By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
One immutable fundamental of federation relations that founded the Commonwealth of Australia – state-on-state rivalry – was upended recently when Nick Reece, lord mayor of Melbourne, undertook a whistle-stop tour of Sydney ... and liked it.
“Sydney and Melbourne are the two best cities in the world!” Reece said glowingly of the northern metropolis on a LinkedIn post (but not in an official media release, as far as we could tell).
Budding bromance? Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece (right) with NSW Premier Chris Minns.Credit: LinkedIn
Talk about undermining 124 years of slow burn resentment towards the Harbour City nurtured by our bitter, envious friends to the south.
Reece also blew smoke in the direction of some of NSW’s most prominent power players (though the state’s unofficial premier, Peter V’landys, was missing).
NSW Premier Chris Minns was “a seriously smart guy … he also has an incredible knowledge of rugby league”. But Reece kept it real, musing that Minns might be lucky enough to score an invitation to the AFL grand final, which will be a non-event to most Sydneysiders, what with the Swans’ season of woe.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore was a “legend” who had “copped a bit over the years” but was someone who deserves “huge credit for her vision and determination”.
He also name-checked Business Sydney’s Paul Nicolaou and Crown Resorts chairman John Borghetti, and mused that Melbourne had “much to learn” from the Vivid festival, which should send chills down the spine of our snobbier southern neighbours.
Still, Reece managed to straddle a line between enthusiastic guest and Melbourne advocate, ready to heap praise on his hometown. So when meeting hospitality baron Justin Hemmes, he cannily pointed out that while he loved his tour of The Ivy, the billionaire manbun’s biggest project was Parkade in Melbourne, the next target of Merivale’s imperial ambitions.
Shuffling the deck
Labor MPs have barely gotten their feet under the desks after winning a mega-majority at last month’s election. But already, some younger government apparatchiks are getting antsy, after being told they will have to reapply for their jobs.
CBD hears much of that anxiety is misplaced, and the staffing reset is a natural process that occurs after any “trigger event”, such as a cabinet reshuffle or the swearing-in of a new ministry after an election.
Because Labor took on so many junior hacks after its long-awaited return to government in 2022, the staffing ranks are filled with anxious Zoomers who’d never been through the process before.
Still, the post-election period is a busy time on Labor LinkedIn, with plenty of seasoned politicos deciding to call it a day. Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s chief of staff Thomas Mooney is moving on after nine years with the long-serving senator. CBD hears Mooney has aspirations to one day enter the South Australian parliament and become premier, though we can’t imagine the Adelaide Adonis Peter Malinauskas’ reign ending any time soon.
Meanwhile, senior policy adviser Skye Laris is leaving Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office after a six-year stint. Laris is married to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.
Black Sea Boys
CBD has been keeping an eye of late on the rather exotic travels of our former prime ministers.
Nothing will top Julia Gillard being turned into a hologram for the women UNLIMITED leadership summit, where not even poor Hillary Clinton, appearing in person, will get to see The Real Julia.
And while most Australians are probably sick of hearing from ex-leaders Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott, both have been living their best lives on the global security speaking circuit, which is most definitely a thing.
Former PMs Tony Abbott (left) and Scott Morrison: In demand on the global security speaking circuit.Credit:
Abbott is often in Hungary to keep the fires of his bromance burning with the country’s hairy-chested conservative leader, Viktor Orban. Last week, we noted Tony’s appearance at the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul, speaking alongside former Indonesian president Joko Widodo and Malaysia’s long-serving ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad, still on the speaking circuit in his 100th year.
Scomo is frequently looking for friends in the United States, even getting to spend New Year’s Eve at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, while promising to bring the AUKUS Pact to outer space and holding enough part-time jobs to keep him relevant.
And last weekend, both men were in the charming Ukrainian port city of Odesa for the Black Sea Security Forum, organised by British billionaire and Conservative peer Lord Michael Ashcroft.
The pair took the stage in Odesa, with Morrison in discussion with journalist Andrew Mueller and foreign policy expert Hugo Acha on the global south. Abbott was a little more lively in his panel on the UK’s interests in the Black Sea, even having a crack at former Tory MP Bob Seely over that government’s cuts to British defence spending.
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