By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
That thing that everyone dreads happening at a charity gala has just happened to management consultant Mim Bartlett.
There she was at the gala ball for the youth empowerment charity Reach, celebrating its founding 30 years ago by the late AFL legend Jim Stynes and film director Paul Currie, when she decided to spend $5000 to kick off the charity auction.
Reach chairman Fergus Watts and chief executive Alison Wright at the Reach Gala Ball 2024 at the NGV on Friday night.Credit: Marcel Aurcar
The charity’s new chief executive Alison Wright, 50 days in the job, had ordered the auctioneers not to leave the stage until they had secured $30,000 for the opening lot, two tickets for a weekend away at the charity’s Thousand Faces self-exploration camp.
Bartlett, seated at table 15, thought she was opening the bidding at $5000. But she hadn’t clocked that, to the astonishment of everyone, the auctioneers decided to open the bidding at $30,000 and promptly awarded her the winning bid. Going, going, SOLD!
Auction action at the Reach Gala Ball 2024. Credit: Marcel Aurcar
Looking on at the black tie ball at the NGV on Friday night was a crowd of 450 including former lord mayor Sally Capp and her husband Andrew Sutherland, 3AW breakfast co-host Russel Howcroft, PFD food services board member Sharon Landy, true crime podcaster Richard Baker and Reach chair and former AFL footballer Fergus Watts.
“I had decided going into the night that I would donate $5000 in the live auction. I’d had the experience of the Thousand Faces weekend and loved it so much,” Bartlett told CBD.
“The price tag came as a surprise, but I’m very happy to make the donation. It’s such an incredible cause. Gratefully, a number of friends at the table agreed to help me out.”
Reach offered her the chance to retract, but Bartlett decided to honour the bid.
Reach raised $200,000 on the night, and Bartlett ended the evening tearing up the dance floor, dancing with her arms in the air like you just don’t care.
PARTY CRASHER
Ever since Simon Holmes a Court was kicked out of a 2019 meet-the-candidate event with Josh Frydenberg after a falling-out with the then-treasurer, the businessman and son of Australia’s first billionaire has hardly been a welcome face in conservative circles.
Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court.Credit: James Alcock
Holmes a Court would subsequently provide the financial muscle behind Climate 200, which helped the teal independents sweep the Liberal party out of its traditional heartland in the 2022 election. And just this month, Climate 200 scored another win for independent candidate Jacqui Scruby in the byelection for the state NSW seat Pittwater.
Many Liberals are still not over it, continuing to blame Holmes a Court and his “teals political party” for their own electoral failings. If only Josh let him finish his wine inside!
With all that recent history, CBD was surprised to see Holmes a Court make an appearance at the Consilium conference on the Gold Coast, a three-day talkfest hosted by centre-right think tank, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS).
Simon wasn’t just gatecrashing the event for opposition research, he was put up on a panel titled Is Australia Too Late for Nuclear with shadow federal energy and environment minister Ted O’Brien, and a few other fans of small modular reactors.
A few months ago, the teal svengali used his substantial Twitter (sorry, X) clout to convince Engineers Australia to cancel a pro-nuclear speech. Now, he’s out there appearing in enemy territory.
“Recently, CIS has played a destructive role in the never-ending Australian energy debate. My hope is that it shifts to a constructive stance, so the opportunity to address members and staff was interesting,” Holmes a Court told CBD.
While Holmes a Court’s appearance was all in the spirit of good, healthy debate, some in the Liberal broad church were a little outraged to see their bete noire platformed – at a conservative conference no less. The horror! Last CBD heard, a few were considering cancelling their memberships, with whispers about donors looking elsewhere.
The CIS, for its part, said it hadn’t heard of any disgruntlement from attendees.
“Consilium, like other CIS events, encourages debate and the exchange of ideas, and the delegates at Consilium were delighted to have Simon Holmes a Court speak there,” the centre’s executive director Tom Switzer told CBD.
OPEN BOOK
Independent Indi MP Helen Haines welcomes scrutiny of all politicians – including herself.
Unusually, Haines publishes quarterly reports listing donations to her campaign, disclosing the donor’s name and the amount of every donation above $1000, while donations she receives above $16,900 are disclosed within five days. Oh, and the first $1500 contributed during a financial year to a political party is tax-deductible. Get the hint?
Independent MP Helen Haines.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Reform of donations-reporting in Australian politics is well overdue. I am committed to disclosing my donations in line with what I believe all MPs and political parties should be declaring,” Haines told CBD.
She certainly practises what she preaches. On the July list, a bumper month of more than “$34,000.00” of donations, included one from a certain Helen Haines. Yes, the indie from Indi donated “$1498.00” to her own campaign. And not to be outdone, her spouse Philip Haines, went a few dollars better and donated “$1500.00”.
“Helen has one of the most transparent personal donation policies in Parliament. Donations are made from people of all walks of life, many of whom choose to disclose their donations below the $1000 threshold,” a Haines spokeswoman told CBD.
“From time to time, Helen and her husband have also made donations to her campaign, which are also declared under the policy.
But what’s this? The July and October reports both contain generous donations from Climate 200, Holmes a Court’s impact donation fund – “$15000.00” each.
But in the July report, the Climate 200 donation of “$15,000.00” is listed without the two zeros after the decimal, rendering it as “$15000″. It is the only donation rendered in this way, in effect making it look like a much smaller dollar figure.
The spokeswoman told us: “It is not known why the formatting is slightly different in the July report.”