Off The Record — Georgina Downer and other great political careers that were over before they even really began
There’s Georgina Downer, Nigel Smart, Doug Hawkins and Nicole Cornes - Off The Record presents the list of the best political flame outs.
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This week in Off The Record, Great Political Flameouts in Time, from Georgina Downer and Nigel Smart to Doug Hawkins, Nicole Cornes and more.
Nigel Smart
The-then Adelaide Crows player was courted by the Liberals in 2003 and sounded out about standing at a federal level, perhaps in Hindmarsh or Kingston. Smart stood in the state seat of Norwood in 2006 but was stung by an early on-air gaffe about the Orange Lane Market (he was forced to admit he did not know it had closed). He lost easily to Labor’s Vini Ciccarello, a former Mayor.
Chris Kenny
The Sky News presenter has great experience as a political commentator and Liberal staffer – but not as a candidate. Back in 2005, he stood against David Pisoni for Liberal preselection in the state seat of Unley. A staffer for Alexander Downer at the time, he was a Right faction member standing in a Moderate stronghold, mostly to cut his teeth and give the rival group a contest. Kenny did not succeed and Pisoni is now Innovation and Skills Minister.
Nicole Cornes
Cornes had carved out a decent media career and was the wife of footy legend Graham Cornes when she ran for Boothby in 2007. However, a disastrous first press conference doomed her campaign early and as Labor swept to power in the Kevin07 election, Cornes was left behind as a warning to other celebrity candidates.
Doug Hawkins
A great footballer for Footscray but was generally regarded as no Stephen Hawking. This made him perfect to run as a Victorian Senate candidate for Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party in the 2013 election. He was number two on the ticket behind former boxer Barry Michael.
Nova Peris
The Olympian was a “captain’s pick’’ by ex-PM Julia Gillard but she didn’t last long. She was installed as number one on Labor’s NT Senate ticket, and did become the first Aboriginal women elected to parliament, but she was gone before the next election.
Mal Meninga
The rugby league legend is hard to beat in the political shooting star stakes. Meninga pulled out mid-sentence just as he was declaring his independent candidacy for an ACT Legislative Assembly seat during an ABC Radio interview in 2001, saying: “And the thing about that is, I guess, I was a public figure and I was put on the podium where I was just a person out there … I’m buggered, I’m sorry, I have to resign.”
Alan Jones – The radio shock jock has made a career out of handing out noisy advice to pollies. Maybe he’s annoyed they made it and he didn’t. Jones ran for the Liberals twice in NSW state elections in the late 1970s and lost. He also lost a bid for preselection to run for the federal seat of North Sydney.
Tony Pilkington
The well-known radio star had a couple of public flirtations with running for Labor. He was tempted by a run for Makin, then Labor made a concerted effort to persuade Pilko to run in 2007 against Christopher Pyne in Sturt. Labor thought it had him, but he finally declined.
Georgina Downer
A highly-credentialed candidate who could not overcome assault on family heritage and alleged opportunistic return to claim birthright. Downer lost preselection in a Melbourne blue-ribbon seat in 2016, then moved to her Adelaide Hills heartland last year to contest a by-election in Mayo – the former stronghold of her father, former federal Liberal leader Alexander Downer. But Georgina Downer lost at that by-election and again at May’s federal poll, so she will return to Victoria in January.
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Hannah Beazley
A mirror image of Downer. The daughter of former federal Labor leader Kim Beazley, she stood twice for the party and lost. In 2013, she contested the WA state seat of Riverton, losing to future Liberal leader Mike Nahan. At May’s federal election, she contested her father’s former seat of Swan and was favoured to win. But, like Labor, she was a beaten favourite and now runs external relations for WA’s container recycling scheme.
James Blundell – On the bright side standing as a candidate for Bob Katter’s party in 2013 at least stopped him singing songs like Way Out West for a while. On the downside, it didn’t work out. Like his music career it was more miss than hit.
Jumper Joey
Australia’s participation in football under-17 World Cup in Brazil ended this week with a 4-0 loss to France. But it was a good tournament for the young Joeys, including some from SA. One was Luis Lawrie-Lattanzio, whose mother April Lawrie was appointed last year as the state’s first Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People. Unfortunately, Lawrie-Lattanzio, who also claims Italian heritage through his father Ercole Lattanzio, will now play for Melbourne Victory.
Good cheer
Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas has taken Christmas cheers in an unusual direction for his media drinks invitation this year.
It’s a doctored picture of Mali enjoying a West End Draught tinnie with a mate in the Adelaide University footy changerooms, clad in their guernseys. But the mate’s head has been replaced by a winking Father Christmas. Mali lines up occasionally for the Blacks’ C6 team.
For their invite, the Liberals have taken a more traditional approach, featuring drinks, bubbles and stars.
Mesmerised
The entertainment at the annual Knight Frank Melbourne Cup lunch at Adelaide Oval this week proved far more enthralling than even one of the closest races in years.
Bruce Debenham, banking and finance director with accounting firm Perks, was the unsuspecting, and theatrical, star of the show after he was called on stage by hypnotist Isaac Lomman before 400 people.
“I was sceptical,” he said but after taking part in a kangaroo race – done with great enthusiasm – is now a convert. “I was refreshed, it was like I’d had a two-hour sleep.”
