Darren Steinberg’s appointment to the board of the Powerhouse Museum three days before Christmas last year was followed almost immediately by assurances that any potential for conflict of interest with his day job as chief executive at property giant Dexus would be well managed.
Darren Steinberg. Illustration: John ShakespeareCredit:
So it was with some surprise that this column confirmed Steinberg had actually left the high-powered board, led by Western Sydney University vice-chancellor Barney Glover, back in August. He’d completed just seven months of a two-year stint. This curio remained undisclosed until now.
The Powerhouse Museum — officially the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences — is in the midst of a well-publicised move to Parramatta, a relocation cynics suggest will result in the government making a motza by flogging the institution’s Ultimo home to developers.
Documents tabled at Macquarie Street last year show the Ultimo HQ would make way for a small museum outpost, while the rest will be converted to office space and apartments. So does Steinberg’s departure have anything to do with Dexus’ designs on the site?
It’s been a busy year for the country’s largest office landlord, having in March snared the 50 per cent of the MLC Centre it didn’t own from GPT Group in an $800 million deal. But he wouldn’t have resigned because of the onerous meeting schedule over at the Powerhouse. Directors met just twice between January and July this year.
“Darren resigned due to a possible conflict that may arise with the potential sale of the Powerhouse site,” a Dexus spokesman told this column on Wednesday.
THE LUNCH CROWD
With school holidays just around the corner, the city’s fundies were not letting any last lunch opportunities go by. Azuma was crammed on Wednesday with money men, from David Paradice and his portfolio manager John Lake to Global Infrastructure Partners operator Ari Droga and Luminis banker Simon Mordant.
Also spotted at the Chifley Square Japanese diner: VGI Partners chairman David Jones.
Over at Cafe Sydney we noted what appeared to be a chief executive women lunch of sorts, with UBS comms boss Caroline Gurney, CEW president Sue Morphet and Australia Post executive Nicole Sheffield.
LIGHTBULB MOMENT
City of Sydney councillor Kerryn Phelps can certainly not be accused of shirking the minutiae other less civic-minded types might find a bore. The former Wentworth MP, according to documents tabled for the City of Sydney’s Monday night council meeting, was particularly interested in the street lights of Potts Point.
Kerryn Phelps, here with Jackie Stricker-Phelps in October, wants the City of Sydney to fix lamp posts near her home.Credit: Wolter Peeters
More specifically, she was exercised about the “five different types and styles of street lamp” on Tusculum Street. For the record, that's a 110 metre road running parallel to Macleay Street between Manning Street and Hughes Street - although according to Phelps’ motion for new street lamps, no explanation should be necessary.
Phelps writes it is not only “a historically significant street” but attracts “local and international tourists”. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Tusculum Street…
“The City's 'Passion: Sydney's Wild Side' historical walking tour features two stops close to Tusculum Street ... and visitors must walk down Tusculum Street as part of this tour,” the missive continues. And how they manage to do that with “five different types and styles of street lamp” is quite beyond us.
Phelps wanted City of Sydney chief executive Monica Barone to “identify the most appropriate style of street lamp for Tusculum Street” and “investigate the feasibility” work that could be done to ensure “all nine street lamps are uniform”. (The motion was not carried, although a similar one was.)
With elections around the corner, and with Phelps confirming to this column she is considering taking on lord mayor Clover Moore for the top job, perhaps every vote counts.
It certainly couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Phelps and her wife Jackie Stricker-Phelps live less than 100 metres away from Tusculum, and own an investment property on that very street ... could it?
MODERN LIBS
Now spare a thought for NSW Liberal director Chris Stone, who was late last month shocked to discover another political party squatting on his outfit’s name. It’s the work of Frederick Jordan Chambers barrister Victor Kline, who with his wife Katharine, have started The New Liberals.
“It is clearly the case that the name ... is intended to convey that your party is in some way affiliated with the Liberal Party of Australia,” Stone wrote to them on November 25.
Not only has Stone complained to the Electoral Commission, he’s told the Klines that the use of the name “amounts to passing off and is conduct likely to mislead and deceive the voters in NSW, in breach of section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law”. No response yet, sources told us.