By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Nobody would begrudge Kathleen Folbigg, jailed for 20 years over the deaths of her four children and recently pardoned because the conviction was unsound, for cashing in on a big-money interview with Channel Seven.
But it looks like that interview might be worth considerably more than previously thought. The price of the interview was initially reported as $400,000, with some speculation Seven had offered as much as $1 million.
But sources close to the negotiations, who are not authorised to speak publicly, have told CBD that everybody except Seven pulled out of the talks after hearing from Folbigg’s people that the benchmark bid – for an interview, security expenses and some archive footage – was $1.5 million.
It probably won’t end there. Folbigg is being ably represented by celebrity agent Nick Fordham, brother of shock jock Ben Fordham – whose station 2GB is owned by Nine, publisher of this masthead. The lesser-known Fordham boasts quite the stable of talent, including Lisa Wilkinson, Ange Postecoglou and Joe Hockey.
Fordham, who is also into TV production, is believed to be keen to get a documentary made about the Folbigg case with an eye on the international market – and the former prisoner’s participation won’t come cheap.
Seven wouldn’t confirm what they paid for the interview to be aired on 7NEWS Spotlight on a date to be confirmed, but a source at the network denied the $1.5 million figure, adding a delightful piece of sass that, sadly, we can’t report.
We gave Fordham a shout on Wednesday too, but he didn’t seem to want to talk to us. Maybe he thought we couldn’t afford it.
MEMBER FOR MADRID
As an MP, George Christensen’s frequent trips to the Philippines earned him the moniker Member for Manila.
So it’s only fitting that a year after leaving Canberra behind, the very conservative North Queenslander is the latest former politician to register as a foreign agent.
Credit: John Shakespeare
But Christensen’s pay cheque is coming from Spain, not the Philippines, after the former Dawson MP scored a gig as Australian campaign director for Madrid-based anti-LGBTQ group CitizenGo.
The organisation, which was shopping on LinkedIn for the Australian job last month, received initial financial backing from a Russian oligarch closely aligned with Vladimir Putin, and spends most of its time ranting about gay characters in Disney movies.
According to Christensen’s entry on the foreign influence transparency register, which went live last week, his activities will include “political lobbying, parliamentary lobbying and communications activity”.
In practice, that activity has so far amounted to making some petitions, including one urging Communications Minister Michelle Rowland to “Ban This Paedophile Comic Book” and another calling on Anthony Albanese to stop Canberra’s Calvary Hospital – which the ACT government is trying to acquire – “being swallowed up in the dark abyss of abortion.”
Clearly George hasn’t lost his flair for the melodramatic. We hoped to ask him whether he thought CitizenGo would make inroads in a country mercifully less prone to anti-queer hysteria than the United States or Europe, but Christensen never returned our calls.
BARRED OUT
Colourful Sydney barrister Christian Roger de Robillard was struck off this month following proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Despite previously being found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct over a lengthy list of complaints – from practising (and even appearing before the High Court) without a certificate, to failing to progress a client’s case – de Robillard took the tribunal fight to often absurd extents.
The former barrister spent much of the hearing last year desperately trying to get tribunal members recused over alleged apprehended bias. Specifically, de Robillard claimed senior member Harry Dixon, SC, was “staring in a very mean and aggressive manner”.
At one point de Robillard, who represented himself, told the tribunal Dixon “could be described as cheetah on a branch about to jump on his prey”.
None of it worked, with the tribunal rejecting de Robillard’s increasingly desperate attempts to get its members recused, and eventually accepting the NSW Bar Association’s application to have him removed from the roll.
LORD KNOWS
Although lifelong republican Anthony Albanese went so far as to swear allegiance to King Charles III at his coronation last month, Australia’s monarchists were still never going to be satisfied.
Leading local royalists Victorian Liberal MP Bev McArthur and her husband, former federal MP Fergus “Stewart” McArthur are putting on a few drinks at Melbourne’s aptly named Windsor Hotel with the Right Honourable Earl of Loudoun Simon Abney-Hastings, who readers might remember lives outside Wangaratta.
Now, Abney-Hastings carried out his ancestral duties as the bearer of the Golden Spurs, symbols of knighthood and chivalry, at the Coronation. For $95 a pop, paying plebs will get to hear all about his adventures on the big day, with all proceeds going to the Australian Monarchist League.
Bev and Stewart are billing the event as an evening with “the only Australian to play a ceremonial role in the coronation”.
Take that, Albo.
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