By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
Victoria’s barristers are voting. Yes, again.
The state’s 2200 learned friends went to the ballot not six months ago over the profession’s position on the Voice referendum, with a decisive win for the Yes camp.
But just last month an attempt to insert discrimination and diversity clauses into the Victorian Bar association’s constitution was easily voted down.
Now the outfit’s governing body, the 21-member Bar Council, is up for re-election and splits within the ranks highlighted by the Voice and discrimination debates are getting another public airing.
Gavin Silbert, KC, a former chief Crown prosecutor and outspoken opponent of all things “woke” at the Bar has renominated for his spot on the council. Silbert, fresh from fights against the discrimination and diversity pushes, told us there were candidates who were “traditional” and those who were “radical”.
It was all starting to sound a bit like 2020, when conservative barristers formed a “Vote for Change” ticket and won dominance of the council, for a little while, after campaigning against “woke over-reach”.
But Silbert told us to calm down, explaining there was no organised conservative ticket this year – just some barristers in the running who felt the present regime was too keen on “political activities”.
The leader of the insurgency against the Bar leadership’s pro-Voice stance, Lana Collaris, who was also a Vote-for-Change-nik back in the day, is on the ballot this time too and told us she wanted to stop the Bar leadership imposing its “political and social views” on the membership.
We couldn’t get a comment from the Bar itself because it’s in a sort of caretaker period for a month, with outgoing President Sam Hay having served his single one-year stint.
DERBY DAZE
Of all the places to wet one’s whistle at Flemington Racecourse’s Birdcage this time of year, the TAB marquee is the consistent favourite for our nation’s political class, and there was a decent field on show for Saturday’s Derby Day.
Credit: Joe Benke
You really need a federal government frontbencher along to these things, just because, and Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor was the Albanese cabinet member showing his face, while a Labor colleague, Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick, was also inside the tent, as was their state ALP colleague Racing Minister Anthony Carbines.
Labor lobbyist – and former Bill Shorten chief of staff – Ryan Liddell had set up shop under the canvas again this year, along with his fellow Labor-linked influencer Evan Moorhead.
From the other side of politics, two-time former state Liberal party president Michael Kroger was seen among the throng.
You’d expect some sporting types in the bookies’ tent, and former Australian men’s Test cricket captain Michael Clarke and Panthers NRL star Nathan Cleary were duly in attendance.
Michael Clarke, who was among the Birdcage throng at the weekend.Credit: AP
You want business? We got business.
Retail mogul Gerry Harvey popped in later in the day accompanied by his wife and Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page, as did Herald and Weekly Times chair – and Murdoch dynasty member – Penny Fowler.
FIRST RATE
Most economists reckon the Reserve Bank will raise interest rates on Melbourne Cup Day, but that sort of consensus on the all-important cash rate hasn’t always been present at Australia’s biggest bank.
Commonwealth Bank correctly forecast that the RBA would decide at its October meeting to keep rates steady, and CBA is now forecasting a rate rise on Tuesday. The banking giant’s Australian economics team has been consistently on the money when it comes to reading the RBA’s next move.
But in a briefing note to clients on the day of the October meeting, the bank’s head of credit strategy Gus Medeiros said there was a high likelihood of a rate hike. That aged well. The note would go on to suggest the cash rate could get as high as 6 per cent.
Yikes!
Now, we’re not exactly your classic pointy-headed economists here at CBD. But given all the alarm bells ringing about aggressive hikes, we reckon interest rates at 6 per cent could well tip us towards recession territory.
Hardly soothing news for borrowers who’ve faced months of interest rate pain throughout the past year. And that mixed messaging from the bank’s analysts can’t be good for clients’ nerves either.
Meanwhile, in the background, there’s been a bit of churn in the team led by CBA’s chief economist and head of research Stephen Halmarick. The bank’s executive director of fixed income Martin Whetton has been the most high-profile departure, defecting to Westpac as head of financial markets strategy, where he’s working with Bill Evans and his successor Luci Ellis.
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