By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Ever since her dramatic resignation as NSW premier minutes after the Independent Commission Against Corruption revealed she was being investigated, Gladys Berejiklian has given politics a wide berth.
And while a finding of serious corrupt conduct, upheld by the NSW Court of Appeal last year, has not stopped Berejiklian from enjoying a quiet life as a very well-paid Optus executive, she’s remained distant from the game.
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has been keeping a low profile.Credit: Rhett Wyman
That seems to be slowly changing. The former premier showed her face in a typically anaemic recruitment video, titled “We Believe”, released by the NSW Liberals last week, which featured an inspiring line-up of party figures speaking in front of a white background.
“We believe in a just and humane society,” Berejiklian said, appearing alongside Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott, John Howard, Dominic Perrottet, Peter Dutton and others (Malcolm Turnbull was, perhaps, busy), in an ad that drew plenty of mocking from across the party’s broad charge.
While we can’t imagine that low-energy effort raking in many new members, the presence of Berejiklian was notable. Just a week earlier, she had also popped up at an event for Bradfield candidate Gisele Kapterian in Lindfield, alongside two other former Liberal premiers felled by the ICAC – Nick Greiner and Barry O’Farrell.
Call it the Gladys effect, but Kapterian would subsequently win a tight preselection contest over anti-Voice campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine, who has now failed in more attempts to get into parliament than we care to remember.
Perhaps it’s all a sign of things to come. After all, Dutton cannot win without making inroads among female voters in teal seats, where Berejiklian is still the woman who saved Australia, and remains far more popular than the likes of Abbott, Morrison and maybe even Howard, pesky ICAC findings be damned.
No doubt, they’d love to see her on the campaign trail.
Both sides now
America’s Zoomers breathed a sigh of relief last week when US President Donald Trump granted TikTok a stay of execution despite a bipartisan effort to ban the app.
Meanwhile, here in Australia, any hawkish talk about banning the app has quietened with an election looming and all. Even Peter Dutton, once all-in on a TikTok ban, is now on the app, posting pictures of his dog and dirt bike as he tries, once again, to convince Australia that he is actually a very nice man.
But despite the reprieve, TikTok is doubling down on its local lobbying efforts.
Last week the company registered as a client of Bourke Street Advisory, the shop founded by Amelia Metcalf, a former staffer to retiring Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher during his time in the ministerial wing.
That leaves the company ably represented on both sides of the political aisle. As CBD reported in 2023, TikTok retained Labor-aligned firm Anacta Strategies to help keep things peachy with the Albanese government. Former Albanese and Daniel Andrews staffer Sabina Husic (sister of Industry Minister Ed Husic) is also on the books.
On the blue side, TikTok has also engaged Font PR, a Tasmanian-based operation run by former Eric Abetz staffer Brad Stansfield, who’s rarely seen around the corridors of power these days.
Metcalf, whose connections in the Canberra bubble remain peerless, has been working with TikTok for six months, with her remit now expanded to include lobbying work.
Can there be such a thing as too many lobbyists? For TikTok, a company fighting to get off death row in the US, the answer is no. And with the polls now showing that a change in government is within the realm of possibility, it’s never too early to work both sides.
Kylie on court
Good on you, Kylie Minogue. After a hot streak of speculation (admittedly most of it generated by us) about her potential appearance at the Australian Open, Minogue has weighed in.
Despite being courted by the Open and all the brands, for the record, she didn’t turn up. But that didn’t stop the recording artist, in the midst of rehearsals for her national tour, posting a fond message on her socials to the tournament organisers, accompanied by a moody fashion shot of the Minogue accessorising with a racquet on a dusky pink court.
“@australianopen that was everything. I’ll be ready to try out next year …”
But great to know you are reading us, Kylie. We should be so lucky.
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