By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Six months on from her starring role tearing down an Indigenous Voice to parliament, Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price remains a hot ticket on the conservative pundit circuit.
Price is set to deliver the keynote at our favourite right-wing legal think tank The Samuel Griffith Society’s annual conference next month, amid a lineup that includes former attorney-general George Brandis and High Court justice James Edelman.
Music to her ears: This year is Mr Nampijinpa Price’s time to shine.Credit: John Shakespeare
But while things have been a bit slower for Price after last year’s frenetic referendum campaign, the career of her husband Colin Lillie, a luxuriously bearded Scottish-born country singer, has picked up the pace.
Lillie appeared alongside Price in one of the No campaign’s first ads last year, talking about how a Voice to parliament would divide his family. Now, he’s just released a new album called Honky-Tonk Southern Sky, which has even managed to get a few spins on enemy territory – the ABC!
And the self-described “gipsy Scotsman” has other media gigs in the works. He’s recently popped up amid the presenter list on ADH TV, the conservative streaming service founded by shock jock Alan Jones, featuring pundits like former Christian Lobby boss Lyle Shelton, arch-monarchist David Flint and News Corp opinionator Nick Cater.
Jones hasn’t streamed a show since this masthead revealed historical allegations of indecent assault against him, which he vehemently denies. We’re no clearer about when he’ll make his promised return to streaming.
But Lillie’s Brave Art (He’s Scottish, get it?) is coming soon and promises “an honest look into cancel culture and how it is strangling the arts industry”.
Sounds like fun. Although we doubt it’ll be strangling Colin any time soon.
CROSSOVER EPISODE
On Monday, this masthead revealed that for just $100, just a hundredth of the (alleged) price of a boozy dinner with Seven, you could hear all about Bruce Lehrmann’s thoughts on the criminal justice system.
Lehrmann’s 2022 trial for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in Parliament House collapsed because of juror misconduct. He denies the accusations and maintains his innocence.
He’ll be speaking at the Restoring the Presumption of Innocence conference, organised by Men’s Rights Activist Bettina Arndt, who recently claimed she’d been cancelled by “woke” Young Liberals who uninvited her from a University of Sydney Conservative Club event on the Brittany Higgins affair.
But a closer look at the people linked to Arndt’s Rushcutters Bay talkfest reveals that attendees could be in for a rather unusual crossover episode.
The conference is being hosted by Australians for Science and Freedom, a group described by Arndt as a group of “concerned doctors, lawyers, and academics who objected to the government’s response to the pandemic.”
The most notable of ASF’s founders is contrarian UNSW economist Gigi Foster, who gained prominence as an outspoken opponent of COVID-19 restrictions.
Other founders include Melbourne doctor Chris Neil, who ran unsuccessfully for the anti-mandate Freedom Party of Victoria in that state’s 2022 election, and Tasmanian medico Julie Sladden, whose past comments questioning the safety of COVID vaccines were dredged up during her recent, also unsuccessful, run for parliament with the Liberals during that state’s election.
How did that group, apparently concerned with standard libertarian fare like free speech, wind up giving Lehrmann a platform? Well, according to Arndt, it’s because they’re now embracing broader goals, among them a justice system based on the presumption of innocence.
Which brought them, inevitably, to Bruce Lehrmann.
ASIC BURN
The tangled matter of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission against James Mawhinney took another twist on Tuesday with the former Mayfair 101 investment group boss arrested and appearing in court accused by the regulator of dishonest conduct.
Now, it wouldn’t be controversial to say that Mawhinney – who first came to public notice with a scheme to develop North Queensland’s Dunk Island, later bought by Annie Cannon-Brookes, then-wife of Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, into a tourist Mecca – has some history with ASIC.
Mayfair entities were fined $22m in 2021 “for making false or misleading representations to investors”, who tipped $126m into the firm’s fixed-income funds.
A 20-year ban on Mawhinney receiving or soliciting funds in connection with financial products, advertising, promoting or marketing financial products was overturned on appeal.
Mawhinney, for his part, is suing ASIC for defamation over the public utterances of senior officials in their pursuit of Mayfair. The ever-newsworthy businessman made it clear on Tuesday that he would be fighting the new charges.
This latest court appearance concerns allegations by ASIC that Mawhinney repeatedly claimed in 2019 and 2020 that his IPO Wealth Group owned two Italian companies when it did not. Prosecutors hit the businessman with four charges of dishonest conduct, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in the clink.
Mawhinney was granted bail on the condition that he does not stray beyond this nation’s borders and is due back in court in June.
Mayfair issued a statement later on Tuesday with James noting that he was not discussing the case publicly on legal advice but helpfully pointed us towards the words of his barrister, Robert Richter KC, to the court.
“We expect to defeat these charges, and then we will consider bringing a case for malicious prosecution,” Richter said.
“Further, we want to put it on record that there is no harm alleged by the charges.”