By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Now that the tennis is done and hostilities have been suspended in the Australia Day culture war, it’s time for the year to begin in earnest.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott kicked off this year’s conservative social calendar with his ‘back to work’ drinks.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
That also means it’s time for the true start of the conservative social calendar – former prime minister Tony Abbott’s annual “back to work” drinks, hosted at his taxpayer-funded office in the MLC Centre at Sydney’s Martin Place.
The Liberals have plenty of work to do in the early half of 2025 with a federal election looming, but thanks to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent performance, the mood at Abbott HQ was veritably “buoyant” one guest told CBD.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, the man largely responsible for that buoyant mood, was guest of honour on the night alongside his wife Kirilly Dutton.
The guest list was completed by a who’s who of the Liberal Party’s right wing and relics from Abbott’s brief time in The Lodge. Former Liberal federal director Brian Loughnane (aka “Mr Peta Credlin”) was there, along with former ABC chair and Abbott’s old business advisor Maurice Newman.
Colourful Sydney criminal barrister Margaret Cunneen and vitamin mogul-cum-conservative donor Marcus Blackmore were also spotted. Fresh from losing yet another preselection contest, anti-voice campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine showed up, along with his father-in-law, conservative pundit Gerard Henderson.
By CBD’s rough calculations, Abbott’s office space, with views over Sydney Harbour, costs the taxpayer around $6500-a-week to maintain, one of the many handy perks afforded to former prime ministers. We’re glad to see it’s being put to good use.
Wedding of the Year
Last year, the billionaire Pratt family’s sprawling Raheen estate in Kew played host to a surprise gig by pop has-been Katy Perry, attended by Prime Minister Albanese, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and her predecessor Dan Andrews.
The newly married Bella Geminder and Jose Luiz Falk celebrate with their guests.
The latest lavish celebration at Raheen was a family affair. On Friday, Bella Geminder, granddaughter of the cardboard empire’s late patriarch Richard Pratt tied the knot with partner Jose Luiz Falk in the Melbourne society wedding of the year.
The daughter of rich-listers Fiona Geminder and Raphael Geminder wedded Falk before Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann, who shared happy snaps on his socials with the likes of sleepwear magnate Peter Alexander and Noiseworks frontman Jon Stevens.
Stevens is in a relationship with Bella’s aunt, Heloise Pratt. She and her siblings Fiona and Anthony Pratt, now based in the United States to leverage his close relationship with President Donald Trump, each have a stake in family legacy packaging company Visy.
Pratt was unable to attend Friday’s wedding. Also absent was Heloise’s ex-husband Alex Waislitz, who she is locked in a legal battle with after accusing him of using the couple’s shared assets to provide “loans” to his singer-actress fiancee, Rebekah Behbahani.
Shane Warne’s daughter Brooke Warne was among the many guests at the wedding, which was in full party mode by the early hours of Friday night.
A strong security team kept watch from the gates of the estate, while a few guests emerged in floor-length gowns, clutching small white bouquets and white bags – presumably, wedding favours filled with goodies to take home.
Bella founded a skincare brand, Strange Luxury, and celebrated her engagement to Falk in March last year. Her sister Georgia Geminder was married in 2022.
Haylen’s Howler
We don’t dip our toes into the happenings of Sydney’s Macquarie Street too often, but couldn’t let this one pass by.
NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen takes questions about her Australia Day Hunter Valley road trip.Credit: Oscar Colman
NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen, who had just started to overcome a series of jobs-for-mates type scandals that plagued her first months in Premier Chris Minns’ ministry, was in the headlines again on the weekend.
The minister was revealed to have sent a driver on a 446-kilometre round-trip from Sydney to chauffeur her and some friends to a long lunch at a Hunter Valley winery on the Australia Day weekend.
The trip, which was also attended by the state’s Housing and Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson, saw the driver take a 13-hour trip from Sydney to the minister’s holiday house on the Central Coast before driving them to the Brokenwood winery for a three-hour lunch.
After being exposed in ministerial driver logs reported in The Sunday Telegraph, Haylen conceded her conduct didn’t quite pass the “pub test,” and promised to repay the $750 costs.
Haylen said: “No one’s perfect. People make mistakes.”
While Jackson was on the trip, she was not involved in organising the ministerial driver. Haylen said she alone took full responsibility.
The revelations brought back memories of another chauffeur-driven scandal but one closer to home. In 2016, former Victorian Labor MP Steve Herbert resigned from the ministry after using a ministerial chauffeur to transport his two pet dogs.
Mr Herbert was forced to pay back $192.80 to cover the cost of “one, possibly two” trips to chauffeur his two dogs Ted and Patch between his properties in Parkdale and Trentham, about 120 kilometres, at taxpayer expense.
We’ll soon find out just how far standards have slipped since then.
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