Backroom Baz: Daniel Andrews seen flitting about offering up his advice

Former premier Daniel Andrews has been spotted busily jetting about lately and rumour has it he has been taking on some lucrative new ventures.

Former premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews has been keeping busy. Picture: AFP

The former Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, has been spotted jetting around on planes of late, and even snapped by haters sleeping on a plane next to his new business mate and little-known former political staffer, Zheng Mei aka Marty.

Baz’s sources say Dan is in some need of serious shut eye considering how busy he has been.

It was revealed early in the week he has been hired by cardboard king Anthony Pratt to consult with Visy Industries at a rumoured $100,000 a month.

But Dan was also recently spotted at an event in Western Australia organised by mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.

It’s hot talk of the town that Andrews has entered a $15m arrangement to liaise with the Chinese on Twiggy’s behalf on future and current projects. The new hire also comes as Twiggy moves to cut up to 700 workers and postpone the ambitious 15 million tonne target set for hydrogen fuel production.

So, Baz thinks maybe Twiggy should ask the master for some tips on how to bury the bad news story.

Baz thinks maybe Twiggy should ask the master for some tips on how to bury the bad news story. Picture: Jane Dempster

Third time lucky

Third time’s a charm, as the Liberal Party’s deputy state director Sarah Overton found out this week. Overton was caught where so many Liberal HQ staffers have been stuck before her, in an IT nightmare that belies the fact we’re now in 2024 and email has been with us for some decades.

Overton sent three media alerts to the party’s weekend conference, recalling two of them because of simple errors that were obviously missed in the proof reading process.

But it wasn’t so much the IT drama that caught Baz’s attention, rather the fact Overton had quietly been appointed the party’s deputy state director.

The very ambitious and well regarded Overton slips into the role following an unsuccessful attempt at preselection for the seat of Warrandyte.

But she is said to have impressed the party and is seen by many as an ultimate MP.

In the meantime some have pondered whether Overton might find herself taking over from John Pesutto’s chief of staff, Louise Staley, closer to the election should Staley chose to recontest her seat of Ripon. Time will tell.

Governor of Victoria Margaret Gardner had interesting calls this week. Picture: Diego Fedele

Calls spark chatter

Victorian Governor Margaret Gardner had Spring St tongues wagging this week when she announced, via her vice-regal X account, that she had received phone calls from both Deputy Premier Ben Carroll and jetsetting treasurer Tim Pallas.

Was a coup in the works? Was Pallas about to resign, fresh off the back of his latest international junket to the US? Alas, no. Baz is assured nothing so spicy. In fact His Majesty’s local stand-in wanted simply to check in on the ministers’ portfolios: education, in the case of Carroll, and the state’s finances, in the case of Pallas. Baz reckons one of those phone calls might have been a little longer than the other.

But he wonders what prompted the calls. Did word make its way to the Governor’s desk that there was much angst inside the government about the CFMEU fallout?

Greens need to get house in order

They say if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything. Well, if that’s true Baz reckons Greens Lord Mayoral hopeful Roxane Ingleton might have already taken her first tumble just days into her campaign.

Asked this week about her vision for Melbourne, Ingleton wouldn’t, or couldn’t say. Instead the 43-year-old midwife batted away questions at her first press conference, telling assembled journalists she was there to talk about the city’s housing crisis.

And when pressed she snapped back: “all our policies are out there, you know what we represent, today is about launching our housing policy”.

That’s hardly a way to ingratiate yourself with voters. On housing, the Greens’ policy requires that 30 per cent of new developments in urban renewal areas in the City of Melbourne be public and genuinely affordable housing.

David Davis has been fighting for access to project-related documents about the SRL. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

FOI goes off the rails

With trains not expected to run on the controversial Suburban Rail Loop for at least another 11 years, it seems no one connected with the project is in a rush to get much anything done .

Senior Liberal David Davis has been fighting for more than a year for access to project-related documents under Freedom of Information laws and, unsurprisingly, he’s come up empty-handed.

“We are completely unimpressed with the claim that the Suburban Rail Loop Authority’s governance branch faced delays with staff on leave over the Christmas holiday period. To the best of our knowledge, Christmas is a predictable festival (and associated holidays) that occur at the same time … every year,” Davis said.

Overheard

Premier promises to help AFL great Brendan Fevola celebrate his very own statue, beating Daniel Andrews to be bronzed.

Guess Who?

Which long-serving government staffer is tipped to soon be promoted to Deputy Director of Media in the Premier’s Private Office?