The Source: NSW Premier raises the stakes with Melbourne sledge
Poor Chris Minns is like a dog with a bone offcut – and why he wants to start a beef with Victoria, we will never know.
The Source
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Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers.
The tweet was more Minns meat than filet mignon. But why the NSW Premier wants to start a beef with Victoria, The Source will never know.
Most of us gave up the Melbourne-Sydney rivalry – big yawn – long before it was clear that Melbourne would be bigger, better and thoroughly more distinguished than its shameless sister city to the north.
But poor Minns is like a dog with a bone offcut.
Boasting that five Sydney restaurants made the cut for a world top 50 list of steak eateries, Premier Chris Minns added: “And the best part … not a single one from Melbourne.”
You mean the Melbourne with an actual restaurant in the world’s best 50 longlist? Or the Melbourne that’s the home of the Australian Grand Prix, Australia Open, and a globally significant horse race?
It may be good-natured gristle from Minns, but interstate rivalry from a Labor leader seems a little hammy.
Cash is king for Aussie royal to spill tea on coronation
They say cash is king, and it seems His Royal Highness on the Hume feels the same.
Simon Abney-Hastings, the 15th Earl of Loudoun, will be the only Australian to play a role in the coronation of King Charles – but it will cost the media some pretty pennies to speak with the local royal ahead of the big day.
The Source hears the Earl is requesting media cover the cost of his return airfare from Melbourne to London – about $2680 – in exchange for a sitdown interview.
He has even drawn on the considerable expertise of celebrity agent Max Markson, who has boasted clients including Corey Worthington, Lara Bingle and Pamela Anderson, although Markson clarifies that his royal engagement goes only to fundraising — and not media — strategies for the man who might have been King.
The Wangaratta local and keen Highland Games fan will swap the Victorian countryside for Westminster Abbey, where he will carry the Great Golden Spurs in the coronation ceremony on May 6.
According to a 2004 documentary, the Aussie Earl, who answers to “Simon” locally, could have been monarch if questions of sexual shenanigans and regal illegitimacy had been handled differently 750-odd years ago. He is a direct descendant of King Richard III’s brother, George.
But Abney-Hastings has always been a staunch supporter of King Charles and Queen Elizabeth – he has even exchanged Christmas cards with the monarch.
Big VCAT change sparked by media-shy members
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal is where all the state’s tiniest disputes are resolved.
Want to spend months of your life fighting your neighbour about your fence being 7cm to the left of where it should be? Go to VCAT.
Want to wait years for an incompetent doctor or sleazy lawyer to get a slap on the wrist? Go to VCAT.
The tribunal has such a backlog of cases that it’s decided it’s just too hard to list some types of cases.
You might think VCAT would be prioritising some serious administrative reforms.
But no, instead, among the top of VCAT’s list of priorities is trying to hide its members’ identities from the public.
The Source has been made aware the tribunal is “updating” its media policy so that news outlets will stop naming members.
Where is this media policy? Certainly not on the tribunal’s website, much of which appears to be broken.
A gentle reminder that our newly media-shy VCAT members receive between $259,062 and $369,755 a year from the taxpayer teat – more than a state MP.
Packed field vying to be governor
In 2015, Linda Dessau was announced as the 29th governor of Victoria, 140 days before she moved into Government House (with that signature belltower).
With 65 days remaining until Dessau moves out, the identity of the 30th governor remains unknown.
Premier Dan Andrews isn’t saying — not yet, anyway — and into the vacuum of knowledge has swept an ever growing list of candidate names.
It’s a packed field. Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp was rumoured to definitely have — or definitely not have — the job a few weeks ago.
Judicial luminaries, from former chief justice of the Supreme Court Marilyn Warren to chief magistrate Lisa Hannan, have been touted as possibilities, along with Visit Victoria chair Janet Whiting.
As Dessau travels Turkiye (a rebrand for the former Turkey) to mark Anzac Day and pursue further trade opportunities, before taking her a place in Westminster for King Charles’ coronation on May 6, yet another name can go on the list.
Ro Allen is Victoria’s equal opportunity and human rights commissioner. Previously, Allen was the state’s first commissioner for LGBTIQ+ Communities.
If the socially progressive Allen snared the role, they would become the first non-binary governor.
It’s said Allen wouldn’t mind the plum gig, which comes with a free mansion (and state ballroom) within walking distance of the MCG, and a licence to pursue your preferred charities and agendas.
To be fair, who wouldn’t?
Got a tip? Email us at thesource@heraldsun.com.au
Where there’s smoke, there’s ire
Campbell Brown was a magnet for trouble on and off the football field during his illustrious career.
And once again the former Hawthorn premiership player has found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
At a recent AFL function, Campbell was chatting to a couple of girls who were on the vapes, when league media guru Jay Allen approached to warn they would be booted out if they continued.
After Brown was absent from Channel 7’s blockbuster Anzac Day coverage, there were whispers vapegate was to blame.
The story grew legs with his mates on this week’s edition of Herald Sun’s Browny podcast, with Campbell seemingly confessing Channel 7 had ditched him due to his behaviour at the function.
“They (Channel 7) haven’t officially said this but I think I have been stood down for a few weeks,” Campbell told co-host Jonathon Brown.
“I got a rap on the knuckles. Not a lot of it made sense upon reflection, but in the moment I was underdressed,” he joked.
But when The Source made contact, Campbell insisted the show hosts had taken a little poetic licence in suggesting that was the reason he wasn’t part of the Anzac Day coverage.
Campbell works at the Seven Network as a VFL commentator and AFL boundary rider.
He joked that as an asthmatic he had never smoked, adding if anyone ever saw him partaking in the “watermelon vape” they could be sure he’d had a few bevvies too many.
Is Setka mulling exit?
Is construction union boss John Setka about to resign in order to spend more time with his wife in court?
Union circles have been abuzz with speculation that as part of a changing of the guard at the CFMEU, Setka plans to step aside as Victorian branch head this year — a year early, as elections aren’t due until next year — and current branch assistant secretary Derek Christopher has been anointed as successor.
It’s not like Setka wouldn’t have anything to fill his days.
Just a few weeks ago, his very estranged wife, Emma Walters, was charged with conspiracy to murder him. (She denies it.)
Also denied: that Setka’s moving on. “John is not stepping down,” a spokesperson said.
She doesn’t even go here
The Channel 7 executive producer at the centre of the “Mean Girls” reporters bullying scandal has quit.
Lynne Scrivens, who worked her last day in mid-April, was mostly unheard of, in the tradition of TV executives, until she penned some unusually loose emails to staff a few years ago.
One was titled, “Year of the Woman – please read”, which told female reporters she was “so done” with the “bitching and backstabbing”.
“People who spend spare time at work looking for stories, not gossiping or online shopping, will do well in 2019,” she wrote.
It’s not known where Scrivens is headed. But here’s hoping she does well in 2023.
Tyra living the (SMiZE &) dream at Anzac Day clash
Supermodel Tyra Banks once said, rather famously: “Flaws are awesome — ‘flawsome.’ I love making up a word.”
Indeed, that made-up word applied when the friendly and hospitable Banks inexplicably appeared at the Anzac Day match at the MCG to watch the Pies battle the Bombers.
Banks, the former America’s Next Top Model and Dancing With The Stars host, is in town to explore business opportunities for her ice cream brand, SMiZE & DREAM.
Given the horrific mark-up on food prices at the footy, Tyra might like the profit margins for an ice cream stall at the ’G.
But, try as she might to get her head around Aussie rules, the game had her licked.
Banks noted the “yellow team” was “hopeless” because they “weren’t getting the ball”.
She was talking about the umpires.
Danhattan?
It’s some way from Mulgrave, or China for that matter, but is New York to be the home of bright lights, big dreams – and Dan Andrews?
Let’s join the dots. Andrews is supposedly set to walk away from politics before Christmas, after almost 10 years as Premier.
He recently passed John Cain for days served – more than eight years – and will soon eclipse Sir Rupert Hamer.
There is a statue in the offering, and any number of sites which could be named after him – think the Dan Andrews Arena, Andrews Hall, or the Chairman Dan’s Lounge for high-flying Qantas customers.
And, as Herald Sun stablemate Backroom Baz attests, at least some of Dan’s latte liaisons with senior business figures in recent months have not been about the set of challenging budget numbers ahead.
Spring St gossips have told The Source that Andrews loves New York.
No, he is indeed “obsessed with the idea of New York”, one says.
Could Andrews stroll down 5th Ave, unrecognised, his hard hat replaced with a Yankees cap, inquiring of hotdog vendors whether they’re “ready to go”?
Other insiders say the premier is unlikely to get a bite of the Big Apple, with highly lucrative gigs in Melbourne being seriously discussed and more probable.
But as Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw says: “Anything is possible. This is New York”.
Do you know more? Let us know thesource@heraldsun.com.au
Waving the chequered flag on Walker estate
The late Ron Walker, former lord mayor and Melbourne’s chief spruiker, had a favourite saying: “But is it world class?”
The question need not apply to his family abode, Huntingfield, in Albany Rd, Toorak. For those with $60 million-odd in spare change, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presents in its forthcoming sale.
But snaring a buyer’s pole position will mean getting in fast.
Given the estate’s world-class features, including a couple of pools, marble and wrought-iron gates, an eight-car garage, its design by architect firm Bates Smart, and the obligatory fountain and waterfall, international tycoons are expected to join locals posting expressions of interest before the chequered flag is waved on the sale on June 7.
Lots on her plate
She’s the brutal blogger who leaked vision of former WAG Nadia Bartel hovering over, and possibly hoovering up, a platter of disco sugar.
However, as Nadia broke her silence on the scandal with Stellar Magazine, Plategate documentarian Ellie Pearson quietly relocated to Bali.
Is it a coincidence Nadia’s former BFF chose to vanish as Bartel racked up remorseful lines about the incident?
Bartel and Pearson are still business partners alongside Bec Judd, spruiking oompa-loompa oil, Spray Aus.
Send us a tip thesource@heraldsun.com.au
Pipe down, possums
Posh diners in an up-market eatery in Malvern Rd, relishing the main dish of a celebrity in their midst, sent the fine dining establishment into a verbose hum.
That is, until the superstar in question, Barry Humphries, soured, like a lemon torte, about his rowdy surroundings.
“He stood up and addressed everybody in the restaurant,” Melbourne antiques dealer and Humphries’ dining companion Ed Clark recalled of their December dinner date.
“He told them sternly, ‘This restaurant is very noisy!’ He sat down and you could have heard a pin drop. There was no noise for the entire meal.”
Rest in (decorous) peace, Mr Humphries, who died last week aged 89.
Loving the unloved
The recently-departed Father Bob Maguire was a friend to the downtrodden – the unloved, the unlovely, even aspiring politicians.
Nicholas Reece, of the ALP and now deputy-mayor of Melbourne, hit up Father Bob more than 20 years ago. Would the good priest marry Reece and his bride Felicity, despite a clash of religious faiths?
“Don’t worry about that,” Father Bob replied, “if you truly love each other I will do the deed.”
As Reece now says, after many years of wedded bliss: “What a guy”.
Singing in the meme
His nearest and dearest are prolific social media sharers, but Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock legend Ross Wilson swears a forthcoming song, She’s On Facebook All The Time, has no family ties.
Wilson and wife, Tania, have 10k Insta followers between them. Tania’s daughter, actor Olympia Valance, has double that.
“It’s nice and simple and loud and fun,” Wilson said of the song.
“It’s a stage favourite, and I’ve been honing it for a while. People look at each other like, ‘Yeah, you are on social media all the bloody time!’
“It’s not about anyone in particular. It’s a broad commentary and the basic idea is, ‘She’s stuck on Facebook all the time … she’s got no time for lovin’.”
Happy ending
Gay Sauna Wet on Wellington narrowly avoided a serious legal cock-up last week.
Every few years, the sauna’s management has to beg the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for an exemption to the state’s discrimination laws, so that it can host steamy events for under-30 men.
We can’t explain the screw up, but the venue was nearly caught with its pants down.
The exemption was due to expire within days, meaning both the venue and its staff could have been exposed to severe penalties.
Lawyers gathered their robes (of the legal, not the bath variety), and dashed down to King St clutching a detailed affidavit about what goes on at 162 Wellington St.
In cracking good news for the club, there is a happy ending. A tribunal member (yes, that’s what they’re called) in a notice in last week’s government gazette, declared she was “satisfied” for the venue to be able to keep running its under-30, blokes only nights – for now at least.
We can only presume Wet on Wellington’s customers are thoroughly relieved.
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