Alex Waislitz has no time for armchair geopolitical geniuses; Opera House chief missing in action
You’ve got to hand it to the guy. Melbourne billionaire Alex Waislitz once again managed to pull together a room full of deep-pockets on Thursday night for Save a Child’s Heart, a non-profit based in Israel that’s been saving kids for 25 years.
What’s more is that about half of the 7000 children it’s helped have come from either the West Bank or Gaza. Not surprisingly, the war has put a big fat halt on those efforts for the moment, although SACH officials say the plan is to revive the urgent medical work for Palestinians once the fighting stops.
Held at the Carousel in Albert Park, donations reached upwards of $700,000 this year to reach a total of $4m raised since the first SACH gala was thrown in 2020.
Contributing as usual was Dean Smorgan and hedge fund boss Rafi Lamm, of L1 Capital, along with a heap of Waislitz’ close associates – his partner in crime Antony Catalano, Lance Rosenberg of Gleneagle Securities, Arnold Bloch Leibler’s Jeremy Leibler and Thorney chief operating officer Peter Landos.
Not to mention rich-lister Peter Cooper, of Cooper Investments, a regular at SACH events, plus Waislitz’s favourite Bell Potter broker Hugh Robertson.
Partner Rebekah, still ploughing ahead with a music career, bellowed out a number for the audience. Cameras were rolling on that, of course, with attendees telling Margin Call of a profusion of signs informing everyone, in no uncertain terms, that they were being filmed that night. And no, nothing nefarious, just Rebekah collecting some B-roll for an upcoming reality TV series that’s supposedly in the offing.
But with the Middle East very much the focus of SACH’s work it seemed appropriate that Waislitz make a few remarks. He spoke of a recent visit to Israel with Rebekah where they visited the massacre sites and engaged with “first-hand accounts of the horrors that took place”.
Not that he wanted to get overly political, but he did make room for a humorous swipe at the “millions of people” in the cheap seats who’ve “never shown the slightest interest in geopolitical conflicts” but who suddenly, now, nauseatingly, fancy themselves experts on the Middle East. Are these the same people who became overnight specialists on Ukraine in February 2022, and who were bollocking on about R-naughts and curve-flattening in March 2020?
“They’re declaring their support for one side or the other and attacking – verbally and sometimes physically – those who do not support their views,” Waislitz said, calling rather soberly for debate in Australia to be encouraged but violence and hate to be rejected.
Yes, yes, a bit twee, but a sentiment surely everyone can agree upon.
Opera House no show
Look, not to keep harping on about the Middle East, but Opera House CEO Louise Herron appears to have rudely disappeared from a business briefing scheduled by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce for Wednesday night.
A week ago Herron had been down to appear at the panel discussion with Gilbert + Tobin chair Danny Gilbert, Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black and the AICC’s NSW chair Jillian Segal.
Suddenly we hear she’s been switched out with Julia Davison, director at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, ahead of the event.
Topics said to be up for the discussion are the economic, political and major social issues shaping business decisions in 2024 – and what social issue is a bigger lightning rod than antisemitism, the steps of the Opera House having hosted some of the most despicable displays of it worldwide in the aftermath of October 7?
No one’s heard much from Herron since that day, the incident occurring just as the building’s sails were lit up in the colours of Israel’s national flag. Ominously quiet for Herron on that front.
So, again, what could possibly have motivated her to pull out of the AICC appearance? A sudden dentist appointment? A bit of internal pressure from OH officials to reconsider the decision?
Who knows, maybe she just found herself some tickets for Gatsby: The Dinner Party? After all, it’s on that evening. No comment from Herron or the AICC.
Home truths
And some sad news for waterboy Garrett Jandegian and wife Stephanie. They’re back to square one on a $5m renovation of their Bellevue Hill mansion, their development plans scuttled by the ghouls at Woollahra Council.
If their names don’t chime, Jandegian is the co-founder of an alkaline water business, but he did reasonably well with Pharma Soul, a company run with Stephanie that supplied Covid-19 testing kits and PPE during the pandemic.
The couple bought their pile on Kambala Rd for $26m in March and the hope was to dig up a basement and do something special with the pool. The council nixed the plans a fortnight ago, claiming the house sits on an area of potential Aboriginal heritage sensitivity. Pity.
The fear is that excavating could disturb artefacts buried in the Pleistocene sand formations on the suburban ridge line. Anyway, the basement’s out. Maybe it’s time to go up?
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