne a second time before being restrained by security guards, [9] who frogmarched the dishevelled Canberra veteran out the door.[6] Mr Mayne then gathered himself at the microphone, quipping,"That is the former Sunday Telegraph political correspondent Glenn Milne, sponsored by Fosters."[7]

The following day, Milne apologised for the outburst, admitting he was intoxicated on both alcohol and migraine pills. [10]

[edit] Miscellaneous

Mayne is married to Paula Piccinini, a barrister and occasional contributor to Crikey, and has a young family. His sister-in-law, Patricia Piccinini, is one of Australia's best-known contemporary artists. His grandfather was the World War I veteran and British centenarian Philip Mayne.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Crikey founder takes on Costello | The Australian
  2. ^ Crikey! Mayne sells for $1m - Business - www.theage.com.au
  3. ^ The Mayne Report
  4. ^ VEC: Burwood District Burwood District By-Election 1999
  5. ^ a b c d Crikey! News Limited journalist makes a night of it. The Age (2006-12-01). Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
  6. ^ a b c Milne's Mayne event. The Australian (2006-12-01). Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  7. ^ a b c d Glenn Milne apologises for Walkleys outburst. ABC 'The World Today' (2006-12-01). Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  8. ^ Award for best TV biff. The Daily Telegraph (2006-12-02). Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  9. ^ Embarrassments: Gotcha! Live and dangerous. The Sydney Morning Herald (2006-12-01). Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  10. ^ Milne apologises for Walkley outburst. NineMSN (2006-12-01). Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
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