By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September saw a gaggle of Australian politicians, media personalities and business figures descend on London, all hoping to get a piece of the mournful pageantry.
Is this the real life? Credit: Joe Benke
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took his place among world leaders at the royal funeral (even if the BBC briefly forgot who he was), and new documents released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet reveal the size of his travelling posse. The PM was accompanied by 19 other people, nine from his office – including one press secretary and a few senior advisers, nine departmental bureaucrats, as well as first partner Jodie Haydon.
The entourage booked out 27 rooms at London’s glamorous Corinthia Hotel, where the official going rate for a double is priced from about $1200. He wasn’t the only world leader hanging around the ritzy establishment – it’s the same hotel where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was caught, rather weirdly, belting out Bohemian Rhapsody in the lobby just two days before the royal funeral.
Albo, the DJ-ing record lover, did not join for a singalong. Maybe he’s more of an Oils guy.
Crypto woes
Long-suffering Telstra investors will be glad on Monday morning, as they wake to news that Telstra Ventures has an exposure to the crypto binfire FTX, that the telecommunications giant spun off its venture capital offshoot years ago.
Telstra Ventures general partner Yash Patel was so keen on the trading platform that he appeared in a series of videos in June with FTX Founder and Chief Executive, Sam Bankman-Fried, who was busy on Sunday denying rumours that he had fled to Argentina after offering a memorable corporate mea culpa over his company’s Lehmann Brothers-style collapse.
In the videos Patel and Bankman Fried discuss, among other things, the potential for crypto mergers and acquisitions at a time when values in the sector were low. Well, they’re lower now, thanks in part to the costly fall from grace of the former market darling.
We asked Telstra Ventures what its exposure to FTX was worth. They wouldn’t tell us, but we’re reliably informed that it’s on the low end. Let’s hope so.
Bondi teals
Most ordinary Sydneysiders might be forgiven for paying little attention to this month’s Victorian state election. Not so for some eastern suburbs types who’ve been pouring cash into teal independent candidates south of the border.
Bondi-based investing whizz Rob Keldoulis, who already dropped nearly $2 million on the federal election, has chipped in a total of $21,600 according to Victorian Electoral Commission disclosures to four Melbourne independent candidates, as well as their financial backers Climate 200.
Rob Keldoulis, Climate 200 and the teals’ top donor during 2022 federal election cycle, is pouring money into the Victorian pollCredit: Steven Siewert
Keldoulis told CBD that he wanted to see action on climate and integrity in politics and said he wasn’t going to let state borders get in his way if he saw a chance to back election candidates who shared his views.
“I can’t speak for what motivates other donors but personally, if I see a viable opportunity to drive progress on these vitally important issues, I want to seize the opportunity and take it,” he said.
Bondi was a common point of origin for teal donors – Tobi Wilkinson and Felix Wilkinson both spent $21,600 on independents, while investor James Taylor, based in the same suburb, followed his $670,000 federal election spend with $8640.
British entrepreneur Mat Whittingham, based in Arcadia, NSW, coughed up $21,600, as did his wife Monica Whittingham. And Mosman-registered tech entrepreneur Marcus Catsaras made four donations worth $17,280 to various independent candidates.
Given the depth of some of those pockets in traditional Liberal heartland, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet should be worried, especially with teal independents already lining up seats like Vaucluse and North Shore ahead of next year’s state election.
Vex and the City
For a bloke who’s been declared a vexatious litigant, Vito Zepinic spends a lot of time in court. The former security chief for Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who has criminal convictions in both Australia and the United Kingdom for practising as a bogus psychiatrist, had an attempt to remove a vexatious litigant order made against him rejected by the Supreme Court last month.
That order came after Zepinic’s relentless litigation stemming from a 16-year-old property dispute, that began when he refused to pay builders for work on a Turramurra house.
Astonishingly, Zepinic just keeps appearing in court listings. Twice last month, he appeared – self-represented of course – in small claims civil proceedings he’d brought in the Sutherland Local Court against one Ljiljana Mitrovic, with a further hearing listed for next January.
Zepinic was also back before Justice Stephen Rothman in the NSW Supreme Court last week for a hearing in a case against SLF Lawyers.
When we last wrote about Zepinic’s long love affair with the justice system in August, we predicted he’d be back before the courts in no time. It’s nice to be proven right.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.