By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Stand by on Tuesday for a rough diamond from the bush in a big rig taking on the Canberra bubble.
Ben Sutherland, a truckie from the West Australian township of Ravensthorpe (pop. 2085), hates the Albanese government’s planned live export ban so much that he formed “grassroots group” Keep The Sheep which will flood the front lawns of Parliament House, Canberra for the National Farmer Rally on Tuesday morning.
Truck driver Ben Sutherland.
When CBD caught up with Sutherland he was on the Eyre Highway out of Port Augusta and said he faced losing 30 per cent of his income if the ban was enacted.
He said he felt “pretty gutted” when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quipped about his group’s name, “It’s live export, it’s not ‘keep the sheep’.”
Sutherland sounded pretty dark about the PM’s intervention.
“He had better be looking for me in his mirrors in Canberra when I come to town because I will be coming for him,” said Sutherland, who is also WA Livestock and Rural Transporters president.
Figuratively, not literally, CBD understands.
Sutherland has also been busy sending cheery communiques via email to his supporters: “We’re only one week, just a few more sleeps, until I cruise into Canberra in my rig ‘The Last Straw’ for the rally. It’s a bloody long way.”
But what’s this? Keep The Sheep website is extremely slick and seems to have a decent chunk of cash behind it for a movement that emerged with a sheep farmer in Ravensthorpe.
“Keep the Sheep is an initiative of Farming Families and Communities WA and is powered by hard-working Australians just like you,” it says.
Yet the email is produced using political campaign software Nation Builder no less. And the website is created by the digital agency Campaign Surge, founded by Peter Hosking, who once worked as a media adviser for Peter Dutton.
CBD smelt a bush rat. Or was it a harvest mouse? Can we call this a bit of political astroturfing, the political practice of establishing a grassroots movement which just happens to sing the same song as more powerful, cashed up but less telegenic sponsors?
We called the number on the media releases for an explanation.
“It’s a movement started by WA farmers and WA shearers and WA livestock transporters association,” said a voice at the end of the phone line which turned out to be Mark Harvey-Sutton, chief executive of industry group Australian Live Exporters’ Council.
“We are all involved in it and it’s definitely grassroots with the momentum that it has gained. Bar some seed funding.”
Keep the Sheep has 80,000 signatures on its petition and 1200 registrations for the rally and its campaign has raised $500,000 from contributions.
“It is a separate entity for the purpose for the campaign and a few organisations put in some amount to get the ball rolling,” Harvey-Sutton said.
It appears Keep The Sheep and its many admirers are pulling out all the stops for Tuesday. As the group says, “See Ewe Next Tuesday, Albo”.
IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT
Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price could find herself facing off in the Federal Court against defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou.
Senator Jacinta Price.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Les Turner, chief executive of the Central Land Council, has engaged Chrysanthou and is suing Price in the Federal Court for damages and aggravated damages.
Price has engaged her usual defo go-to solicitor Bill Kalantzis, who in the past has acted for Russell Crowe and John Jarratt.
In July Price issued a media release about a “motion of no confidence” in Turner. The NT News published a story which said the motion was defeated.
But then the land council issued a release to say there was no such motion at its full council meeting and Price and The NT News were inaccurate.
The NT News apologised, saying it had got the release from Central Land Council chair Matthew Palmer which was “purportedly issued on behalf of the CLC”. The newspaper is not part of the action, so CBD presumes it has already settled.
The court filing says Price did not check her claims or withdraw them when told they were false.
The CLC and Price declined to comment and Palmer did not respond. Stay tuned, folks.
MR SMITH GOES TO MAROONDAH
To the ranks of Lazarus with a triple bypass we can add former state MP Ryan Smith. The former Liberal MP infamously quit the Victorian parliament, forcing a byelection, after Liberal leader John Pesutto’s conflict with banished women’s rights activist Moira Deeming. On the way out he cited the “growing negative tone of politics”.
Former state MP Ryan Smith.Credit: ABC
Pesutto learnt about it from a press release at the same time Joe Public did. Smith went to work for the private sector, we heard a property developer, but had the reputation of hanging around Spring Street as one observer put it “like a bad smell”.
CBD remains odour neutral on that issue, but Smith has told us that he is back and is a candidate in democracy’s basement tier in the McAlpin ward of City of Maroondah Council, centred around Croydon in Melbourne’s east.
“I still like that community engagement and getting down to the local footy club and helping people,” he told CBD.
He only quit parliament in July last year. We politely suggested local politics might be a bit of a step-down only to be told by Smith that if elected he would be on the “right side of the budget” which would be a step-up since the Liberals have been out of power in the state for a decade.
As for the latest incarnation of “Lazarus with a triple bypass” the quote John Howard gave about his leadership prospects in 1989 when he lost the Liberal leadership. Howard later served 11 years as prime minister.
“I don’t think council is on the same level,” Smith responded sagely.
TEAM JILLY LIBERAL
Former North Sydney mayor Jilly Gibson may have left council with a bang last week, but her political ghost still haunts the hustings around Kirribilli.
As CBD reported, Gibson’s hand-picked successor Pallavi Sinha and the rest of her ticket have donned the trademark barbie pink and are running under the “Team Jilly” banner.
And while Team Jilly are kind of identifying as independents, they’ve got a helping hand from Liberal MP Tim James, who succeeded former premier Gladys Berejiklian in Willoughby.
He’s added an endorsement to Sinha’s campaign literature, and was even spotted out on the hustings with Team Jilly. It’s drawn a few raised eyebrows among some Liberals given the party actually managed to get candidates on the ballot in North Sydney.
But Sinha too is a Liberal member, getting a waiver from the party to run with Team Jilly. Coincidentally, so is Gibson, whom James is close with. And the MP told us his goal was simply to get as many Liberals elected as possible, regardless of what stripes they wore during the campaign.
Maybe rebranding Team Jilly is the only way Liberals can win north of the Bridge these days.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.