Backroom Baz: New top cop keeps low profile through week of childcare horror
Is top cop Mike Bush purposely trying to keep his profile separate from government or was he simply too busy still getting his feet under the desk?
Victoria
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New top cop Mike Bush appears to be keeping a low profile. On just the fourth day in the job one of the biggest crime stories of the year broke with the arrest of 26-year-old childcare worker Joshua Brown. But where was Bush?
That’s the question being asked by those inside the force and across Spring St this week after Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam and Acting Commander Janet Stevenson joined Premier Jacinta Allan, police minister Anthony Carbines and minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn in a press conference about the arrest on Tuesday.
Cases of such significance and public importance would generally command the presence of the chief commissioner to make people feel safe and instil a sense of full control over the situation. This is to take nothing away from Steendam or Stevenson. But is Bush purposely trying to keep his profile quite separate from government?
Or was he simply too busy still getting his feet under the desk? There are many watching how his relationship with the Allan government unfolds in coming months who say it will either make or break his success.
His predecessor Shane Patton was accused of being too close to government. Baz is told it’s been made clear to Bush that he shouldn’t repeat the same mistake. Watch this space.
He’s back
Globetrotter Tim Smith — who left Spring St in the wake of his drink-drive crash to move to London, then got a job in Israel, but is partial to the beach at Blairgowrie, too — is home for a visit.
And he wasted no time getting out and about, spotted with mate and Sky News host Rita Panahi at a steak date at Toorak’s iconic French brasserie France-Soir on Wednesday night.
With Smith understood to be keen on a political comeback, and his good mate Caroline Inge weighing up another run at the Liberal Party’s president gig, Baz can only imagine what was discussed over the meal. And maybe a cheeky wine, or two.
Who is Libs chief agitator?
When legal action was launched against the Victorian Liberal Party to try and stop a career-saving $1.55m loan to John Pesutto, everyone wanted to know who was behind the latest move threatening to blow up the party. Colleen Harkin is the answer.
But just who is she? A former Liberal candidate in the federal seat of Macnamara, Harkin’s resume boasts a background in teaching and education, as well as IT, business development, project management and small business.
She’s worked for Senator Jane Hume and is a director at the Institute of Public Affairs. Staunchly conservative, inside the party she is closely linked to Bev McArthur and was vehemently opposed to the party bail out to save Pesutto.
Four of her administrative committee colleagues this week joined Harkin in the Supreme Court challenge to the loan Erin Hunt, Marcus Li, Anthony Schneider, and Ian Pugh. It pits them against the rest of the committee, including Opposition Leader Brad Battin, who are now all defendants in the case which returns to court this week.
Senior Liberals were hoping the case would go away quickly, the exact same wishful thinking employed at the start of the legal saga between Pesutto and Moira Deeming that led to this fresh case. That was almost two and a half years ago.
Baz doesn’t think this will last that long, but good luck wishing it away. Watch this space.
Hefty headshot price
Who’s a pretty boy then? Baz wonders if Opposition Leader Brad Battin knew he’d become the pin-up boy for the Melbourne Headshot Company when he forked out the $970 for the custom photo shoot after taking the top job?
But there he is, front and centre of the company’s website as a testimonial of just what magic their photographers can achieve in “creating powerful branding images that build credibility, create connections and convey confidence.”
One testimonial on the website boasts that photographer Andrew “a magician!” Battin might need a little bit of magic to get his team in an election winning position as the state election draws nearer.
He might like to make a magic wand and make some Liberals disappear, too.
Fijian favours
Last month members of the Fijian Parliament visited Spring St for a crash course in parliamentary oversight and accountability mechanisms.
This week we returned the favour, with researchers from the Victorian Parliament joined an international team on a delegation to Fiji’s parliament to supporting their efforts to strengthen budget oversight.
The visit forms part of the twinning partnership between the Fiji and Victorian Parliaments. Baz hopes those helping could steer the Fijians well clear of the often pointless mechanisms used here and trumped as transparency measures, like the usually ineffective Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.
Originally published as Backroom Baz: New top cop keeps low profile through week of childcare horror
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