Former Howard government health minister and medical doctor Michael Wooldridge has enjoyed a more eventful post-political career than most.
That was until last Friday, when the legal battle he’s been embroiled in with the corporate watchdog for over a decade ended quietly in an empty courtroom, as Wooldridge avoided bankruptcy by the skin of his teeth.
Former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge has dodged bankruptcy after his lawyers quietly reached a deal with ASIC behind closed doors.Credit: Luis Ascui
Wooldridge’s legal troubles date back to his tenure as a director of retirement village company Prime Retirement and Aged Care Property Trust, which collapsed in 2010, taking $550 million in investors’ cash down the toilet with it. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission went after Wooldridge and two fellow directors for breaching their duties, succeeding in a 2014 Federal Court decision that was overturned on appeal.
In 2018, ASIC got a much-needed victory, successfully appealing to the High Court. In a landmark judgment, the court held that Wooldridge and friends had breached their directors’ duties by approving payment of $33 million out of the trust’s funds to its founder, controversial Porsche-driving businessman Bill Lewski.
The former minister was eventually whacked with a $20,000 fine and banned from being a company director for two years. Wooldridge has since served out his time in the sin bin, and has been doing a bit of lobbying work for the vaping industry. At one point he employed former Labor senator Sam Dastyari, a bloke who knows a thing or two about flying too close to the sun.
But Wooldridge’s tangle with ASIC resumed this year when the regulator sought to bankrupt him over their legal costs, thought to be in excess of $2 million. All those appeals stack up, and it seems ASIC has been waiting to get their bag since 2019 when the case was resolved.
Things were set for a showdown in the Federal Court last week. Instead, it all ended with a whimper as neither Wooldridge nor ASIC showed up.
The parties’ lawyers had quietly reached a deal behind closed doors, allowing the good doctor to dodge bankruptcy, finally putting an end to the sorry saga. Wooldridge was contacted for comment.
Get off the beers
Michelle Ainsworth, the former ABC Canberra bureau chief and editor of politics responsible for two of the most unpopular decisions among the inmates of Parliament House in recent memory, quietly departed the public broadcaster this week.
Not a fan of beer: former ABC Canberra bureau chief Michelle Ainsworth.
Ainsworth was heavily involved in the 2023 sacking of the ABC’s former political editor Andrew Probyn and his producer Brihony Speed, a move that left Probyn blindsided and sent shockwaves through the corridors of power.
Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and then-opposition leader Peter Dutton lashed the ABC’s move during their Midwinter Ball speeches that year, as the public broadcaster’s top brass awkwardly nodded along.
But Probyn, who’s found a new home at Nine, owner of this masthead, was one of the loudest critics of another controversial Ainsworth call – her decision to remove the office beer fridge in the press gallery bureau, which she described as out of step with attempts to bring a more dry culture to the Canberra bubble.
It seems the beer fridge has had the last laugh. Ainsworth quietly moved on from the press gallery shortly after the dust settled on the Probyn affair, and had, until recently, been managing Aunty’s news cadet program. ABC news boss Justin Stevens announced her departure to staff on Monday.
Ainsworth also received a Churchill Fellowship, and has since been busy travelling the world “to investigate declining trust in democracy and how the news media can slow this trend”. We’re desperately hoping she can come up with an answer, and we hear Ainsworth is keen to explore further options in this area.
We also hear there won’t be any staff drinks to toast Ainsworth’s departure. In this case, cracking a beer would probably be rather inappropriate.
Comeback trail
Former transport minister Jo Haylen quit cabinet this year after she was revealed to have used a taxpayer-funded chauffeur to take her to a boozy girls’ lunch at a Hunter Valley winery over the Australia Day long weekend.
Redemption arc? Former transport minister Jo Haylen.Credit: Wolter Peeters
But Haylen still has some clout with Premier Chris Minns. The big dog is set to be guest of honour at the Summer Hill MP’s upcoming annual fundraising dinner, to be held in the salubrious surrounds of the Wests Ashfield Leagues Club in August.
Could this be the beginning of a slow redemption arc?
Chauffeurgate wasn’t Haylen’s first strike as a minister. But these days, entitlements scandals can be shaken off. Just ask Sussan Ley, who once quit cabinet after using a taxpayer-funded trip to the Gold Coast to buy an apartment. Now she’s leader of the party. Never say never.
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