By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Retired NRL star Cooper Cronk enjoyed years of dominance with the Melbourne Storm before he followed his heart (and fiancee, now wife, the Network Ten sports presenter Tara Rushton) to the Emerald City to play for the Roosters.
The six-time premiership winner is now well and truly a Sydneysider – he and Rushton landed an $8.75 million home in the North Shore enclave of Mosman two years ago.
Cooper Cronk and Tara Rushton.Credit: Jessica Ross
Quite the change from Cronk’s Melbourne bachelor pad in Richmond, which he managed to sell for $1.44 million two years ago. That townhouse cost him a mere $579,000 in 2006 during his success as a Storm boy.
And he’s since done the most Sydney thing possible – fighting his neighbours over a renovation. In April, one of Cronk’s neighbours lodged plans with Mosman Council for a $3.7 million upgrade of their home, including a new pool and outdoor deck.
Credit: John Shakespeare
Cronk penned a submission against the development application, worried about privacy and possible disruption to electricity.
“My wife and I both work from home to non-negotiable deadlines and we need our power to be available,” the star wrote. Given they are both TV stars on Fox Sports and Network Ten, that was interesting news to us.
Cronk’s submission was otherwise pretty considered and coherent. And he listed a strategic-adviser job at Brisbane property investment firm Marquette on his LinkedIn. How many ex-NRL players even have a LinkedIn?
Not that it mattered to the council, which approved the offending development last week.
ACUTE ACUMEN
Two prominent émigrés (or do we mean escapees?) from Victorian Liberal Party leader John Pesutto’s office have struck out on their own.
In March, CBD labelled the departures of Pesutto’s senior communications dude Nick Johnston and chief of staff Rodrigo Pintos-Lopez as “politically awkward”.
On Monday, the duo went public with their new firm, Acumen Advisory.
Acumen means the ability to make good judgments, although former Liberal advisers hanging out their shingle in a partisan state dominated by trade unions and the Labor Party had CBD wondering if a better name for the firm would be Crazy Brave Advisory.
But the duo’s experience across law, business and media far outweighs their relatively short stint in politics.
Rodrigo Pintos-Lopez quit as John Pesutto’s chief of staff after a year in the job.
“We are really excited to bring together our respective skills and put them to good use in our own advisory,” Johnston told CBD.
Crisis and reputation management are certainly challenges they’ve encountered before, given the defamation writs their former boss attracted from exiled colleague Moira Deeming and others led to an ongoing legal morass that engulfed the party.
Testimonials for the firm come from Sam Walsh, Ted Baillieu, Tony Shepherd and Larry Kestelman. And joining the dynamic duo is special adviser Mike Smith, OAM, a former editor of The Age and group executive editor of Fairfax, if you please.
“We are thrilled to have Mike on board. His experience and expertise is invaluable,” Johnston enthused.
Smith was also Australian chairman of PR firm Weber Shandwick Worldwide before setting up his own shop, Inside Public Relations.
As the website says, Smith has advised high-profile figures including a governor-general and a chief justice. About exactly what, we are dying to know.
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR
Arch-republican Sam Mostyn was sworn in as governor-general on Monday, and used her first address in the Senate as the King’s representative in Australia to urge the gathered politicians to please be nicer to each other.
Newly sober former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce took that to heart, and was snapped shaking hands with ex-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, all the bitterness around the 2018 bonk ban apparently forgiven. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton less so – he looked thunderous about being seated a few metres from Turnbull.
Friends reunited: Malcolm Turnbull (left) shakes hands with Barnaby Joyce. Credit: James Brickwood
Mostyn brought in a few friends from outside the Canberra bubble, including an old boss, former High Court judge Michael Kirby.
Also there were ABC chair Kim Williams and his wife, Catherine Dovey (daughter of Gough and Margaret Whitlam); celeb chef Kylie Kwong; and, not without controversy, National Gallery of Australia board member and APY Art Centre Collective artist Sally Scales.
The new guard executive women/feminist/activist vibe was supplied by Anne Summers, Aunty Pat Anderson, Wendy McCarthy, Elizabeth Broderick, The Parenthood activist Georgie Dent, Vanessa Liell from strategic comms firm Orizontas and Ronni Kahn from OzHarvest.
RATS IN THE RANKS
The Supreme Court is getting on top of major technical issues that played havoc with the administration of justice over recent weeks. Court officials were unable to display exhibits on screens and hear from accused persons via video link. One trial was relocated to the County Court.
CBD is assured that Russian hackers are not to blame but wonders if the William Street court building’s troublesome rats might be. No direct comment on that question from the court.
“Hearings are now largely running as usual while work continues on a long-term solution,” the court said on Monday.
In one major trial we can’t identify, lawyers discussed if they could wheel a television into court to continue proceedings, which brought some real wet weather sports days vibes to the serious business of the administration of justice.
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