By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
There was a world of trouble late last year after our new high commissioner to the United Kingdom, former Labor minister Stephen “not the cricketer” Smith, was “cancelling” a planned Australia Day function in London.
Smith reportedly told organisers of an annual Australia Day gala dinner that it would be inappropriate to hold an event on the day, when a spokesperson for the high commission pointed out the “sensitivities” around January 26 to many Indigenous Australians who see it more synonymous with colonisation and genocide than celebration.
High commissioner Stephen Smith’s (left) attempt to cancel an Australia Day event in the UK didn’t go down well with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles.Credit: John Shakespeare
As predictable outrage ensued, including a rebuke from Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, the high commissioner appeared to backtrack a little, with a statement from Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office on Smith’s behalf citing high costs as the chief reason for the gala event’s canning.
But new documents released under freedom of information bring some clarity to that muddled messaging, and indicate that sensitivities around the date did indeed influence how Australia House chose to mark the national day.
In November, the high commission’s First Nations working group recommended a “focus on celebrating Australian excellence in the UK by hosting an event in late January or early February to ... engage with key stakeholders early in the new year”.
The high commission’s approved events list soon had a new addition – an “Exhibition of Australian Excellence” on January 25, to “promote Australian ... excellence to our UK audience”.
Stephen Smith, Australia’s high commissioner to the UK, at Australia House in London in March.Credit: Hollie Adams
Nary a mention of Australia Day in the event description. Now, the event could have been a purely coincidental celebration of Australiana that just happened to be held the day before the highly controversial national holiday. But the run sheet included a performance of the Australian national anthem. You’d only make people endure that if you wanted to give things a patriotic hue.
We asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about all this, and a spokesperson directed us towards a statement on the department’s website in response to a Herald Sun article from December, which noted that “the high commission has already planned and will host an appropriate event to mark Australia Day 2024 at Australia House, as Australia’s embassies and consulates do around the world”.
It’s telling that Australia Day is now too toxic for our most plum diplomatic outpost, but it took guts for Smith and Co to can celebrations on January 26. Just a shame they didn’t have the guts to go out and defend their choice.
ABOVE BOARD
Most organisations take a boringly conservative approach to filling board positions, giving anybody with a controversial past or, let’s say, complicated public profile a wide steer.
So CBD was delighted – we may have actually squealed – to learn on Monday of the composition of the sports advisory board formed by medicinal cannabis operation Levin Health.
Even allowing for the propensity for Australians to forgive their sporting heroes anything, it’s fair to say that Levin has not shied away from some greats who have had a whiff of controversy about them.
There’s rugby league immortal and reformed hard drugs guzzler Andrew Johns, as well as legendary jockey Damien Oliver, who served a suspension at the height of his career for placing dodgy bets on the nags.
Basketball megastar Andrew Bogut, who strayed much too close for comfort to the notorious pizzagate hoax during the 2016 US presidential election and then got into strife with the Victorian Electoral Commission – like you do – over expressing his strident views on the state’s public health measures during the COVID pandemic, also has a seat at the Levin table.
Four-time premiership Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson – about whom no adverse findings were made by the inquiry into complaints of systemic racism at the club – also brings his expertise and intense persona to the board, as does Gold Coast Suns coach Damien Hardwick (three premierships as Richmond coach) and Australia’s greatest basketballer, Lauren Jackson.
Those board meetings must be something.
We asked Levin’s Mark Brayshaw – himself a former North Melbourne footballer – how he identified the right stuff in a potential board member.
He told us the board members were picked for their ability to communicate the benefits of medicinal cannabis, and that it helped to “not be anonymous”.
Mark Brayshaw is the managing director at Levin Health.Credit: Simon Schluter
Brand ambassadors who have known life’s ups and downs also have this going for them.
“When they talk about pain and anxiety and stress management, people listen,” Brayshaw told us.
TEST CASE
Victoria’s wigs and gowns are consternating – yeah, again – this time with the unhappiness emanating from those eager young go-getters knocking at the door of the profession.
The bar exam, which is always a tricky proposition with a score of less than 75 per cent considered a fail, was said to be particularly difficult this year – unreasonably so, according to some – and prompted complaints from disappointed candidates to the Bar Council.
For context, you don’t get change out of $900 for just sitting the exam with the attendant rigmarole, to say nothing of the hundreds of hours of study needed to stand half a chance.
Then if you do pass, you’ll have to find another $7000 to undertake the “reader’s course” that takes you to the next stage of your journey to baby barristerhood.
Some of the issues got an airing at a “town hall” meeting of barristers last week, with a debrief later sent out to members of the profession by VicBar president Georgina Schoff, KC, who might try her hand in the diplomatic service if the barristering doesn’t work out.
“Many views were expressed, and I think it is fair to say that most were in favour of some change,” Schoff wrote.
Yeah, we heard something like that, too.
One helpful suggestion was breaking the test into three parts – evidence, ethics and procedure – and having candidates only re-sit the parts they failed.
Another idea is an interview process for those who have had three attempts at the exam and not made it, because you would want a word under those circumstances, wouldn’t you?
Anyhoo, there’s a panel – there’s always a panel with this crew – whose final suggestions for ironing out the kinks in the system should be ready by the end of next month.
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