By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Voting closed in the Community and Public Sector Union’s internal elections on Wednesday, with the very Labor-linked national leadership hoping to stave off an unprecedented insurrection from members unhappy about its cosiness with the Albanese government.
Speaking to CBD last month, the rebel leaders stressed that they weren’t trying to stage a Greens takeover of the union, pointing to a broad spectrum of left-ish political affiliations among the 120-strong Members First caucus.
But nobody mentioned that they had an actual Communist – a rare breed these days, in the ranks.
But yes, Adam Mayers, an ACT public servant who is in the running for one of the union’s deputy national president’s job, has been active over the years in the Communist Party of Australia’s Canberra branch and is a mover in the Southern Brigade Australia-Cuba friendship group.
Adam told us on Wednesday that the movement was actually seeing a resurgence of interest among young people, attracted by issues-based activism such as school strikes for climate.
In any event, Mayers and his Members First colleagues have pledged to park party affiliations at the door if they’re successful in winning CPSU leader positions – results are expected this week.
“It’s about reforming the union,” he told us.
And when you think about it, if the big gripe behind the challenge to the present CPSU leadership is that they’re too close to the party in power, that’s unlikely to be a problem with the communists.
LIP STICK
It was a bleak old few days in federal parliament last week, with the increasingly nasty immigration debate fuelling some bitter question time exchanges, so CBD was heartened by a rare moment of levity.
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton compare Movember effortsCredit: John Shakespeare
After congratulating the team at the Movember Foundation for their work over 20 years raising money for men’s health, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave Opposition Leader Peter Dutton a gentle rev-up about being follicly challenged.
“The prime minister is giving me a bit of stick about facial hair,” Dutton replied, before reiterating his support for the charity.
“I’d love to be joining you this year, but perhaps a donation in lieu would be sufficient.”
It wasn’t an empty promise.
Over the weekend, a donation of $200 from the leader of the opposition appeared in the fundraising effort of Movember chair Nicholas Reece – a Labor man to his bootstraps, who has been involved with the charity from its inception and was in the public gallery in Canberra last Thursday as Dutton and Albanese exchanged their hair banter.
“My wispy mo growing efforts have become the recipient of a $200 donation,” Reece told CBD, pointing to the “power of the Mo” having the ability to cross the political divide.
The former senior advisor for Julia Gillard, ex-Victorian ALP state secretary, and current Melbourne deputy lord mayor, has so far raised almost $8000 this year, but aims to crack $20,000.
“It takes me a month to get decent growth on the upper lip, so I’m pretty happy with this year’s efforts,” he said.
FREEDMAN FLICKS
The cult of Mia Freedman reached its peak this week when Strife, the inappropriately titled Binge dramatisation of the eastern suburbs personality’s memoir hit the Foxtel-owned streaming platform.
The show, which stars Asher Keddie, documents the Ascham old girl’s gritty rise to media industry girlboss, and even features a cameo from Kylie Minogue.
The pop icon wasn’t among the friends of Freedman who turned up at Strife’s red carpet premiere at the Darlinghurst Theatre on Tuesday night. Instead, there was an appearance from ABC personality Leigh Sales, plus a couple of Real Housewives of Sydney.
And also Steve Hutensky, the entertainment lawyer who helped disgraced former movie producer Harvey Weinstein secure secret settlements with women he’d allegedly sexually harassed.
Hutensky is a co-founder of production company Made Up Stories along with his wife Bruna Papandrea and Jodi Matterson. The trio are all executive producers on Strife, along with Freedman and Keddie.
Hutensky’s past work for Weinstein, now jailed for 39 years for sexual assault, earned him the nickname the “cleaner upper”. But it hasn’t stopped him becoming a big player in the Australian screen industry, running a production company championing women’s stories.
WALK OFF
It’s been a bit of a week for Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum. On Monday, the state government announced the historic Ultimo site would be shutting down for three years of “revitalisation,” providing a bit of certainty to its miserable workforce after years of limbo.
But while the Ultimo site might need a facelift, the Museum of Arts and Applied Science (as it’s technically known) still has plenty of cash around. There’s the whole $915 million mega project in Parramatta that’s meant to turn western Sydney into a cultural oasis (we’ve heard that one before).
That project has been propped up by generous donors such as billionaire property magnate Lang Walker, who tossed the institution a $20 million lifeline two years ago.
Walker’s also among the museum’s trustees, but his generosity meant the museum didn’t bat an eyelid when, as CBD reported, he showed up to only half the required meetings. This year, he seems to be excused altogether of such trivialities – according to the museum’s annual report, he was listed as an “absence granted” for all six meetings.
We asked the museum about this, but didn’t hear back.
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