By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
It is not even Halloween, and instead of the early appearance of mince pies at Big W, we are recoiling from a far greater horror: the early arrival of federal election corflutes.
And where else (and who else) but in the federal electorate of Goldstein and the political grudge rematch of the century: vanquished Liberal Tim Wilson against victorious teal Zoe Daniel. Yes, the 2022 federal election corflute wars are back. And voting is not expected until May.
Tim Wilson proudly displays his election corflute.
A CBD reader has spotted a Wilson corflute – “like the first report of a magpie swooping” – on East Boundary Road in Bentleigh, in Melbourne’s south-east.
Daniel’s corflutes arrived last month and conform to Bayside Council rules, we were told by her spokesman (who turns out to be Francis Leach, Triple J rock god announcer from our teenage years).
Wilson referred media inquiries to the Liberal Party head office.
When contacted by CBD, Bayside council, in the midst of local elections, wisely headed for the hills (or jumped off Middle Brighton Pier) rather than get involved.
A corflute for independent Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel.Credit: X
“Political signage is regulated by state government planning controls and the Bayside planning scheme,” Matthew Cripps, director of city planning and amenity at the council, told CBD.
The council said election corflutes can be displayed for three months – and there doesn’t even need to be an election.
Both Daniel’s and Wilson’s corflutes advertise upcoming community town hall events for each candidate – fair enough – but Goldstein corflutes were the subject of much drama last election.
Wilson complained Daniel had put up the signs well before the election had been called, believing she had broken the rules. He demanded the council police Daniel’s corflutes and even created his own spreadsheet to keep track of them. The council eventually banned Daniel’s corflutes, but she won a challenge in the Supreme Court, which said candidates could display the signs for three months at a time.
Everyone is much more chillaxed now. But the election is about six months away. It is way too early to be writing about these two.
THE FRIENDSHIP THAT WASN’T
Last year, CBD reported that the former leader of the Australian Labor Party, author of 13 books and weird uncle of the NSW upper house, Mark Latham, had skipped a few sittings of parliament to head to the UK for a “study tour”, which also included taking in some of the second Ashes test at Lord’s.
More than a year on, we still don’t know how much studying was done by the 1980 winner of the JK Galbraith Prize for Political Economy at Sydney University.
While on the grand tour, Latham managed to find time to attend Wimbledon. And according to his disclosures tabled in parliament last week, some of Latham’s tickets came courtesy of former tennis pro Mark Philippoussis.
Mark Philippoussis.Credit: Getty Images
To quote a handwritten entry in Volume B – Supplementary Ordinary Returns + Discretionary Returns – April 2024 and signed by Latham: “1 ticket 7 July + 2 tickets 12 July Wimbledon tennis. From M. Philippoussis and P. Fleming.”
CBD was unable to definitively identify “P. Fleming” to ask what role he had in gifting the tickets, but the Scud was easier to track down.
Politician Mark Latham.Credit: Janie Barrett
“Mark definitely didn’t take him to Wimbledon,” a spokesman for Philippoussis told CBD, adding Latham was not “a guest of Mark’s” and nor did the pair “have a friendship”.
How intriguing. We put this to Latham but are yet to hear back. When we know, you will.
Back on the home front, Latham has been turning the blowtorch on the great and good of the racing fraternity, using parliamentary privilege to accuse Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys of “megalomania” and “dictatorial behaviour” in a particularly entertaining showdown.
But as this column has reported, not only is Latham a regular at Royal Randwick and Rosehill, the man owns a stake in a few racehorses. According to his disclosures, he has a stake in two thoroughbreds – a five-year-old mare called Winning Point and an unnamed, unraced Kingman colt. He also has a stake in two-year-old harness racing horse The Storm Inside. And two greyhounds – Polaris Missile and an unraced dog with no racing name but colloquially known as “Richie”.
ON THE TRACK
What do celebrity chef Shannon Bennett, actor Eric Bana, Olympian Kieren Perkins, outgoing Crown chief executive Ciaran Carruthers and former governor Linda Dessau have in common?
They are all petrol heads and put in an appearance at the Phillip Island MotoGP over the weekend, apparently expressing a preference for motor racing over the nags at the Caulfield Cup. CBD’s agents spotted Australian Grand Prix Corporation chair (and Carlton tragic) Martin Pakula deep in conversation on Friday with former and current Carlton stars Matthew Kreuzer and Tom De Koning. Perhaps they were discussing the club’s 2025 prospects. Judging from the expression on Pakula’s face, we couldn’t be sure. It was either a happy smile or a rictus grin.
Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos, naturally, managed to attend both the GP and the Cup.
NEVER HAPPENED
Despite a preternatural ability to seemingly reconfigure the atoms of existence to conform to his wishes, the closest thing NSW has to an omnipotent being, chief executive of Racing NSW Peter V’landys met his match when he came up against 1200 years of British monarchy on the weekend.
Despite a parochial media fervour that nearly matched the opening of the Sydney Metro attempting to will the event into being, V’Landys’ “good friend”, King Charles III, did not attend his pet horse race, The Everest.
King Charles and Queen Camilla not attending The Everest.Credit: Nine News
Such is the talismanic hold V’Landys has on the media that The Sporting News managed to defy reality and deliver this headline at 2.06pm on race day: “King Charles at The Everest: Details of monarch’s appearance at world’s richest horse.”
Natalie Oliveri delivered the reality check on 9Honey, Nine’s women’s news site: “According to many royal insiders – and indeed Buckingham Palace – King Charles and Queen Camilla were never intending on making a surprise appearance at the event in Sydney on Saturday.”
So it was all a fever dream. Now his majesty’s Australasian press corps can revert to speculating on an early federal election.
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