By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was out on the hustings in the Sutherland Shire on Tuesday, introducing locals to Simon Kennedy, the man set to replace Scott Morrison as the next Liberal member for Cook.
The Liberals hold the seat with a 12 per cent margin, and Labor’s disinterest in wasting money in the Shire means Kennedy’s campaign is more of a coronation. Which makes some of Dutton’s companion choices during his visit even more questionable.
CBD spotted Dutton deep in conversation with an old friend of this column Matt Daniel, a colourful property developer and Liberal party powerbroker in southern Sydney. For a quick catch-up, Daniel was sacked as Liverpool Council’s deputy general manager in 2013 for failing to declare he was an undischarged bankrupt.
Matt Daniel, Peter Dutton and Simon Kennedy on the campaign trail in Gymea.Credit: Instagram
He has since been a semi-regular guest at recent Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings – although no findings have been made against him. In 2021, he was named as a town planner who lobbied councils on behalf of the family of then-Drummoyne MP John Sidoti. Sidoti was later found to have engaged in corrupt conduct.
Daniel was also named in a separate inquiry a year earlier into Gladys Berejiklian’s disgraced ex-boyfriend Daryl Maguire, who’d helped Daniel lobby planning officials.
We asked Dutton’s office about this chance meeting, but didn’t hear back.
Also spotted on the Cook campaign trail was former lobbyist Scott Briggs, who’s finally resurfaced after this masthead revealed then-home affairs boss Mike Pezzullo had used him to exert influence over two prime ministers.
THIRSTY WOLF
ASX “wolf” Tyson Scholz, apparent star of a dubious Instagram episode in Dubai.Credit: John Shakespeare
Self-proclaimed “ASX Wolf” Tyson Scholz continues to take his recent bankruptcy well, even managing to stick the middle finger at local sensibilities in the desert dystopia of Dubai, where the wolfman has, rather appropriately, set up shop recently.
Regular readers will recall that the online stock trading “educator” with a taste for Ferraris, high-end champagne, private jets and selfies in exotic locations was bankrupted last month by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), to whom Scholz owes $436,000 – the cost of ASIC’s pursuit of him for providing financial services without a licence.
The Gold Coast native was back on Instagram on Tuesday, with the usual fare featuring high-end hotel restaurants and a lingering shot of a waiter pouring a glass from a bottle of Dom Perignon – vintage 2013. We don’t know how much that bottle goes for in Dubai, but it’ll set you back more than $400 at Dan Murphy’s.
Scholz’s Insta story then cuts to what appears to be someone leaving the venue carrying the nearly full bottle, and in a scene that appears now deleted, we see the Wolf behind the wheel of a $660,000 Rolls-Royce – we don’t know if he owns it – swigging from the bottle as he cruises the Dubai streets.
To say that the Emiratis take a dim view of this sort of conduct would be to dramatically understate the case – drinking alcohol is banned outside licensed hotels, bars and restaurants in the city, and they take a very hard line there on drink-driving. Plus it won’t help that Scholz pulled his stunt barely a day into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
We gave Tyson a shout on Wednesday to ask what made him think his post was a good idea. We haven’t heard back.
MS FIX IT
For the very top echelons of the public service, retirement is when the fun really starts. Not only do you no longer have to wear a lanyard, there’s a steady stream of consulting work doled out by government agencies still addicted to outsourcing.
Former head of the departments of health and finance Jane Halton has been particularly good at scoring such gigs. Last week, she received a contract worth $88,000 with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for “workshop facilitation” over the next 12 months.
Now, among the Canberra blob, Veterans’ Affairs has maintained a reputation as a bit of a basket case, so it’s no surprise they’ve called in Halton’s Rangeworthy Advisors “to deliver a series of masterclass workshops designed to build on the capability of staff across the department in policy development and design,” a spokesperson told us.
It’s another sign that Halton, who outside the public service held board positions with ANZ and Crown Casino, has become Canberra’s Ms Fix It. In 2020, the Morrison government appointed her to its National Covid Commission, the prime minister’s hand-picked crew of big corporates who were meant to save us from COVID-19.
And months after winning the last election, Halton was asked to review the COVID vaccine rollout. Then there was another contract, worth a smidge under $100,000, from the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet last year.
No doubt, there will be plenty more.
KARL’S COURT
Today host Karl Stefanovic can get the bulldozers fired up after the Land and Environment Court approved his $4.5 million Castlecrag home renovation.
Karl and his wife Jasmine lodged plans to rebuild their home in the bloodless nouveau riche modernist style beloved of Australia’s upper crust, only for Willoughby Council to reject their development application last year following a few neighbourly complaints.
But after a court-administered conciliation conference between the Stefanovics and the council, both parties came to an agreement that would allow construction to proceed, neighbours be damned.