By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
The nation’s judges are not known for their sense of humour, but ABC comedy Fisk has clearly tickled judicial funny bones that other comedies cannot reach.
Federal Court judge and Fisk fan Jane Needham.
So much so that a prominent Federal Court judge has supplied CBD with a rave review for Kitty Flanagan’s legal comedy.
“I do enjoy an episode of Fisk and find it very true to life, including the attention to detail in relation to my former area of expertise in probate law and the ‘no gavels in court’ aspect,” Justice Jane Needham breezily told CBD via the Federal Court media team.
Helen Fisk, played by Kitty Flanagan, in her trademark brown suit.Credit: ABC
“In fact, Monday October 21 was declared ‘wear your brown suit day’ in my chambers,” she told us, which fans on the program will instantly understand to be a dress-up day tribute to protagonist Helen Fisk’s terminally daggy brown suits.
We cannot quibble with Her Honour’s judgment, which will not find its way into official case law, but no doubt will be blasted coast-to-coast by the public broadcaster’s insatiable marketing machine.
CBD first became aware of the program’s judicial fanbase after Needham, a former barrister who became a Federal Court judge in July, dropped a line into a LinkedIn post reviewing legal aspects of the program organised by barrister Craig Birtles.
Flanagan herself had alerted CBD to Birtles’ posts at the after-party for a special 10th anniversary live performance of Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales’ Chat 10, Looks 3 podcast earlier this month at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall.
“Lawyers tend to take themselves quite seriously,” Birtles, a barrister at Sydney’s Two Wentworth Chambers, told CBD.
“I think the program is 10 out of 10, but I don’t think I should rank the way in which they present the law.
“People quite enjoy the show and find it quite funny – as long as it is understood it is a parody … and not reflective of reality.”
Liberals for Kamala
Well, the Liberals always told us they were a broad church.
And while some on the Australian right were popping champagne corks last week after former president Donald Trump became future president Donald Trump, a handful of Young Liberal office-bearers and staffers appeared in a social media post from a Kamala Harris rally.
In a photograph from one of the vice president’s final pre-election events, CBD spotted federal Young Liberal president and former Peter Dutton staffer Darcy Creighton and NSW division vice president Georgia Lowden (decked out in a Harris-Walz tee), among a throng of excited baby hacks.
Young Liberals attend a Kamala Harris rally as part of a study tour to the United States.Credit: Instagram
The picture whipped up outrage among some party conservatives, horrified that any Liberal could support a Democrat over Trump. But the narrative of Young Liberals campaigning for Harris has been shattered by a reality far dorkier.
A crew of Young Liberals travelled to the United States on a self-funded bipartisan “study tour” where they watched both Democratic and Republican rallies and met operatives from across the political spectrum.
Think of it as Brat Summer, but for political nerds who read the CBD column travelling not in summer, but in fall. Proof that The West Wing syndrome remains strong among baby political staffers of all stripes.
PM faces the locals
Donald Trump’s election win last week is proving awkward for the ALP. Former prime minister and now ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd swiftly deleted his mean tweets, while a 2017 video resurfaced of Anthony Albanese, then in his “Cool Albo” era, telling a crowd at the Splendour in the Grass festival that Trump “scares the shit” out of him.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Fast-forward to now, and awkward questions about Trump followed the prime minister when he attended a meeting of Labor branch members at his local Sydney electorate, the Grayndler Federal Electorate Conference, on Tuesday. The location – Annandale Community Centre – was kept a secret until the morning of because security is tight when your local MP lives in The Lodge.
Albanese assured members that the AUKUS agreement wouldn’t be affected, that he’d discussed it with the president-elect, and would make clear to the new administration what Australia’s interests were – if he needed to.
Sources in the room told CBD that Albanese chose his words carefully when he said that while Labor voters might’ve wanted a different election outcome last week, he was willing and able to work with Trump.
The PM’s inner-west Sydney seat is one of the country’s most progressive. In the week since Trump’s victory, three local ALP branches – Dulwich Hill, Annandale and Lewisham - passed motions critical of AUKUS in light of the incoming change in Washington, DC. A few eyebrows were raised after none of those motions made it onto the agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting.
But the organisers assured us this was because of a one-week deadline for motions, rather than a sinister plot to keep potentially fraught discussions off the table and possibly embarrass Albo in his own backyard.
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