“The almost-certain new Labour government means change and opportunity for business here as well as there.”
MATE AGAINST MATE
State of Origin came to Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday night for the first time since 2018, and as usual, many ungrateful Victorians acted like they were too good for the country’s most important sporting rivalry.
The big game wasn’t a huge selling point for local personalities if the guest list for the NRL’s VIP enclosure was anything to go by. Westpac boss Peter King brought the greatest business heft, while Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy was the most senior figure to jet away from a Canberra sitting week.
The Victorians couldn’t even send anyone other than Tourism Minister Steve Dimopoulos, while Solomon Islands PM Jeremiah Manele got to see a quintessential local cultural experience.
Also making the cut were players and staff from the Opals and the Boomers, including former NBA champions Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova and Josh Green, whose Dallas Mavericks lost this season’s recent finals series.
EXIT LEFT
CBD has long kept a close watch on our media colleagues crossing to the dark side and going to work in politics.
The latest defector from our very much thriving industry is Guardian Australia’s off-platform and newsletters editor Antoun Issa, who’s landed a job as chief of staff to Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, the political party’s deputy leader.
Issa’s departure means the path from Guardianista to foot-soldier for the progressive side of politics looks increasingly well-trodden.
Last year, the outlet’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, left the press gallery behind to take up a gig spinning for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a move which confused some readers who thought she’d been doing that job the whole time.
Brigid Delaney, the Guardian’s beloved “hot mess” columnist, is now well entrenched within the Labor-verse, joining Katy Gallagher’s office as a speechwriter before jumping ship to the perennially sidelined Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Frankly, given the cost-of-living crisis and the Graun’s infamously stingy approach to staff remuneration, we don’t blame them for moving on.
DADDY DORE
CBD brought word recently that former Australian editor Chris Dore, who shrugged off the unsavoury circumstances of his departure from that newspaper to land a hot new gig running Seven West Media’s papers, was expecting a baby with partner (and former colleague) Jenna Clarke.
We’re now pleased to report that the happy couple welcomed baby Louis Christopher into the world last week in Perth, where the pair have moved, the news documented in the classifieds section of a West Australian newspaper.
Readers might recall that Dore and Clarke’s recent baby shower, hosted by top defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles, brought together a motley crew of media personalities and faded Liberal Party identities.
And even the birth brought a political bit-player into the mix, with former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon delivering the baby.
LANDERER’S LUCK
In Vaucluse, money talks.
CBD reported last week that prominent lawyer and property investor John Landerer was facing a neighbourhood revolt in the genteel harbourside suburb over a proposed $4.5 million renovation to his $18 million mansion.
The Kerry Packer confidant’s proposal to exceed the height limit drew objections from the likes of former Roosters captain Anthony Minichiello and international legal expert Alison Pert, wife of ex-competition czar Rod Sims.
It was all for nothing, with the Woollahra Council Local Planning Panel approving Landerer’s new monstrosity last week, proving that the eastern suburbs’ NIMBY-ish hostility to new development doesn’t extend to the mega-rich.
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