By Noel Towell and Angus Dalton
There was more evidence, if any was needed, from state parliament on Tuesday, that the Labor government is under new and very different management.
With business adjourned while baby-faced climate protesters were cleared from the public gallery, Premier Jacinta Allan sidled across the chamber for a chat with Coalition MPs Danny O’Brien, Brad Battin and Matthew Guy, with Allan looking for the goss on the defection earlier in the day from the Liberals of disendorsed federal MP Russell Broadbent.
Climate protesters in Victorian parliament.Credit: Penny Stephens
A more un-Dan Andrews-like move is hard to imagine, with the former premier preferring to act like his opponents didn’t exist, except while he berated them from the dispatch box.
Allan sat chatting with Guy for a little while and glancing up to the journalists gawping down from the heights of the media gallery and jokingly called out to them “Matthew Guy said…”.
Quite funny. Well, by Spring Street standards anyway and another a big point of difference with Allan’s predecessor. Andrews, famously, wouldn’t even say the bloke’s name.
CLIMATE CONTROL
Those teenaged protesters also highlighted some of the, let’s say, cultural differences among our elected representatives.
While most Liberal and Labor MPs had decidedly po-faced reactions to the youngsters in the public gallery, the Greens in the chamber – perhaps reminded of their younger selves – looked delighted at the protesters’ gumption.
The Greens’ four state lower house MPs in a selfie with the young climate protesters who disrupted the Victorian parliament on Tuesday.Credit: Twitter
And the party’s Richmond MP Gabrielle de Vietri had the presence of mind to line up her three colleagues for quite a well-composed selfie with the protest action in the background.
Labor MPs yelled across the chamber as everyone left for the adjournment that de Vietri was “loving it” and “cheering them on”, with one ALP type, Belinda Wilson, accusing the Richmond MP of being unfazed by risks to safety in the workplace.
And Liberal frontbencher James Newbury has dobbed de Vietri into the parliament’s privileges committee – sort of the disciplinary tribunal for MPs – for the photo, which Newbury reckons is a breach of protocol.
The talk about the lobbies was that the Greens’ social media post and language amounted to incitement to disrupt the work of the parliament.
De Vietri herself was defiant when CBD checked in after everyone had caught their breath.
“The Greens back every young person fighting for the future of our planet,” she told us.
“The disruption in the chamber is nothing compared to what government inaction will mean for our climate in the years to come.”
THE NAKED TRUTH
When a global foodie megastar like Jamie Oliver lobs up on these shores, tongues are bound to wag. Oliver popped up in Melbourne on Sunday, enjoying a spot of lunch with his old mate and collaborator Tobie Puttock and family at Thornbury’s 1800 Lasagne, which readers may remember for a cameo role in the saga of John Lethlean’s “sexist” restaurant review early this year.
A daring culinary adventure.Credit: John Shakespeare
But the talk that the “naked chef” might be planning an extended stay moved into overdrive when he was spotted wining and dining with an array of recent MasterChef competitors at upmarket Sydney joint Petermen’s.
Network 10’s cooking competition juggernaut has still not replaced the late Jock Zonfrillo and Oliver has appeared on the show as a guest judge, telling Triple M in 2019 he’d consider taking up a judging role after the triple departure of previous hosts Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan.
There was another MasterChef connection to Oliver’s tour, when he joined another of the show’s former judges, Melissa Leong, on stage at the Sydney Opera House for a chat.
“If the only currency in your life is cash, you’re going to be really unhappy,” said the man whose net worth undoubtedly runs into the hundreds of millions.
To the Opera House audience he also said “If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it on my own terms” (edgy) and “timing and tone is number one”.
After all that, we simply had to pick up the phone to the network to see if a big announcement was cooking, only to be told that Oliver won’t join the show as a permanent judge next season, although a cameo wouldn’t go astray.
DRAWING A BLANK
CBD brought news on Monday that former senior state Liberal staffer Mitch Catlin – whose time in that role was cut short by an unfortunate “top-up payments” scandal – was moving on with a new venture, Australian Life Magazine.
But when we logged on to the publication’s site, we couldn’t help but notice a troubling inconsistency with its big launch promotion, a competition for new subscribers offering as first prize a $4000 holiday to Uluru.
Readers were urged to take advantage of the “last chance to win” with entries closing on November 30. But when we checked the fine print in the terms and conditions, they said the prize would be drawn on November 16. Two weeks before the headline date on the site’s homepage.
Anyway, we’re sure it’s just a misunderstanding, so we called Mitch to clear it up. He didn’t call back.
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