Well, will you look at that?
After 17 years as the chair of beyondblue, former Victorian premier and current Seven West Media board member Jeff Kennett has announced he is stepping down.
In news that broke on Tuesday morning, the country's premier depression and anxiety charity announced former PM Julia Gillard would be assuming chairmanship of the organisation from July 1.
And while friend-of-this-column Jeffrey needed to be applauded for the excellent work he had done raising community awareness about mental health, the pressing question remained: why now?
Why, after 17 years as the founding chairman of the organisation, was he stepping down now? And, more specifically, was it a decision he arrived at of his own accord, or was it made with board encouragement? And, even more specifically, did his departure have anything to do with the very public spat he engaged in with Seven West Media's bete noire Amber Harrison at the height of the latter's Twitter campaign against the company?
Keen readers of this column would remember Jeffrey being brought to task for being publicly dismissive of Harrison's claims she suffered anxiety and depression as a result of her affair with Seven chief executive Tim Worner, despite jumping to the defence of troubled sports stars such as Grant Hackett.
And that's nothing compared with the dressing down we heard he got from boss man, Kerry Stokes, who reportedly made it clear to Jeffrey in no uncertain terms that his engaging of Ms Harrison in a public Twitter-spat was doing little to advance Seven's cause in the matter (as opposed to the lengthy op-ed Jeffrey wrote on the subject that was miraculously given a full-page of editorial in Kezza's West Australian newspaper and a generous run in most News Corp papers around the country).
But we digress.
We sent a series of questions to Jeffrey via email, asking if this handover was all part of a long-term plan, if the board had precipitated it and if his involvement in the brouhaha surrounding SWM had had any bearing on the decision. At the time of going to press, no reply had been received.
We asked beyondblue the same questions. A spokeswoman would only say that the succession had been three years in the planning.
"We have no comment to make on [the Amber Harrison v. Seven West Media] case," the spokeswoman added, "as that matter is before the courts."
Which it is. But JK's departure from BB isn't before the courts. So why they cannot comment on the reasons for it is beyond (blue) us.
It is time for all media to stop the pursuit of Grant Hacket. He is ill, needs help and continuing exposure not constructive. Back off.
— Jeff Kennett (@jeff_kennett) February 16, 2017
