Backroom Baz: Polarising Peulich primed for director’s chair

Fresh from her fire sale of printer cartridges last week, former state upper house MP Inga Peulich seems keen for a new job, while a Labor candidate has heaped praise on a former Liberal premier and an embattled for speaker is suddenly kicking goals.

Fresh from her fire sale of printer cartridges last week, former state upper house MP Inga Peulich seems keen for a new job.

Liberals say Peulich has put her hand up to be the party’s next state director.

The man in the chair at the moment, Simon Frost, took the reins this year after Nick Demiris fell on his sword following a disastrous November state election campaign.

But Frost has made it clear to every man and his dog that he is not hanging around after the federal election.

This means there will be a vacancy at some stage this year, and Baz’s sources say the polarising Peulich is primed and ready for duty.

Whether some of her former party room colleagues would be ready is another question entirely.

Labor candidate Maurice Billi heaped praise on former Liberal Premier Denis Napthine. Picture: David Crosling

LABOR OF LOVE

Baz loves to listens to the wireless and tunes in to 3YB FM every week to listen to former Victorian premier Denis Napthine host his own show.

Last week Baz must have misheard because it sounded like Labor candidate for the federal seat of Wannon was praising the former Liberal MP.

Asked to name some of his political idols, Maurice Billi couldn’t help but heap praise on the former premier.

State Labour MP Catherine King. Picture: AAP

ABC journo Patricia Karvelas.

TWITTER SLIP FOR LABOR MP

Baz couldn’t help but notice Labor’s would-be health minister Catherine King
made a bit of a slip on Twitter this week.

Responding to a post by ABC journalist Patricia Karvelas about her partner — who had unfortunately been in a bike accident — King posted the response, “I hope he’s OK”.

Within six minutes King had deleted the tweet and replaced with a more gender-neutral pronoun. “I hope they’re OK,” she wrote.

In an effort to find a non-binary tag King went with a plural that seemed to imply PK — as she is known — had more than one injured partner.

Baz is confident PK has just the one partner, and hopes Pete is doing OK.

Former speaker Telmo Languiller is now head of international relations for Melbourne Victory. Picture: Tim Carrafa

TELMO SHOOTS FOR VICTORY

Former Speaker Telmo Languiller is kicking goals again.

Languiller, who retired from politics last year after falling from grace when he rorted a taxpayer-funded allowance, has updated his LinkedIn to announce a position as head of international relations at Melbourne Victory.

As the first Latin-American to have been elected as an MP in an Australian parliament, Languiller has long been known for his strong connections back home.

No doubt he will put them to good use.

NO EMERGENCY IN HOLIDAY BLUES

The state control centre was rocked this month when the Herald Sun revealed four senior staff had been stood down amid an investigation into the inappropriate disclosure of confidential information.

One of them was Natalie Staaks, the general manager of community, communication and media with a divisive reputation inside Emergency Management Victoria.

Insiders were quick to point out that in the days before the story broke, she had posted an ad for her job in LinkedIn, saying it was a “great opportunity” available for six months.

Turns out Staaks was already planning to go on
long-service leave before she was stood down.

Good timing.

Chris Reilly landed on his feet with a plum gig at Crown Casino.

HI-RISE REILLY UPS THE ANTE

Liberal lovers suffered a sky-high surprise as they passed around the plate at a swanky fundraiser late last month.

Premier Daniel Andrews’ former staffer Chris Reilly was spotted among the dollar-delivering donors atop the Eureka Skydeck.

Baz imagines Reilly would have been hard pressed to earn an invite as Dan’s “fixer”, but it seems the red carpet was rolled out after he landed a plum gig working for Crown casino.

Reilly’s appearance at the Enterprise 500 event certainly raised eyebrows but as one witness suggested, he had every right to be there.

Money talks.