By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
Lucky Scott Morrison was never interested in having a legacy. His is now forever tainted as the first former prime minister to be censured by parliament. With Morrison’s political reputation so tattered that even past prayer pals Alex Hawke and Stuart “Brother Stuey” Robert are hardly glowing in their assessment of his leadership, the MP for Cook is turning to the world of overseas conservative think tanks to find friends.
His rebrand as a “virtuous globalisation mastermind” in a pitch to the international speaker’s circuit has been heard by the Washington DC-based Hudson Institute, which is inviting Morrison to the US capital next week to give a private lecture on Australia’s China relationship.
Hudson is so excited about Morrison’s insights it’s added him to the strategic advisory board of their China Centre. But the former PM isn’t the only Australian close to the think tank. According to Hudson’s most recent annual report, it received over $100,000 in funding from one Rupert Murdoch, who also sits on its Chairman’s Advisory Board.
Other major donors include multinational weapons companies Lockheed Martin and Northrupp Grumman, who will no doubt be thrilled at the former PM’s hawkish view of relations between China and the west.
LEAK HOUSE
While all eyes were on Morrison on Wednesday, another former Liberal PM was proving the bad vibes don’t always hang around forever after you leave office. Tony Abbott returned to his old stomping ground for the unveiling of his official portrait, painted by controversial, culture warring News Corp cartoonist Johannes Leak (for a cool $40,000), and drew a decent and polite crowd.
There was plenty of action in Canberra this weekCredit: John Shakespeare
In a nice show of bipartisanship, Anthony Albanese showed up, only to be gently roasted by Abbott, who joked that the current PM’s portrait would be up soon enough. Rough coming from a bloke who lasted just two years.
Meanwhile, Albanese’s annual press gallery drinks on Tuesday night went on slightly longer than the advertised one hour. But forget the PM’s partner Jodie Haydon, or any of the senior ministers in attendance. The real star was First Dog Toto, who drew considerable excitement from the assorted hacks.
AGONY AUNTIE
It’s getting to the pointy end of negotiations between ABC management and its employees over a three-year enterprise deal, and things are getting a little tense. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance aren’t happy with management’s 3 per cent pay offer and urged members to vote against it at a poll which closed on Wednesday.
Union members already disgruntled by management’s stance on key issues around pay and overtime buyouts described things as getting a little “heavy-handed” and “petty” at Aunty’s Ultimo offices.
Union posters have been mysteriously disappearing from walls. Two weeks ago, the union booked a meeting room only for it to be abruptly cancelled, forcing them to organise outside.
An ABC spokesperson told CBD management hadn’t banned the use of meeting rooms, but had “asked employees not to meet in rehearsal rooms”.
Some staff also reported delegates were told, rather sternly, to stop handing out flyers in the building lobby. The ABC spokesperson said this was because leaflets had been left littering the foyer, and denied any employees had been threatened with disciplinary action over those activities.
With negotiations set to continue if the management offer is voted down, expect those tensions to keep on simmering.
HELLO MARTIN
Helloworld boss Andrew Burnes likes to be besties with the politically well-connected.
Good pal and former federal treasurer Joe Hockey told staff at the Australian embassy in Washington – while serving as ambassador there in 2017 – to meet with one of Burnes’ executives.
At the time Helloworld, in which Hockey held $1.3 million worth of shares, was pitching for lucrative diplomatic travel contracts.
Another former Liberal luminary, Matthias Cormann, admitted to taking thousands of dollars in freebies from the company just weeks before Helloworld was announced as the winner of a tender by Cormann’s department, finance, for $1 billion in federal government flight and accommodation spending.
But with Joe and Matthias very much yesterday’s men, politically speaking, Burnes’ changing taste in friends hints that he reckons Labor is here to stay for at least the next little while.
Former Victorian Labor state minister Martin Pakula, part of post-pandemic exodus of talent and experience from Dan Andrews’ frontbench, is to join Helloworld as a non-executive director as the travel outfit – itself knocked around badly by the COVID crisis – tries to recover.
Company chairman Garry Hounsell talked a big game on Wednesday as he announced the new recruit.
“Mr Pakula … has served the people of Victoria faultlessly for many years, and we are looking forward to his input to the ongoing development of Helloworld Travel,” Hounsell said.
Now, Pakula was far from the worst performer among the many to have inhabited Andrews’ cabinet over the years, and it certainly took talent for him to skip away unscathed from the hotel quarantine debacle in which his department was up to its whatsits, but we reckon “faultlessly” is pushing it.
We’ll be intrigued at what investors make of all this. Helloworld shares, which traded for more than a fiver before the pandemic, are still languishing around the $1.50 mark.
That shouldn’t bother Pakula too much. He doesn’t have any.
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