For campaigners trying to get psychedelic drugs prescribed for clinical use in Australia, the last few months have resembled a bad trip. The main charity leading the push to get MDMA and psilocybin (the ingredient in magic mushrooms) rescheduled for clinical use by the Therapeutic Goods Administration is a mob called Mind Medicine Australia, run by investment banker Peter Hunt and his opera singer wife, Tania de Jong.
Tania de Jong and Peter Hunt run Mind Medicine Australia.Credit: James Alcock
With a board that boasts former trade minister Andrew Robb, Ethics Centre boss Dr Simon Longstaff, and investment banker Nicholas Smedley, the group looked well placed to give shrooms and pingers the old legitimacy they so badly needed to get the typically risk-averse pointy-heads at the TGA on board. So far, those pointy heads have resisted.
Then along came Four Corners. An episode aired on Aunty’s flagship investigative program in July alleged harassment and legal threats made against former employees, plus the small matter of a convicted drug cook acting as a scientific adviser.
MMA immediately went on the defensive, denying claims in the story before it had even gone to air, and hitting out at what it called “unsubstantiated, misleading and disingenuous claims” made by Four Corners.
With MMA now battling the ABC’s complaints process over the episode with one hand, and unfriendly bureaucrats with the other, the group has turned to lobbyists for help, retaining traditionally Labor-aligned government relations and strategic advisory firm Hawker Britton last month.
CBD hears Hunt has known Hawker Britton’s boss Simon Banks from his banking days, and the group hopes his lobbying prowess will help open doors in Canberra, and get them in the ear of federal and state ministers.
Meanwhile, MMA is also reaching out for donations – it’s set to host its inaugural annual dinner at Melbourne’s exclusive Australian Club later this month, with tickets setting you back only $500 a pop, or $5000 for a corporate table. That’s quite the sesh.
Industrial Relations
The Albanese government’s determination to ram through its Secure Jobs Better Pay industrial relations overhaul before Christmas hasn’t gone down too well with business lobby groups.
ACTU boss Michele O’Neil and Labor senator Tony SheldonCredit: Illustration: Benke
Neither did a hastily constructed Senate inquiry, put together to appease the crossbench but done in such a rush that many key stakeholders hadn’t yet had a chance to comb through 249 pages of legislation and get their submissions in order.
It wasn’t just business groups struggling on that front, with the Australian Council of Trade Unions also yet to get a submission out. The union did manage to book out a room right next to the hearing at Sydney’s Stamford Plaza hotel next Friday, which we’re told was just a spillover room for those appearing to dump their bags while proceedings were afoot.
CBD’s spies also spotted ACTU boss Michele O’Neil tucking into breakfast with Labor senator Tony Sheldon, who chairs the education and employment committee examining the bill, before proceedings got under way.
We bet the Business Council was thrilled.
Libs look east
With the clock ticking down until the March state election, both Dominic Perrottet’s Liberal government – hit by a string of high-profile ministerial exits – and the Labor opposition are still trying to find candidates for must-win seats.
Over in Coogee, one of just two electorates Labor won off the Coalition in 2019, the Liberals have locked in speech pathologist and law firm office manager Kylie von Muenster as their candidate. CBD hears she got the nod after two rival candidates, Brendan Roberts (who is Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman’s policy adviser and a former chief of staff to ex-Bennelong MP John Alexander) and Sophie White, dropped out of the running.
Next door, in Vaucluse, former TV journalist Kellie Sloane has, as anticipated, won preselection to contest the seat vacated by outgoing veteran MP Gabrielle Upton, beating out former NSW Liberal vice-president Mary-Lou Jarvis and local businesswoman Roanne Knox.
Sloane will face a tough challenge from teal independent candidate Karen Freyer, who’s hoping to build on the success of independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender in turning the eastern suburbs Liberal stronghold teal.
And you can tell just how much Vaucluse means to the Liberals – Sloane was unveiled by Perrottet in Double Bay on Sunday, and was plastered all over the premier’s socials.
Liberal candidate for Vaucluse Kellie Slone and Premier Dominic Perrottet on Sunday.Credit: James Alcock
It’s a very different vibe from May, when former prime minister Scott Morrison wouldn’t go anywhere near the blue-ribbon seats that rejected the Liberals at the federal election.
Booth Delivers
CBD brought word recently about former British American Tobacco spinner Nick Booth, who decided to make amends for that past life by driving thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies from London to help Ukrainians resisting Russia’s invasion.
Since then, Booth’s fundraiser has gone into overdrive, smashing his original $10,000 target and raking in $25,000 worth of donations.
That was enough to stockpile plenty of medical supplies getting increasingly scarce in Europe – including field-dressings, bandages, painkillers and tourniquets, which have now hit the frontlines in besieged Mykolaiv.
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