Moderate Liberals from Christopher Pyne to local party powerbroker Michael Photios will always have The Star's Cherry Bar — but it’s the Right that rules the roost over at Monkey Pod.
Parliament House's famed Monkey Pod group is welcoming new members. Illustration: Matt GoldingCredit:
And now, there are the new inductees in the famed conservative club.
The Monkey Pod has been, for more than a decade, the most famed of the informal Parliament House fraternities and the focus of enormous attention during the Liberal leadership coups which saw Malcolm Turnbull depose Tony Abbott only to be removed himself last year.
Months after being knifed by Turnbull, Abbott caused a stir by arriving with a cake apparently baked by his former chief of staff Peta Credlin at the groups’ usual Tuesday lunch date.
Having started years ago at Manuka Chinese joint Timmy’s Kitchen before relocating to Parliament House, the lunch group’s affairs are now overseen by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
So it was with some interest we obtained yesterday’s missive from his office inviting a who's-who of Parliament House conservatives to the regular $30 sitting week lunch date.
It’s to be held, as per tradition, in a room between Dutton’s and Attorney-General Christian Porter.
Along with long-time attendees like Energy Minister Angus Taylor, Housing Minister Michael Sukkar, Assistant Finance Minister Zed Seselja, Rolex-loving Moore MP Ian Goodenough and Lazarus-like Hughes MP Craig Kelly, we see many new faces on the invite list.
The newly-elected Chisholm MP Gladys Liu has made the cut, as has new Queensland senator Gerard Rennick — a man who accused the Bureau of Meteorology of cooking the books “to fit in with the global warming agenda” — and fellow LNP colleagues Paul Scarr and Amanda Stoker.
Queenslanders are certainly well-represented. Also on the invite list are new Herbert MP Phillip Thompson and Longman MP Terry Young.
Absent, however, are many of the notable new names from the southern states including new Reid MP Fiona Martin (Craig Laundy's replacement), who immediately after the election was spotted enjoying a drink at Woollahra’s Centennial Hotel — very much a Black Hand sorta place.
As we wrote at the time, it was during that same event that Paul Fletcher — now Communications Minister — rose to tell those gathered Dutton would have met a “very different outcome” on May 18.
A BENSIMON BUST-UP
Over at Bensimon Online, the Sydney diamond merchant owned by Kate Bensimon and fronted by her bankrupt husband Ron, things have been going a little awry.
First there was the stoush with Geelong Cats captain Joel Selwood, who this week finally clawed back a $60,000 debt owed by Bensimon Online over a 3.21 carat engagement ring.
Now it seems Bensimon has had some trouble at her other outfit.
She's split from her long-time Kate & Co. PR business partner Kate Keane.
They've run that shop — which has represented clients from the Australian Turf Club to Crown Resorts and Virgin Australia — together since 2012. Records show Bensimon stepped down from the Kate & Co board late last month and sold out of her 50 per cent stake at the same time.
We can't help but wonder what Ron's creditors, after he was declared bankrupt in 2016, would make of the cash flowing into the family account. Of some note, a Pitcher Partners investigation concluded he'd purchased some $641,000 in chips at the aforementioned Crown casino.
Bensimon told CBD she had left Kate & Co to spend more time with the family.
THE BIG WHINGE
Labor MP Ron Hoenig was apparently left unhappy about office changes at Macquarie Street.Credit: Nick Moir
On Tuesday, we brought news that some NSW Labor MPs were less than impressed about a directive from newly elected leader Jodi McKay which required them to shift offices and give those higher up the party hierarchy the glamour rooms overlooking the harbour.
This, as alleged to CBD, was perhaps an exercise in score settling against those who voted for McKay leadership rival, transport spokesman Chris Minns.
Within hours of Labor whip Anna Watson emailing the request, the move was off.
But having left the matter there, we were informed yesterday that Heffron MP Ron Hoenig — taking a break from his crusade against a cruise terminal — was so incensed about the office move he suggested he’d be happy to complain on the floor of Parliament with a private member’s statement.
It was, as one source quipped, the local equivalent to federal Labor MP John Murphy’s famed 2008 “beef stroganoff” complaint. It was Murphy who decided to take his wife's complaint about the lack of food options at the Parliament cafeteria straight to the floor of the House.
Hoenig’s office told CBD there had been no threat made to speak in Parliament about the office switch, but did not respond when invited to provide a written comment.