Who Were The Journalists Banking On A New Press Secretary Job With Shorten Government?

Who were the Canberra press journalists including a former technology writer who were banking on a Labour victory to get a new job as a press secretary to Labor ministers?

ChannelNews heard one journalist bragging last week that his salary was set to jump by $100K and that he could not wait to for “Shortens big victory”.

During the past few months Labor has been having pow wows with several Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and ABC staff about taking on a new gig working for Labor Ministers.

Press secretaries to senior ministers earn a $200,000-plus starting salary, with an extra 15 per cent superannuation from the generous parliamentary super scheme.

The Australian reported today that confidential talks had been held between several soon-to-be ministers and press gallery ­journos for some time before the election, as part of advanced ­preparations for Labor’s triumphant ascension to power.

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Now those journalists are drowning their sorrows as they try to work out what went wrong after spending months manipulating Labor’s messaging.

ChannelNews understands that at least four staff would have come from the newsrooms of the Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Also set to lose staff was the Financial Review.

The Australian said ‘We’re told that, in some cases, that made for some cosy relationships during the campaign between some of the Labor ministers-in-waiting and journalists lined up to join the ranks of their staff, post-election.

We may now never know the full list of journalists who had planned to cross to the other side for Labor.

Whoever they are, they are likely to have today been writing stories about a Coalition election victory.