By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Shifting political sands can sometimes, sadly, lead to big change in personal lives.
So it is with Marise Payne and Stuart Ayres, the long-standing political couple whose careers took them all the way to federal and NSW state cabinet positions.
Marise Payne and Stuart Ayres, pictured in 2015, shared a love of horses.Credit: Tim Bauer
Just as both eventually called time on their political careers, they have now called time on their relationship. The couple quietly split some months ago and remain very close friends.
The news will surprise many who regarded them as the bedrock political couple. They were said to have met while campaigning for the Liberal Party during the 2007 federal election.
One veteran political watcher of the western suburbs of Sydney, where the couple built their powerbase, recalls seeing them take to the dancefloor during a local function like a pair of lovesick teenagers.
Being committed to an MP, we imagine, is hell, but an MP in a long-term relationship with another MP must be especially demanding.
Marise Payne and Stuart Ayres on the night of the Liberals’ NSW state election loss last year. Credit: Dean Sewell
When Payne quit the federal Senate in September last year, after a political career spanning 26 years, she thanked Ayres for “sharing this path with me for many years now, as I shared his in state politics”.
“I thank him for that enduring support and love,” Payne told the Senate.
“Stuart’s strong support made it possible for me to be a much-travelled cabinet minister for seven years.”
Ayres is still based in western Sydney and is seen at local functions, but Payne has moved to southern NSW, where she is campaign manager for her old friend and Liberal moderate fellow traveller Andrew Constance’s tilt at the federal seat of Gilmore.
Just a couple of years ago the couple was riding high: Payne was defence then foreign minister in the Turnbull and Morrison governments; Ayres was deputy NSW Liberal leader; and both were proud champions of western Sydney from their beautiful home in Mulgoa.
In August 2022, Ayres resigned as deputy NSW Liberal leader and left cabinet amid the fallout from former deputy premier John Barilaro’s trade role in New York. Ayres lost his state seat of Penrith at the March 2023 NSW election.
He is now NSW chief executive of the Urban Development Institute of Australia.
Payne is a distinguished visiting fellow at US think tank the Hoover Institution, appointed by its director Condoleezza Rice.
She is also connected to Stanford University and Bondi Partners, the firm run by her old cabinet colleague Joe Hockey.
Last week Payne was in the US and visited San Diego as a guest of the US navy in her honorary role as ship sponsor of American naval ship USS Canberra.
Both declined to comment to CBD.
Taking the right path
Liberal candidate for Mackellar James Brown (a former son-in-law nepo baby of Malcolm Turnbull) was spotted talking strategy over breakfast with former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg at the Intercontinental in Sydney on Thursday.
Josh, now earning a lot more money with Goldman Sachs, was in town for News Corp boss Lachlan Murdoch’s Christmas shindig on Thursday evening.
Brown hopes to win the former blue ribbon Liberal seat on the Northern Beaches back off teal independent Sophie Scamps. Frydenberg has plenty of experience taking on the teals, losing his seat of Kooyong to Monique Ryan in 2022. Maybe he was telling James to take the road less travelled?
Here again, gone again
Australian conservatives can’t get enough of failed British PMs. First there was blink-and-you’ll- miss-her prime minister Liz Truss on a whistle-stop tour of the country earlier this year, then last week it was time for yet another visit from Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, whose three years running the UK ended in 2022 after a series of lockdown party scandals.
The indefatigable Johnson has a book to promote at every opportunity. Hence, his Friday lunch at Sydney’s Doltone House. Thanks to celebrity promoter Max Markson, it looked to be a nice little earner, with standard tables of 10 starting at $4000 and VIP tables (including signed copies of his book Unleashed – oh you lucky few) starting at $6000. Guests also bid for three pieces of Johnson memorabilia, while an enlarged copy of his book cover sold for $1200.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson arrives to speak at the event in Sydney on Friday.Credit: AAP
National anthem duties fell to ancient singer Kamahl, while the Q&A was hosted by Sky News presenter Sharri Markson.
But alas Johnson’s planned dinner the following night at the Sofitel in Melbourne was cancelled after he was called back to London a day earlier than planned.
However, Johnson did have time on Thursday night for a very private function with the Menzies Research Centre, whose board includes former Liberal Party president Brian Loughnane.
A lucky few VIPs were granted up-close-and-personal time with the British statesman/celebrity. Did somebody say former prime minister John Howard?
Even those Melburnians cruelly denied their fix of Johnson can take solace, though.
Menzies director of centre for youth policy Freya Leach recorded a podcast with Johnson. He really will talk to anyone. BoJo lives!
Winner takes it all
The Victorian state government copped a bit of heat from us the week after CBD revealed it had secretly pulled out in October of the running to host the 2030 Gay Games, after the host organisation invited it to apply. Sorry about that.
Actually, not sorry. We just wanted to note the host city finalists have been announced.
During the initial publicity blitz in August, Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos puffed out his chest when he surveyed the list of finalists and found them lacking: Perth, Auckland, Taipei, Cape Town, Denver and Edmonton in Canada.
Dimma told the ABC: “I love Perth, but seriously it’s Perth. There is no comparison; Melbourne is a global city.”
Others clearly disagree. The Gay Games 2030 shortlist is: Denver, Auckland and, yes, Perth.