By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Since being found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and effectively banned from operating in Australia, colourful neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has been finding ways to keep busy.
From low-grade culture war troll to News Corp darling, sought-after international medical expert and wannabe celebrity magnet, Teo, who faced strict supervision conditions on his practising certificate over two disastrous operations, seems to be getting by OK without his scalpel.
Charlie Teo pictured with Traci Griffiths last year.Credit: Dean Sewell
It’s also meant Teo is able to devote some time to his latest passion project – vegan activism. Over the weekend, the doctor was spotted among the ranks of activists who regularly show up at Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall to confront shoppers with graphic images of the meat industry’s barbarity. He also showed up at an Animal Justice Party protest calling for a ban on greyhound racing.
Now, CBD has no issue with veganism – but we did think it odd to see Teo, who’s recently expressed admiration for carnivorous culture warriors like Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson (he of the all-beef diet), become such an outspoken advocate for plant-based living.
We suspect this latest development might have something to do with Teo’s new-ish love interest and suspected fiancee, model Traci Griffiths, an animal rights activist of the picket-outside-abattoirs variety who’s been documenting Teo’s transition to vegan rabble-rouser on the socials over the past year or so.
BANK ON IT
We reckon Gaven Morris has earnt a bit of the quiet life. The ex-ABC News boss regularly came under attack from Coalition senators in the estimates combat zone, to say nothing of constant pot-shots from the US-owned Murdoch media.
Since he stepped down from that job three years ago, Morris has been doing some consulting for Google, a little work with universities and even bobbed up recently conducting a strategic review of Nine, owner of this masthead’s embattled broadcast TV division.
And we hope – but can’t guarantee – that Morris finds the sailing smoother in his new gig as head of corporate affairs at the Commonwealth Bank, announced on Thursday.
Former ABC News director Gaven Morris.Credit: John Shakespeare
Now, obviously all the unpleasantness surrounding the dodgy dealings of the bank’s wealth management division – and the dirty tricks campaign waged by CommBank against our former colleague Adele Ferguson over her efforts to expose those shenanigans – is all in the past.
But as frontman for the largest player in Australia’s very significant banking sector, and one of the nation’s most recognisable brands, Morris will have to expect the odd curly one to lob across his desk.
We gave him a shout on Thursday, to see how he was feeling about the whole thing. We didn’t hear back.
VAUCLUSE NUKES
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s wholehearted embrace of big government and nuclear energy was never going to satisfy everyone in the Liberal Party’s broad church.
But over in the harbourside electorate of Wentworth, where voters abandoned the party for teal independent Allegra Spender, the local Liberal federal electorate conference, led by barrister Peter King (who held the seat before one Malcolm Turnbull knifed him in a preselection contest) seem nuclear-crazy.
Next month, Vaucluse Liberals are even hosting a special event at Double Bay Bowling Club where members can hear from “two of Australia’s most prominent spokespersons on nuclear energy” – Nationals MPs Keith Pitt and David Gillespie.
CBD readers might recall that this isn’t the first time Pitt, the bumbling Bundaberg MP, has headed to Sydney’s teal seats to evangelise about nuclear energy. In March, he took a break from polishing Gina Rinehart’s Rossi boots to deliver the small modular reactor spiel in Warringah.
Which had us wondering why it was left up to the Nats to spruik Dutton’s nuclear policy in what was once the Liberal Party’s heartland. With the teal independents all staunchly opposed to nuclear, surely there’s someone in the broad church ready to take the policy fight to them. After all, it’s not like Dutton’s going to be putting a reactor in Bellevue Hill.
Perhaps given the Liberals are so pessimistic about beating Spender in Wentworth they tried to convince her to join their party room, they’re not entirely serious about winning the seat. Or maybe their hearts just aren’t in the nuclear fight.
SHARING ECONOMY
In the two weeks since the Australian Electoral Commission announced plans to abolish the Melbourne seat of Higgins, we’d barely heard a peep from Bronwen Bock and Lucy Bradlow, the women determined to defy commonsense and the scepticism of constitutional experts to become Australia’s first “job-share MPs”, beyond a brief Instagram post expressing disappointment.
On Wednesday, we got another update. The good news is that the $80 branded hoodies are still for sale. The better news is Bradlow and Bock are determined to continue with their unserious publicity stunt, Higgins or no Higgins.
They’re asking supporters for cash, hoping to raise $20,000 by the end of July. What are they doing with it?
“With the AEC’s announcement, we are now on the back foot. To continue our campaign in a new capacity in the next federal election, we need to reinvest in all the building blocks of our campaign,” the pair said, listing campaign strategy, team and branding as areas in need of investment.
It’s quite the ask.
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