Off the Record: Prominent lawyer Stephen Ey quits parole board
This week in Off the Record, a prominent SA lawyer grants himself parole and new rumours circle the federal seat of Mayo
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This week in Off the Record; a prominent SA lawyer grants himself parole and new rumours circle the federal seat of Mayo
Ey grants himself parole
Prominent criminal barrister Stephen Ey has staged his own prison break of sorts, escaping the hard labour at the Parole Board.
Off the Record can reveal Ey has quit the board just 15 months into his three-year term as a deputy presiding member.
His reason for ditching the $60,000 a year gig was straightforward.
“The amount of work was not commensurate with the pay,’’ he said frankly.
“I enjoyed it, the staff are wonderful but the reading that is required in preparation for a meeting was enormous. It would effectively mean I was writing off a Sunday to make sure I was prepared.
“I could not afford to leave it for during the week in case something blew up.’’
While $60k a year is nothing to be sneezed at, when stacked against his hourly rate when jousting in court, Sundays off are probably more valuable.
Parole Board chief Frances Nelson QC has wasted little time replacing Ey, headhunting respected commercial barrister Nick Floreani.
A resident at Jeffcott Chambers, Floreani was admitted to the bar in 2003 and spent his early years tackling criminal briefs while at Christopher Legoe Chambers.
Over the past decade or so he has established a reputation as one of SA’s best commercial barristers, practising across a wide field that includes mediation and arbitration, bankruptcy and corporate insolvency, disciplinary tribunals, contract and international law and trade.
No doubt his particular, document-driven skill set will prove an asset for the board.
Floreani, 48, has already jumped into the role. Although his appointment was not rubber-stamped until Thursday, he has already attended two lengthy Parole Board meetings as an observer, watching dozens of prisoners squirm as they try and convince Parole Board chief Nelson they have mended their ways.
“It is an incredibly difficult job, to make that risk assessment is very challenging,’’ he said. “I am looking forward to that challenge.’’
– Nigel Hunt
Taking a bite at the latest hot Mayo rumours
Speculation is swirling on two fronts about the future Liberal candidate in Mayo, less than nine months after Rebekha Sharkie trounced Georgina Downer for the second time. Intriguingly, the first front concerns a renewed bid to recruit Sharkie back from the Centre Alliance to the Liberal Party, following a failed attempt in 2018.
We asked Sharkie if there was any truth to the rumour.
Displaying a keen sense of humour, she replied: “No. Not sure where that came from. I do get asked by the odd Nat to be the Leader in SA (tongue in cheek) (wink emjoji).”
Back in 2018, Liberal members in the Hills revolted against the move to install, as the Liberal candidate Sharkie, a one-time staffer for former state leader Isobel Redmond. They favoured Downer.
This time around, the rumoured move – denied by Sharkie – was said to have been driven by state Liberals.
On another front, Adelaide 36ers owner and commercial property magnate Grant Kelley is said to be interested in contesting Mayo for the Liberals.
Kelley was linked with a tilt at Morphett in 2016. It seems, though, that senior sources in the party’s Right and Moderate factions are not particularly interested in having him.
“That’s all we need – a bored, cashed-up middle-aged male, who wants to save the world,” one Liberal said.
Robo boogie
The state Liberals ran into a little trouble last year when it started mistakingly robocolling people at 6 in the morning. Indeed, they managed to do that two days in a row.
That annoyed a lot of people
But it hasn’t put them off the method. Voters in the safe Liberal seat of Heysen, held by Josh Teague, this week received calls canvassing opinions, although closer to 6pm than 6am.
Questions included who the receiver would vote for, whether they were satisfied or not with Steven Marshall and Peter Malinauskas and what issues were of most importance, listing health, jobs, education, environment and cost of living.
Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum confirmed the operation and said “The calls were in accordance with national standards and legislative requirements’’.
Local boy
Labor powerbroker Don Farrell and Liberal rival Christopher Pyne are united in at least one thing – they have both been holidaying for years in the magnificent Limestone Coast town of Robe.
Pyne, who now lives in the Adelaide Hills, is even considered a local. He’s promoted as such in a flyer for a fundraising night next Saturday for the splendid Robe Surf Lifesaving Club.
“Robe local Christopher Pyne” will talk to fellow local and film producer Nick Batzias at Sails at Robe restaurant on February 15.
Angry Libs
Our revelation last week that former prime minister Tony Abbott was about to embark on a barnstorming one-day speaking tour of SA certainly raised a few Liberal eyebrows.
As we pointed out, Abbott was never particularly popular in SA
In fact, some Liberals questioned why the party-associated Menzies Research Centre was relaunching his book, with a major speaking tour, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison was enduring a renewed bout of the instability Abbott was renowned for generating.
MEME PARK
Some people, possibly including a few wellknown to this column, have occasionally tried to paint the Adelaide Park LandsPreservation Association as being a little out of touch with the modern world.
Now, this is only because they seem averse to all kinds of fun in the parklands, everything from the Fringe to car races, but maybe we have judged them harshly.
The APPA recently placed a job ad for a volunteer social media (graphics) contributor who could “create eye-catching memes to help our campaign to keep Park 2 for the public’’. Park 2 being the aquatic centre in North Adelaide the Crows are keen on.