Lord Mayor Sally Capp doesn’t plan to leave Melbourne’s Town Hall gig any time soon.
And now she’s got the address to prove it.
Coming good on a long-held promise to move to the inner city from her family home in Hawthorn, Capp and husband Andrew Sutherland have settled on a new apartment at Victoria Harbour in Melbourne’s Docklands.
Town Hall spies regard Capp’s shift to the city as a move which bolsters her credentials ahead of next year’s lord mayoral race, which she has said she will contest.
On Thursday, Capp said she’ll be installed in Docklands by next week.
She reckons the new digs will help her in her job too.
“Moving into Docklands will help me do the job because I’ll have a better appreciation of all the positives and challenges of inner-city living in Melbourne,” Capp said.
“It will give me a deeper understanding and perspective on issues for local residents and businesses in the City of Melbourne.”
She's moving in: Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp is "right-sizing" to Docklands with husband Andrew SutherlandCredit: Matt Golding
As it turns out, Capp and Sutherland are likely to have fared well in the move.
The pair struck a deal with developer, the Community Development Group, back in 2015, to offload their elegant Georgian mansion ‘Melfort’ for $5.1 million and then convert it into five townhouses, with Capp and Sutherland planning to keep one and sell the remaining four, with the profits split with the developer.
Early marketing materials for the townhouses spruiked them with an asking price starting at $2.75 million.
Not bad at all.
BIG MOVES AT THE BCA
Corporate Australia may have breathed a sigh of relief when Bill Shorten lost in May - the member for Maribyrnong spent much of his campaign ineffectually complaining about the "top end of town" - but the job of lobbying Canberra remains a work in progress.
As this column has noted on more than one occasion, the Business Council of Australia has been trying to find someone to replace president Grant King without success for some time now.
The council has been riven by internal disagreements on energy policy while key members, including the Big Four banks and Telstra, aren't particularly engaged, according to BCA sources.
And it failed to get tax cuts for big companies through parliament. So it's not the most attractive of positions.
But we are told they may have found someone.
Which brings us to Tim Reed, BCA director and chief executive at accounting software company MYOB until Thursday.
Reed's decision to quit executive duties at MYOB frees him up to pursue other opportunities and BCA insiders say these are likely to include taking over from King.
Definitely, maybe: Grant King and Jennifer Westacott ponder moves for the BCA boardCredit: Shakespeare
Reed is a stronger communicator than King whose professorial style didn't exactly connect with....well... everyone.
His time at MYOB also means he will be able to truthfully say he understands small business.
Qantas boss Alan Joyce, former BCA president Tony Shepherd and Qantas chairman Richard Goyder were all being sounded out about the role in recent months so it's great to think the BCA may have finally found a willing candidate.
To be fair we are told fellow director Danny Gilbert considered the gig some months ago, but decided against it.
If Reed is appointed, expect the focus to quickly turn to the tenure of BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott who now sits on two external boards (Wesfarmers and Western Sydney Airport) which suggests she may not stick around forever.
They auto know
Former Fiat Chrysler regional boss and Tigers life member John Kett sure landed on his feet this week when he nabbed the chief operating officer’s gig at Hyundai Australia.
One of his high-profile FCA successors, Veronica Johns, appears to have done the same, more than three years after being named at the centre of an expenses scandal in which Fiat and Jeep bosses worldwide claimed the Australia division had misused up to $30 million.
Johns has emerged as a strategy manager inside Credit Clear, the debt payment start-up which helps consumers track down their credit history, erase “black marks” against their names and boost their credit score.
It’s a case of coming full circle for Johns, who took the job at the Alex Waislitz-backed outfit in April.
Credit Clear was founded by Lewis Romano and is currently led by his father and sales expert Frank Romano, who acted as a high-paid consultant to Johns during her time leading FCA from May 2013 onwards.
At one point, FCA claimed Johns had used company cash to help pay for renovations on her family home. FCA also claimed that Frank Romano was also loaned a car, and given a fuel card and toll pass as part of a $1.7 million consulting deal.
FCA settled the case against Johns and Campbell in Melbourne’s Federal Court in September 2016, with both parties walking away without any admission of liability.
It’s great to see some relationships from the period have stayed intact.