Off the Record: Downer’s savouring Mayo
THIS week in Off the Record, Alexander Downer’s daughter is being considered for her father’s former seat, Bernard Tomic’s match with his management team is over, and two local politicians are fighting over a Barbie doll.
THIS week Off the Record reports that Alexander Downer’s daughter is being considered for her father’s former Adelaide Hills seat, Bernard Tomic’s match with his management team is over, and two local politicians are fighting over a Barbie doll.
Downer’s savouring Mayo
A REBIRTH of the Downer political dynasty in South Australia might be on the cards in the family’s Adelaide Hills power base.
Georgina Downer – the daughter of diplomat and former foreign minister Alexan der – is again being mentioned in dispatches as interested in standing in her father’s old seat of Mayo at the next federal election.
And internal Liberal speculation continues about Alexander returning from his post as Australian High Commissioner in London in May to then make a long-anticipated jump into state politics.
That’s being spurred by mutterings, particularly from Labor people, that last year he rebuffed an advance from senior Liberal businesspeople to return as state leader.
We’ll believe that when we see it, but the jungle drums beating about Georgina should be taken more seriously.
Melbourne-based Georgina – a lawyer, diplomat and self-described foreign policy geek – narrowly missed out on preselection in the blue-ribbon seat of Goldstein ahead of last year’s federal election to then Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson.
Mayo was lost last year byAlexander Downer’s successor Jamie Briggs to the Nick Xenophon Team’s Rebekha Sharkie.
Georgina, 37, now an adjunct fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, would have to return to her childhood stomping ground with husband Will Heath, a corporate lawyer and partner at King & Wood Mallesons, and their two children.
Any move would have to happen relatively soon, given the possibility of an early election and the necessity to build a profile in the electorate, stretching from Springton in the north to Goolwa in the south and including Kangaroo Island.
But the family name would carry a certain cachet in an area which has been the Downer family home for generations. Alexander’s father, Sir Alick, was a Menzies cabinet minister, and his father, Sir John Downer, was twice a premier of SA.
Both Georgina and Alexander declined to comment, although she told Off the Record in September that she had “no plans to return to Adelaide” – adroitly leaving just enough wriggle room for a change of mind.
Tomic waves goodbye as match ends
SIGNING tennis bad boy Bernard Tomic 18 months ago was a masterstroke for Adelaide management firm W Sports & Media.
But the promising relationship fractured after Tomic, No.27 in the world, exited the Australian Open in the third round.
Tomic, 24, was managed by Adelaide-raised Lleyton Hewitt’s agent David Drysdale, who remains in the W Sport stable.
Firebrand father John Tomic will continue as Bernard’s coach. Although the spilt is said to be mutual, he can’t be an easy dad to deal with – even by tennis parent standards.
Just last month John Tomic was threatened with eviction from daughter Sara’s wildcard Australian Open playoff after repeatedly yelling at the chair umpire as he questioned a linesman’s ability.
W Sport directors Garry Winter and Dimitris Parhas, in a statement to Off the Record, said: “We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Bernie over the last 18 months. The decision to move on was mutual but we would not discount working with Bernie again in the future if the circumstances were right.”
Unfortunately, Tomic was the agency’s headline talent – apart from Hewitt – but they do keep, among others, Adelaide Crow Kyle Hartigan, golfer Wade Ormsby and 36ers coach Joey Wright.
Winter says the agency is one of the nation’s fastest growing and has signed “the next generation of (Australian tennis) champions”, including Lizette Cabrera , Chris O’Connell and Jaimee Fourlis.
Extra energy put into Santos bid
THERE’S a whiff of desperation around Santos’s $500 million capital raising, which closes on Tuesday.
The energy company has taken the unorthodox approach of advertising in print and online to push the offer, which provides little value to shareholders at current pricing.
Under the offer, shareholders can apply for new shares at $4.06, or at a 2 per cent discount to the average share price over the last week of the offer, whichever is lower.
With the share price bumbling along at about $4 for the past week, shareholders will likely get the latter, at a whopping 2 per cent discount.
The Santos share price has bounced around between $2.69 and $5.07 over the past year, so it would be an optimistic shareholder who sees the offer as presenting great value. There is no underwriter involved, so if the company doesn’t raise the full amount from shareholders, there is no one there to pick up the slack.
If you’ve got three minutes and 48 seconds of your life that you have nothing better to do with, or have trouble getting to sleep, there’s a handy video on the Santos website explaining the offer.
Dash for a park
THE big-money property deal that’s taken an eternity to seal – the Festival Plaza carpark – is about to be struck.
Off the Record can reveal Adelaide Casino and Walker Corporation are expected to reach agreement within a week or so on the lease of 750 spaces in the underground carpark.
This would trigger the start of work in months on tycoon Lang Walker’s $500 million Festival Plaza development, which includes a 27-storey tower, retail and cafe areas and the five-level carpark.
It would also bolster the chances of a final green light for the Casino’s long-anticipated $300 million expansion.
Sources close to the project said a December 31 deadline for talks on the carpark lease had been moved by the State Government because of unspecified matters. They said talks were expected to be concluded soon.
The timing coincides with the revival of another controversial land deal, Gillman, for which expressions of interest close next week.
Roll model
IT seems there’s nothing rising Labor star Pete Malinauskas won’t do to ensure his anticipated takeover of Speaker Michael Atkinson ’s Croydon seat. The affable “Mali” this week pushed fellow MLA Tung Ngoaround the area in a pram-like contraption to deliver Lunar New Year cards – inscribed with a note from Malinauskas, calling him, cleverly, “your member of state parliament”.
Barbie flames
POLITICAL feud Barbie is the latest in an impressive array of costumes for the renowned doll.
Wright MP Jennifer Rankine has posted a Facebook picture of Tea Tree Gully councillor Paula Luethen-Soper in a Barbie doll box, because the latter is seeking Liberal preselection after supporting an independent at the last poll.
“Paula changes political party,” wrote Rankine.
Rankine said she did not regret her post as Luethen-Soper had herself published the image on social media.
Luethen-Soper said she was not upset by the taunt, despite the ongoing feud between the pair.
It all ads up
IT’S always tricky finding typical everyday people to appear in political advertising – just recall last year’s federal Liberal “fake tradie” saga.
So the state Liberals have gone closer to home – sort of – for leader Steven Marshall’s “We Can Shine” TV campaign.
One person featured is Seven Network marketing operations manager Stephanie Ockenden, who moved from Adelaide to Sydney last year. Husband Andrew Ockenden was former federal Liberal minister Jamie Briggs’ media adviser.
Stephanie was chosen to represent the professional interstate brain drain, which Marshall is vowing to stem.
Spin cycle
IT’S a movable feast among the Government’s press secretaries at the moment. Susan Close’sspinner Tanalee Smith is being sent to help the gaffe-enabled Water Minister Ian Hunter. Tourism’s Leon Bignell is losing his frontline defence Simonne Reid, who moves to the Close office. Bignell has a temporary appointment in Callie Bryson, while Patrick Cronin, who was with Hunter, has a new communications role in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.