Off the Record: Legal raid on Nick Xenophon’s law office
NICK Xenophon’s longtime legal backstop makes a move, SA Senators stage a Canberra coup of their own amid Morrison’s massacre and a Dutton-backing SA MP does a runner in this week’s Off the Record.
Opinion
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WHILE Nick Xenophon entranced thousands of South Australian voters during a 20-year political career, Peter Jackson held his legal firm together.
But after 14 years at Nick Xenophon & Co. Lawyers, the firm’s managing solicitor is on the move.
The personal injury and business law specialist will finish up next Friday and start at Duncan Basheer Hannon on September 3.
The former senator described the arrangement as “very amicable”.
Letters telling Xenophon & Co’s clients of the new arrangements were sent out late this week.
Mr Jackson said he’d simply moved across to the bigger firm to progress his career, and echoed his former employer, describing his departure as “very amicable”.
A source told Off the Record that Jackson was taking “the files that he wants to take” across to DBH.
Xenophon declined to comment further but said he would be continuing to work at his Paradise-based practice. The firm’s website lists one other solicitor, Sian Chapman, but Xenophon told Off The Record that two other solicitors were on the books.
DBH did not respond to requests for comment.
Jackson joined Xenophon’s firm in 2004, after three years at Boylan Lawyers in the state’s Mid-North, where it has offices in Port Pirie and Port Augusta.
He is a member of the Law Society’s Ethics and Practice Committee and a long-time volunteer to St John’s Ambulance service, ascending to Commissioner last year. Legal insiders said Jackson was an “experienced lawyer who is highly respected by his peers”.
Meanwhile, Xenophon has piqued the curiosity of Off The Record by registering a new business, the curiously named Trojan Donkey.
Xenophon, who has been particularly tight-lipped since his attempt to win the state seat of Hartley failed, did not comment.
We’ll leave it to our readers to speculate what the king of stunts could be up to next.
– Adam Langenberg
Downstairs for upstairs Treasurer
IT’S the invitation Treasurer Rob Lucas has been waiting 17 years to receive. It came from the House of Assembly and it was to ask him to pop down from the Legislative Council and deliver the Budget speech next week.
As a Treasurer stationed in the Upper House he needed both that invitation then permission from the Leg Co to deliver his speech from a lectern positioned between Premier Steven Marshall and Clerk Rick Crump.
The media budget lock-up will be held at the Intercontinental, next to Parliament House, a departure from Labor’s practice of using the Convention Centre. Lucas last delivered a budget in 2001, a time so long ago he’s not sure where it was held, possibly the Stamford Plaza.
Still, he thinks there will be a few familiar faces from that 2001 gathering, namechecking Sunday Mail columnist Matthew Abraham, ABC morning host David Bevan and Seven veteran Mike Smithson.
Wallaby think of next? A glass act offers sage advice
ADELAIDE Uni’s entrepreneur in residence Kristian Livolsi likes to bill himself as an expert in “failure and renewal’’ And, to be fair, he’s half right.
But after The Advertiser’s Cameron England revealed last week he had made up a claim he had captained the junior Wallabies Australian rugby team, Livolsi penned a bizarre letter on social media site LinkedIn titled Full Mettle Jacket - Why does Resilience Matter?
Sample sentence: “There’s a lot of talk about glass ceilings in business, but for now I want to stay down to earth, and talk about glass walls.”
Down to earth?
Anyway, the problem with glass walls is that they are made of glass and this means you can’t see them. Or something.
“You can keep smashing into walls, or you can find a way of seeing them.” But they’re glass? How do you see them?
Kristian has the answer. Which is a relief.
“You might carry a super-soaker and spray as you walk, so that you can reveal what’s ahead.’’ Valuable, valuable advice for everyone.
The axeman cometh as Labor man suffers art attack
The blood continues to seep from the axe wielded by state Treasurer Rob Lucas and there is still much more to come as he weeds out all the Labor plants left behind by the government of Jay Weatherill.
This week’s casualty was Arts SA chief executive Peter Louca. There is speculation Louca’s axing was the first in a series as part of a strategic review of the public service being conducted by Commissioner for Public Sector Employment Erma Ranieri in her expanded role. It is said this will be ready for new Premier and Cabinet Department chief Jim McDowell, when he officially takes over on September 1.
When Premier Steven Marshall announced McDowell’s appointment on July 26, he said Ranieri’s expanded role would “include responsibility for strategic workforce and leadership development in the public sector” and praised her role in “significant machinery of government changes”.
Still, some of that leadership development seems a bit moot now. Late last month, the aforementioned Louca proudly posted on his Facebook page, he had completed the SA Leadership Academy Executive Excellence course, thanking Ranieri. He even posted a pic of himself, with Ranieri and Dorothy Keefe, left, clinical ambassador to the former Labor government’s Transforming Health program.
At the time Louca, optimistically, said the course would “translate to even greater success for our arts and culture sector’’.
Who will be next to feel the Lucas blade is a matter of speculation but Labor appointees in place include; former Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith (SA Museum, TechInSA), former health minister John Hill (SA Film Corporation) and former Emergency Services minister Carmel Zollo at Homestart SA., among a host of others.
Fitness routine
NICOLLE Flint’s fitness has been put to the test in recent times. The Boothby MP not only braved the Rotary Club of Glenelg Cold Plunge but on Wednesday night out-ran a media pack.
As Liberal staffers got pizza for ministers held up in their offices making leadership deals around 9pm — Flint, dressed in her active wear, left parliament but was ambushed by camera crews outside.
Surprised, Flint fled into the dark, leaving the resigned pack in her tracks.
SA’s coup
AMID the leadership chaos, Education Minister Simon Birmingham joked that South
Australia had staged a coup in federal Parliament.
Ministerial resignations left Birmingham as the Acting Leader of the Government on Thursday.
He faced off against two other South Australians, Labor Senate leader Penny Wong and her deputy, Don Farrell.
Like Nicolle Flint before him, Birmo modelled the latest in exercise wear as he ran into parliament hours before the Liberal party room vote.
Smokin’ Joe
HIGHLY-respected businessman Joe Thorp will be staying on despite his agency, TechInSA being closed down as part of a restructure of government support for early-stage businesses.
Thorp is expected to be new chief entrepreneur Jim Whalley’s right-hand man as the former fighter jet pilot puts the structures in place to foster high-growth companies. The government hasn’t confirmed the role, saying TechInSA staff would be given opportunities in the new office, but doubtless we’ll be seeing more of Thorp.
Reader letters: World War II POWs — we remember them
August 15: Readers have their say on Victory in the Pacific Day and a Melbourne traveller saying you can “basically do whatever you like over here” when it comes to social distancing.
Silly COVID restrictions need to go now
Despite SA’s coronavirus “cluster” passing, we’re still not allowed to stand at the pub or have more than 10 people at home. These restrictions are needlessly hurting businesses and families, writes Caleb Bond.