No Smallzy fee

Radio night shows are supposed to be cheap – which is why Kent ‘Smallzy’ Small was always such an enigma.

It’s been an open secret for years that Nova FM’s well-connected evening DJ was on crazy money for his shift.

Admittedly, he justified his salary through his exceptional broadcasting skills and an enviable list of A-list celebrity connections. Additionally, since its inception, he has consistently topped his time slot with an impressive ninety-two No. 1 survey victories.

However, in a time of financial prudence, insiders indicate it was inevitable that Nova would eventually scrutinize their finances and consider if they had spent enough on him.

He revealed the conclusion of his show, Smallzy’s Surgery, on Monday. While Nova emphasizes that it was his decision to leave, a former network employee suspects he departed before being let go.

His farewell is swift, concluding Friday, yet it’s a better fate than some 2Day FM hosts who exited the studio only to learn they had just completed their final broadcast.

Curious about his earnings? Our radio experts – the same ones who informed us of Jonesy and Amanda‘s recent shift to the drive slot – estimate his salary at half a million dollars.

That’s about five times what the average night presenter is on, we’re told. 

As for Smallzy’s future, we expect he has a strict non-compete clause that will keep him on gardening leave for some time.

After that? Our money’s on KIIS drive. Will and Woody’s contracts are up in late 2026.

An ARN spokesperson rubbished this theory, however, telling us:

‘Will & Woody are a much-loved part of the KIIS Family, and we look forward to them continuing to drive Australia home for the years ahead.’

Nova was contacted for comment. 

Land of Confusion

The boomer generation is often unfairly tarnished with the slur that they are unable to tell the difference between a real photo and artificial intelligence.

But it may not just be seniors getting duped by the uncanny valley of generative AI. 

Sky News Australia political reporter and host of AM Agenda Laura Jayes seemingly fell hook, line and sinker for an absolute clanger last week. Or so we thought.

We noticed she had shared a viral post by the account Reckfrekans of Paul McCartney serenading a dying Phil Collins in a London hospital.

Macca was belting out Hey Jude on an acoustic guitar while several nurses watched on solemnly as Collins faded away. Pass the tissues.

This didn’t happen, of course. Collins is no spring chicken, but he’s not dead yet. Funnily enough, that was the title of his last world tour.

We asked Jayes if she thought the hospital photos were real when she reposted them or if she’d simply found them too ludicrous not to share.

‘I assumed it was AI,’ she told us via email on Wednesday afternoon.

‘I actually reposted it and had tagged someone in that loves both Collins and McCartney. Should have done from my private account.’

Tabloid reporter’s new gig

After her unexpected departure from The Daily Telegraph in late June, Clementine Cuneo began a new job at Channel Seven this week.

We’re told it’s a producer role, not on camera. 

As Inside Mail readers will know, the experienced tabloid newsbreaker took News Corp to court over her redundancy and the matter is believed to have quietly settled. 

Interestingly, Cuneo – a former associate editor at Daily Mail – is nominated for a Kennedy Award for her reporting on the Dural caravan plot alongside crime desk colleagues Mark Morri and Josh Hanrahan.

Whether she will attend in person is a big talking point in media this week. Even if she doesn’t, we’re pretty sure her exit will be the main topic of conversation at the Tele’s table.

We’ll keep you updated.

MAFS’ new puppet master

Married At First Sight is undergoing a major shake-up for its 2026 season – and there’s a new boss calling the shots at production company EndemolShine Australia.

Inside Mail can reveal that Kate Paul has taken the reins as executive producer for the thirteenth instalment of the hit reality show.

Chelsea Heilemann is also stepping up as co-executive producer, replacing Alex Spurway, who is on leave and will return next year.

As for who will be stepping up as executive producer on Channel Nine’s side of the fence… no one knows. A replacement for John Walsh – who retired this year after more than three decades at the network – is yet to be announced.

Inside Mail understands producers are taking a ‘hardline approach’ this year and they are more risk-averse than usual.

This zero-tolerance policy was tested just weeks into filming when a couple was yanked from the show following an internal investigation.

Micah Lomu, a Sydney-based finance broker, was quietly removed from the series just days after tying the knot with cricket presenter Ankita Karungalekar in a lavish multicultural wedding at Lindesay House in Darling Point.

The newlyweds had flown interstate to film their honeymoon, but production for the couple was abruptly halted.

Micah has denied any wrongdoing, but insiders say EndemolShine and Nine aren’t taking any chances.

Neither Micah nor Ankita attended the show’s first dinner party, filmed on August 5.

While Ankita has remained tight-lipped on her exit, she raised eyebrows last week with a cryptic Instagram post that read: ‘Was SO close to having everything I wanted.’

Ankita told producers she was ‘100 per cent safe, happy and comfortable’ to continue filming with Micah, but show bosses nonetheless felt it wasn’t a risk worth taking.

‘You’re in control’ 

Channel 10 is pulling out all the stops to breathe life back into Big Brother – and this year, they’re outsourcing the audition process to the audience.

In a bid to get viewers engaged from the outset, the network is inviting the public to watch YouTube audition tapes and vote on who should enter the house.

The slogan? You’re in control.

But reality TV commentator Adrian Falk isn’t convinced the move will deliver the ratings hit Ten desperately needs – because the audience they’re targeting isn’t watching free-to-air television.

‘What Channel 10 don’t seem to realise is that the young audience doesn’t watch TV,’ Falk told Inside Mail.

‘Free-to-air viewers are older – they’re not going to care about kids being locked up in a house. That was done 25 years ago when they were 25 – now they’ve moved on.’

Ten has yet to confirm when the new season will air, but with ratings under pressure and advertising dollars on the line, all eyes will be on whether Big Brother’s ‘choose your housemates’ stunt can save the format from eviction.

Ben draws a line

We nearly choked on our cornflakes last week when 2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham declared – on air – that he has never uttered the word ‘c***’.

In his life.

Inside Mail was so startled, we wrote it down for the record: Thursday, 7.49am.

A very different era from his predecessor Alan Jones, who, by all accounts, had no such qualms about lobbing the C-word. 

Mundine flirts with another party

As if the NSW Liberal Party didn’t have enough on its plate, with Opposition Leader Mark Speakman already under fire, Inside Mail can reveal yet more internal drama.

Senior Liberals are seething after failed candidate Warren Mundine turned up as a guest speaker at the Northern Beaches Branch meeting of the rival NSW Libertarian Party, whose only parliamentary presence is in the NSW upper house.

Mundine, while still a member of the Liberal Party, is hardly new to flirting with other parties. Once president of the Australian Labor Party, he switched camps in 2019 to run for the Liberals in Gilmore, a captain’s call by then-PM Scott Morrison that saw the already-endorsed candidate dumped.

He tried again in 2024, seeking Liberal preselection for the federal seat of Bradfield, but lost to Gisele Kapterian. She’s now in court over a razor-thin result that left her just 27 votes short of independent Nicolette Boele.

One senior Liberal told Inside Mail that Mundine seems to get away with cosying up to rival parties in a way others never could.

‘It’s never quite clear which party Mundine wants to call home. If he’s serious about delivering freedom and reform, he should stick with the Liberal Party,’ they said.

‘Maybe the Libertarians will preselect him now that he’s been unsuccessful with Labor and the Liberals.’

Nothing to see here 

Agenda-setting think tank the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) has found itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week.

On Friday, it was reported that former employee Emilie Dye had lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission, alleging she was sacked illegally after refusing to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Executive director Tom Switzer has since left the CIS, but says his decision to quit the influential advocacy group is unrelated to the FWC complaint.

Inside Mail does not suggest the allegations are true, only that they have been lodged with the Fair Work Commission.

But what does the CIS and its current head, former Australian Financial Review editor Michael Stutchbury, make of it all?

Not a lot, it seems.

At the time of filing, Stutchbury was scheduled to speak alongside Switzer at an event on Wednesday night entitled ‘Political Upheaval: Why Nothing is Permanent’.

A spokesperson for the CIS told Inside Mail the event was still going ahead.

In a statement, the think tank said it ‘considers that it responded to the complaint appropriately’.

Not everyone agrees. Katie Roberts-Hull, a teaching policy expert who is scheduled to speak at the CIS’s Consilium conference in October, has donated $500 to Dye’s legal fund.

Dye told Inside Mail that ‘continuing to elevate [Switzer] serves no one but Tom himself’.

Albo’s pettiness backfires

Senator Fatima Payman declared vindication for quitting Labor over its stance on Palestine after Anthony Albanese announced the government would recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN next month.

The WA Senator, who now sits as an independent, said the Prime Minister ‘owes me an apology’. He owes her something else. too.

Eleven months after crossing the floor, Senator Payman is still waiting for an extra two parliamentary staffers afforded to other crossbench independents.

Staffing allocation is up to the discretion of the PM, and he has cut back the number available to the opposition and some minor parties since being re-elected.

In January, Senator Payman accused the PM of playing a ‘petty game’ for denying her two extra staff. Her repeated requests for the situation to be resolved in recent months have been ignored.

But the PM’s alleged pettiness has backfired.

‘All he has achieved with this vindictive staffing debacle has been to open up new channels of communication where they never existed before,’ one Canberra insider observed.

‘Previously implacable enemies are now talking to one another. You have Pauline Hanson on the same side Senator Payman. Even rogue Senator Ralph Babet agrees with them.’

The Opposition is mulling plans to introduce a bill at the next sitting week to strip the PM of his power over staffing allocations, by handing it to an independent body instead.

‘Preference whisperer’ to spill the beans

Speaking of Senator Payman, her seasoned chief of staff Glenn Druery worked his final shift for her on Monday.

The pair finished on good terms, with Druery – who has worked in politics for almost 30 years – taking some time out to pen his memoirs.

Known as the ‘preference whisperer’ for his ability to exploit voting rules to elect minor and micro party candidates to state parliaments and the federal Senate, Druery sure has a tale or twelve to tell.

And he’s already 70,000 words in, so there will be many in Canberra and beyond who have crossed paths with the master of the dark arts who will no doubt be waiting anxiously for it to hit bookshelves.

But anyone hoping for a warts-and-all, score-settling account of almost three decades of working for the likes Derryn Hinch and Pauline Hanson may have to manage their expectations.

‘There are some people who think just because they’re in politics, they can act like a rogue used car salesman, with all due respect to used car salesman,’ Druery told Inside Mail.

‘Well, you can’t. You have to maintain integrity and trust. Why is it that people keep talking to me after all these years? It’s because I don’t betray trust.

‘Yes, there will be some stories that might make some people squirm. And rightly so. But I’m not going to break trust.

‘There’s at least one very titillating story where I’m going to change the names and be ambiguous about which parliament was in to protect the innocent.’

It is due to published by Melbourne-based Wilkinson Publishing next year.