By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
It’s been nearly four months since Peter Costello quit as chairman of Nine (owner of this masthead), shortly after a very literal run-in with The Australian’s Liam Mendes, after which the former treasurer denied having pushed the photographer-turned-reporter to the floor.
Now Costello, also a former federal treasurer, has joined the Cormack Foundation, the secretive private company which funds the Liberal Party and other free enterprise causes, including various think tanks.
Former Nine chairman Peter Costello has a new role.Credit: Peter Rae
He was invited to join as a nominee of the Victorian Liberal Party, along with Caroline Elliott, daughter of the late Liberal icon, businessman John Elliott.
The two replace former prime minister John Howard and former Victorian senator Richard Alston, a former Howard government communications minister. Alston last appeared in CBD when we generously previewed The Glory of Dante, his tome published by Connor Court about medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
Also off the board is David Williamson (not the playwright), making room for Melbourne Mr Everything Allan Myers KC, the barrister, academic, philanthropist, landowner, businessman and former University of Melbourne chancellor.
Peter Costello faces the media after the Canberra Airport incident. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The formidable Myers acted for the Cormack Foundation in a high profile legal fight after Liberal Party elder (and former Costello friend before a mighty falling out) Michael Kroger went to court to argue that Cormack’s funds of $70 million really belong to the Liberal Party. Kroger failed.
Costello also oversaw the sovereign wealth Future Fund, now worth $272 billion, and also established the Higgins 200 Club, famous for its traditional post-budget Liberal Party fundraising breakfast at Crown casino. Somewhat controversially, the 200 Club’s funds were solely for the benefit of the Higgins candidate – Costello himself and later Kelly O’Dwyer and Katie Allen – and their election campaign, and not the wider party.
Costello and his newbie directors join the rest of the Cormack Foundation board directors: ex-ANZ chairman Charles Goode, Melbourne Airport chair Peter Hay, investment banker Fred Grimwade, funds manager Richard Balderstone and commercial lawyer Stephen Spargo.
DEAL WITH IT BRISKLY
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was with his great buddy Bill Shorten (lol) on Wednesday in Shorten’s electorate of Maribyrnong.
He was generous about Shorten but also the retiring minister’s controversially preselected replacement, Jo Briskey.
Jo Briskey is preselected for retiring MP Bill Shorten’s seat, Maribyrnong.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Jo is someone who will be a very strong advocate for the people of Maribyrnong, carrying on Bill’s legacy,” Albanese said. Good, good.
In August the PM stripped locals of the power to decide Victorian preselections and handed the decisions to the ALP national executive.
Hence the choice of Briskey, a Queenslander and former unionist who moved to Melbourne in 2019 and once stood for preselection in the east Brisbane federal electorate of Bonner. First Melbourne had to host Brisbane and Sydney for the AFL grand final – now this!
Briskey stood beside Albansese and Shorten and mouthed the usual stuff … “big shoes to fill” … “I can bring a fresh and dynamic energy” … “work incredibly hard” … “wonderful community”.
But not everyone in the Australian Labor Party is happy. Briskey turned up to an Essendon branch meeting on September 25 to face local members and it didn’t go too well where she was dubbed “the blow-in from Bonner”.
We asked the Victorian Labor Party for a comment but didn’t hear back.
Two local members told CBD that Briskey wasn’t great on an answer when she was asked to name her favourite local cafe and had not decided if she was moving her family into the electorate, but said her family lived just five minutes down the road so felt connected to the community.
The mean streets of the seat of Bonner are a long way from the Essendon branch of the ALP.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
And when she was asked what were the similarities between Maribyrnong and Bonner she replied: people.
CONFERENCE BLUES
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus was meant to be in Israel on the weekend to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ devastating attacks.
Dreyfus was due to be a keynote speaker at The Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism: From 9/11 to 10/7 – Navigating New Threats, organised by the International Institute for Counter Terrorism at Reichmann University in Tel Aviv.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
And he wasn’t the only Australian set to attend. Organisers included Moroccan-born Melbourne-based property developer (and occasional jazz guitarist) Albert Dadon, founder of the Leadership Dialogue Institute, a group devoted to fostering ties between Australia, Israel and the UK.
The Fedpol contingent of the diverse guest list at one point included former prime minister Scott Morrison (set to deliver a keynote with former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert), Tasmanian Liberal senator Claire Chandler, shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie and Liberal Party grandee Michael Kroger.
Even former Victorian Liberal MP Tim Smith, who quit politics after crashing his Jaguar into a fence while drunk, was due to fly in from London where he now works for upstart British conservative TV outlet GB News, run by former Sky News Australia boss Angelos Frangopoulos.
Avengers Assemble, indeed.
Former Liberal Tim Smith won’t be popping in to Tel Aviv.Credit: Chris Hopkins
There were a fair few journos on the list, including but not limited to The Australian’s Paul Kelly, and Alan Howe.
The speaker list included important Israeli political figures Benny Ganz, Gal Hirsch and Avigdor Liberman.
CBD has seen the itinerary, which included both sober discussions of the October 7 attacks followed by a quick hotel refresh before a casual dinner by the beach.
But it was the invitation extended to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson which ruffled feathers, to some minds giving the whole delegation a bit of a Sky News After Dark vibe.
But on Wednesday morning, after Iran had launched missile attacks on Israel in retaliation against the country’s invasion of Lebanon, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that Dreyfus would stay home. By mid-morning, CBD heard the entire summit was cancelled.