By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten will write the next chapter in his long, long goodbye to politics next Thursday with his valedictory speech to parliament.
The NDIS minister doesn’t collect his cards until the next election, but since nobody supposedly knows when that will be, it’s better to get the formalities out of the way, we guess.
Bill Shorten leaves the press conference after announcing his departure from politics in September.Credit: AAP
After the speech, Shorten will gather a few pals for a little par-tay at a place called Ballyhoo on the site of the storied Lobby Restaurant. This was the scene of some unforgettable ballyhoo in 2012 when then-prime minister Julia Gillard was forced to hole up with opposition leader Tony Abbott when they were briefly besieged by a couple of hundred protesters.
Anyhoo, we were unable, at this early stage, to get hold of a guest list for the Shorten soiree, with his people telling us that there would be friends, family, acquaintances from both sides of politics, as well as members of the disability community on the night.
That’s all very nice, but we can’t help wondering if Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles might stop by. The two men aren’t close, politically, and belong to different factions of Labor’s Victorian Right, um, faction.
But you feel that what might really be peeving Marles this week is Sportsbet’s odds on who might succeed Anthony Albanese as Labor leader.
Despite his presence in the departure lounge, Shorten is paying $10, while Marles, who loves to remind people that he is the deputy prime minister, is a much longer shot at $18.
We asked Marles’ office on Thursday if their man had any thoughts on this state of affairs.
We haven’t heard back, although we did note Albo’s deputy was swift to change his letterhead in emails to “Acting Prime Minister” as soon as the boss left the country this week.
Fisk management
We brought word on Thursday of the runaway popularity of the ABC’s lawyerly sitcom Fisk among the nation’s legal profession, but things are getting a bit silly when the national broadcaster has to go and tackle bootleg material from its hit show.
Fisk’s star Kitty Flanagan this month told a special live performance of Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales’ Chat 10, Looks 3 podcast at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall of the ABC’s efforts to protect its copyright over the comedy.
The actor recounted how the broadcaster had come into minor conflict with real-life law firm Maurice Blackburn, where they fancy themselves as Australia’s leading legal plaintiff law firm, standing up for the little guy and all of that.
At issue was an unauthorised screenshot of the program which the do-gooding law firm had posted on Facebook without permission.
The ABC declined to comment. But a spokesman for Maurice Blackburn said the incident occurred in 2021 and the law firm had responded to a request from an ABC social media lead and swiftly removed the post.
Now Maurice Blackburn posts relating to the show contain the disclaimer: “This content is not endorsed by the ABC and Maurice Blackburn has no association with the ABC. Views and legal commentary are our own.”
Fisk 1, Maurice Blackburn 0.
Who watches the watchdog?
Anyone who has endured Gerard Henderson’s interminable Media Watch Dog column in The Australian will know his penchant for pedantry when it comes to fellow journalists.
So when, just after G and T hour on Wednesday, 700 guests took their seats at his Sydney Institute annual dinner, few missed the glaring error on the evening’s official program announcing the “2023 annual dinner lecture”.
Can you bear it?
We expect Comrade Henderson to address this whoopsie in his online weekend opus.
The keynote was delivered by Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, who revved up the crowd with more details about the Albanese government’s policy about banning kids from the internet.
Rowland was joined by a few friends from the Labor-verse who showed up among a distinctly centre-right big business-type crowd at The Star, including Speaker Milton Dick and Deputy Premier Prue Car.
CBD was more intrigued by the night’s guest list, which included Sarkis Nassif, the brother and former business partner of fugitive disgraced property developer Jean Nassif, who would rather take his chances in war-torn Lebanon than with Australian authorities.
Sarkis, who isn’t accused of any wrongdoing, shared a table with former Liberal senator Zed Seselja and ex-NSW finance minister Damien Tudehope.
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