By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
The Liberal Party’s internal squabbling once again burst into the open this week when Senator Hollie Hughes, effectively disendorsed by her own party, launched a scathing attack on shadow treasurer Angus Taylor over his support for her successful preselection rival, Jess Collins.
Hughes accused her shadow cabinet colleague of treachery, and claimed he was using last month’s preselection contest to bolster his own shot at a leadership tilt should the Liberals move on from Peter Dutton after next year’s federal election.
Hollie Hughes is the shadow assistant spokeswoman for mental health and the NDIS.Credit: Janie Barrett
Memories in politics are very short. But not ours.
Hughes herself entered the upper house at the 2019 election, after successfully toppling another sitting senator, the late Jim Molan, from a winnable spot on the party’s ticket.
And she managed that feat with a little help from some Liberal frontbenchers.
Memories in politics are very short. But not ours.Credit: John Shakespeare
Hughes’ candidate booklet from that preselection contest, which landed in CBD’s inbox minutes after her recent comments about Taylor went public, included lengthy written references from then Liberal frontbenchers Josh Frydenberg, Simon Birmingham, and Sussan Ley, plus MP Julian Leeser and senator Arthur Sinodinos.
Not a bad cheer squad for an outside challenger.
Now Molan, whose shock preselection loss triggered plenty of argy-bargy of its own, also listed endorsements from Frydenberg and Ley in his own booklet, although no written quotes from the pair were included in the material given to party members. The rest of those Liberals didn’t appear to back Molan.
So was Hughes’ drive-by on Taylor this week a case of sour grapes? We asked her about this but didn’t hear back. Although let’s not write-off the vaping advocate and Sky News after dark fave just yet.
We hear she is hoping for Dutton to intervene and overrule the preselectors. On Wednesday, Dutton defended Taylor from Hughes’ barbs, but said he hoped the dumped senator could find a way back into parliament. So we’ll see whether he’s willing to hold his nose and dive into the party’s factional swamp.
WORKERS’ EDUCATION
When CBD’s Spring Street outpost sent word this week that Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins had announced a $190,000 grant to the Australian Workers’ Union – Hutchins’ own union – to run programs helping women into work in manufacturing and energy, we worried.
That’s because we can never forget former premier Daniel Andrews′ private office getting itself into all sorts of strife with the anti-corruption people over the handing of $1.2 million in taxpayers’ money to the Health Workers Union, through a process the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission found to be, well, far from above board.
The affair also gave us what must surely be the high watermark of Andrewsian spin, when the former premier dismissed IBAC’s findings last year that ministers and staffers breached public duties and ethical obligations as merely “educational”.
Anyway, it looks like Hutchins, who was not involved in the Health Workers Union scandal, was paying attention in class.
Her office assured us this week that “ten organisations received funding under this program”. “It was a competitive grants process,” a spokesperson said.
The union was a bit more informative, telling us that it was its second attempt at securing the work after being knocked back last year and that Hutchins had recused herself from the decision-making process – her office hadn’t mentioned that bit – to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest. We reckon Andrews might award Hutchins top marks for that effort.
COURT MARSHALL
The crew of the good ship Jacinta Allan might have heaved a collective groan last week on learning that Peter Marshall, the combustible leader of Victoria’s United Firefighters Union, would be with them for at least another three years.
United Firefighters Union chief Peter Marshall.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Marshall himself, whose run-ins with the state Labor government are too numerous to recap here, was quite chipper about the prospect of three more years as branch secretary when CBD caught up with him on Wednesday, explaining that he’d come home 600 votes ahead of his nearest rival.
It occurred to us that Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes might be pleased to hear Marshall’s big news too. After all, the union leader has dragged the minister into the Federal Court – and lost; campaigned against her party at elections; and threatened Symes and her staff with complaints to the anti-corruption agency.
We called her office. We haven’t heard back.
COOK ELECTRIC
Simon Kennedy, settling nicely into the Sydney seat of Cook, previously held by former prime minister Scott Morrison, released his register of interests this week, giving us a first look at the former McKinsey and Co partner’s assets and benefits.
Kennedy held shares in Origin Energy and Woodside but sold them after entering parliament.
In doing so, he demonstrated a little more political acumen than teal independent MP Kylea Tink, who only sold her shares in Viva Energy and Beach Energy after snarky media commentary made it clear that investing in fossil fuel companies wasn’t a great look for a climate crusader.
The Cook MP, meanwhile, still has shares in Jolt Australia, which builds electric vehicle charging stations.
That’s quite a departure from the Sutherland Shire electorate’s previous representative, Morrison, who infamously declared during the 2019 election that Labor’s policy to improve EV take-up amounted to a “war on the weekend”.
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