Come in, Kelly: Strange case of the missing chief medical officer

There was a time, in the depths of the pandemic, when the nation’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly was a hard man to avoid, regularly helping front the many, many press conferences held by former PM Scott Morrison and his health minister Greg Hunt.

But that was then. These days, Kelly seems decidedly out of fashion with Anthony Albanese’s government and its Health Minister Mark Butler.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Kelly hasn’t held a press conference or done any media since July. Could it be because Kelly – and some of the states’ health supremos – were less than fulsome in their support of some recent political decisions on pandemic management, particularly national cabinet shortening the mandatory isolation period from seven days to five?

Albanese has refused to make public any health advice underpinning that effort, and eight days later the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee chaired by Kelly quietly published a statement on the Health Department website, urging people to keep isolating as long as they had symptoms.

Hmmmmm.

We asked Butler if the nation was going to see its chief health officer in the press conference after the national cabinet meets again on Friday, and he told us to ask the prime minister.

We asked Albanese’s people, as well as putting a request into the Health Department for an interview with Kelly. When we hear from anybody, or if there is a sighting of the chief medical officer, we’ll let you know.

HIGH PLACES

Allan Myers, KC, has done good stuff with his career, you’d have to concede, although for us, the highlight remains being named fifth-richest lawyer On. The. Planet. Richer than Judge Judy, if you please.

But he has also found time, these past few years, for the prestigious post of chancellor of the University of Melbourne, a gig that’s attracted a few big hitters down through the years, including Sir Redmond Barry, the judge who sent Ned Kelly to the gallows, and Sir Robert Menzies.

Jane Hansen and Paul Little. Credit: Teagan Glenane

Myers is moving on when his current term ends in a couple of months and speculation has been rife that a) he will be replaced by a woman, who would be only the second female appointment to the role in the uni’s near 170-year history, and b) that woman would be investment banker and philanthropist Jane Hansen.

It would make sense. Hansen, who has been deputy chancellor since 2017, is as well-connected as anybody in this town.

She chairs the Melbourne Theatre Company, sits on the boards of Opera Australia and the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, as well as running the Hansen Little Foundation, which she started in 2015 with husband Paul Little – the Toll Holdings billionaire and former Essendon footy club chairman.

The $30 million the foundation stumped up for the university’s Hansen Scholarship program wouldn’t have hurt either.

But there’s a problem. Hansen isn’t interested in the job, according to sources close to the woman herself, who told CBD that she simply has too much on her plate to take on another big role.

But Hansen and Myers will have a say in who does end up in the big chair. Both are members of the university council which is in the process of choosing a new chancellor, according to a university spokesman.

SPICE BOYS

CBD was intrigued to learn this week that Sydney porn king, annulled bankrupt and former Penthouse publisher Damien Costas was helping promote this week’s Australian tour of “Mr Brexit” himself Nigel Farage.

Damien Costas

Costas’ involvement is not a shock exactly – he’s helped put on speaking tours for right-wing figures in the past – but it does make us wonder if he helped with the name of the one-man shows by one of the “bad boys of Brexit”: An Entertaining Evening With Nigel Farage and the tagline: Politics needs a bit of spicing up.

Oh behave, Damien.

ART ATTACK

CBD is appealing for information in relation to an appalling case of property damage, cultural philistinism and – we think – animal cruelty.

Prolific Australian producers of public art Gillie and Marc Schattner are seeking answers about an attack on one of their creations, a life-sized bronze sculpture of a Sumatran baby orangutan called Neroli. The work was part of a large installation of 20 life-size bronzes at Mirvac’s Yarra’s Edge development at Docklands, representing some of the world’s most endangered animals, created to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.

The bronze sculpture of Neroli thrown into the Yarra.

That is until someone chucked Neroli into the Yarra’s murky waters some time on Sunday night, it is suspected.

Police have been informed but the appalled Schattners are seeking public help in tracking down the perp or perps. It’s the least Melbourne could do for Neroli, CBD feels.

“We are shocked and in disbelief that this type of vandalism could occur and it breaks our heart to imagine the efforts that would have been taken to make it possible,” the duo told us.

“If you have any answers, we would love your support.”

You know the score everybody: if you saw something, say something.