By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
Access to Qantas’ ritzy invite-only Chairman’s Lounge is something that nobody – no matter how strongly they feel about the embattled airline and its polarising departing boss Alan Joyce – wants to lose.
Alan Joyce and Alan Jones.Credit: John Shakespeare
This week, former shock-jock Alan Jones got an email telling him he’d lost lounge access following one of the airline’s periodic reviews, a brutal reflection of the radio veteran’s fall from king of Sydney’s airwaves to yelling at a webcam for his online-only ADH TV.
“When a member ceases to remain in a role for which Chairman’s Lounge membership was provided or a current commercial arrangement with Qantas is not in place, membership is reassessed against our criteria,” it said.
Qantas declined to give us the juice on just what it takes to make the cut, but given Jones has been a member since 1985, and retained his access through the whole Cronulla riots situation, we reckon it’s interesting that they turf him out now for simply for getting older, and less relevant.
But on Thursday, after CBD started making inquiries, Joyce personally called the other Alan, saying Jones’ access had been reinstated, and the whole thing was a sorry mistake.
That can’t have been a comfortable call for the Qantas boss. We hear the shock-jock has given Qantas a wide berth since Joyce took the reins in 2008. And if Jones’ recent description of the Irishman as “your typical woke corporate puritan” is anything to go by, those feelings haven’t got any softer.
DYI LAWYERING AT SPRING STREET
Observers of the Victorian Liberals’ Moira Deeming saga – due for another party room showdown on Friday – with all its talk of lawyers and legal action would be forgiven for thinking this affair must be the best earner for the local legal profession since Nicola Gobbo hit town.
Not so much, it turns out. Take Richard Riordan, for example. The Deeming supporter went public this week with legal opinion that the latest bid to expel Moira from the Liberal parliamentary fold was on shaky ground.
Riordan spoke to two lawyers for that effort, but he didn’t pay either of them, he told us, saying they were more advisory chats rather than fee paying arrangements.
What about the leader John Pesutto’s office, then? You’d think they’d be lawyered-up after being threatened with legal action by Deeming over the terms of her suspension. Nope, a spokesman for Pesutto – who is a lawyer, as his close ally Michael O’Brien – told us on Thursday morning that no external legal advice had so far been sought.
James Newbury, the man who moved the expulsion motion against Deeming that will go to a vote on Friday, is legally qualified and felt no need to consult lawyers before drafting the motion, so nobody earned a fee there, either.
Which leaves us with the woman at the centre of the saga, Deeming herself, who did not return CBD’s calls on Thursday, and who hadn’t taken any legal action until sending Pesutto’s office a series of demands accompanied by threats of defamation action on Friday.
The man who penned the “concerns notice”, veteran defo lawyer George Patrick, wouldn’t have come cheap, but it’s not like Deeming would be up for an astronomical sum. Yet.
Let’s hope not anyway. Deeming has a shout-out for donations on her official website. Just eight people have answered the call so far.
MUSEUM PIECES
Budget week can be a demoralising time for oppositions. So much so that some in the Coalition didn’t even bother showing up. Permanently embattled LNP MP Stuart Robert, who is technically still shadow assistant treasurer despite announcing he’d be quitting parliament in the coming weeks, was nowhere to be seen in Canberra this week.
Liberal MP Stuart Robert is saying goodbye to parliament.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
His office wouldn’t tell us why, but rather pointedly asked if we were aware of his impending retirement. We are.
The opposition finally got a bit of budget week love on Thursday with Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech followed by a fundraising knees-up at Canberra’s National Museum.
Maybe not the best choice for an outfit battling perceptions that its best days are behind it.
At $1500 a head, it was a substantially cheaper affair than Labor’s flagship do on Tuesday night. We’ll call that the price of opposition.
SPORTING LIFE
Howard-era Liberal MP Jackie Kelly once lamented that federal parliamentarians led a “bugger of a life”.
But, perusing the latest submission to the parliament’s register of members interests from another Liberal woman from western Sydney, former foreign minister Marise Payne, it doesn’t seem so bad after all.
Marise Payne and Stuart Ayres with a horse in 2015.Credit: Tim Bauer
Payne, a racing tragic who owns thoroughbreds with her partner, former NSW Liberal deputy leader and long-serving sports minister Stuart Ayres, has been off to the races about 15 times in the past three-and-half years as a guest of TabCorp, Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club, taking in the Melbourne Cup, Everest and other big days at the track.
She’s also been at the footy. A lot. Payne has been to two NRL grand finals, one AFL decider and some finals series games as well as some home-and-away clashes for both codes as a guest of the NRL, the AFL and Venues NSW, an organisation to which Ayres is close. So close that he delivered a valedictory address at a recent farewell event for departing boss Tony Shepherd.
But what about the music? Well, there’s been a David Campbell concert and a ticket to see the Rocket Man himself, Elton John, again from Venues NSW, and Destination NSW treated the senator to a seat at Mary Poppins the Musical.
But why are we telling you all this now? Because all those footy games and races Payne attended in the latter half of 2022 only lobbed into her register of interests this week. That’s well outside the 35 days required by the Senate for any new disclosures.
Such oversights are usually dismissed as “administrative errors”, but we still expected Australia’s longest-serving female senator to be more on top of the rules.
Payne, who’s been keeping a low profile since the last election, didn’t respond to our comment requests. She must be exhausted.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.