By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
The good fight
A significant update on the Lady Chu saga.
Regular readers will recall that Vietnamese-Laotian refugee Nahji Chu, who has won plaudits for transforming a local dead strip in the Kings Cross area around her Lady Chu restaurant with tables and chairs and umbrellas, fell foul of whingeing neighbours and the health and safety martinets on the City of Sydney Council, whose rangers paid her a visit at 7pm on a Saturday to complain about some potentially deadly pot plants obstructing the footpath.
Restaurateur Nahji Chu outside her Potts Point eatery on Tuesday.Credit: Edwina Pickles
“I’m trying to activate a dead city and you’re trying to f---ing shut it down,” said the restaurateur, known for similarly tart responses to online reviews, and who formerly ran the Miss Chu tuckshops, which live on in South Melbourne and South Yarra.
Cue a fracas – and a standoff.
Local business Stanley Green, Plant Shop & Cafe, Darlinghurst was helpful enough to suggest that Chu get in touch with city councillor Lyndon Gannon, whom they described as a “huge supporter” of “lively outdoor dining spaces” who had helped their business.
Chu promptly chu-ed them out, replying: “I’ve got this. I don’t need a man to rescue me.”
Enter a peacekeeper in the form of independent state MP Alex Greenwich, who dropped by with some information while burnishing his Instagram account with a couple of snaps for his 14,000 followers from the Roslyn Street battleground that he described as an “update on the sitCHUation”.
Chu told CBD he had been “very helpful” and that council director of city planning Graham Jahn, who had “more power than (Sydney Lord Mayor) Clover Moore” would shortly pay her a visit.
“I will demand – I won’t ask – to make a special case in my situation,” she told CBD. “I have a very wide footpath.”
The council previously said it had approved several applications by the owner, but furniture and plants has exceeded those permissions, and it was trying to work collaboratively.
Chu, 55, told CBD she had been bedevilled by red tape for decades and that opponents were hiding behind anonymous complaints to strike at her.
“I have been weaponised.”
She next plans to hire a barrister to overturn the ability to lodge anonymous complaints and insist such complaints go on a public register.
“I don’t care if I go to jail, what am I going to do for the rest of my life – work and pay taxes?”
Travelling north
There can be no cooler venue for a destination event than Brisbane’s Calile Hotel. Think 1980s Sebel Townhouse vibes – but for today. And so it was for the entertainment industry’s bright young things, sorry, bright middle-aged things, who converged on the Calile from their Sydney and Melbourne power bases at the weekend for a 50th birthday party. Could this get any more on trend?
There was former Australian of the Year Simon McKeon, whose many former hats include being Monash University chancellor and a boardie for NAB, Spotless and Rio Tinto, along with Radek Sali, the multimillionaire former chief executive of Swisse vitamins turned boss of investment firm Light Warrior.
Both are on the board of major events marketing and advisory group Anthem, and had rocked up to the Calile to celebrate the 50th of Anthem’s well-connected founder Vas Katos.
The firm’s many clients include the NSW and Victorian governments, and invitees included a mix of clients and friends: Dan Rosen, Warner Music Australasia president and Collingwood board member, Clark Kirby, Village Roadshow chief executive, Claire Spencer, Australian Ballet chief executive, theatre owner Jason Marriner, and an assorted sprinkling of Myers, Gandels and Murdochs.
Wrong place, wrong time
The Three Capes Track in Tasmania in the Tasman National Park south of Port Arthur is justly famed for its ruggedness and natural beauty. As the guide states: “Few places on Earth remain that feel so remote, so raw, so removed from the ordinary.”
Not the place you want to be if you are an executive in the midst of a major crisis. Nevertheless, that was the fate that befell AFL executive general manager of football Laura Kane after the Fremantle v Collingwood match on May 8.
AFL football executive Laura Kane.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
That match was when the concussion of Collingwood player Lachie Schultz developed into a full-blown AFL drama.
As The Age reported at the time: “Just 24 hours after the umpires at the centre of the Lachie Schultz concussion drama were accused of providing misleading information to the AFL, the league has cleared them of any wrongdoing – citing a miscommunication with the umpiring department.”
Over that weekend, Kane was far from the unfolding crisis, trekking more than 31 kilometres of rugged wilderness coastline with a team as part of the youth mental health charity Headspace’s Exec Trek 2025.
The charity described it as “taking a group of passionate leaders and partners on the breathtaking Three Capes Trek in Tasmania”.
“The trek is more than just a scenic challenge. It’s about connection, conversation and championing youth mental health.”
Headspace is an official charity partner of the AFL, and the fundraiser was hosted by Headspace chief financial officer Mark Eaton, along with national clinical adviser Simon Dodd.
Also there were Craig Robson and Tony Mitchell, executives at insurance distributor Envest, and longtime Headspace supporter Ben Welch, as well as AFL head of mental health and wellbeing Dr Kate Hall.
AFL sources hastened to point out the event was not some weekend jolly, and that Kane was not incommunicado, fielding countless calls from home base at the weekend.
What the game’s stakeholders unhappy with AFL management make of all this is unknown. One thing that is clear: the event at this point has fallen short of its fundraising goal of $100,000, now coming in at about $30,000.
Keeping a close watch
Spotted: Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Shane Patton in the MCG members’ stand for Friday night’s Dreamtime game between Essendon and Richmond. Patton, who resigned after the police union’s no-confidence vote in his leadership, did not escape the notice of some of the members who cast a ballot against him.