The Sauce: Gladiator’s hot romance with fellow politician
TONGUES have been wagging in political circles about One Nation Senator Peter Georgiou — who once posed as a semi-naked Spartacus in his campaign for a better GST deal — dating Liberal MP Eleni Petinos. But was it “fake news”?
NSW
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WAS this one of the hottest political romances of the year?
According to several Liberal sources, Liberal MP Eleni Petinos was until recently dating One Nation Senator Peter Georgiou. Tongues began wagging after Georgiou — who once posed as a semi-naked Spartacus in his campaign for a better GST deal — flew over from WA to Sydney to attend a Battle of Crete ceremony at Martin Place in May which Ms Petinos also attended.
One senior Liberal source said it was not the only Sydney-stopover Mr Georgiou had made, with the pair catching up regularly.
“It was an open secret that they were dating,” the source said.
Despite The Sauce giving the couple the stamp of approval, Ms Petinos said it was “fake news”.
“No we aren’t dating,’’ she texted in response to our query.
“We are friends.”
BENNELONG BIFF
THE replacement of Labor candidate Lyndal Howison in Bennelong with neurosurgeon Brian Owler has the Left crying foul, but a senior source from the Right claims it was amicable.
With the Right having had an unsuccessful shot at the seat with Kristina Keneally, the party office offered it to the Left, only for the faction to struggle to find a candidate.
It’s understood the party office extended nominations for a month to allow the faction to come up with a representative.
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At the same time, Labor leader Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek had been wooing neurosurgeon Brian Owler to come on board in a campaign that’s understood to have been under way for weeks.
Eventually the Left convinced former Labor staffer Lyndal Howison to nominate, only for Owler to inform the party that he too was keen.
“Lyndal was more than happy to stand aside,” the source said.
Howison explained her decision in an email to Bennelong members and is understood to have stated that Owler had a better chance of winning the seat than she did.
BLAST FROM THE PAST
LABOR stalwarts will remember the NSW premier we all forgot.
Believe it or not, it has been 10 years since Nathan Rees’ meteoric rise to the top job after Morris Iemma resigned.
In the big chair for just 15 months, the former garbage collector will be the guest of honour at a 10th anniversary dinner on November 19 to celebrate his time as the 41st NSW premier.
Speakers on the night will include Labor legends Bob Carr, Carmel Tebbutt and John Faulkner.
But it won’t be a cheap night out — to reminisce with Rees will cost $2000 for a table of 10.
PARKING SHERIFF SHAMED
WHEN Parramatta councillor Benjamin Barrak rolled up to a recent council meeting in his black Mercedes, he was preparing to lay down the law over parking.
The long-haired hero of stung motorists everywhere had a motion on the agenda arguing the council has wrongly doled out thousands of parking fines since September 2017.
The lawyer and property developer says council rules state parking rangers can only use chalk, but they have been using industrial crayon.
The technicality threatens to blow a $1.9 million hole in the Western Sydney council’s budget.
Sources say his motion is payback for a parking fine he copped last year on Sorrell St, North Parramatta. (The Liberal denies the incident.)
The only problem at the meeting? Barrak parked his SUV in a disabled parking spot on the holy ground of St Patrick’s Cathedral — a temporary meeting spot while a new council building is constructed. Barrak has confessed his sins to The Sauce.
“It looks like I’ve made a mistake while rushing to get to the council meeting on time,” he told Sauce correspondent Ben Pike.
“Thanks for bringing this to my attention.”
Because the meeting ran overtime, Barrak’s motion was carried over until Monday night’s meeting. The Sauce will be watching, Benjamin.
GOD SAVE TWITTER
THE Sauce would like to welcome Anthony Roberts and Rob Stokes to 2018. Both NSW ministers have finally joined Twitter to promote their good political deeds ahead of the state election in March.
For his first post, Roberts — fond of declaring God Save the Queen in parliament — posted pictures of him and his wife, Alicia, farewelling the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Sydney Airport.
But the monarchist’s Twitter feed might not be everyone’s cup of tea with the Planning Minister following only 18 accounts, most of those Liberal colleagues including Tony Abbott.
Stokes is still yet to follow anyone but his first post sums up what we can expect from the Education Minister over the next five months: “Can’t think of a better first tweet than to acknowledge all our wonderful teachers in NSW on #WorldTeachersDay.”
TURNBULL TALKS
IF anyone is qualified to talk about change and disruption, it’s Malcolm Turnbull so it’s no surprise the dumped PM has been snagged as guest speaker at the $10,000-a-table 2018 Australian Bar Association national conference “Rise 2018”.
Flyers for the legal talkfest highlight the theme for the two-day gathering as “relevance”, “resilience” and “respect”.
On the topic of resilience, the agenda explains the theme will be about “the ability of the profession to adapt to change and disruption”.
Turnbull will be joined by top judges and barristers along with NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman and Opposition Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
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