By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Image Seven, the PR firm of choice for Scots College in Bellevue Hill, has been getting a workout of late.
In April, the college had to deny asking if boys running for school captain were gay or having premarital sex. Months earlier, Scots had to hose down inquiries about whether students had fleeced a Double Bay newsagent with fake $50 bills. Then there was the prospect of a court battle with mutimillionaire neighbour Ian Joye, aborted after the school scrapped its expansion plans this year.
The latest drama, which triggered an apology from principal Ian Lambert, began when the $40,000-a-year school invited Reverend David Maher, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in NSW, to speak at an assembly on June 13.
Maher used the phrase “love is love, cat food is cat food,” according to parents of numerous boys present at the assembly, unimpressed by what they saw as homophobic and misogynistic overtones of the speech. Teachers walked out and students have subsequently complained.
A recording of the assembly wasn’t available on Scots TV, as is normally the case. So while what else was said in the hall at Scots might be lost to the digital abyss, another sermon delivered by Maher at his local church, Burwood Presbyterian this month, offered some choice messaging for young men.
“If you’re a young man, then I am sure that the woman folly is wearing a short skirt, got a plunging neckline, that certain look in her eyes, that ‘come hither’ look,” Maher said on June 4, according to an audio file uploaded to its website.
“She’s wild and undisciplined, she’s in your face, she’s brash and brazen, she doesn’t care about the truth but she cares about her image. She’s a material girl. I hate to admit it, but she knows her market.”
Yikes.
That recording was taken down within hours of CBD lodging inquiries with Maher, who did not formally respond to our questions.
Lambert, the day after the assembly, issued a speech to students saying there was a lesson in all of this. “It is really important that we choose our words well,” he told the lads.
“So I would like to say, I think it is important to nip it in the bud, to any boys who were upset and offended by comments made yesterday I would like to apologise to you. The Scots College values the rich diversity of this college.”
The College told us it hosted many guest speakers from diverse backgrounds.
“It is not appropriate to offer comment on them in the media.”
BALLED UP
After a grubby fortnight in politics, the inmates of Parliament House had a chance to let loose at Wednesday night’s Midwinter Ball.
Credit: John Shakespeare
Controversy is never far away from Canberra’s less funny answer to the White House Correspondents Dinner. With journalists and politicians incensed by ABC management’s absurd decision to fire political editor Andrew Probyn and his producer Brihony Speed, Press Gallery president Jane Norman gave a shoutout to her departed colleagues right in front of Aunty’s top brass.
After financial support from fossil fuel giants Woodside and Shell threatened to derail the vibes at last year’s do, the Press Gallery this year decided to pull corporate sponsors altogether.
Which must be a relief for the Greens who spent hours debating whether to attend last year. In the end, some boycotted, Lidia Thorpe held a brief, underwhelming protest in the marble foyer, while Adam Bandt’s wife Claudia Perkins and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young both wore AOC-style dresses attacking fossil fuels.
This time around, Bandt and chief of staff Damien Lawson were on one of the main tables, seated with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Senate president Sue Lines. Perhaps sinking Labor’s housing bill brought Bandt and Dutton together?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his partner Jodie Haydon, Nationals leader David Littleproud and speaker Milton Dick nabbed the other big table.
A new, sponsorless era didn’t stop business types from queueing up for a night of press-fleshing – CBD hears about 300 ticket requests for the over-subscribed event were knocked back. Lobbyist Eamonn Fitzpatrick’s desperate, last-ditch attempts to get his mate former Labor staffer and Migration Council chief executive Carla Wilshire in at the last minute went nowhere.
While fossil fuel funding was the source of tension in 2022, the presence of Big Four consulting companies – sans embattled PwC who are in hiding – ruffled enough feathers for a Four Corners crew to show up in the House’s marble foyer, hoping to pap any poor consultants on the way in.
MEDICAL LEAVE
While coronavirus is still present in the community, we’ve heard very little from OzSage, the group that brought together some of the country’s most hawkish COVID talking heads such as Raina McIntyre, Stephen Duckett, Brendan Crabb and Nancy Baxter.
The group’s once-prolific socials have been silent for months, and those scary press releases, usually demanding more restrictions and chastising Australians for enjoying their lives, are gone.
Sure, high-profile member, former federal MP and Australian Medical Association President Kerryn Phelps remains vocal on all things COVID, but that appears to be a different story altogether.
And the less said about another OzSage member, UNSW’s Deborah Lupton – who complained that blanket media coverage of the tragic Hunter Valley bus cash was “ignoring” COVID deaths – the better.
OzSage board member Andrew Miller made time between operations on Tuesday to confirm that the group had cooled its jets on the publicity side of things and was entering a “consolidation phase”, although there were plenty of behind-the-scenes meetings and consultations going on with governments and health authorities.
While we’ll be hearing from the group again, Miller said these days it was difficult to get the media interested in OzSage’s favourite topic.
“Running to your editor with something new on COVID is not usually a good career move for journalists,” he told CBD.
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