By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Readers who are inclined to cast their minds back to the days of COVID-19 lockdowns (deep breaths folks, this will be painless) might recall the 15 minutes of fame afforded former acting senior sergeant Krystle Mitchell. She was the officer who quit Victoria Police after 16 years in protest at having to enforce the directions of then chief health officer Brett Sutton.
Acting senior sergeant Krystle Mitchell resigned after giving an interview to an anti-lockdown media channel.Credit: Discernable
Now she is back, and as she says, “this is personal”.
Mitchell is standing for election as a councillor for the City of Melbourne on the “Your Voice Matters to Me” ticket with an old colleague, former protective services officer Jayden Durbin.
“It is definitely an eye-opening experience,” Mitchell told CBD about running for council. She is not standing for mayor, but attempting to get elected as a councillor. “Running for council, I hope I can bring a libertarian philosophy to council decision-making.”
Mitchell earlier told The Age she had lived through the city’s best and worst times, been a homeless youth on these streets, a student, a bike courier as well as working in hospitality and retail.
Krystle Mitchell is standing as a councillor for the City of Melbourne.
Now she is a resident and consultant on governance, probity and ethical health to organisations.
Mitchell hit the headlines in 2021 when she resigned from the force and told an anti-lockdown media channel that the vast majority of fellow officers did not want to implement health orders.
“I’m quitting too because I can’t remedy in my soul any more the way in which my organisation that I love to work for is being used and the damage that it’s causing in the reputation of Victoria Police and the damage that it’s causing to the community,” she said at the time.
Victoria Police scrambled and said the police service “cannot pick and choose what laws it enforces”, while the Police Association wished her well and hoped she was well-supported.
Now on the hustings, Mitchell told CBD that business owners remembered her and her stance, but the public struggled to recall her.
“Yesterday’s news is today’s fish and chip wrapper is quite accurate.”
CLUB SERVICE
Don’t be fooled. Peter Dutton’s no-show at the Business Council of Australia’s recent annual dinner doesn’t mean the opposition leader has forgotten about the big end of town.
With an election looming, Dutton is putting out the begging bowl at a series of big-ticket fundraisers this week.
On Thursday, he will be in Melbourne, where, after years of disastrous electoral performances, the Liberals think they can nab a few seats.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at the Perth Royal Show recently.Credit: Hamish Hastie
The wannabe PM will appear at a lunch event with tickets going for between $5000 and $10,000, with rookie MPs Aaron Violi (the Melbourne seat of Casey) and Simon Kennedy (the Sydney seat of Cook) at the Athenaeum Club – one of those stuffy joints that still won’t allow women to become members. A 2022 push to allow women was defeated, thanks to the resistance of younger members. Women can still attend the club as guests. Dutton’s office didn’t respond to questions about the fundraiser.
Dutton, like Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who also charges big bucks for his time, can’t win an election without a bit of help from wealthy donors. But he also can’t win without female voters, who deserted the Liberal Party in droves after the bad vibes of the Morrison years. And yet, despite the Liberals’ “women problem”, nobody thought about the optics of holding a fundraiser at an all-male club. Go figure.
LIQUID IDEAS
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Committee for Melbourne, once such a key part of the life of this metropolis, is no more. After it was subsumed into the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in July, the organisation, founded back in 1985 and once boasting 170 members, is being liquidated.
John Elliott was the inaugural chair of the committee.Credit: Robert Pearce
It seemed a sad end to a once-powerful part of Melbourne that claimed an “instrumental” role in the creation of CityLink, Docklands and the privatisation of Melbourne Airport and was chaired variously by John Elliott, Fergus Ryan, Jack Smorgon and George Pappas.
But not such a sad end, according to The Chamber.
“The Committee for Melbourne and its name will live on and be stronger than ever under the merged entity with the Victorian Chamber,” said Paul Guerra, chamber chief executive. The merger was completed via asset transfer last month.
“No story here,” said liquidator Leanne Chesser, partner, restructuring, KordaMentha.
We like your jaunty style Leanne, but let us be the judge of that.
FUR REAL
Like any politician, NSW Premier Chris Minns is no stranger to a few barbs from the jokesters over at the Betoota Advocate website.
But CBD was surprised to see Minns copping a bit of heat over his foot-dragging on a promised Great Koala National Park on the NSW Mid North Coast.
“‘It’s Just a bit of Hedge-Trimming’ Says Government in Defence of Logging Great Koala National Park,” the Betoota Advocate boys wrote last weekend.
It was an ad, funded by mattress and bedding start-up Koala, who collaborated with the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
The mattress makers, which count cricketing great Steve Smith as an early investor, are lobbying Minns to stop logging in the proposed national park area.