Off The Record: A Quirky story in lobby land, our high-flying chief entrepreneur and celebrating gender equality at the Lord Mayor’s Christmas lunch
In this week’s Off the Record; a high-flying business chief takes to the sky over Edinburgh, an odd tale about one of Adelaide’s lobbyists and does Crow Reilly O’Brien have an eye on a political future?
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Quirky story in lobby land
Former Labor MP and now lobbyist John Quirke doesn’t know if his former firm still owes its creditors money and won’t hand over contact details for his new firm’s owner – which is his 24-year-old son.
Quirke’s previous firm, Pallidon, which his wife Davina Quirke was also a director of, was declared insolvent in 2016 and wound up by the Australian Taxation Office, which was owed $140,000.
The Advertiser reported later that year that Quirke had reappeared on the lobbyist register.
He is now a registered lobbyist, along with former Liberal MP Graham Gunn, working for a firm listed as Trustee for the Colt Consulting Trust.
That firm’s owner is listed as Kristian Quirke, Quirke’s son, who is not listed as undertaking lobbying activities.
When asked why the firm was registered in Kristian’s name, Quirke said, “Well, he does most of the work now. I don’t do any mate, I’m retired.’’
When asked why he and Gunn were the listed lobbyists he said “we do some work but not very much.’’
Quirke would not put Off the Record in contact with his son.
“No, I’m not going to give you his phone number.’’
Quirke said the firm was still active to mainly cover work which was done “gratis”, for example for the Ceduna Council. The firms listed as clients include the Liapis Group, MGA Whittles, the Skothos Group, Stepping Stone Childcare, Build 29, and the Ceduna Council. Off the Record has not been able to contact Kristian Quirke, who appears to have little online presence outside Facebook. Attempts to contact him through this avenue. were unsuccessful
Quirke senior said he didn’t know if Pallidon had outstanding debts and said Off the Record would have to check with the company’s liquidator. Company documents show Pallidon’s creditors are still owed an estimated $194,459, with one of the creditors listed in 2016 as Davina Quirke herself, owed $52,283.
Company documents indicate Kristian lives with his parents.
—Cameron England
Chief flies high to keep an eye on SA
Among those magnificent men and women in their flying machines at the Edinburgh Air Show last weekend was South Australia’s chief entrepreneur Jim Whalley.
In front of more than 60,000 spectators Whalley flew his World War II CAC 12 Boomerang fighter in formation with another Boomerang and a Lockheed Hudson bomber.
Whalley’s father flew Boomerangs in the war with 84 Squadron out of Horn Island and Whalley himself few FA-18 Hornets in the RAAF. Whalley, who is also co-founder of defence company Nova Systems, said he had owned the Boomerang for around 10 years.
“Because I have no musical talent when I reached 40 and had a midlife crisis I started doing air shows,’’ Whalley told Off the Record.
Whalley also owns a Gazelle helicopter and a de Havilland Chipmunk and an Aermacci S-211 turbofan jet which caused a little consternation when it crash landed on final approach to Goolwa airport in April.
Gender balance at Xmas meal
ONE of the state’s proudest milestones, the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage, will be marked on December 18.
Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor – only the third woman to hold that role – is recognising the occasion through her annual Christmas lunch a fortnight beforehand.
As such, Verschoor is ensuring an equal balance of male and female guests.
The invitation to the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Luncheon 2019, which recognises the Suffrage anniversary, contains this footnote: “Tickets for this event have been split equally for male and female registrations in order to achieve gender balance at this event. Please register your attendance accordingly.”
The gender split was influenced by a recently produced State Government “50/50 directory”, featuring an equal split of male and female CEOs, senior executives and chairs. The lunch will include a panel discussion involving women in politics.
Kerr-ching
There was a decent VIP turnout at Hindmarsh on Tuesday to watch Sam Kerr lead the Matildas to a 1-0 win over Chile. Spotted were Premier Steven Marshall, his colleague Corey Wingard, Labor’s Tom Koutsantonis and Katrine Hildyard, as well as ex-FIFA council member Moya Dodd, former MP Natasha Stott Despoja and Reds’ coach Gertjan Verbeek. Ex-premier Jay Weatherill was not seen, but earlier liked a Lib tweet announcing Adelaide would be part of a World Cup bid.
Crow pollie
Remember when Christopher Pyne’s Twitter account was hacked in 2017 and “liked” a gay porn video?
Perhaps Adelaide Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien (above) has a similar explanation for straying into politics and “liking” an SA Liberal Media Twitter post effectively accusing Labor leader Peter Malinauskas of leading a destructive-style Opposition.
ROB might have been hacked or perhaps the biomedicine student has a political interest. Either way, Libs were excited by his “like” – a bit of celebrity endorsement.
Sexret chat
WHEN conducting top-level secret talks, it’s usually a good idea to do it in private.
But SA BEST member Connie Bonaros slipped up this week, sending a supposedly private email to all State Parliament MPs and staff
“There’s some stuff going on behind the scenes which we need to discuss sexretly (sic),” a coy Bonaros proclaimed.
She then realised her error, sending another mass email to add: “And clearly I don’t intend to share it with all of you lot – just pat (sic)!” Pat must have been the original secret email target.
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