There’s no question that two of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s side hustles, Rossi Boots and Driza-Bone coats, make quality clobber, but fashion-forward youth brands they ain’t.
So CBD is delighted to see Australia’s richest person get down with the kids, with Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting sponsoring the Next Gen group show at the Brisbane Fashion Festival in August, for the third year running.
Now, it wouldn’t be controversial by now to observe that Hancock’s sponsorship deals can come with a layer of complexity. This masthead recently revealed an intriguing list of demands delivered to Swimming Australia in 2021 by Hancock as part of a proposed sponsorship deal.
So we naturally wondered whether there were any threads attached to Hancock’s assistance for those fledgling fashionistas in Brisbane.
The company told us nothing, though a spokesperson for the festival organisers indicated that the sponsorship was enviably uncomplicated.
“Our relationship with Mrs Rinehart has been nothing but positive and she is a wonderful ambassador of the Australian fashion industry,” the spokesperson said.
The billionaire’s relations with Australia’s premier art galleries are a little messier. In Senate Estimates last week, it emerged that the National Portrait Gallery was still negotiating the conditions for accepting from Rinehart an officially approved portrait of herself – five years after talks on the gift opened.
That portrait, which CBD revealed recently as a particular favourite of Rinehart’s, was painted by Perth artist Alix Korte, who just happens to be the wife of Hancock Prospecting chief executive Garry Korte.
And while gallery director Bree Pickering declined to go into specifics about Rinehart’s demands over how she wanted the painting hung, a spokesperson from Hancock Prospecting has since been in touch to fill in a few blanks.
According to Hancock, the Gallery had first approached Rinehart about sitting for a portrait with one of their chosen artists. Ever the proud Sandgroper, Rinehart preferred having a West Australian artist paint her. The portrait was given to the gallery in 2019, after Korte had spent six months working on two or three paintings of her subject.
“Mrs Rinehart does not currently know which portrait created by this talented WA artist is held by the National Portrait Gallery, but does recall the portraits were very carefully done and captured in detail her appearance at that time,” the spokesperson said.
AYRES SPARED
CBD reported recently that former state Liberal deputy leader Stuart Ayres’ appointment as chief executive of the Urban Development Institute of Australia NSW has caused concern within the ranks of the lobby group over how it will work with the Minns Labor government.
Ayres kicked off his new role last week, a little earlier than anticipated, but not before the board had held an emergency meeting to discuss a series of snubs from Minns’ ministry. Ahead of his start date, the institute had sought meetings with Labor figures including Planning Minister Paul Scully, Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong and Housing Minister Rose Jackson.
All respectfully declined – not because of the Ayres effect per se, but because cabinet ministers tend to have busy schedules and plenty of people from various pressure groups keen to chew their ears off.
Ayres, meanwhile, appears to have started quietly in the new role. At a Western Sydney luncheon last Thursday with planning secretary Kiersten Fishburn at Sydney’s Olympic Park, former Coalition ministerial adviser Gavin Melvin, who’d been acting in the CEO role, took the stage for the question and answer session rather than Ayres.
But we’re sure the training wheels will come off soon.
OFF COURT
As Wimbledon approaches, aspiring amateur tennis champions were bemused to find burly, suited security types guarding the doors at Tennis Ranch in Sydney’s Gladesville on Friday afternoon.
After a week of being grand slammed over the issue of criminal detainees in Canberra, none other than Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had stopped in to pick up two pairs of new tennis shoes.
His preferred brand could not be confirmed, but it seems he’s come a long way from Dunlop Volleys. As recently revealed by our colleague Peter FitzSimons, the PM is a keen amateur player, regularly taking the court for doubles matches for Marrickville Tennis Club. The PM was happy to pose for selfies with fellow racquet enthusiasts and seemed relieved not to be copping a serve from Peter Dutton during the quick stopover.
HOCK AND ROLL
CBD recently reported that former federal treasurer and ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey is living his best life, charging up to $20,000 for virtual speeches while running his booming strategic advisory firm Bondi Partners from Washington, DC.
Now, Hockey’s firm, which operates here and in the States, has a wide remit, but now seems to be honing in more closely on that most common of post-parliamentary business: lobbying.
Pacific Partners, the lobbying subsidiary of the firm, just registered on the federal lobbyists register, counting a handful of clients, mostly in the resources sector, including RZ Resources and Tamboran.