By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
The latest episode in our life-after-politics series takes CBD to unfamiliar territory, the gym.
But that’s where you’ll find, every day, former Liberal MP for the federal seat of Chisholm, Gladys Liu, who was famously lauded by her then-leader, Scott Morrison, on election night 2019: “How good is Gladys Liu?”
A still from a video posted by Gladys Liu announcing that she has become a certified fitness trainer.Credit: Facebook
Of course, the Hong Kong-born Liu went right out of fashion in Liberal circles as acting tough towards China became official policy, and she lost her seat to Labor’s Carina Garland in the 2022 election, when Liu’s primary vote collapsed by nearly 8 per cent.
Still, we’ve always admired the Liu stamina, and it’s often forgotten how hard she worked over many years to overcome racial and gender barriers to get to represent the seat in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Gladys Liu has had a career change.Credit: John Shakespeare
So maybe we shouldn’t be surprised at Liu’s next career step: she landed her certification as a fitness trainer a few weeks ago.
This development, announced to her social media followers, has not come out of the clear blue sky. Liu completed her first Melbourne Marathon in October and has been appearing occasionally at park runs in the eastern suburbs.
She told the SBS Chinese language service that she was at the gym every day now, and reminded viewers of the dangers of muscle atrophy to those of us who fail to stay in shape as we grow older.
CBD was unable to get the famously interview-averse Liu on the record on Tuesday, so we’ll just conclude by saying that she’s an example to us all. Not that we have any intention of following it.
PLAYING WITH FIRE
A “cultural journey” can take you to unexpected places. Just look where Victoria’s dear old Country Fire Authority found itself this week, as it tries to consign a sometimes problematic workplace culture to the past.
Listeners to our stablemates 3AW on Tuesday morning might have spluttered out their muesli as a caller reported that CFA bosses had to remind the rank and file that having sex in the authority’s buildings and even its vehicles would be frowned upon by management.
When we went asking questions of the CFA, a spokesperson was careful not to stray into not-safe-for-work territory, but a little reading between the lines might not be inappropriate.
“CFA received an anonymous call to CFA’s resolution support complaint line about alleged behaviours that had been occurring on CFA premises,” the spokesperson said.
“This matter was referred to local management and a general reminder to brigades about behavioural standards on CFA property was sent out. As CFA continues on its cultural journey, it is pleasing to see our local managers taking behavioural issues seriously.”
TECH ROCK
There’s a lot to be said sometimes for staying in your lane. While Vinay Samuel, the founder and CEO of home-grown data analytics operation Zetaris, has made a decent fist of the “disruptive transformation” game, it’s not obvious to us why he’d want to try re-invent himself as a rock star.
But yes, it looks like the 2019 Australian Computer Society’s Disruptor of the Year, who played guitar in noughties pub-rock outfit Rip it Up, wants to climb back into the touring van again.
Of course, the scene has changed a bit since the 2000s: notably, you didn’t have Spotify back then to help smooth your way onto the sticky carpet circuit.
So Samuel and his bandmates in The Silo, singer Jason Demillo and drummer Glyn Davis – not the secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, but a Zetaris colleague who once had a musical moment in the sun as a contestant on The Voice – have chosen Spotify for the release of their self-titled single Silo on Monday.
Samuel insists that being in a band is not all that different to the day job, in some ways.
“It is identical, whether I am working on creating new technology or a new song,” he reckons. “I have to problem solve.”
We can’t wait for the album.
DAN NATION
Then you get some people who don’t seem to want to try anything new.
We first raised the alarm more than 12 months ago about the creeping Dan Andrews-ification of the Australian Labor Party, that has state leaders Chris Minns of NSW and South Australia’s Peter Malinauskas shamelessly mining Andrews’ campaign style and even – in Minns’ case – the former Victorian premier’s fashion choices.
Now the contagion has spread all the way to Queensland, where Labor Treasurer Cameron Dick delivered his budget on Tuesday – a last throw of the dice, if we’re honest – with the slogan “Doing what matters” plastered all over it.
“Doing what matters” was Victorian Labor’s campaign slogan before its 2022 election triumph and Dan and the gang liked it so much they gave it another spin as the trope of their 2023-24 budget.
Now CBD knows better than to imagine it can stem this tsunami of political copycat behaviour – these people will do what works, come what may – but would a little subtlety kill them?
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