Backroom Baz: Sutton’s cheat sheets, car park cash and the tax man

The CHO’s press conference cheat sheets spark talk he’s been leashed by the government. Backroom Baz spills on Spring St.

Close observers of the theatre that has become Victoria’s daily press conferences may have noticed something peculiar of late.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has been, unmistakably, reading from a script.

For a bloke who has given more press conferences than just about anybody else over the past 18 months, Baz finds this odd.

Baz has his eye on Brett Sutton’s script. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Daniel Pockett

Particularly when the learned Professor has never previously relied on such extensive notes. Several times over the past fortnight he has read, verbatim, from a prepared script.

What could have prompted such a change in behaviour? Has he been “leashed” by the government, as some sources have suggested? Or is the government just so keen on keeping its messaging clear, that it is enforcing tighter controls around exactly who said what.

Given the Premier’s own department paid $2 million to run a project to monitor the views of Victorians, maybe they figured they’d get some bang for their buck.

SUTTON STILL SELLS

Baz has learnt that while Covid Commander Jeroen Weimar may be building a popular public profile, he remains streets behind original CHOttie Brett Sutton.

Ashley Ellis, the Melbourne artist behind a range of Covid-inspired works, says while merchandise featuring Weimar have been popular, Professor Sutton’s have been flying off the shelves.

“I’ve sold thousands of products,” she told Baz this week.

Ellis started her illustrated portrait series about this time last year as a way of documenting Melbourne lockdown.

“It was really just something to do to amuse myself and keep my own spirits up,” she said. She’s featured a number of pollies and members of the pandemic response team, as well as a couple of frontline workers, and this week added former deputy CHO Allen Cheng to the stable.

“When I drew Brett Sutton a friend asked if she could have his ‘mug on a mug’ so I uploaded it to Redbubble as a bit of a joke! Then someone got wind of it on Twitter and it went viral,” she said.

“I’ve definitely sold more CHO products than any of the others, however Commander Weimar is proving popular, too”.

Epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws was also added to the collection this week. Baz has written several pieces about Ellis’ work and has routinely, and rudely, failed to give credit to the illustrator, writer and editor from Melbourne’s west. So, credit where it’s due. Her brilliant work can be found at @ashleyelliscreative.

A MATTER OF SPEAKING

After revealing federal MP Tim Wilson was signed up with a talent agency to book speaking gigs, Baz was inundated with correspondence on the topic.

One reader claiming inside knowledge of the industry claimed speaking gigs were routinely used by MPs as tax avoidance mechanism.

Let Baz be clear, he is in no way suggesting Mr Wilson (a very honourable member) is in any way guilty of the following.

But it’s an interesting idea nonetheless.

Baz is told that some speaker put a massive price on their heads and claim that it was that charge for speaking events, say for argument’s sake, $2000.

However they almost never actually charge anywhere near that amount.

Still, they can then tell the tax office they donated those services, a $2000 donation, to charity and use it as a tax write-off.

At some point they need to be able to prove that somebody actually paid them $2000 to prove that their services are actually worth that on the open market.

Baz reckons that wouldn’t be hard to do. Interesting. 

SPRUIKING THROUGH GRITTED TEETH

Sometimes in this (barely) united federation politicians at different levels have to suck it up and smile for the camera together.

Mostly when both sides are stumping up cash.

The Victorian government took this principle to a new level when they put out a press release about the construction of 1200 new car parks at Craigieburn station.

The problem? The first half of the release, likely written by the feds, spruiks how the project was delivered with money from the infamous Urban Congestion Fund and lists similar projects underway.

It’s the very same scheme that was slammed by the Auditor-General last month for committing to car park funding without advice, targeted at Liberal-held seats, and which sparked fresh concerns over pork barrelling and corruption.

Although the Craigieburn project is in deep Labor heartland and probably a worthy investment, Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll must have had gritted teeth when he put his name to a statement spruiking the fund.

He publicly shared news of the Auditor-General’s damaging report to his Twitter account at the time.

You learn something new on this scandal every day - including one of the electorates canvassed for a commuter car park didn’t have a railway station! https://t.co/6x36FLykG2

— Ben Carroll (@BenCarrollMP) July 19, 2021

FROM THE ARCHIVES

And still on Professor Sutton. A little something from the archives, sent to Baz this week and too good to ignore.

An entry from an early 1990s University of Melbourne yearbook that pokes fun at the baby-faced “man child”.

The entry suggests he was quite man about campus, known for playing guitar, wearing hats and cowboy boots and getting piercings, er, everywhere.

From little things big things grow. Indeed.

GUESS WHO

Which MP is charging $4000 a ticket, that’s per head, for an upcoming fundraising dinner?