Off the Record: Kayla Itsines’ staff-hiring frenzy, Cory Bernardi times political departure around Donald Trump

In this week’s Off the Record, global fitness phenomenon Kayla Itsines works up a Sweat with a staff-hiring frenzy, plus why the Liberals are worried about where the teachers’ dispute will end up.

Australian Conservative, Corey Bernardi says that he will go to America ahead of their elections to join the Trump Campaign. Valdman.

In this week’s Off the Record, global fitness phenomenon Kayla Itsines works up a Sweat with a staff-hiring frenzy, why Liberal defector Cory Bernardi is timing his political departure around Donald Trump, plus why the Liberals are worried about where the teachers’ dispute will end up.

Working up a Sweat

Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce’s global fitness phenomenon Sweat continues to go from strength to strength with the company advertising for a PR assistant in the Adelaide office.

Follow the link, however, and it turns out the company, which leverages social media to sell fitness solutions globally, has advertised for 20 staff in the past month across SA, Victoria and NSW.

You’ve gotta feel for Kayla and Tobi’s HR manager, who'd be working up a, well, sweat.

Bernardi holding out for hero

Polarising Liberal defector Cory Bernardi is planning to time his departure from Federal Parliament to coincide with a US visit to back his political hero Donald Trump’s re-election bid.

Off the Record understands the now-independent senator, who last month ruled out returning to the Liberals, wants to retire from politics ahead of the presidential election on November 3 next year.

This explains why Bernardi coyly told the ABC this week he would consider his future when he turned 50 in November, but then mysteriously said he would be 50 for at least a year.

Bernardi’s sooner-than-expected departure will be welcomed by his former Liberal colleagues, who will anoint a replacement because he was elected in 2016 for that party.

Senator Cory Bernardi channels Donald Trump with his Make Australia Great Again hat.

The Advertiser last month revealed Bernardi was set to quit Parliament with former Mayo candidate Georgina Downer and Liberal women’s council state president Hannah March among the frontrunners to replace him.

At that time, sources suggested Bernardi would quit politics within 18 months to two years but we understand the former Australian Conservatives leader wants to spend a sig­nificant amount of time in the US during the presidential campaign and does not intend to return to politics after that.

It is not clear whether Bernardi would be directly involved in Trump’s campaign or whether the regular Sky News guest would score a role as a political commentator.

Bernardi was among the first to leap aboard the Trump bandwagon. More than a month before the November 8, 2016, presidential election, he correctly predicted the outcome in an Advertiser column.

At the time, he was in New York on a secondment to the United Nations.

Protesters hold placards during the teachers’ strike on Monday. (AAP Image/Sam Wundke)

Labor links in Employment Tribunal

Teachers are vowing to escalate industrial action from later this month when the third term starts, and the dispute might well end up in the South Australian Employment Tribunal.

Without casting any reflection on the professionalism or independence of those at the tribunal, there are a few with Labor links.

For a political operative such as Treasurer Rob Lucas, who spent years in Opposition ferreting out lists of public or judicial sector appointees with Labor links, it’s likely enough to make him just a little wary.

Tribunal president Justice Steven Dolphin was appointed to that role in November 2017, in the final months of Jay Weatherill’s Labor government. He was appointed the tribunal’s deputy president in 2015 and previous roles included being principal of Lie­schke & Weatherill Lawyers, Weatherill’s former law firm.

The other co-founder of that firm is Employment Tribunal deputy president Magistrate Stephen Lieschke.

Another deputy president is Judge Leonie Farrell, who is the sister of Labor senator and Right faction powerbroker Don “The Godfather” Farrell.

The Liberals have started to redress what some within the party perceive as an imbalance, appointing former SA Law Society president Tony Rossi to replace retiring deputy president Judge Peter Hannon, one of the founders of previously Labor-aligned firm Duncan Basheer Hannon. Some Liberals believe the union would have them over a barrel in the tribunal, although critics argue this argument is laying the foundations to bl­ame Labor if the dispute sours.

It is important to note, however, that some recent decisions involving the afore­mentioned have been viewed by Labor types as not particularly friendly to that side of politics, even if they acknowledged they were correct in law.

Manager of the state’s venture capital fund Elaine Stead. Picture Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Will tweet hold Elaine in good stead?

It’s good to hear that a tweet from the manager of the state’s venture capital fund, Elaine Stead, about the possible imminent decline of her career shouldn’t be taken literally.

The prolific Twitter user, commenting on an article ab­out the inevitability of profes­sional decline, opined: “I’ve had to accept three professional declines – one to play basketball professionally (yes, you read that correctly), one as a scientist, and I suspect my current careee (sic) decline ain’t far away.’’

Not a ringing self-endorsement from someone looking to invigorate the local start-up community, but Stead (pictured) says not to read too much into it.

“My comment that went with the tweet was how I had also gone through many career changes, and to illustrate that it appears that current career declines/cycles are coming for us all based on that article. It was not a comment about my performance or capabilities, nor should it be taken that way.

“It serves no one, especially not the taxpayer who is dependent on this ecosystem to create jobs and new industries for this state and its economy, to expect people to be cardboard cut-outs in every communicat­ion medium, where we are petrified of saying (or tweeting) something that might be misinterpreted or are afraid of showing any vulnerability.’’

Fair point, but as a former director of the failed listed investment company Blue Sky, which plunged from a valuation in the billions into administration in just more than a year, wiping out plenty of shareholder value along the way, and with a taxpayer-funded pay packet for the entity managing the SA fund of about a million bucks a year, you can also expect a bit of scrutiny about what you put in the public domain. Cameron England

Former prime minister John Howard and Kathryn McFarlane, media adviser to Simon Birmingham. Circa 2005.

Macca time

Former John Howard media adviser Kathryn McFarlane is joining Premier Steven Marshall’s spin team, looking after Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ridgway.

The highly respected McFarlane (pictured with Howard) has most recently worked for SA federal Liberal Simon Birmingham, who holds the same Cabinet portfolios as Ridgway.

It is understood McFarlane, who starts on July 15, was headhunted for the job by Marshall’s media and communications director Ashton Hurn.

Jay Weatherill’s former economic adviser Sam Crafter. Pic: Stephanie Timotheou

Energetic

Former Jay Weatherill principal economic adviser Sam Crafter has left the public service to forge an energy-focused boutique advisory firm.

Crafter, most recently the executive director of energy plan implementation within the Premier and Cabinet Department, is now the business partner of fellow DPC refugee Peter Hawkes. Crafter, whose seven years at Santos before joining Weatherill in 2014 helped earn the respect of many Liberals, is the son of Greg Crafter, who was education minister in John Bannon’s Labor government.