All is forgiven for saintly Souris

HE may be a former state minster now without portfolio, but George Souris was basking in the plaudits of the racing industry yesterday. At a swish Autumn carnival launch in Sydney’s Double Bay, Racing NSW chairman John Messara dubbed Souris the “Patron Saint of the Championships’’ — the rebadged collection of autumn races north of the Murray.

Now in its second year, the event was conceived when Souris was still NSW minister for tourism, major events, hospitality and racing, before being dumped from cabinet in a reshuffle in April last year.

The applause for the member for Muswellbrook at an event that included Tabcorp chief David Attenborough and Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys shows just how forgiving parts of the industry can be.

Two years ago Souris was leading efforts to renegotiate Tabcorp’s licence to operate the TAB betting shops and pub outlets with the threat of allowing a competitor similar rights if the cash-strapped state government didn’t get the money it wanted from the incumbent. Tabcorp ended up extending the licence for another $50 million a year.

Feeling friendless

JOE Hockey is not winning a lot of friends at the moment. Despite being a well-liked politician, the Treasurer is not endearing himself to Fairfax Media by pursuing a defamation case against it over the “Treasurer for Sale” headline that explored his connections with the Liberal fundraising body The North Sydney Forum.

Under questioning from Fairfax’s barrister Matthew CollinsQC, Hockey was probed on a splinter volunteer group of the forum called “Friends of Joe”.

“Who are the Friends of Joe?” Collins asked.

“Good question. I feel I only have a few at the moment,” Hockey responded. Touche, Treasurer.

Luvvies light up

NOT to be outdone by the racing industry, it was all very Sydney eastern suburbs at the Bondi Icebergs Pavilion on a balmy Monday night for the schedule launch of the 20th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, with founding father Simon Lock in full flight (watch out for his forthcoming book). On the very day Josh Goot’s label managed to emerge with a lifeline from creditors, fashion’s old guard were out in force, including Ksubi’s Dan Single (been there done that with voluntary administration) and Wayne Cooper (been there done that with voluntary administration). Peter Morrissey was also holding court along with RM Williams’ Jonathan Ward, but the rest of the fashionistas were getting quietly upset — the French champagne wasn’t turned on until the second serve. Outrageous.

Spinner spun off

WITH Citigroup Australia’s chief spinner Stephen Blaney waiting for the green light from BHP Billiton shareholders to up-end and move to Perth for the role of chief spinner for the South32 spin-off, his current employer could be without ... well ... spin in coming months. Citigroup’s other top spinner Michelle Chaperon and her new husband will soon be taking a six-month sojourn as they make their way across the eurozone. Like a true investment bank operative, Michelle pushed back her break until after reporting season.

Breakfast with stars

IS there no end to the philanthropic work of ANZ chairman David Gonski?

The former Singapore Airlines director could be brushing off his flying goggles yet again to host a breakfast next week for the Royal Flying Doctor Service at the QV Building in Sydney. The selected theme is philanthropy, corporates and dentistry.

Nothing like hearing about a bit of “outback oral treatment” over bacon and eggs.

Dubber on debut

THE ASX debut of Dubber Corp today has Margin Call remembering back to simpler times when mining companies usually dug stuff out of the ground. Dubber, which provides call recording and audio asset management in the cloud, emerged from the old West Africa-focused Crucible Gold. Obviously, Crucible saw more opportunity in clouds than in the ground.

Lets hope the cloud is generous — Dubber’s balance sheet is mostly $5.8m in intangibles and another $3.8m cash. There was a cash burn of $2.4m but that was walking the painful path of going tech from exploration.