By Kishor Napier-Raman and Gemma Grant
Two weeks ago, Kathy Jones was just another public relations operative.
Now, thanks to evidence revealed before the Independent Commission Against Corruption, she’ll forever be known as the “communications fairy godmother”.
“Communications fairy godmother” … Kathy Jones and former School Infrastructure NSW chief executive Anthony Manning.Credit: Internet and Sam Mooy
That’s the description used by former School Infrastructure NSW boss Anthony Manning, Jones’ former colleague at Health Infrastructure NSW and the subject of an ICAC probe into his alleged doling out of jobs and contracts to mates. Jones herself is not under investigation and is not accused of corruption.
Jones, the hearing heard, was a particular beneficiary of Manning’s largesse. Her contract with the agency was extended three times without tender. And her communications company, Kathy Jones & Associates, raked in about $9 million from School Infrastructure NSW between 2017 and 2024.
But now, like all good fairy godmothers, Jones can be elusive.
Her website appears to be broken. And last week she abruptly disappeared from the board of Metropolitan Memorial Parks (MMP) NSW, a government body responsible for administering cemeteries on Crown land.
Jones was one of MMP’s inaugural board members, a part-time gig that pays a handy $40,000-a-year. After much chasing, the body confirmed that Jones had left the board in June. This month Jones also quit the board of Karitane, a not-for-profit that supports young families.
CBD reached out to the communications fairy godmother, and heard nothing. Elusive indeed.
Liberal hack
Wednesday was meant to be an opportunity for the Liberals to reset.
Sussan Ley, the party’s first female leader, delivered her address to the National Press Club, calling for, among other things, better recruitment and retention of women.
The message was clearly lost on whoever manages the party’s socials. Around midnight someone posted a series of lewd, pornographic images of scantily clad women to the @Liberalaus Instagram account’s stories.
A social media Freudian slip? The act of a rogue intern? Whatever the explanation, the offending material was thankfully swiftly removed.
“Overnight the social media account of a contractor used by the party was hacked, leading to the posting of unauthorised material on the Liberal Party’s Meta accounts at around midnight,” a party spokesman told CBD.
“All material was removed within 10 minutes of it being posted and the matter was urgently raised with the Australian Cyber Security Centre and with Meta overnight. We apologise for any offence caused.”
Getting stoned
Meanwhile, in NSW the Liberal Party is going back to the future.
During a post-budget fundraising lunch at state parliament on Tuesday, shadow treasurer Damien Tudehope revealed that former state director turned interim state director Chris Stone would now have the job for as long as he pleased.
And frankly we can’t imagine why anyone else would want the most cursed gig in politics. Stone was first meant to quit that role after the 2022 election loss but stuck around until late 2023 because the party couldn’t find a suitable replacement.
Its first choice to succeed him, Luke Dixon, was dumped before even starting, after this column revealed he’d once said rude things about Tony Abbott on social media. The job ultimately went to Richard Shields, who took the fall last year after the Liberals forgot to register candidates for local government elections. Stone was brought in to steady the ship on a contract until June 30. Now it seems like he’s staying on for the foreseeable future.
The Liberals’ post-budget lunch was otherwise a fairly sad affair, drawing about 50 to 60 friends of the party. In contrast, Labor’s own post-budget business dialogue on Tuesday night was a winner, with a couple of hundred guests including party elders, business types and lobbyists from across the political aisle.
Premier Chris Minns’ smooth delivery, and his praise for Gladys Berejiklian’s role in delivering the Sydney Metro, even impressed Liberals in attendance. Also on the dance card was a “fireside chat” between Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and News Corp columnist Joe Hildebrand, who despite cosplaying as an anti-progressive bloviator in print is a close friend of the ALP. So close that CBD spotted him hanging out with the True Believers when we gatecrashed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s election victory party last month.
Pesky PEXA
CBD brought word last month that electronic conveyancing platform PEXA had suffered a brief weekend outage.
It was manna from heaven for PEXA’s rival Sympli, which has been trying with limited success to break the firm’s effective monopoly over the e-conveyancing space. Last week Sympli conceded defeat of sorts and proposed working with PEXA, rather than trying to shatter its monopoly.
Still, last month’s outages drew the attention of NSW parliament, with the upper house voting on Wednesday to pursue a select committee into PEXA, including on competition reforms and the impact of outages.
Labor’s Transport Minister John Graham agreed to back the committee, proposed by Taylor Martin (who was expelled from the Liberals for his abusive conduct toward former federal MP Lucy Wicks). But Graham also noted the number of reviews, inquiries and other work being done into electronic conveyancing reform happening already at a state and federal level, a sentiment that was affirmed by a PEXA spokesperson.
“PEXA will fully co-operate with the committee. As with current and previous inquiries, we will continue to outline the many benefits PEXA’s world-first e-conveyancing platform has delivered to the property transaction process,” a PEXA spokesperson told CBD.
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