By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
It was a Canberra event about as rare as a dignified evening at local watering hole Mooseheads.
Last week, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton actually fronted up and held a press conference in Parliament House – only his second there in around eight months.
Rare sighting: Peter Dutton gives a press conference in Canberra.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Perhaps in response to the months of (justified) grumbling from the press gallery, Team Dutts got a bit cute with the media after Thursday’s outing. When the official transcript of his presser was released, the summary made mention of “Mr Massola’s iconic Canberra bubble question on the forthcoming election campaign”, a reference to this masthead’s national affairs editor James Massola asking Dutton about whether his team would have a campaign plane for journalists.
The surprise appearance during the first sitting week of the year drew plenty of taunts from Labor, who have accused the opposition leader of dodging the media and not giving a single National Press Club address this term (Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has done two).
We think this is a little unfair, because it’s not like Dutton hasn’t been to the Press Club at all. In fact, he was there just last Wednesday. And no, it wasn’t to attend Goldstein teal independent MP Zoe Daniel’s midday address on “the era of independence”.
Instead, Dutton was hosted at a fundraiser organised by bipartisan lobbying shop Precision Public Affairs in one of the club’s private rooms, where he was joined by about a dozen people.
Sadly, there wasn’t a microphone in sight. We will have to wait to see if Dutton fronts up again for the time-honoured National Press Club address before Australians vote.
Meanwhile, Press Club visitors can get their photo taken with the life-size cut-outs of Dutton and Albanese in the main lounge.
West side story
Steve Christou, the Labor defector and colourful former Cumberland mayor, last made headlines when he successfully moved an amendment to ban books on same-sex parenting from council libraries despite admitting that he’d never read the offending children’s tome.
A few months later, Christou would join the Libertarian Party, although we’re not sure how exactly that vibes with book bans. Now, for his latest adventure, Christou is challenging for a spot on the board of Parramatta Leagues Club at this month’s annual general meeting.
Dragons fan Steve Christou is running for a place on … the Parramatta Eels board.Credit: Steven Siewert
The councillor, who is a big fan of US President Donald Trump, told us he hoped to shake things up and “make the local leagues club great again”.
It’s not a wholly original slogan, given a group of candidates calling themselves “Make Parra Matter Again”, backed by property developer and former Eels powerbroker Roy Spagnolo, attempted to stage a putsch against the current board last November. They failed because not enough voting members showed up.
Spagnolo, who ran Parra between 2009 and 2013, was found by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority not fit to govern a registered club in 2015 after he failed to properly declare expenses for Christmas parties at his house. In 2023, a Supreme Court declaration paved the way for him to run again, and indeed, Roy is on the ballot for the upcoming AGM.
At least the man bleeds blue and yellow, still getting around in a Porsche with the number plate PARRA.
We can’t see Christou doing the same. Over the weekend, CBD got hold of a picture of the Parra club board aspirant wearing a St George Illawarra Dragons jersey. Contacted on Monday, Christou didn’t try to beat the allegations.
“I am a Dragons fan, but that has no difference to my ability to serve on the board,” he told us.
Fly, Eagles, fly
What the one-sided Super Bowl lacked in excitement, it made up for with the sight of the Kansas City Chiefs getting curb-stomped by a ruthless Philadelphia Eagles defence. And Kendrick Lamar during the half-time show. And of course, Bankstown’s very own Jordan Mailata becoming the first Australian to play in a Super Bowl victory.
But Mailata wasn’t the most important Aussie in the New Orleans Superdome. That would probably be nonagenarian News Corp patriarch Rupert Murdoch, spotted during the fourth quarter alongside his new-ish wife Elena Zhukova.
Meanwhile, during the debaucherous pre-game weekend in the Big Easy, Melbourne DJ Dom Dolla was seen revving up the crowd from a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street at a set organised by Don Julio tequila. Alongside him was Apple chief executive Tim Cook, completing a crossover we didn’t see coming.
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