Making it rain: Brian Tyson, Michael Photios and Joe Tannous.Credit: Illustration: John Shakespeare
Not every industry is doing it tough as the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll. It’s been a veritable boon for the country’s lobbyists, who have seen an influx of new clients trying their luck with various state and federal government incentives.
PremierState chairman Michael Photios, a prominent Liberal Party-aligned lobbyist, even wrote to clients on Sunday telling them his outfit was "on a war footing" and had "expanded our operating hours to a 7 day/7 night platform to meet the increased demand on our services at this challenging time".
Sounds … lucrative.
PremierState, which counts among staff former Liberal MP Fiona Scott and ex-Gillard government press secretary Darrin Barnett, has recently signed on the car dealership industry association and the cinema operators lobby, chaired by former Event Hospitality boss David Seargeant.
Then there’s Botany Bay terminal operator DP World, whose facilities sit empty but who continue to pay fees, and ride-sharing app Uber. All four have signed on within the last month, according to the register of lobbyists.
Over at Newgate Australia, run by Sydney Swans director Brian Tyson, things are similarly positive. The lobby shop, for the record, is now explicitly spruiking COVID-19 support among its suite of services. The most significant new signings, according to the register, is Wesfarmers’ hardware chain Bunnings, followed shortly by its stationery arm Officeworks. Both have lobbied to stay open during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the last month Newgate has also picked up Don Meij's Domino's Pizza as a client, according to the register, as well as car rental outfit Hertz.
Then there’s Cornerstone Group, run by Liberal Party-aligned lobbyist Joe Tannous, which has brought in meal delivery service Menulog as a client. Tannous counts among his operators former Labor leader Simon Crean and Chris Bowen's former chief-of-staff James Cullen.
"It’s business as usual for a lot of companies, but the government has less bandwidth [to deal with issues] and so some things are on hold," one lobbyist told CBD on Tuesday. "And then there are those clients who haven’t had exposure to government and suddenly, they need to."
SIGNAL FAILURE
There was total silence at the Kerry Stokes-controlled West Australian newspaper over the weekend when it came to revelations that the Seven West Media chairman had been given an exemption from the state’s strict quarantine rules.
Having arrived back in Perth after spending time in Colorado, Stokes and his wife were allowed to go to their Dalkeith home because the billionaire had recently had a medical procedure. Strangely, not even Stokes’ subsequent trip to Canberra for Anzac Day managed to make the cut at The West.
But how’s this for non-disclosure over at the Financial Review? The Nine-published masthead on Tuesday revealed exclusively that London-based hedge fund billionaire Michael Hintze was pushing governments to urgently reopen their economies.
"Lockdown, which has resulted in a halt to economic activity, is not sustainable – it is damaging to society, to people’s aspiration and to the economy," he said.
Not mentioned was that Hintze’s CQS hedge fund, according to Bloomberg, "suffered its worst-ever start to a year". CQS’s flagship Directional Opportunities Fund, which he personally manages, was headed for a decline of at least 30 per cent in the first three months of the year. The majority of the losses were sustained in March thanks to the impact of the coronavirus. Could that be why Hintze wants economic restrictions lifted?
FILM SCHOOL
There were ruffled feathers aplenty, meanwhile, in Sydney’s wealthy northern peninsula after Ottomin Group investor Richard Kovacs upped his crusade against dogs being let off the leash on one of Palm Beach’s most popular beaches. Kovacs, who snapped up his Palm Beach bolt-hole for a cool $7 million in 2016, has ruffled feathers on the millionaire’s row by installing a neatly concealed video camera on the corner of his waterfront property, pointed at the beach — and dog walkers.
Officers from Northern Beaches Police Area Command even attended the Station Beach site at 4pm on Sunday to investigate the half-hidden camera. A police spokesperson told this column on Tuesday that the officers found the camera complied with regulations.
It’s been just three months since the Northern Beaches Council gave the green light for dogs to roam free on a beach stretch beneath Barrenjoey Lighthouse. Now Kovacs, a former gold investor, has appointed himself the president — and founder — of the Palm Beach Protection Society.
He reckons dogs are a risk to local wildlife and water quality, even appearing before local councillors last year to suggest the construction of dedicated dog water parks. "We believe it is easier and more cost-effective to re-purpose some of the existing 28 off-leash dog parks to include water features, than to put our precious open beaches at risk," he told Northern Beaches councillors who ... agreed to investigate the idea.