Off the Record: Mysterious disappearance of top law firm’s boss
FIND out why Adelaide’s legal eagles have been sent into a tailspin over the mysterious disappearance of a top firm’s managing partner, in this week’s Off the Record.
FIND out why Adelaide’s legal eagles have been sent into a tailspin over the mysterious disappearance of a top firm’s managing partner, in this week’s Off the Record.
Discover which Liberal defectors have returned to the fold, plus learn what ribbing former premier Jay Weatherill has had to endure over his broken leg, as well as the strangely appropriate poetry Port defender Tom Jonas has spouted for his and Brad Ebert’s new wine label.
Break a leg — Jay’s ‘friendly’ supporters
FORMER premier Jay Weatherill is on the brink of a full recovery from a broken lower right leg suffered when he fell last month while bushwalking with his family through the southern Flinders Ranges.
The now-backbench Labor MP is five weeks into a six-week recovery and has progressed from crutches to a moon boot.
Weatherill told Off the Record he hoped to be given the all-clear when a final X-ray photo is taken soon.
As can occur in the sometimes-cruel world of politics, Weatherill has faced questions over his motivation for the accident, which happened when he was trekking through Hidden Gorge in Mt Remarkable National Park.
When we asked if there were any humorous anecdotes about an MP with a broken leg that he might be able to share, Weatherill replied: “My ‘friends’ have been speculating that the broken leg was a deliberate attempt to get back in the limelight because I was suffering relevance deprivation syndrome.”
This syndrome is a common affliction of former holders of high office, who can struggle with life away from the spotlight and their diminished importance.
But no such ailment has beset Weatherill, who even helpfully and modestly provided us with a picture of his moon boot (below).
Emergency service volunteers and fellow bushwalkers took turns carrying Weatherill uphill to an ambulance, moving just 20m at a time for more than two hours, when the accident happened on the June long weekend. He was walking with wife Melissa Bailey and their daughters Lucinda, 14, and Alice, 12 (below).
Soon after, Weatherill posted pictures of the ordeal (above) on his Facebook page, quipping it was “an ideal way to get a first-hand look at our wonderful emergency services in action — but not recommended”.
He confessed he was “feeling more than a little embarrassed for causing all this fuss” but thanked his rescuers and family.
Unlike his “friends”, we wish him all the best for a continued speedy recovery.
Tongues wag in law boss’s exit
THE Gouger St chatterati have been buzzing with theories over the mysterious disappearance of Duncan Basheer Hannon managing partner Patrick Boylen from the firm.
While they are much too saucy, and wrong, to be repeated here, Off The Record is more than happy to set the record straight.
It seems Boylen (below) fell out with his fellow partners over a file he had been sitting on for many years. The matter, a simple motor vehicle accident claim — the bread and butter of many such law firms — had been a work in progress for more than four years and had not been actioned within the required legal time frame, prompting some fancy footwork to ensure the claimant was not out of pocket.
It also appears Boylen failed to inform his partners the overdue file existed.
The matter was brought to the attention of his fellow partners by another law firm after the accident victim took the matter elsewhere out of frustration.
Unfortunately for Boylen, it appears his conduct is likely to end up in the basket of Legal Profession Conduct Commissioner Greg May — particularly considering he already has form in this area. May said he was unable to comment on any individual complaint or investigation.
In 2003, Boylen narrowly kept his practising certificate when the Full Court of the Supreme Court considered disbarring him. His penalty was a supervision order for three years.
We hear Matt De Gregorio, the new managing partner at DBH, has been warmly embraced by not just by his fellow partners, but all staff.
De Gregorio wasn’t keen on talking about his sudden elevation and the fate of Boylen. “I don’t think it’s appropriate.’’
Boylen did not respond to requests for comment.
No love lost: Former Liberals rush back to party ranks
IT’S well established that leopards don’t change their spots. And neither, it appears, do Liberals. High-profile Liberal defectors Duncan McFetridge and Rob Brokenshire (below) are officially both back in the fold as Liberal Party members.
And Off the Record understands a push is also on to return Port Augusta Mayor Sam Johnson to the party after his unsuccessful run as an SA Best Upper House candidate.
Johnson insisted he had not made an application for Liberal Party membership, but it’s understood he’s open to the overtures.
McFetridge — who quit the Liberal Party to sit on the crossbench as an independent in 2017 after losing party preselection — said it was only natural to return.
“I never had a problem with the Liberal Party, I only had a problem with a few people in it,” he said
McFetridge was a Liberal frontbencher for 13 years until he demoted in early 2017. He was defeated by a single vote by former Collingwood footballer and Holdfast Bay mayor Stephen Patterson in the preselection battle for the bayside seat of Morphett and then ran against him in the state election and lost again.
Former Liberal police minister Brokenshire, who spent 10 years with Family First and the Australian Conservatives, was another not re-elected in March. Brokenshire joins new Liberal MP Dennis Hood in defecting from Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives.
Brokenshire said his return was motivated by federal candidate Georgina Downer and Premier Steven Marshall’s leadership. Both have been on the Mayo campaign trail ahead of next Saturday’s by-election. McFetridge will hand out how-to-vote cards in Meadows, while Brokenshire was spotted showing the Mayo hopeful around Mount Compass. Off the Record now eagerly awaits the return of former leader Martin Hamilton-Smith to Liberal ranks.
No longer Ms Wright
IT can be hard to let go of a job you love, but sometimes it can be difficult to acknowledge changed circumstances.
Which brings us to the Twitter page of former MP Jennifer Rankine. We stress “former” as Rankine’s bio still carries the title Member for Wright (below). A position she retired from at the March election. Off the Record wonders what her partner, pedant-in-chief, Michael Atkinson (pictured above with Rankine) makes of such a flagrant error.
Red all over
ALL sorts of nonsense is written on wine labels to spruik the contents within. Still, when words are used, it’s important they haven’t been lifted from elsewhere.
This week Port footballers Tom Jonas and Brad Ebert released a wine called Hey Diddle.
On the label was a cute aphorism: “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art” which really should be attributed to revered 20th century Polish poet Stanisław Jerzy Lec. Coincidentally, Lec also wrote “He who limps is still walking” which, given Jonas is out injured, seems appropriate.
#optusfail
ONE of the great successes of the World Cup, which finished on Monday morning with France’s 4-2 win over Croatia, was the surge in viewers who used streaming services to watch the game.
By one measure, in the first ten days alone, more people globally had watched a game on a streaming service than in the entire 2014 tournament. Which makes you wonder how Optus is feeling.
Optus, of course, had to hand back its exclusive World Cup rights to old-fashioned SBS after its technology failed the test.
