Joe Hockey. Illustration: John ShakespeareCredit:
Australia’s recently-departed ambassador in Washington DC, Joe Hockey, wasted no time setting up a corporate consultancy on Pennsylvania Avenue. As he told the Herald in January, there were no plans to return to Australia permanently.
But the former treasurer might soon be back for business — coronavirus pandemic permitting. He’s just set up a local entity for Bondi Partners, the firm he’s started with Alex Tureman, a Democratic Party operator and former senior advisor to Hockey during his time as Ambassador. Bondi Partners sells strategic advice to clients on how to “make sense of increasingly complicated political and economic landscapes”.
Hockey is the sole owner of the local company, according to documents lodged with the corporate regulator in late February.
A local launch is off until the pandemic settles down but the entity already has two directors: Hockey’s brother Colin and Mark Rudder, founder of local shop GRACosway.
If Hockey and his former Deutsche Banker wife Melissa Babbage were to return they won’t have to worry about finding a place. Two years ago the family forked out close to $7.8 million for Wybalena House in Hunters Hill (although shortly after they sold their previous home, the nearby Te Roma, for $7.7 million).
Still, there's little chance of a permanent relocation anytime soon. Coveted for his good relationship with various Trump Administration apparatchiks and with the Morrison government, Bondi Partners appears to be a sure bet for Hockey. Even from Pennsylvania Avenue. Once the pandemic dissipates.
HAPPY SNAPS
Meanwhile, former NSW police minister Troy Grant has also landed another gig. It's the third appointment since he left Macquarie Street after last year’s March election that has required the approval of Parliamentary Ethics Advisor John Evans. He has to sign off if a former minister takes a job in the field they had responsibility for.
As CBD has reported in the past, Grant took up working one day a week for a year at accountancy and advice firm Deloitte shortly after his departure. He was to provide services relating to law enforcement, government technology and cyber matters in government “excluding New South Wales”.
In October, he was given the green light to become the chairman of Racing NSW’s integrity assurance committee, an unpaid position. Grant had previously been racing minister.
New disclosures now show Evans approved Grant taking up a gig as an advisor to Acusensus, a technology company that specialises in road safety, back in July last year. His roles, according to a document signed off by Evans, would also include “facilitation of relationships and client introductions, particularly in relation to road safety and policing agencies”. This, however, did not include lobbying the government, Grant said.
And while the approval to take the gig was signed off last year, the disclosures were only made public on Monday after Grant told Evans he had finally decided to take the job.
And what exactly is Acusensus? The low-key outfit — particularly compared to Deloitte and Racing NSW — recently won a lucrative contract to roll out "world-first technology" photographing drivers illegally using mobile phones. The company’s $21.8 million contract with Transport for NSW started in December.
PRESS PANDEMIC
Spotted: Department of Parliamentary Services staff in the Canberra Press Gallery on Wednesday morning after a journalist in the Sky News Australia bureau became ill. According to a note later circulated by the press gallery’s management committee, they were not feeling sick earlier that morning. Despite being sent to a clinic in Woden for a coronavirus test, none was administered because they failed to fit the testing criteria.
As it stands, the entire corridor has now been “thoroughly cleaned”.
JIBBER JABOT
On Monday this column noted rising anxiety in the city’s legal fraternity about what an ongoing restriction on courts would do to their livelihoods. In a memo, Bar Council member Gabrielle Bashir SC noted the heads of Sydney’s barristers’ chambers would meet to discuss the issue, pointing out dissatisfaction that the court closures were “implemented suddenly and without prior notice”.
“I am mindful, along with others, to ensure that the Bar Association is taking steps to make sure that barristers are properly represented in consultations with the courts and with government and that we have a full understanding of what is happening across the jurisdictions,” Bashir wrote.
No word yet on the outcome of the head of chambers meeting. But CBD has confirmed that the Australian Bar Council, headed by Perth silk Matthew Howard SC since last November, has drafted in accountancy major PwC to provide advice for barristers dealing with a sudden slowdown in cases. That advice is expected to include guidance on what government assistance is available and who is eligible for support.
Sign up to our Coronavirus Update newsletter
Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments at a glance, the numbers you need to know and what our readers are saying. Sign up here.