Could the bitter divisions plaguing the Victorian Liberal factions – sorry, loose groupings – be on the mend? That’s a question a few true believers have been asking after they spotted the party’s deputy upper house leader, Evan Mulholland, in the line-up for Tuesday night’s Liberty Forum in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
It’s not unusual for politicians to show up at speaking gigs-cum-fundraisers, especially on home turf. But the Liberty Forum is not Mulholland’s usual crowd.
Northern Metropolitan MP Evan Mulholland is a man on a mission. Credit: Justin McManus
The first clue is the group’s tagline, “Celebrating Menzies’ values” (translation for those unfamiliar with Twitter beef or petty op-ed battles: can we Liberals stop being Labor-lite?).
The second clue is the forum’s previous line-up of speakers. A quick glance at the archive shows past guests have included senator Sarah Henderson, who used a 2023 opportunity alongside former Tony Abbott-era curriculum reviewer Kevin Donnelly to say she was “really troubled” by drag queens reading to kindergarten-aged children in libraries. And speaking of Abbott, he appeared before the good burghers of Ringwood last year for a fireside-style chat at the local bowls club.
Previous Liberty Forum topics have included “How to win a culture war?” and “Nuclear energy: your questions answered”. You get the drift.
Mulholland is notably the one rusted-on moderate to survive the ascension of state Opposition Leader Brad Battin. CBD’s spies tell us he hates a culture war because he’s busy trying to flip Labor’s northern heartland with a mantra of infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure.
One well-connected Liberal went as far as to suggest that Mulholland had previously turned his nose up at the Liberty Forum.
“Now he’s got a speaking gig!”
Not true, according to Mulholland, who told CBD that previous opportunities had been outside his electorate and clashed with other local events.
Either way, your scribes can confirm that Tuesday evening’s event will be Mulholland’s first time addressing the Liberty Forum crowd. Thankfully, the topic – suburban development – is one that all Libs sing from a similar song sheet. Just ask Battin and his predecessor, John Pesutto, about high-rise developments in Hawthorn.
What glass ceiling?
Good news, everyone. Women in the medical profession no longer face barriers to their careers.
At least, that was the view of one female doctor highlighted by the Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) as part of a flurry of social media activity to mark International Women’s Day. That is, before the comment section was starting to become overrun by women who disagreed with the post, and it was swiftly taken down.
CBD managed to track down a copy of the post and, while your scribes would never suggest a woman isn’t allowed to have a controversial opinion – on or about Women’s Day no less – the particular choice of words were certainly eyebrow-raising.
“Don’t worry about the glass ceiling in medicine,” the quote, from Adelaide doctor Beata Byok rendered in large sans-serif front, read. “It’s not a thing anymore!”
Except only 38 per cent of chief medical or health officers are women, just 39 per cent of private hospital chief executives are female and 45 per cent of all public hospital chairs are women, according to Monash University.
An RACP spokesperson told CBD: “We posted a well-intentioned quote from one of our respected senior female fellows, which didn’t resonate well with other members. We promptly pulled the quote down after six comments were made in disagreement.”
Foreword thinking
In the nearly five years since this masthead revealed that former High Court judge Dyson Heydon sexually harassed six young female associates according to an independent inquiry conducted by the court, the prominent retired jurist has kept a low profile. Heydon categorically denies the allegations.
But despite no longer practising as a barrister, Heydon has been busy writing. In January, the former judge released Heydon on Contract: Particular Contracts, a follow-up to his 2019 tome.
Thomson Reuters, publisher of that previous work, reviewed its relationship with the former judge after the court’s investigation became public in 2020, and the book no longer appears on its website.
Dyson Heydon in 2003, when he was a High Court judge.Credit: Andrew Meares
The latest book is released by “Sumner Publications”, a business name registered to one John Dyson Heydon. The former judge is self-publishing, in other words.
Anyway, the new book is already becoming a litmus test of Heydon’s reputation within the legal community.
But one prominent legal figure who has proudly gone into bat for Heydon is the judge’s former High Court colleague, Michael Kirby, something of a hero to progressives and first-year law students around the country.
In a glowing foreword, Kirby calls Heydon’s book an “important work of legal exposition”, “an intellectual masterpiece” and a “magnum opus”.
But the former judge had less to say when contacted by CBD on Monday about his support for Heydon.
“If you want to talk about the book, I’m happy to talk about the book. If you want to talk about other things, I’m not,” he said.
When offered the opportunity to talk about the book, Kirby refused, accusing CBD of having no interest in it, and not having read it.
Former judge Michael Kirby.Credit: Fairfax
Sure, we haven’t read Heydon’s latest work of dusty legal scholarship. But we have read the accounts of female associates and other women in the legal profession, outlining the former judge’s alleged predatory behaviour. And we have read the statement by former chief justice Susan Kiefel on the independent report into Heydon’s behaviour towards associates.
“The findings are of extreme concern to me, my fellow justices, our chief executive and the staff of the court. We’re ashamed that this could have happened at the High Court of Australia,” Kiefel wrote.
“We have made a sincere apology to the six women whose complaints were borne out. We know it would have been difficult to come forward. Their accounts of their experiences at the time have been believed.”
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