The Sauce: Why are Liberal staffers heading for the door?
THE Berejiklian government may be headed for an election victory in March, but the ministerial staff turnstile down at the Martin Place headquarters suggests otherwise. Transport Minister Andrew Constance chief spinner recently resigned.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Sauce is a new weekly column covering the top end of town — all levels of politics, business and the law. The Sunday Telegraph senior reporters Linda Silmalis, Miranda Wood and Annika Smethurst go behind the headlines.
LIBERAL STAFF NOT RESIGNED TO A WIN
THE Berejiklian government may be headed for an election victory in March, but the ministerial staff turnstile down at the Martin Place headquarters suggests otherwise.
Among the resignations are senior media adviser Kelvin Bissett, who departs the office of Education Minister Rob Stokes. It is understood Bissett, who navigated the office through the Punchbowl High scandal, is a free agent.
Also out the door this year was Alicia Wood as Transport Minister Andrew Constance’s chief spinner. Not surprisingly, her vacant position took months to fill.
Keiran Byrne, from Treasurer Dominic Perrottet’s office, and Jessica Cole, media adviser to Roads Minister Melinda Pavey, both made the jump to Canberra. Byrne now works for Perrottet’s federal counterpart Scott Morrison while Cole moved to Michaelia Cash’s media team.
PINK’S TICKET OF APPROVAL
FOR once there’s an upside to treating a patient with a gastric virus — but only because that patient is an international pop star. Pink has shouted her medical team at St Vincent’s Hospital tickets to her next Sydney show on Saturday night. It’s understood the special invitations also include plus-ones.
“St Vincent’s Hospital is rad, you guys,” Pink told her audience last weekend, four days after she was discharged.
“They’re really nice there. I had an awesome doctor. He was really funny and he liked me. “Most times doctors don’t like me, cause I know everything. So thanks to them.”
St Vincent’s gets its fair share of celebrity patients but Pink may just be their favourite now.
LABOR LUMINARIES IT CAN’T PUT OUT
SHE was expelled for “unworthy conduct”; he was thrown out for running against an endorsed candidate — but Labor officials have not heard the last of former federal MP Belinda Neal or Fairfield City Mayor Frank Carbone.
The pair have gone to extraordinary means to have their memberships reinstated.
While Carbone has been relentlessly lobbying MPs, Neal has been fighting her expulsion in the party’s national appeals tribunal.
In a somewhat creepy move — or it could have been an innocent mistake — Neal also last week “liked” a year-old tweet broadcasting her expulsion that had been posted by NSW ALP general secretary Kaila Murnain.
It also appears the party has not heard the last of Emma Husar.
The Sauce hears talks are under way for the denounced MP to appear on Ten’s The Project for a “tell-all” with host Carrie Bickmore.
POWER TANTRUM PROVES TURN-OFF
MARGINAL seat holders can be quite demanding when election time rolls around. But a recent request by Ann Sudmalis, who holds her South Coast seat by a razor-thin margin of 0.73 per cent, takes the cake.
In a party meeting last week, the Gilmore MP told colleagues power prices must drop by almost 50 per cent if she had any hope of holding her seat at the next election. If she was looking for sympathy or solutions, she got neither. Instead, a colleague told her to tidy up her resume and update LinkedIn in preparation for civilian life.
THIS MP IS TOO CLEVER BY SCARF
LIBERAL MP Ian Goodenough has earned himself a reputation as one of the most generous members of federal Parliament. The West Australian backbencher has become known for returning from work trips with exotic gifts for his parliamentary colleagues.
In a sign of his bipartisanship, a number of lucky ladies from both sides of the chamber have been the beneficiaries of his recent international shopping excursions.
MORE: CIVIL WAR ERUPTS OVER WHO WILL REPLACE EMMA HUSAR
On one jaunt to Asia the Liberal MP even carted back a heavy stone sculpture for one female member of Malcolm Turnbull’s ministry.
He also spent hours exploring shops and markets for the perfect silk scarf for one lucky colleague.
Sources say the female MP was seen wearing the stylish stole during a recent parliamentary debate.
LOOKING LIKE A TWEET AFTER TEXT
POLITICIANS can be very busy, so a NSW press gallery hack wasn’t surprised when his call to a minister went through to message bank.
The immediate text follow-up from the male MP was surprising though, especially from one who knows the danger of an errant text, and is keen to avoid controversy.
“Can you text baby?” he wrote to the bemused journalist.
Baby? The Sauce guesses he was aiming for ‘buddy’ … but that predictive text can be tricky.
COLUMN IS TOO GOOD TO IG-SNORE
IT’S nice to see the launch edition of The Sauce last week was read keenly by plenty of MPs — especially the item on the apparently sleepy member for Epping.
He was thanked by the NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet in Question Time for a friendly question on infrastructure.
“He is always awake to his constituents’ needs,” the Treasurer grinned.
“And he is always alert but never alarmed.”
There were guffaws from both sides of the house.
The official Hansard didn’t pick up Damien Tudehope shooting back (with good humour): “He won’t be getting an extra two minutes.”