Joe Aston’s war with Alex Malley is a triumph for campaigning journalism
Campaigning by the AFR’s Rear Window has triggered major changes for the CPA and forced it to reveal the sizeable salary of its fame-hungry CEO. Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes argues that the saga demonstrates that the role of a newspaper diarist is often underrated.
The Australian Financial Review has a good scoop on its front page today.
But the credit for much of the campaigning work that got it there belongs on the back page.
In recent months, the place to start The Australian Financial Review every day has been Joe Aston’s Rear Window column – to find out the latest on his war of attrition with the CPA.
well said Sir!
I agree completely Tim. Aston’s campaign was brilliant. Funny, acerbic, entertaining, well-written and aimed at a perfect target.
Yes – perfectly aimed at such a self promoting gentleman, a man who places his monster ego way in front of any benefit to his customers.
I have enjoyed following Joe Aston’s diary and it has been written with quite some humour but as a CPA member it is somewhat depressing that our member funds have been frittered away and that has taken so long for CPA to take action.
question is: how come no-one within CPA leadership (or membership) hasn’t raised the same questions Aston has. Its not like it hasn’t been glaringly obvious how much of CPA’s marketing effort and $ have been thrown at building Alex Malley’s profile. The books, the billboards, the TV shows, the websites…..all of them all about Alex Malley, not about CPA. And that’s all before his massive salary is taken into consideration. Extraordinary.
Hi Minnie, many cpa members have been raising these matters for some period of time. A group of us back in early 2016 had the “pleasure” of chairman Graeme wade and coo jeff Hughes front us to explain. Their answers were an insult to our intelligence and yes they were shouted Down. The end result is I was banned from postings on cpa Facebook and received implied threats of being sued for defamation. CPA hired a lawyer Mark O,Brian to look into these matters
The bottom line is they simply ignore critics and changes made to cpa voting rules effectively killed members right to vote….they appointed each other. It became a macquarie uni old boys club and they all collectively rorted the system
From what I gather, plenty of CPA members have taken issue with it, but until Aston began to really bang the drum there was no mechanisms for oversight or real change.
@minnie – because up until now no one has had a clue how much the CEO has been paid… and we still dont know the full cost of advertising for Alex Malley vs CPA Brand. The salary has only just come out because of the relentless push by one journo. So please dont blame the poor CPA members for not knowing what they weren’t told!
Now that we know, believe me there will be massive uproar.. most CPAs are small end of town people, not big business, and our $700/year membership fee isnt taken lightly. Paying our CEO $1.8m is far too much for a member-based organisation. I wouldnt even dare to guess what all the advertising costs.. and i’d love to see teh split of how much has been spent on ads featuring Alex Malley vs ads just on the CPA brand
If Aston was consistent he’d be asking a lot of questions about others. But he’s not. Malley was a fat target and a fairly easy mark.
(Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy)
you could have mentioned the ABC TV investigation, no doubt triggered by the AFR . http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....ks/8521882
Good one Dr Mumbo. Malley’s first interview was a bit of a scoop – Neil Armstrong, who I believe did not grant interviews but whose father (IIRC) was an accountant. Could not figure how the CPA would actually pay for a show until Aston mentioned in one of his many that watching this show contributed to hours accrued for yearly professional training under the CPA banner. Now that takes vision. $1.8m. Not quite Fahoud.
While it’s impossible to sympathise with Malley I do find it difficult to associate Aston’s work with “campaigning journalism”. More in the style of WRHearst.
Campaigns especially political campaigns are not journalism so I wouldn’t be waving the flags too hard. The Aston campaign against Malley has more spin than truth and is filled with cheap shots of a personal nature. What about Grey Hywood’s remuneration from Fairfax? He refused to answer questions about his remuneration at a Senate hearing. What about the remuneration of directors in billion dollar multinational companies operating in Australia- why isn’t that published? The real issues in remuneration disclosures have not been ventilated because a witch hunt against one man makes for better drama and click bait. When will we get the low down about Hywood’s family’s property portfolio?
Joe has done a fantastic job ripping open the stomach-churning back scratching that’s been going on at the CPA Board, with a wonderful sense of humor thrown in too. Unacceptable, they all need to go.
This is very inspiring, keep up the great work Joe. The governing laws of all professional bodies should be reviewed to for the better.
Really enjoy reading Joe Aston and Rear Window – I turn to the back first. Also think he has relentlessly pursued a worthy story. I think however there is a question to be asked about the point to which persistence and focus crosses the line and becomes bullying and intimidation. The relentless nature of it all and some of the personal commentary did cross the line, perhaps?
Great article Tim, and totally agree, good on Joe Aston, and what a disaster for CPA members. What’s sad is that prior to this cargo-cult type of behaviour, CPA had actually done an amazing job building their brand, in an environment where they are always considered the poor cousin to the CA (Chartered Accountants) juggernaut.
Did you know the CPA used loads of their budget to promote this guys book at the airport. Complete waste of money and really self serving. Sad.
Hmmm.. agree with this article but isn’t it a pre-emptive defence against raised eyebrows in the future? Ie when people eventually doubled back to question mumbrella’s bestowal of an award on Alex malley’s for advertising himself. At the time blind Freddy could tell you that it was in his interests, not the organisations! It didn’t need a joe Aston campaign to figure that out.
Aston was lucky. Malley is a sitting duck. In fact it is astonishing that his members haven’t strung him up some time back.
Aston’s day to day work is much less worthy and often unattractive. He’s usually either sucking up to his suppliers of freebies or sucking up to various big shots. He is always sucking up to his patron, Mr Maserati.
But Aston really pisses me off when he takes cheap shots at people, often people who have somehow offended him or his mates.
Ordinary fee paying members don’t get a vote for the board thanks to some crafty consitution amendments a decade ago
There is a certain English snarkiness in transplanted journalists from the UK. They seem to hate everything and everybody. So is that journalism, or just meanness?
I dunno, “Aston a pom”, but as (his Linkedin profile tells me) he went to University in Sydney, and has spent virtually all his career in Australia, I think you might be barking up the wrong tree.
Don’t you just hate the meanness of anonymous posters? They seem to hate everything and everybody…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
@ Tim Burrowes.
Ok that clears up one theory. So he is just a snarky journo.
As for anonymous commenters…well sorry Tim…you created and profit from this type of environment…so why is that even an issue for you? I wasn’t being mean or hateful. I was commenting.
Hi “Aston a pom”,
I think you may have missed the joke. I was repeating your own words.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I resigned my membership of cpa the day Alex Malley was appointed ceo. I have waited 20 years for this shonky behaviour to come to light . Intimidation forces me to remain anonymous. So pleased his behaviour at Macquarie university is now exposed. I still have “receipt” for dodgy text book sales.
A disgraceful waste of people’s hard earned cash….