Stephen Mayne
Stephen Mayne | |
---|---|
Councillor of the City of Manningham | |
Assumed office 2020 | |
Ward | Ruffey |
In office 2008–2012 | |
Ward | Heide |
Councillor of the City of Melbourne | |
In office 2012–2016 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Shareholder activist | 23 July 1969
Known for | Founder of Crikey |
Stephen Mayne (born 23 July 1969) is an Australian
Career
Journalism
Mayne worked for a number of media outlets and was a media adviser to the
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.[4][5]
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 website that is focused on shareholder activism and corporate governance issues.[6]
Politics
In 1999, Mayne resigned from his job at
He later came to be central to the formation of the
At the 2007 federal election, Mayne ran as an independent for the seat of Higgins against incumbent deputy Liberal leader and treasurer Peter Costello.[8] 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.[9] In October 2012 he was elected to Melbourne City Council where he served as chair of the Finance and Governance Committee and deputy chair of the Transport committee. He spent 3 years as deputy chair of the Planning Committee until late 2015.[10]
Mayne ran as an Independent for the Northern Metropolitan Region in the 2010 Victorian state election, winning a primary vote of almost 1 per cent. Media reports at the time had him in with a chance to win the balance of power but he failed to pull ahead of either Family First or the Green surplus and the final spot went to Liberal Craig Ondarchie.[11]
Mayne came fourth of sixteen candidates with 4.7 per cent 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 per cent two-candidate preferred vote.
Mayne calls himself "Australia's most unsuccessful candidate", largely because of 48 unsuccessful tilts at public company boards since 2000. Between 2011 and 2014, Mayne worked for the
Walkley Awards incident
Australian journalism's most prestigious night descended into a shambles when
"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.[18]
Personal life
Mayne is married to lawyer Paula Piccinini, who helped him run Crikey for 5 years, and they have two daughters and a son. One of his daughters, Laura, currently serves alongside him on the Manningham City Council as councillor for Schramm Ward.[19][20][21] His sister-in-law, Patricia Piccinini, is an artist. His grandfather was the World War I veteran and British centenarian Philip Mayne.
References
- ^ Kingston, Margo (18 March 2013). "Kerry Stokes, free speech defender? Spare me". No Fibs. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
- ^ "Kennett's Culture". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1997.
- ^ "Stephen Mayne". Speakers. ICMI. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
- ^ Hogan, Jesse (2 February 2005). "Crikey! Mayne sells for $1m". The Age. Melbourne.
- ^ Carbone, Suzanne (3 February 2005). "Mayne finds a million reasons to sell". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
- ^ "The Mayne Report". The Mayne Report. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
- ^ "Burwood District: Burwood District By-Election 1999". Victorian Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 15 May 2006.
- ^ "Capital Circle". The Australian. 1 November 2007.
- ^ Mackowski, Belinda (30 November 2008). "Crikey! Walkley Award-winning journalist Stephen Mayne wins council spot in Manningham". The Leader. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
- ^ a b Chappell, Trevor (8 September 2014). "Activist Stephen Mayne eyes board seats". The Australian. Australian Associated Press. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
- ^ "Legislative Council Results: Northern Metropolitan Region". 2010 Victorian election. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
- The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
- ^ a b c Shtargot, Sasha (1 December 2006). "Crikey! News Limited journalist makes a night of it". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 23 July 2007.
- ^ a b c "Milne's Mayne event". The Australian. 1 December 2006. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2007.
- ^ a b c "Glenn Milne apologises for Walkleys outburst". The World Today. Australia: ABC Local Radio. 1 December 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2007.
- ^ "Embarrassments: Gotcha! Live and dangerous". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 December 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2007.
- ^ "Award for best TV biff". The Daily Telegraph. Australia. 2 December 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2007.
- NineMSN. 1 December 2006. Archived from the originalon 2 December 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2007.
- ^ Egging, Kiel. "Manningham council: Mayor Paul McLeish dumped, Stephen and Laura Mayne elected". Herald Sun. News Corp. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
- ^ Brook, Stephen. "Generation Next: Political children step up to the challenge". The Age. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
- ^ Mayne, Stephen. "Hybrid AGMs, takeovers and secrecy, private equity hit list grows & much more". Eureka Report. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
External links
- The Mayne Report
- Crikey
- YouTube - video of Walkley Awards scuffle with Glenn Milne (Duration 0:55)
- Stephen Mayne - Candidate for Southern Metropolitan Upper House Region in November 2006 State Election for People Power