By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Just when you (and we) thought every last drip had been wrung out of the papal conclave and the election of Pope Leo XIV, there is more.
CBD has learnt a previously undisclosed prominent Aussie was there on the scene.
Rinky Hijikata at the Australian Open earlier this year.Credit: Getty Images
Tennis star Rinky Hijikata was on a day off from the Italian Open and had just finished a museum tour in Rome when he was swept up in the tide of history.
“I thought I’d go check out St Peter’s Basilica. As I was walking there, a bunch of people around me just started sprinting towards the Basilica,” the Australian Open men’s doubles champion told CBD.
Hijikata, who has reached No.63 in the men’s rankings, found out from onlookers that the white smoke had just gone up and that the new pope was about to be announced – so he joined the thronging masses.
“Just some pretty good timing and a bit of luck to be fortunate enough to be a part of something like that,” he concluded.
In other puff-of-white-smoke news, Tennis Australia announced that Chris Harrop, a “lifelong tennis fan and social player … (and) advisory partner for global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company” would replace ex-Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka as chair of Tennis Australia.
Hrdlicka’s departure was something that CBD foretold back in October, when TA confirmed to us that her third term on the board would expire at the end of this year.
Last month Hrdlicka landed the top job at Dan Murphy’s owner Endeavour.
Family matters
Multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s bankrolling of the Mabo Centre, a Native Title initiative at the University of Melbourne, hasn’t gone down well with some family of its namesake, pioneering Indigenous Land Rights campaigner Eddie Mabo.
As CBD reported recently, six of Mabo’s grandchildren penned a scathing open letter claiming their grandfather would be “appalled” at the centre taking money from the company, which received global condemnation for its destruction of ancient Indigenous rock sites at Juukan Gorge in 2020. The letter demanded the centre cut ties with Rio.
“Anything less is a betrayal,” they wrote.
In response, the centre told us the name had been gifted by members of the Mabo family following extensive engagement. But this week Mabo granddaughter Boneta-Marie Mabo, one of the authors of the original letter, claimed some hadn’t been consulted.
“My father, Eddie Mabo Jr – the eldest son of Eddie Koiki Mabo and the most senior Mabo family member – didn’t even know the Mabo Centre existed until I asked him about it after its launch,” she wrote in an article on IndigenousX.
In response, the university sent us the same statement it provided a month ago, telling CBD it stood by the response.
“The centre’s name was gifted by senior members of the Mabo family following extensive engagement with them,” the university said.
“The senior Mabo family members were aware of the investment by Rio Tinto ahead of the decision to gift the name.”
Clearly, not everyone was.
The great purge
The electoral winds of change have blasted through the Liberal Party, which on Tuesday made Sussan Ley its first female leader.
“Ley: I will be here in three years”, read the ABC News caption that accompanied her debut press conference.
Quite the vote of confidence from the national broadcaster.
Here in three years? New Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
It took the Liberals long enough to enter the 21st century (many are saying they’re not there yet). It took Ley’s staffers a matter of minutes to purge the remnants of the old leader’s office.
Ley had barely left the party room on Tuesday when her media adviser Liam Jones quickly booted Peter Dutton’s top spinners Nicole Chant and Adrian Barrett from a Coalition Campaign HQ WhatsApp group the party used to send announcements to journalists during the election. Also gone in a flash: John Hulin, chief of staff to new deputy leader Ted O’Brien (if you don’t know who he is we don’t blame you).
The group chat was quickly renamed “LOTO Ley – Coord”. CBD was told the whole change was simply a necessary matter of logistics. Whatever the motivations, a fitting symbol of changing times in the Liberal camp.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.