Off The Record: Baby X on the way for Mr X — and how Thai cave rescue hero Dr Richard Harris was once lost at sea
IN today’s Off the Record we reveal some huge family news for Nick Xenophon, uncover how Adelaide’s hero Thai cave doctor Richard Harris was once lost at sea, and explain why Christopher Pyne is losing his right-hand man.
IN today’s Off the Record, we reveal some huge family news for former political stuntman Nick Xenophon — and we uncover details of how Adelaide’s hero Thai cave doctor Richard Harris was lost at sea. Plus, we delve into the hidden past of SA’s new most senior Liberal, and (spoiler alert) we reveal some secret details of tonight’s elite Mid Winter Charity Ball.
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Baby X on the way for Mr X
LIFE is about to take another twist for political stuntman turned recluse Nick Xenophon, who, we can reveal, is soon to become a father again.
Xenophon, who turns 60 in January, and his live-in partner are expecting a baby early next year — his second child.
Mr X’s partner works in a white-collar role for a major supermarket chain and appears to have no political connections, other than her Facebook likes for Xenophon’s former parties.
It is understood the pair were together for a little while some years ago, then went their separate ways before becoming a couple again about a year or so ago.
Xenophon politely declined to comment, other than to say he was “very much a private citizen and glad to be out of politics”.
He is now running his eponymous Paradise-based legal practice, which he is advertising on shopping coupons. They declare: “Injured in an accident? Better call Nick!”
Off the Record has chosen not to identify Xenophon’s partner, who is about 20 years younger than him and a mother of young children.
Speculation about Baby X has been wafting through Adelaide political circles for a few weeks, indicating that the couple has been sharing the news with friends and family.
Despite feverishly courting publicity during his political career, Xenophon was hyper-private about his former wife and now-adult son.
Xenophon’s former partner Jenny Low last November revealed a “secret” seven-year relationship when she launched her election candidacy for Advance SA.
Low claimed Xenophon, then 48, “aggressively” pursued her romantically while she was a 23-year-old staffer.
Mr X emphatically rejected Low’s claims, saying he was most distressed by any suggestion of an abusive or predatory relationship.
Rescue history repeats for our Thai cave hero
THAI cave rescue hero and Adelaide anaesthetist Dr Richard Harris was himself rescued as a teenager after a 12-hour ordeal in rough seas and chilling cold off Outer Harbor.
Harris, the cave-diving expert honoured for his crucial role last month in saving 12 boys and their soccer coach from the northern Thailand cave, was among five people rescued at sea in February, 1980.
Harris and St Peter’s College school friend Sam Hall — now an Ashford-based gastroenterologist — were with two women and a diving instructor, sitting in a flooded five-metre boat for 12 hours overnight in St Vincent Gulf. Both students were aged 15.
Their rescue was splashed across the front page of The News on February 8, 1980. The report described the group setting out the day before to dive on wrecks in the Outer Harbor area, including that of the four-masted iron barque Norma, which sank in the main shipping channel in 1907.
They were found about 7am by a fisherman, while an air and sea search was being mounted for them. Harris, who was quoted in the story, politely declined to comment when Off the Record asked if his own rescue 38 years ago had been on his mind during the Thai cave operation.
In the 1980 News report, he said: “The boat was going with the waves and we went under a trough and capsized. We tried to turn the boat over but it was full of water.
“Once we had it upright, we sat in it until morning. The water was incredibly cold. We were sitting in water up to our waist all night.
“We would have been in real trouble without our wetsuits. During the night we sang songs, whistled and cracked jokes. But we had quite a few worrying moments.
“It was made worse because we were tired after diving on the Norma wreck.”
They were found by the fisherman somewhere between St Kilda and Port Gawler, having drifted about 13km.
Thankfully, all ended well and Hall was pictured by the News warming up with a cup of coffee.
Mid Winter Ball spoiler alert
ADELAIDE’S powerbrokers will flock to tonight’s Mid Winter Charity Ball, where the attempts at humour by the Premier and Opposition Leader are usually a deep secret.
But we can reveal some details of Steven Marshall’s and Peter Malinauskas’s routines.
We understand Marshall will present a lighthearted recap of the campaign for the March 17 state election, which might include a bloopers reel.
While Malinauskas, giving his first Ball address since replacing Jay Weatherill as Labor leader, will call on some on some familiar political personalities that will help him through his debut performance on the big stage.
Howard’s end
AFTER 15 years as the confidant of Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne, his chief-of-staff, Adam Howard, is embarking on a career in private enterprise.
Pyne announced on Twitter this morning that Howard “has decided to take on the world of government counsel and advice”, generously thanking him for “being such a presence in my career for so long”.
Howard, who started in Canberra as an adviser to former South Australian senator and defence minister Robert Hill, has also worked as Pyne’s media adviser.
Pyne posted the commendable photo above of him and Howard at Gilbert Place bar Hains & Co, appropriately featuring a poster of a ship in the background.
At the 2016 election, Pyne’s campaign posters in his Sturt electorate trumpeted his role in delivering a $90 billion naval shipbuilding program centred on Adelaide.
Time for a high Clive
IT’S always good to see an Advertiser cadet doing well. 1990s-era business cadet Clive Mathieson now has claims to be the most powerful Liberal from SA, elbowing aside Christopher Pyne and Simon Birmingham, after this week becoming Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s chief of staff. Mathieson started at The Advertiser before moving to such downbeat publications as The Australian and The Times of London before making the jump into politics.
Divine entry
IT was a series of light-hearted moments amid a distressing saga that has ripped the Catholic Church apart.
On Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Adelaide’s Apostolic Administrator Bishop Greg O’Kelly publicly spoke about the resignation of his friend, disgraced former Archbishop Philip Wilson.
After introducing himself to each attending journalist, the polite Bishop inadvertently took a reporter’s mobile phone after the press conference. Then, as he and other church leaders tried to leave, a locked door thwarted their escape.
Time to stop
GEORGINA Downer might have been trounced by Rebekha Sharkie at last Saturday’s Mayo by-election but she has a point about social media abuse.
Off the Record has seen a record of a vile post to Downer’s Facebook site that is too foul to repeat in detail. It brands Downer “Scumgina” and pillories her “fishnetted ugly brute of a mincing entitled father”.
Foul abuse, whether on social media or elsewhere, should be universally condemned, regardless of the target’s political leanings.