Julie Bishop zips around Brisbane

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has been doing plenty of meeting and greeting in Brisbane over recent days.

Foreign Affairs minister Julie Bishop stops for a coffee on Brisbane’s Goodwill Bridge. Picture: AAP Image/Regi Varghese

WOW FACTOR

SHE just might be Australia’s next Prime Minister if Malcolm Turnbull’s poll numbers keep heading south and she wowed crowds in Brisbane over the past few days.

Julie Bishop, the Foreign Affairs Minister who’s got the top job briefly while Turnbull is overseas, zipped around the city on Sunday to attend multiple events.

First there was a two-hour meet’n’greet from noon at the CBD headquarters of Tow.com.au boss Dominic Holland and his business partner, Jordan Grives, the multi-millionaire young gun who now oversees Fone Dynamics. The pair also jointly run startup accelerator Alicorn Ventures from the same spiffy fourth level space at 500 Queen St, where about 40 guests munched on catered nibbles from Grives’ new bar Copado.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop illustrated by Tony Bela.

Among those spied mingling with Bishop were bizoids Louis Ialenti, Trisha Whalen, James Morrell, Cass Heilbronn, James Stewart, Paul Kang, Jody Gosling and Martin Dunn.

Holland told us it was not a fundraiser for the LNP, although he acknowledged he has donated a chunk of change to the party. Not surprising, actually, given his bitter legal dispute with the existing State Government.

Later that night, Bishop popped in to Stefan Ackerie’s lavish launch party and annual awards night at his new JoJo’s restaurant in South Brisbane. Bishop mixed it up with a crowd of nearly 1000, who tucked into long tables piled high with hors d’oeuvres and desserts, as well as chow from food trucks.

Joining her at the head table were Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, Police Commissioner Ian Stewart, MP Grace Grace, waste king Ron Wanless and retired legal eagle Joe Ganim.

On Monday night, Bishop showed up at Blackbird Bar & Grill to honour retired federal pollie Teresa Gambaro, who got a top gong from Italian ambassador Pierfrancesco Zazo. Fellow pollie Peter Dutton and Sir Llew Edwards also came out for the event, which saw Gambaro take home the “Ufficiale’’ award for her work in foreign affairs, defence and trade.

CLUB BOSS EXITS

PAUL Grainger has departed as boss of The Brisbane Club under what appear to be less than ideal circumstances.

The former CEO told City Beat yesterday that he was talking to lawyers but declined to comment further.

Club president Peter Cowley informed members by email late Friday that Grainger was “ending his employment’’ but provided no reasons as to why.

Notable by its absence was any praise for Grainger, a Pom who joined the institution in mid-2015 after stints running the now-defunct Brisbane Polo Club and the Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club.

Citing confidentiality reasons, Cowley would not elaborate yesterday but said simply that a replacement would be appointed in the new year.

QRC QUITTER

A TOP lieutenant under Queensland Resource Council boss Ian Macfarlane has quit suddenly and returned to work for reinstated Resources Minister Matt Canavan.

Kylie Barron walked out the door on Friday, after less than four months on the job as “policy director-strategic communications’’ for the peak industry lobby group.

Barron was working for Canavan when she was headhunted by Macfarlane to join the QRC in July.

Ironically, Barron previously worked for Macfarlane back in the day when he served as resources minister.

Barron, who also once did a bit of spinning for embattled deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, did not return a call yesterday. Macfarlane declined to comment.

It comes as City Beat hears complaints from QRC members that the group is not exactly firing on all cylinders.

They say its media profile seems to have diminished somewhat under McFarlane, who still serves as a director of Woodside Petroleum and jets over to WA for board meetings.

Critics even tell us that they miss his combative predecessor, Michael Roche.