Stephen Mayne

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Stephen Mayne
File:Stephen Mayne.jpg
Mayne, pictured in July 2010
Born (1969-07-23) 23 July 1969 (age 55)
Nationality Australia
Occupation Journalist;
Shareholder activist
Known for Founder of Crikey

Stephen Mayne (born 23 July 1969) is an Australian Walkley Award winning journalist, local government councillor, and self-described shareholder activist.

Career

Journalism

Mayne worked for a number of media outlets and was a media adviser to the Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett between 1992 and 1994.[1] In 1997 Mayne appeared on ABC TV's Four Corners as a whistleblower about the Kennett's share dealings. In 1999 Mayne started the website jeffed.com devoted to complaints about Kennett in support of Mayne's abortive candidacy in the 1999 election.[2]

He is best known for founding Crikey in 2000, 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 1 February 2005 that Crikey had been sold for A$1 million to another independent media operator, Private Media Partners.[3][4]

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 that is focused on shareholder activism and corporate governance issues.[5]

Politics

In 1999, Mayne resigned from his job at The Australian Financial Review in order to run against then 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. Years later he tearfully told the ABC's Talking Heads that his father disowned him at this point, telling him not to return until he had got a job.[citation needed] Mayne later ran as an independent in a subsequent Burwood by-election, caused by Kennett's resignation from politics after his 1999 state election loss. Mayne attracted a primary vote of 1,975 votes (6.63%), and Labor's Bob Stensholt won the seat.[6]

He later came to be central to the formation of the People Power party and became its largest financial supporter. The Age reported that he "would play a key role in recruiting, organising and funding the People Power campaign."[citation needed] In 2001, he ran as a candidate for the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, losing to John So;[citation needed] and is 2006 he ran as the lead Southern Metropolitan Upper House candidate for the People Power party. However, after a poor election showing, People Power folded amid much acrimony and Mayne resolved only to operate independently in future elections.[citation needed]

At the 2007 federal election, Mayne ran as an independent for the seat of Higgins against incumbent deputy Liberal leader and treasurer Peter Costello.[7] He received a primary vote of 1.98 percent (1,615 votes).

On 30 November 2008, Mayne was elected to the Heide Ward in the Manningham City Council in Melbourne.[8] In October 2012 he was elected to Melbourne City Council where he currently serves as chair of the Finance and Governance Committee and deputy chair of the Planning committee.[9]

Mayne ran as an Independent for the Northern Metropolitan Region in the 2010 Victorian state election, but failed to win a seat.[10]

Mayne came fourth of sixteen candidates with 4.7 percent of the vote as an independent at the 2012 Melbourne state by-election. He recommended preferences to the Greens, however Labor retained the seat with a 51.5 percent two-candidate preferred vote.

Political activist and electoral advocate, Anthony van der Craats, stated that Stephen Mayne would have had been best placed to win a Victorian Legislative Council seat had he stood in Southern Metropolitan as opposed to the Northern Metropolitan region in the 2010 and 2014 State elections.

Shareholder activism

Between 2011 and 2014, Mayne was a director of the Australian Shareholders Association and collectively advocated for improved corporate governance amongst publicly–listed companies. Mayne began to pursue individual shareholder activism in 2014.[9][11]

Walkley Awards incident

File:Glenn Milne Walkleys.jpg
An image of the 2006 altercation between Glenn Milne (right) and Mayne (left).

Australian journalism's most prestigious night descended into a shambles when Glenn Milne pushed Mayne off the stage at the 2006 Walkley Awards.[12] As Mayne prepared to present an award to Morgan Mellish of The Australian Financial Review,[13][dead link] a "red-faced"[12] and "seemingly intoxicated"[14] 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,[13] and screaming at Mayne that he was "a disgrace".[12] Milne tried to run at Mayne a second time before being restrained by security guards,[15] who frogmarched the disheveled Milne out the door.[13] Mayne then gathered himself at the microphone, quipping, "That is the former Sunday Telegraph political correspondent Glenn Milne, sponsored by Fosters."[14] Recalling the incident, where he suffered a sore ankle from the altercation,[16] Mayne stated:[14]

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"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,...... 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."

— Stephen Mayne, after the 2006 Walkley Awards

The following day, Milne apologised for the outburst, saying he was affected by a mixture of alcohol and migraine pills.[17]

Personal life

Mayne is married to Paula Piccinini, a barrister and occasional contributor to Crikey, and they have 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.

References

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  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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