By Stephen Brook and Samantha Hutchinson
One of Australia’s richest women, the intensely private and intensely wealthy retailer Naomi Milgrom, and her children will make an intervention in the climate change debate on Monday – and it is bad news for the federal government.
The Milgrom family – including Adam Milgrom, 40, Rebecca Milgrom, 34, and Jake Milgrom-Marabel, 28 – have decided to donate $500,000 to the Climate 200 initiative, run by fellow rich lister Simon Holmes a Court.
Naomi Milgrom is targeting Liberal-held seats in her climate campaign.Credit: Stephen Todd
Climate 200 is backing independent candidates to stand against government MPs in Liberal-held seats including North Sydney and Melbourne’s Goldstein, and has assembled a $4.7 million war chest from more than 6000 donors. Trent Zimmerman and Tim Wilson, are you sweating yet?
On Monday, Naomi Milgrom, 68, and her children will call for the public to match their $500,000 donation.
In a statement, the philanthropist, whose net worth is estimated at $933 million and who controls retail brands Sussan, Sportsgirl and Suzanne Grae, said: “The time has passed where climate change is an opportunity for points-scoring between the major political parties or pandering to interest groups. Our focus should be on the world to be inherited by future generations.”
The next-gen Milgroms, from Naomi’s first marriage to Alfred Milgrom, are all directors of Tripple, a private investment company that describes itself as “using capital as a force for good”.
Zoe Daniel is running as an independent in the blue ribbon seat of Goldstein, currently held by Tim Wilson.Credit: Simon Schluter
“We are proud to support Climate 200 in its mission to support local communities and their independent candidates fighting for action on climate change, equality and integrity,” they said.
Climate 200 is backing independent candidates and the Voices Of movement to stand for election, such as former ABC journalist Zoe Daniel, against Wilson.
Its advisory council includes former independent MPs Kerryn Phelps, Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and one-time Liberal turned independent MP Julia Banks.
Coalition MPs attack the independents and Voices movements as green-left supporters pretending to be independents who target only government seats. Kooyong independents have advertised in The Age for a candidate to take on federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
At a Voices event in his electorate last week, hosted by Holmes a Court, ex-independent MP Cathy McGowan and ex-ABC host Kerry O’Brien talked about the decline in democracy. No candidate to take on Frydenberg has been announced.
RADIO DAYS
It has been short and sweet for Justine McCarthy, ex-regulatory and government affairs counsel at Seven and, as of last week, ex-policy adviser for media in Communication Minister Paul Fletcher’s office.
McCarthy told contacts it was a time of “mixed emotions” and a “huge honour”.
“With the passage of the Producer Offset legislation yesterday, I am certainly leaving on a high”. But on a high to where?
McCarthy has three young children and is thought to be taking some time off, which isn’t uncommon in government staffing roles. After all, Emma McDonald left earlier in the year to spend more time with her labrador.
But there is industry speculation that she might be interested in the chief executive’s role at broadcast industry group Commercial Radio Australia – not that McCarthy was prepared to comment when CBD asked the question on Sunday.
Long-serving chief Joan Warner announced in September she would step down in early 2022 after 20 years at the organisation. The recruitment process has not been finalised.
SOCIALITE SET-TO
A war between society darlings and former besties Ellie Aitken and Hollie Nasser has turned nuclear amid a dramatic boil-over on social media and real-life confrontation. The investment community was rocked when Aitken’s husband of 19 years, Charlie Aitken, with whom she had co-founded Aitken Investment Management, left her for her lookalike ex-bestie Nasser.
And just when we thought things couldn’t get messier, they did. At about 8.30 on Sunday morning, Aitken uploaded an explosive Instagram post. By 11am it had gone. The fireworks then spilled into a spectacular confrontation outside Aitken’s North Bondi home in Sydney.
A neighbour told CBD Nasser and her new beau – Ellie’s previously longstanding husband Charlie – arrived at the home, where a heated conversation broke out between Ellie and Hollie over the fence. Charlie then went inside and was spotted exiting clutching a number of business shirts.
An hour earlier, Ellie hit Instagram to share a screenshot of a text conversation.
Feuding Sydney socialites Hollie Nasser and Ellie Aitken.Credit: Jozsef Benke
“Stop lying and bullying me @hollie.nasser. Enough,” Aitken wrote underneath the exchange, which kicked off with a message from Hollie accusing her former friend of “playing the victim”.
“Ellie there’s no point in us talking any more ... I can’t believe ... you are out there playing the victim and saying I ruined your perfect marriage,” Hollie wrote to Aitken.
“Charlie was not at my house last night and I’ve got mum staying here. I’ve had photographers here since Friday and still here now surrounding my house … [Charlie] dropped me outside my house on Friday and that’s it, I know he’s staying at [a serviced apartment].”
In response, Aitken told Nasser to stop “trying to deflect” and insisted she knew her husband had been at Nasser’s home.
“Darling I was watching him there with the white plantation shutters behind which we photographed on FaceTime and he told me he was there having pizza,” Aitken said. “And no I didn’t have a two-year affair, don’t try to deflect.”
Before all this, the Aitkens and Hollie and wealthy investor husband Chris Nasser – a shareholder and former director of Aitken Investment Management – had been an inseparable social quartet.
Since news of the affair broke, Chris Nasser has resigned as a director of the fund manager and appointed his brother Damien Nasser to watch over the family’s shareholding.
On Thursday, the Nasser family also withdrew an investment of about $7.5 million from Aitken’s global high-conviction fund. Like we said: we thought this mess couldn’t get messier.