By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Transport Minister Jo Haylen may be enjoying a long victory lap after the successful opening of the Sydney Metro last week.
It was a different story less than 12 months ago, when Haylen was fighting to overcome a series of jobs-for-mates type scandals.
First there was the decision to appoint former Labor premier Morris Iemma’s old chief of staff Josh Murray to Transport Secretary.
When news broke that Kieren Ash, a former Labor candidate for Balmain, and now a public servant in Haylen’s department had been seconded to her office and was doing political work, the minister’s chief of staff Scott Gartrell took the fall.
Haylen survived. Ash, meanwhile, seems to have landed on his feet (what staffer doesn’t). Months after quitting Transport for NSW, Ash has a more appropriate job at lobbyists Counsel House, whose employees include Nathan Rees, another former Labor premier and one-time ALP state frontbencher Mick Veitch.
In a statement last week, Veitch was full of praise for Ash, describing him as: “A capable and experienced Labor adviser with a deep grounding in policy,” and pointing to his trusted relationships with the Minns government. He’s among friends.
HUNG PARLIAMENT
Tim Wilson (remember him?) is desperate to reverse the teal wave that swept suburban Liberal MPs out to sea at the last federal election.
He is the only vanquished Liberal MP who is going again, standing for re-election against teal Zoe Daniel in the bayside Melbourne seat of Goldstein.
Tim Wilson as you have never seen him.
But alas, his attendance on the weekend at a drag bingo event at the local Black Rock Yacht Club, hosted by drag queen Freida Commitment, generated some unhappiness within the local Liberal Party. Ladies and gentlemen, please – join the 21st century.
A source of the angst was a fun flyer for the event from the Liberal Pride Branch asking people to join TW on their table. It featured Wilson in a sailor’s hat. Looking jaunty there, Tim.
The sold-out event was full of school mums. But one correspondent contacted CBD to point out old folk in the area who weren’t happy.
Will Stoltz, president of the Liberal Pride Branch, was having none of it. “It was great fun, a fabulous night. There is a long tradition of this going back to Dame Edna,” he said.
Wilson declined to comment, citing party rules for Liberal candidates that meant all media requests had to go through the party office. And this from the party that champions free speech!
We were particularly interested to know what the candidate thought of the drag name, “Hung Parliament”, which Frieda bestowed on him on the night.
SO LONG, FAREWELL
TWEET OF THE WEEK: Sad news with the closure of famed Canberra venue, Muse. The cafe and bookshop in Kingston’s East Hotel is shutting after nine years of playing a central role in the politico-cultural life of the capital. Its owners signed off last week with this pointed tweet aimed at the Greens’ Adam Bandt and Max Chandler-Mather, Labor’s Mark Butler and Libby Coker and one mystery MP from Victoria. You may well think you know the identity of the senator, we couldn’t possibly comment!
MCG THANKS TO JPG
It’s been more than a decade since then Liberal leader Tony Abbott ditched the durries, announcing that the Liberal Party would no longer accept donations from Big Tobacco. The junior Coalition partner, the Nationals, never made the same pledge, and still gets the odd bit of cash from the likes of British American Tobacco.
That company is ably represented by lobbyists JPG Advisory, the one-man band of Jeremy Greenwood, a former staffer to Nationals Senator Matt Canavan. Other clients include the Catholic Church.
Earlier this month, Liberal shadow minister Michael Sukkar, the member for Deakin, declared that he’d been taken to the Collingwood versus Carlton game at the MCG, courtesy of JPG. His office didn’t respond to our questions, but sources close to the action told CBD the corporate hospo wasn’t tobacco-related – Sukkar and Greenwood, who’d become mates in Canberra, just wanted a chance to catch up.