By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
There has been some consternation — of the “jobs-for-mates” variety — around town at the plonking of former deputy premier James Merlino into the chairman’s seat at the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, the outfit tasked with delivering Premier Dan Andrews’ big money train set.
And things can get complicated when, like Merlino, you’re making a life post-politics and sitting on boards is now your thing.
James Merlino: chairman of the big train set.Credit: Paul Jeffers
One of those boards is that of the Hawthorn footy club, where Merlino was elected on the same ticket that saw Andy Gowers take the club presidency at the end of the Jeff Kennett era last year and where Merlino was reunited with his former Spring Street spinner Matt Dixon, who is the Hawks’ general manager of media and public affairs.
Small world, right?
But it also just so happens that the loop authority — which needs to acquire lots of land from lots of different landowners to get the thing built — is in talks about picking up a piece of real estate down at Dingley — where Hawthorn is busy building a new base for itself — from … let’s see … the Hawthorn Football Club.
The state government has told us that these sorts of conflicts come up often enough and are not an issue when they are declared and managed professionally as will be the case with the club, the authority, the former minister and the land.
Fair enough, but we wonder if all this complexity might make Merlino, who did not respond on Sunday to the offer of a chat, pine for the days when all he had to worry about was the state’s huge public education system.
BAD TRIP
Much to CBD’s frustration, a northern hemisphere summer is “so back” at levels to rival the hedonistic pre-COVID years.
For Australia’s political class, a long break from parliament means ample opportunity to escape the winter gloom on holidays, study tours and paid-up junkets, which are also very much back.
For years, Israel has been the most popular destination for fully-paid junkets held by local organisations like the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, which have taken members from both sides of politics, and journalists too, including several from The Age.
Meanwhile, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network held its first study tour to Palestine since borders reopened, with Labor’s blow-in Parramatta MP Andrew Charlton and Senator Louise Pratt spotted in Ramallah on Thursday.
Unlike Israel trips, the APAN tour is partially self-funded, with politicians stumping up for their own airfares.
Meanwhile, Charlton’s Labor backbench colleague Cassandra Fernando was in Israel last week on a tour hosted by the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, along with ALP senator Raff Ciccone and Liberal MPs Keith Wolahan, Andrew McLachlan and Jenny Ware.
They all picked a fine time to head to the Middle East, with the Israel Defence Forces launching an assault on the West Bank city of Jenin this week.
Wolahan the special forces Afghanistan veteran who you’d think would have had enough of conflict zones, reported a quiet time, although his group did travel through the area of southern Israel hit with Hamas rockets two days earlier. But he’s been a lot closer to hostile fire than that.
KEEPING TRACK
You may have heard about state opposition MP Nick McGowan getting on the rant on Melbourne’s 3AW on Friday morning about the state of the city’s main airport — a bit of a ghetto”, he reckons — but the best bit of appearance, for our money, went unreported.
Asked by on-air host Tom Elliott what he liked about the city’s tourist attractions, McGowan gushed about the old Colonial Tramcar Restaurant.
“The tramcar restaurant is sensational,” McGowan enthused. “Without equal around the world. It’s a fabulous experience. If we can promote that more, that’d be a great thing.”
“I agree with you,” Elliott chimed in. “But, I think it stopped running about five years ago.”
About six, actually. But Tom wasn’t too far off the ball which is more than can be said for his guest, who missed a couple of beats before producing this effort at a recovery.
“That’s the sort of thing I think we could look at now, in terms of getting it back up and going,” McGowan said.
Ding ding.
TEAMING UP
How many minions does it take to run a prime minister’s office (PMO)? In the case of Team Albo, 56, according to documents released by the Department of Finance under Freedom Of Information.
CBD has harboured feelings that Anthony Albanese’s PMO felt more bloated than its predecessor, and the numbers confirm our suspicions – a similar FOI from 2021 found Scott Morrison’s office had a head count of 50.8.
Now, it turns out Albanese has three times as many staffers than each of his three most senior cabinet colleagues, with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Foreign Minister Penny Wong each having 18 little helpers listed.
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