By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
The two biggest news stories in town walked into a bar on Tuesday night.
Former Australian Financial Review Rear Window columnist Joe Aston’s new book on Qantas, The Chairman’s Lounge, has generated headlines before hitting the shelves, with revelations that Anthony Albanese had lobbied the airline’s former boss Alan Joyce for flight upgrades, sending the prime minister into days of damage control.
Justin Hemmes has built an extensive hospitality empire.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Hours before Tuesday’s book launch, this masthead published a devastating investigation detailing widespread sexual harassment, exploitation of female staff and rampant drug use at the venues of hospitality empire Merivale. It meant that Hemmesphere, the Merivale-owned cocktail bar hosting proceedings, made for a slightly awkward choice of venue.
Back in 2013, Justin Hemmes, the perma-tanned billionaire Merivale boss, put on a generous bar tab for his mate Aston’s star-studded 30th birthday bash at the Ivy.
It isn’t just the politicians getting freebies after all.
Hemmes, who is not accused of any misconduct or wrongdoing, turned up conspicuously late to his mate’s Tuesday book-launch bash.
Generating headlines: Joe Aston at his book launch.Credit: Wolter Peeters
In the 24 hours leading up to the launch, organisers had a flurry of late cancellations and additions to the guest list, which was kept out of CBD’s grubby hands on Tuesday afternoon.
Those game enough to watch Aston in conversation with Fin Review editor James Chessell included a cross-section of Sydney men and women about town from the top echelons of business, the media and sport.
CBD spotted Qantas tormentor, and Nationals senator, Bridget McKenzie, Tabcorp director and former NRL boss David Gallop and ex-Rugby Australia chair and Network Ten boss Hamish McLennan in the throng.
Also spotted before proceedings were Crown and Hawthorn football club board member Ian Silk and former Fairfax Media boss Greg Hywood.
Elephant season
It has been an eventful six-month tenure for the Seven Network’s new-ish news and current affairs boss Anthony De Ceglie, who got up on Tuesday in front of a room full of journalists at the Melbourne Press Club and immediately addressed the question he figured they would all want answered.
Well, one of them, given the many controversies the experienced newspaper editor and TV newbie inherited when Seven proprietor Kerry Stokes appointed him to the role from his post editing The West Australian newspaper and producing countless provocative and memorable front pages.
Seven News boss Anthony De CeglieCredit: Peter Rae
Exactly six months into the role, he inherited a slate of redundancies, and controversies over harassment and bullying while undertaking a mass reshuffle of executives – not to mention introducing Mark Humphries’ humorous The 6.57pm News segment into the evening bulletin.
Then there was the astrology segment he started – all part of the masterplan to try new things and attract new audiences, he said.
“For those who care, my star-sign rating for today is supposed to be three stars, so I think that bodes OK,”
National Lampoon magazine from January 1973
he told the assembled throng, which included new Seven Melbourne news director Chris Salter and recently imported newsreader Karina Carvalho, and CBD defamation lawyer Justin Quill.
De Ceglie neatly sidestepped difficult questions about Seven’s newsroom culture, saying it was before his time, and that his actions speak louder than words.
He also let his audience in to his guiding management philosophies, which always include installing a noticeably large office whiteboard to house his crazy ideas and management quotes, including “Total non-stop innovation” and “Risk is for the taking”.
There is also the January 1973 cover of the American satirical magazine National Lampoon. It features an image of a doe-eyed looking border collie and a gun pointed at the pooch with the headline: “If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This Dog.”
“In my mind it epitomises the fight traditional media is in,” he said.
We can’t argue with that.
Timely memo
Back to Joe Aston’s book on Qantas, which hit the shelves at the worst possible time for both an airline trying to shed the “embattled” tag earned during its 2023 annus horribilis, and a prime minister trying to escape political attacks over his $4.3 million clifftop home purchase.
But as Albanese was scrambling to respond to revelations that he’d liaised with former Qantas boss Alan Joyce to receive flight upgrades, the airline was reminding its staff about the importance of integrity.
On Monday, Qantas sent an internal memo informing employees that they would be required to complete a course on “acting with integrity”.
The online course, which staff are required to undertake by April 30, is centred on “managing the risks associated with gifts, benefits and hospitality”, as well as conflicts of interest. Well then.
“The course will provide guidance on identifying and evaluating ethical dilemmas, considering the consequences and making informed and ethically sound decisions,” the memo said.
While CBD understands that the staff assignment was planned long before the release of Aston’s book, clearly nobody at Qantas clocked the optics of pressing send right when the headlines about political favouritism were kicking off yet again.
Clearer view
Following Tuesday’s bombshell Merivale investigation, chief executive Justin Hemmes told staff he was “devastated” by the allegations of wrongdoing at his venues published by this masthead.
But he is also dealing with an unfortunate occurrence closer to home, near the Hemmes family’s $100 million Hermitage mansion in Vaucluse, with some of the most pristine views of Sydney Harbour that money can buy.
Those views got just that little bit more pristine after someone vandalised a few trees on the foreshore walk beneath the Hemmes’ mansion. CBD is trying to find out the guy who did this.
The tree-vandal scandal was a mystery to the man-bunned one, who we hear was alerted to it by the neighbours six months ago, and had nothing to do with it.
But the good folk at NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service are still busy investigating. Or so we thought. They directed us back to the local Woollahra Council, who in turn, directed us back to … the National Parks and Wildlife Service. By deadline, the mystery remained unsolved.