By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
The environmental credentials of Jacinta Allan’s Department of Premier and Cabinet have hit a bit of turbulence after what appears to be a failure to tick a box resulted in bureaucrats making a greater contribution than they would have liked last year to the rapid warming of the planet.
The department’s annual report reveals that no offsets were purchased in the 2022-23 financial year for the carbon emissions generated by air travel by its public servants. A shame given the department had done so well the previous two financial years, offsetting 100 per cent of its aviation pollution.
Victorian bureaucrats’ greenhouse gas emissions in air travel were on the up in 2022-23.Credit: Wolter Peeters
The net result was that 177 tonnes of CO² pollution – which sounds to us like a fair dollop – from the department’s plane trips went unabated in 2022-23.
We asked the department just what the heck happened with the failure to purchase the carbon credits, as mandated by the fearsome Department of Treasury and Finance.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet told us that the process fell between the cracks created by staff moving between departments, and the upheaval of changes to the Victorian public service and the establishment of the Department of Government Services in January last year.
“The Department of Premier and Cabinet is committed to ensuring that where possible we are taking necessary steps to reduce our carbon footprint and working to achieve the targets set out in the Victorian government climate change strategy,” a spokesperson said.
NOT ALL ABOARD
The Murdoch clan hasn’t turned all that much attention to its Antipodean roots of late. The News Corp empire’s retired patriarch, Rupert Murdoch, recently scrapped a planned visit Down Under for this month to celebrate The Australian’s 60th anniversary.
But while a dinner in honour of the masthead is still postponed, the board – now chaired by Lachlan Murdoch – will be coming to Australia after all.
Just without Rupert, who’s still got that scheduling conflict, meaning his first visit to Australia since 2018 will need to wait a few more months at least.
We’re told it’s simply a case of the board choosing Australia as the latest location for them to meet. The six other directors include former Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar, News Corp boss Robert Thomson and Masroor Siddiqui, an old pal of British PM Rishi Sunak when they were at Goldman Sachs.
Rupert Murdoch has a new-ish romance with Elena Zhukova, but he won’t visit Australia soon.Credit: Joe Benke
What could possibly be keeping the nonagenarian Murdoch so busy? After stepping down from the top jobs at News Corp and Fox Corporation (on a $220 million golden parachute), he promised to keep on walking the floors late at night in his chairman emeritus role.
Whatever business is still occupying Rupert, there’s also the matter of a new-ish romance with Russian-born retired scientist Elena Zhukova. She’s the erstwhile mother-in-law of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, best known as the long-term owner of Chelsea Football Club, until he was effectively forced to sell by the British government when he was sanctioned because of his ties to Vladimir Putin.
WHIFF SHIFT
Just for once, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for a stink emanating from state parliament.
Greens MP Tim Read has become the latest victim of the maintenance woes afflicting the parliamentary annexe – a modern extension to the main gold-rush era Spring Street landmark – that has only been operational for six years.
The member for Brunswick was forced from his office after he and his staff were overwhelmed by an odour described by one of Read’s fellow MPs as “like cats’ piss”, and caused by the moisture penetration problem in the building that doesn’t appear to be getting any better.
The Age revealed in November that the $100 million building, built to provide office accommodation to about 100 MPs and their staff while parliament was sitting, had sprung leaks in several inconvenient places.
Greens MP Tim Read has new digs.Credit: Eddie Jim
Plastic buckets designed to catch droplets and temporary barriers to prevent politicians and their staff from tripping over had been set up in at least two kitchenettes – one on the floor occupied by Labor MPs and the other housing the Coalition.
Now it’s the Greens getting a whiff of the damp and the mould.
Read was typically good-natured about the inconvenience when CBD caught up with him, despite he and his staff being relocated from their usually comfy annexe digs next to fellow Greens MP Sam Hibbins and into the bowels of the 19th century building for a few weeks, where Read will be sandwiched between Labor’s Jordan Crugnale and Alison Marchant.
“I tried to spread the rumour that I was starting a new faction,” Read told CBD. “But no one was convinced.”
PASSING THE BUCK
Corporate Australia had its first major reshuffle for 2024 last week, when National Australia Bank boss Ross McEwan announced his impending departure, with the head of business and private banking, Andrew Irvine, taking the reins in April.
McEwan will have a lot more time on his hands once the transition is done, but in the meantime, he seems to be taking a more relaxed approach to management, which includes responding to correspondence from activist shareholders on a Saturday evening.
Andrew Irvine (left) will replace Ross McEwan as NAB chief executive in April.
Over the weekend, NAB shareholder Craig Caulfield emailed McEwan and Irvine, thanking the outgoing boss for his interactions at the last annual general meeting and introducing himself to the new boss.
Caulfield noted that McEwan’s generosity toward shareholders was “in contrast to ANZ”.
“I know Andrew will be generous with his time after the AGM. It’s a great opportunity to really hear what shareholders are thinking,” McEwan wrote back, in a reply-all email that landed in the inboxes of journalists Caulfield had CC’d in.
Caulfield represents groups called Bank Warriors and Bank Reform, dedicated to calling out bad behaviour by financial institutions. His message for Irvine also included a list of topics the group wanted NAB to look at, including artificial intelligence, and “scams as an epidemic”.
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