The Sauce: More conservative Nationals not happy at new ‘leftie’ state director

Not all NSW Nationals are happy with new state director Namoi Dougall, whom more conservative members claim came ‘straight off the moderate Liberal production line’.

Kristina and Michael Photios. Picture: Supplied

She might be named after a country river, but not all NSW Nationals are happy with their new state director.

Former lawyer Namoi Dougall was this week announced to members as the replacement for Joe Lundy, who resigned from the job after five years.

Dougall, who is the third woman to take up the role, is to move into the office from May 6. However, her appointment last week has already triggered an uproar from the more conservative members of the party who claimed Dougall was “straight off the moderate Liberal production line”.

“The tentacles of the radical left have infected the Nationals,” one angered member said.

“I bet she could count how many times she has been past the Blue Mountains,” said another, noting her city office address.

The reason for the unrest? Dougall has been working for a firm called Business Green Energy with Kristina Photios, the third wife of former minister and left-wing Liberal powerbroker Michael Photios.

New NSW Nationals state director Namoi Dougall.

The two women are featured side-by-side on the company website, which describes Business Green Energy as connecting businesses to “renewable energy that would otherwise be too small to access the PPA market on their own”.

The PPA market — power purchase agreement — is a contractual agreement between energy buyers and sellers.

Mrs Photios, who famously quit the Liberal Party in 2016 in protest at party conservatives whom she said at the time were preventing any progress on climate policy by the then-Turnbull government, is listed as director of the company, while Dougall has the title of “special counsel — local government”.

The business lists its address as Level 61 of the MLC Centre at 25 Martin Place in Sydney – the same address as PremierNational and PremierState firms, of which her husband Michael is chairman, operate out of.

Also on the floor are a bunch of other “green” business such as Clean Energy Strategies.

A photograph of Dougall on the Business Green Energy website was the same image the party used when it emailed a party “round-up” newsletter to members, announcing her appointment as director.

It noted how Dougall had described her mother as “country NSW through and through”, to the point she named her daughter “after the river in the region she came from”. “Namoi says she carries the same connection to the country with her,” the email said. With debate over nuclear power, it will be interesting to see how Dougall navigates the energy minefield when she steps into the office.

COLOUR POP

It was hard to miss Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC at a book launch to mark 200 years of the NSW Supreme Court.

Held outside the Banco Court, the launch of the book “Constant Guardian: Changing Times – The Supreme Court of NSW 1824-2024” attracted legal luminaries from the state – and even the High Court.

The guests included current and former chief justice of the NSW Supreme Court, the chief justice of the High Court, NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, state Opposition Leader Mark Speakman and opposition legal affairs spokesman Alister Henskens.

Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC.

The Sauce was told NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley was unable to attend, while his chief-of-staff – who had also been invited – had been held up at work.

Instead, the Minns government was represented by Hugh McDermott, who is the parliamentary secretary to the Attorney-General.

With most guests decked out in dark suits or formal attire, it was hard to miss Dowling, who our spy said arrived late in multi-coloured blouse “without a jacket” before taking up a seat at the front of the bar table.

Also present in the room was Dowling’s husband Richard Lancaster SC, whom we are told is known among legal circles as “Mr Darcy” after the human rights barrister character played by Colin Firth in the Bridget Jones’s Diary films.

SPRUNG SPINNER

It is an unwritten rule in politics that a media adviser should never been seen.

Unlike the US, Australian spin doctors are expected to lurk in the shadows of media conferences before whisking their bosses away from journalists into the darkness.

And so it was with glee that several Macquarie St spinners forwarded to The Sauce two separate images of state Opposition Leader Mark Speakman’s spokesman Ian Zakon at the federal seat of Cook as “gotchas”. The first image was a screenshot of Zakon in the background of a Sky News report being delivered by its NSW political reporter Julia Bradley. In the shot, Zakon is wearing a blue NSW Liberal Party T-shirt.

The second image was a later screenshot of Zakon in the background of a Sky News Afternoon Agenda report on the low voter turnout in Cook – this time wearing a suit.

Zakon, who is also the spokesman for the NSW Liberal Party, said he had been working for and being paid by “the party”, though agreed it wasn’t ideal that this was broadcast.

“There is a longstanding rule among media advisers that if you get into the shot, you owe the office a carton of beer,” he said.

“That’s two from me — possibly three by the end of today,” he said, noting the low voter turnout at the Saturday by-election and therefore heightened odds of appearing in the background of further live media crosses.

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Originally published as The Sauce: More conservative Nationals not happy at new ‘leftie’ state director