By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Happy days for Kooyong’s teal independent MP Monique Ryan, who has finally joined the EV club, purchasing a Volvo XC40 EV in May, according to a parliamentary filing this week.
In a Good Weekend profile published shortly after she’d vanquished Josh Frydenberg at the 2022 federal election, Ryan said she couldn’t afford an EV, noting that “Grumpy Obnoxious Old Men” often asked why she got around her electorate in a distinctly environmentally unfriendly 10-year-old VW Golf.
Teal independent MP Monique Ryan has a new car.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
A spokesman told us: “EVs have come way down in price since Monique gave that quote, which is why it is more affordable – and this in no small part due to the fuel efficiency standards Monique and other independents have fought hard for.”
We wondered if Ryan bought the $76,990 RRP (plus on road costs) XC40 Recharge Single Motor or the $85,990 RRP (plus on road costs) XC40 Recharge Twin Motor, which offers considerably more EV grunt. Alas, we didn’t hear back.
SINGAPORE SUNSET
With some terrible reviews, a largely absent star and poor ticket sales, it seems fair to ponder if Opera Australia’s costly production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, produced in association with GWB Entertainment, has become something of a disaster.
Sarah Brightman as Norma Desmond in the Melbourne production of Sunset Boulevard.Credit: Justin McManus
CBD wouldn’t go that far, well not yet, but notes that the production which premiered in Melbourne and has made its way to Sydney was on tour at the same time that the opera company’s newish and acclaimed artistic director Jo Davies was suddenly calling it quits.
So when star Sarah Brightman posted on her socials that she was taking the production to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands in February, we were caught unawares. So too was Opera Australia, which didn’t even have a media release ready to go when we asked what was going on.
WE ARE FAMILY
Spring Street has welcomed its newest addition to the parliamentary family – Patrick James Lane. The surprise early arrival for the shadow minister for finance Jess Wilson and husbo Aaron Lane came after Wilson’s water broke within hours of speaking in parliament last week.
Patrick James Lane, born August 30.
The stats: He was born 2.04pm on Friday, August 30, weighing 2.87 kilograms. The quote: “He’s doing amazing!” the happy MP said.
Despite arriving after only 35 weeks, his proud parents confirmed their newest Pies fan is in perfect health and outperforming every test so far. Family are looking forward to returning home midweek.
Other expecting Spring Street MPs include Nicole Werner (Liberal), Martha Haylett (Labor) and Annabelle Cleeland (Nationals). In the press gallery, The Australian’s Rachel Baxendale just had a baby and this masthead’s Annika Smethurst is due in December.
As for Werner, she is due to have a baby boy. We know this because she shared the happy news in the parliamentary chamber during the second reading of the Health Legislation Amendment (Regulatory Reform) Bill 2024. Cute.
CARRYING ON
Commiserations in the best CBD style to Lucy Bradlow and Bronwen Bock, whose political aspiration to job share as MPs in federal parliament was dead, buried and cremated on Thursday after the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed that the duo’s favoured seat of Higgins would be abolished.
Or so we thought. Regular readers will recall that Bradlow, a former lawyer who previously worked for Labor’s Kristina Keneally, and Bock, an investment banker, generated blanket media coverage by advocating a one week on, one week off arrangement in Parliament House. Some constitutional lawyers scoffed, and so did we.
But the campaign, which blended far-reaching implications for Australian participatory democracy with $85 B+B branded hoodies, lives on.
“We will be making an announcement on our plans for a relaunched campaign imminently,” the pair told us.
THE MOOCH
Anthony Scaramucci is best known for his tempestuous 11-day stint as Donald Trump’s White House communications director, which ended soon after he delivered a profanity-laden tirade to a New Yorker journalist trash-talking the then-president’s staff.
But having rebranded as an outspoken Trump-hater, crypto evangelist and political podcaster, the Mooch is in high demand, and travelled to these shores to address the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Investment Summit in Newcastle.
Anthony Scaramucci’s time in the White House was brief but very memorable.Credit: AP
But the man christened “Gucci Scaramucci” by former president George W. Bush was never going to slum it in Newcastle for long, and was in Sydney for dinner and drinks that evening, after a quick pit-stop on A Current Affair.
The ASFA hosted an exclusive dinner in the private dining room of Good Luck, the latest bauble in Justin Hemmes’ hospitality empire.
While CBD didn’t score an invite, we did get our hands on what seemed an intriguing guest list. From the political world, Labor’s all-powerful national secretary Paul Erickson attended, while union types included former Australian Workers Union boss Daniel Walton, who now chairs Labor-aligned the McKell Institute, and Tony Maher, president of the Mining and Energy Union who might not have got an invite had his mob not split from the CFMEU last year.
The superannuation sector was ably represented by ASFA’s chair Gary Dransfield, CEO Mary Delahunty and former Australian Super boss Ian Silk, on the boards of Hawthorn footy club and Crown Melbourne and proud owner of corporate Australia’s most extravagant moustache. Former ABC News Breakfast finance presenter Madeleine Morris, now a consultant with AFSA, was the closest any journos got to the power room.
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