Angus Aitken the Market Animal moves on

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Sacked Bell Potter broker Angus Aitken’s legal battle with Shayne Elliott’s ANZ still has a way to go. But it seems the outspoken Aitken has already moved on to his next project.

Angus appears to be following in the footsteps of his brother Charlie Aitken, who has gone into business with his wife Ellie Aitken at their fledgling funds management business Aitken Investment Management.

Angus Aitken. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

Angus, the terror of ANZ, has set up a new venture called Market Animal, which is owned by Randolph Duke Investments — a company controlled by Aitken and his Perth-born wife, Sarah Aitken.

The business is expected to launch later this year. We gather it will produce business and investment content. Brace yourself, ANZ!

And the name? Movie buffs will recall Randolph Duke as one of the brother brokers from the 1983 Hollywood comedy Trading Places, starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.

The broker’s other commercial enterprise is his legal battle with Elliott and co.

ANZ now has its hands on a copy of Aitken’s employment record from his time at Colin Bell’s Bell Potter.

The human resources record was discovered as part of Aitken’s law suit against the bank, its chief executive Elliott and its PR boss Paul Edwards (the Twitter fiend).

So what does the record show? Until it is tendered, the document — likely to include details of Aitken’s enforceable undertaking with ASIC over questionable trade in Ten shares last year — remains secret, at least to those not directly involved in the case.

All the while, the bank’s new number cruncher Michelle ­Jablko — whose appointment was the impetus for Aitken’s law suit — seems to have long moved on.

Jablko was along on Wed­nesday night at the heavy-hitting Chief Executive Women dinner in Sydney, joining her chairman David Gonski and boss ­Elliott.

Still, despite all the black-tie events and claims that ANZ is the new Google, Aitken’s case grinds on in the background. It returns to the NSW Supreme Court for a directions hearing on September 16, with the hearing set for August next year.

Olympic record

ABC chairman Jim Spigelman and his managing director Michelle Guthrie were joined on their Aunty table at the Midwinter Ball by Social Services Minister Christian Porter on Wednesday night.

ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie and chairman Jim Spigelman. Picture: Ray Strange.

It was the perfect opportunity for the ABC chair to trot out a bit of Spigelman memorabilia — his autograph book, which when he was 10 years old back in 1956, was Lil’ Jim’s prized possession.

Chilla Porter in action.

One of the most treasured autographs in it was that of Christian’s father, high jumper Charles “Chilla” Porter, who won a silver medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics after an all-day struggle against American Charles Dumas (whose signature Lil’ Jim also secured, along with that Games’ Golden Girl, Betty Cuthbert).

Spigelman — now 70, and a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW — brought his autograph book along to the ball and showed his link to that glorious episode in the minister’s family history.

While the younger Porter is not quite the athlete that his now 80-year-old father was, he does run marathons. And those sporting family genes helped secure him a finalist spot in the 1999 Cleo Bachelor of the Year awards.

Christian Porter secured a finalist spot in the 1999 Cleo Bachelor of the Year awards.

Albo’s relief

Would-be Labor leader Anthony Albanese expressed relief about those people who had offered negative assessments about him to his biographer, Saturday Paper political correspondent Karen Middleton.

Anthony Albanese and Bob Hawke. Picture: Gary Ramage.

“Fortunately, most of the people who wanted to bag me wanted to do it anonymously,” said Left faction king Albo, at the launch of Telling It Straightat Parliament House in Canberra yesterday.

“She didn’t ask me,” we heard one South Australian Labor senator (and sub-faction boss) grumble.

A handy reminder, if you needed it, that the Labor Party’s poisonous recent history is still raw, three years after the end of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke earlier spoke about the proud history of the Labor Party and its commitment to the “equality of opportunity”.

In the crowd was Albo’s Nine breakfast show offsider, the Liberal Party moderate faction dynamo Christopher Pyne. Mercifully, Pyne had bought his copy of Middleton’s book and left before Hawke brought up Pyne’s “interesting relationship” with Albo.

“I can’t imagine that Christopher is the most easy bloke to fall in love with,” said Hawkie, apparently stunned by their friendship. Seems a bit harsh.

Liberals’ true hero

One of the Liberal Party’s heroes at their otherwise inglorious 2016 federal election was milling around the Parliament House coffee shop Aussies, yesterday: Peter Marshall, the Victorian Secretary of the United Firefighters Union of Australia — or as Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger might call him, the hope of the side.

Peter Marshall, the Victorian Secretary of the United Firefighters Union. Picture: Nicole Garmston.

Marshall — whose union was an electoral gift to Malcolm Turnbull on July 2 — was lobbying crossbench senators in an attempt to block industrial legislation introduced by Employment Minister Michaelia Cash (the one with the hair and the accent and the cats).

Richard Alston on election night. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian.

But it was the Liberal Party’s machine men who were more evident in Canberra on the last sitting day of the first week of the 45th parliament.

The Liberals’ WA state director Andrew Cox and Victorian state director Simon Frost were spotted holding a pre-summit summit at Aussies ahead of their dinner with federal director Tony Nutt and the gang, before today’s meeting of the Liberal Party federal executive.

Federal Liberal president Richard Alston and his state counterparts (NSW president Trent Zimmerman and co) were off to a separate dinner in Canberra last night.

Today, the two groups will unite, along with the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, to discuss the recent election. So, if your Friday isn’t going so well, just keep them in mind and be happy you’re not there, explaining yourself.

Retail stoush

Former David Jones boss Mark McInnes is these days happily ensconced in the lucrative service of retail billionaire Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments.

Premier Investments chief executive Mark McInnes.

But while the scandal that saw McInnes exit DJs is now a memory, life at Premier is not entirely without its complications.

McInnes, who runs Lew’s Just Group, was in the box at the Victorian Supreme Court yesterday giving evidence to stop former chief financial officer Nicole Peck defecting to the Cotton On group, which is controlled by mysterious Geelong billionaire Nigel Austin.

At the centre of the stoush is the threat of competition between Lew’s kids’ stationery shop Smiggle and Cotton On’s Typo, which targets an older audience.

Peck’s counsel, high-priced QC Peter Jopling (who is being paid by Austin) had plenty of questions yesterday about McInnes’s own pay arrangements.

And there’s plenty to talk about, with McInnes in line to collect up to $5m a year in base pay and bonuses.

McInnes revealed he’d cleaned things up at Just, and was “shocked” to discover that Peck’s predecessor, Ashley Gardner, had a short notice period and no non-compete clause. “I thought it was irresponsible to shareholders, which is my main duty as a director, not to have restraints,” good corporate citizen McInnes explained.

Gardner now works for McInnes’ old shop DJs. It’s the Circle of Life — or at least the circle of corporate retail in Australia.