About three years ago, Julie Bishop starred in a YouTube video to spruik Mineral Resources, the iron ore business founded by Chris Ellison. MinRes had new digs in Perth and to show them off, Ellison turned to Bishop who, in a pink pantsuit and gold Louboutins, glides from the office spa to the restaurant to the conference suite. Along the way she bumps into Kate Walsh, a star of Grey’s Anatomy, and Russell James, a photographer for Victoria’s Secret. At the time, all three were grounded in Perth due to COVID restrictions and had formed a posse, appearing together at the ballet and other society events.

The video marked the peak of Mineral Resources’ cachet. And, it turns out, the company’s share price. It later transpired Ellison was secretly engaged in an offshore tax avoidance scheme using company resources, and profiting from multiple undisclosed related-party transactions while company staff worked on his private properties and yacht. Ellison is now being investigated by the corporate regulator, the subject of a class action lawsuit and is in the process of being forced out of the company. Yet Bishop remains on the payroll as a “strategic adviser”, primarily for the company’s women’s leadership programs. None of Ellison’s liberties can or should be blamed on her – she is, as she says, a mere contractor.