By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
For our regular fix of internecine political conflicts, big swinging property deals, fake news accusations and defamation threats washed down with pints of Guinness, we turn once again to Melbourne’s Celtic Club.
Regular readers will recall the club back in 2016 sold its long-held Queen Street headquarters to Malaysian-backed developer Belulah for $25.6 million and then refused/declined/was unable to move back into the premises as previously agreed. In a plot twist, those three floors on the corner of Queen and La Trobe streets are now for sale via agents Cushman & Wakefield.
Professor Patrick McGorry remains on the club board.Credit: Jason South
Since then, the club has bought a South Melbourne venue, which it now wants to sell, and settled into a rental on Sydney Road in Brunswick. Then there was a failed attempt to overthrow the board. And now the election results are in.
President Patrick McGorry, the celebrated psychiatrist and 2010 Australian of the Year, declined to recontest the top job after six years as big dog. But he will remain on the board, polling 195 votes, according to a source, just behind University of Melbourne professor Ronan McDonald, McGorry’s preferred successor, on 213. Ex-Age journalist Seamus Bradley (168 votes) was also elected, as was former Gillard speechwriter Michael Cooney (176 votes).
Cliffhanger! Former Merri-bek mayor John Kavanagh, a board critic, polled 145, a dead heat with the board-endorsed Celia Fowler. But additional postal votes tipped the last board position in Fowler’s favour. In contrast, rebel candidate Mary Healy, whose great-great-grandfather J.J. Fitzgerald was a club founder, attracted 73 votes and was not elected.
“I just feel it has lost a bit of direction,” Healy said.
“We are really quite worried about the finances. We bought a hotel in South Melbourne, which we have now put on the market.
“We were not given the benefit of a financial report before this election.”
Good point. Members are suspicious of the state of the finances and still await the annual report.
McGorry said the club has never been better managed.
“It is a challenge to operate a licensed premises in this environment,” he said. “It is still not in the black, but it is heading in the right direction.”
Everyone is awaiting the annual general meeting on Saturday, November 29 at 9.30am , where the finances should be revealed.
And presumably, an update on the board’s legal action. A “preliminary discovery notice” was sent out by Andrew Heale, special counsel of BSP Lawyers, acting on behalf of the board. The letter was an attempt to find out the identity behind the creation of rebel online newsletter Dire Straits, which the letter says has published “false, misleading and defamatory statements” about those involved in the club. McGorry declined to comment on that one.
Change of tune
Spotted: United Firefighters Union bossman (and saviour of former Greens leader Adam Bandt) Peter Marshall, having a cuppa at North, in Rathdowne Street, Carlton North at 8.30am on Wednesday.
But rather than appearing in his customary massive 4WD, Marshall arrived on a shiny e-bike. The Bandt influence perhaps, or maybe he’s making a statement on net zero?
On the way out
The best political staffers are seen but not heard, barring the occasional self-congratulatory LinkedIn post as they skip out the door.
But former journalist Jeff Waters, who quit as senator Fatima Payman’s media and communications adviser this week, left with a statement that raised almost as many questions as his boss’s dramatic defection from Labor last year.
Senator Fatima PaymanCredit: Alex Ellinghausen
“This was not an easy decision. I took on the role with enthusiasm and was proud of immediately and drastically improving my parliamentarian’s relevance in the Senate, as well as her media profile,” Waters wrote.
“However, matters were identified during my work that render my continued employment untenable.
“The aforementioned matters are now being addressed. Out of respect for the people and institutions involved, I will not comment further at this stage.”
To us, these seemed like the words of a man desperate to say more. Alas, Waters didn’t return our calls. Payman told us: “I wish Jeff all the best.”
Richo in debating fray
Former senator Graham Richardson’s death this week was greeted by a deluge of misty-eyed, amnesiac tributes from both sides of the political aisle. It also unleashed plenty of less savoury stories of sordid trysts with sex workers, Swiss bank accounts, dodgy business dealings, and a life lived in the fast lane, by which we mean fleeing from looming NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption referrals.
Former federal Labor senator Graham Richardson in 1996.Credit: Patrick Cummins
So it was fascinating to learn how in 2007, a fresh-faced Liberal MP began his maiden speech to the NSW parliament by recalling a high school debate between his North Sydney private school Shore teammates and some lads from rival St Aloysius down the road.
“It [my election] is the culmination of a political journey that had a somewhat inauspicious start when, as a 15-year-old student, my entire debating team was banned from debates,” said Pittwater MP Rob Stokes, who would go on to become a minister in the Gladys Berejiklian government.
“It seems the father of a boy on the opposing team had taken strong exception to a particular argument, and called our principal demanding that we all be removed. The principal felt obliged to comply – that father was, after all, Senator Graham Richardson.”
Like Stokes, the protagonists in that debate all went on to bigger and better things. His Shore teammates included Chris Taylor, later one of the ABC’s Chaser team, and Richard Scruby, now a leading barrister.
Richo’s son Matthew Richardson is also a top barrister, who represented Bruce Lehrmann in his failed defamation case against Network Ten.
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