A mansion worth a mention

Cartoon: Rod Clement

Today in Perth’s ritzy Peppermint Grove, the last of the seven domes that once graced Pankaj and Radhika Oswal’s abandoned “Taj on Swan” mansion is due to come crashing to the ground.

It’s been nine days since two giant excavators began pulling apart the palace owned by the Indian glamour couple.

Despite the excavation, there’s still no sign of the gold and silver jewellery said to have been buried at the Taj during a Hindu blessing ceremony just before its construction began.

Rumour on site is that a limousine mysteriously pulled up at the derelict property a few years back and left with the jewels. Another legend is that the Oswals used a drilling rig to bury the loot in a concrete block far below the surface, meaning it will never be found.

Also still to be discovered are the ham sandwiches and meat pies that were allegedly placed in wall cavities by vengeful tradies in response to Radhika’s insistence that the site be vegetarian.

Capital Recycling’s Tony Moore said yesterday the Taj had come down remarkably easily because its famous pillars were hollow.

This, he stressed, was probably due to the different building standards in place a decade ago rather than any deliberate use of cheap materials.

Making a declaration

The machinations of an amateur weekend cricket competition have thrown a spanner in the works of the latest legal stoush between Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy and China’s Citic.

WA Supreme Court Justice John Chaney — the brother of Wesfarmers and Woodside chairman Michael Chaney — decided yesterday that he would have to recuse himself from hearing the latest legal fight between Mineralogy and Citic due to concerns about a potential apprehension of bias.

Chaney decided to stand down after he realised he and well-known Patersons Securities analyst Rob Brierley — the author of an expert’s report prepared for Mineralogy — had both played for the Western Suburbs Cricket Club based out of the blue-chip suburb of Nedlands.

The decision came very much at the eleventh hour — well after the sizeable legal teams for both parties (including Melbourne-based QCs Charles Scerri and Pat Zappia for Citic and ­Mineralogy respectively) had flown in from around Australia at considerable expense in anticipation of the hearing.

Brierley authored the expert’s report back in November. However, the conflict only surfaced on Sunday when Brierley — the captain of Western Suburbs’ One Day Division 1 Blue side — sent out a bulk email to the club’s player list looking for last-minute fill-ins.

While Chaney hasn’t played for years, the email nevertheless found its way to his inbox — triggering his anxiety about possible perceptions of bias.

We contacted Brierley, who confirmed that to the best of his knowledge he had never played a game alongside Chaney.

Fine innings

Brierley, for the record, has compiled a solid set of statistics as a swashbuckling opening batsman for Western Suburbs.

His record includes four centuries, although he assured us the true figure was much higher.

The analyst’s most prolific seasons, he said, predate the club’s internet records, which only go back to 2006. That may also explain why no stats could be found for Chaney.

Despite the delay, yesterday’s hearing did give us a look at Palmer’s latest legal team.

The former pollie’s long-time legal adviser Kris Byrne from Kilmurray Legal has left, and his former in-house director of litigation Tracy Miley has also moved on.

Also nowhere to be seen was Simon Couper QC, who has headed Mineralogy’s court appearances for much of the past two years.

The flux continues in Palmer land.

Pollie-come-lately

Already agenda items are accumulating for consideration by the House of Reps newly formed privileges and members’ interests committee, led by veteran pollies Kevin Andrews and Wayne Swan.

The 11-strong group meets for the first time in the capital tonight, with the first item on the agenda expected to be recalcitrant colleagues who have neglected to file their ins and outs with the register by the deadline, almost a fortnight ago.

Technical difficulties have slowed the whole process down (hello, Census), but there are still seven members who have white space beside their names.

Old Liberal hands Health Minister Sussan Ley and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, both of whom have been in the house since 2001, look like they have yet to file.

Newbies like the Member for Oxley in the Sunshine State Milton Dick and the ALP’s Member for Wills Peter Khalil are also still to appear, but might have better excuses as freshmen to the house.

No filing can be seen either from Melbourne Ports’ Michael Danby and economics committee member Scott Buchholz.

All that cramming for his forensic attack on the Four Pillar bosses last week over credit card margins must have got in the way.

Baby for Bandt

Same-sex marriage advocate but anti-plebiscite campaigner Adam Bandt wasn’t in the House of Reps yesterday to see Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s marriage opinion poll scuttled in Canberra.

Instead the Greens’ MP was revelling in the birth of his second child — a daughter — in the small hours on Monday night in Melbourne with his former ALP staffer partner Claudia Perkins.

Last week Bandt dialled into the economics committee grilling of the bank bosses by phone to be close to his Flemington home due to the impending birth. On Monday the Member for Melbourne officially went on a month’s paternity leave. It was all just in the nick of time, with the new arrival a joy for big sister Wren, who was born last June.

Ringing endorsement

The series of network outages that have plagued Telstra this year have failed to take the shine off newlywed boss Andy Penn’s pay packet.

Penn pocketed $5.6 million in 2016 and that was after missing out on bonuses attached to Telstra’s so-called Net Promoter Score score — a measure used by organisations to reveal customer satisfaction.

Never mind that Telstra’s NPS score dropped four points in the year.

Yesterday at the telco’s AGM, presided over by new chair and former Asciano heavy-hitter John Mullen, shareholders approved performance rights worth $4.6m to the boss at an average price of $5.45 a share — Telstra shares closed yesterday at $5.07.

Prime position

Ian Audsley’s Prime Possum almost didn’t make it to Free TV Australia’s celebration of 60 years of television at Parliament House last night.

Security was concerned they couldn’t eyeball the face behind the regional broadcaster’s furry mascot, before an intervention by gathered network fixers got the fur-ball into the room to cuddle up with the media elite while Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was the star attraction.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield was being pressed for more cost cuts for broadcasters after waving through yesterday’s $170m fee reduction.

Execs there to press their case included Nine’s Hugh Marks, Ten’s Paul Anderson, Prime’s Audsley, Seven’s Tim Worner, Grant Blackley from Southern Cross and Andrew Lancaster from WIN.

Free TV chair Harold Mitchell was also on board, likely relieved he’d finally landed a new CEO in former accountant Brett Savill.

Seven boss Kerry Stokes wasn’t in the house, but his great mate and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was, making a beeline for newly separated Nine talent Karl Stefanovic. Other shiny folk included Seven’s Mel Doyle and mag legend Ita Buttrose.