Banking royal commission legal team earn their nicknames

Illustration: Rod Clement

Time is running out for Kenneth Hayne’s legal assistants to earn their nicknames and inflate their future barrister fees in the banking royal commission.

That’s a worrying thought for those financial executives soon to face off with them in the ­commission’s superannuation round, which starts on Monday, and the subsequent insurance showdown in September.

Not surprisingly, the financial giants have been discussing the form of the commission’s legal team.

As the Hayne Show moves into its final acts they want to know, who has the most to prove?

Rowena “Shock And” Orr earned her nickname way back in round one, the commercial lending practice hearing. In doing so, she has probably doubled the daily rate she will soon charge commercial clients when the commission is disbanded.

Also soon to benefit from his stint of public service is Michael Hodge, who transformed from “Baby face” to “The Baby-faced assassin” with his $2 billion deconstruction of AMP’s Jack Regan in round two. Once the musical-loving Hodge has finished the score to “Hayne: The Musical”, a prosperous future in the bar awaits.

Mark “Heart Attack” Costello’s legal career was transformed when commissioner Hayne uttered the immortal words: “Get an ambulance pronto.”

That was after Costello’s questioning of Dover boss Terry McMaster ended with the financial adviser’s collapse. As McMaster was removal in an ambulance, a new legal star was born.

All three are rightly feared.

But the real danger may lurk elsewhere. The highly credentialed jet-setting barrister Albert Dinelli, who was brought into the line-up after the departure of Michael Borsky, is still to have a breakout moment.

On paper Dinelli is formidable, with a practice spanning Melbourne to Singapore to London. He features in 2017 Who’s Who Legal as a “future leader”.

But among royal commission observers he is perhaps best known as the former Coles check-out guy with the great CV.

Lawyers are competitive animals.

Which could make Dinelli dangerous in coming weeks. Surely he won’t waste his shot at a royal commission moniker.

AACo’s Rudd-slide

It was the biggest “Rudd-slide” since 2007.

Almost 95 per cent of AACo’s shareholders endorsed Jessica Rudd’s position as a director on the board of the storied Australian beef producer.

AACo’s Jessica Rudd. Picture: Adam Taylor

The vote for Rudd was about the only good development for AACo chairman Donald McGauchie and his fellow directors as they met with their unhappy shareholders at the Brisbane Showgrounds for their AGM.

McGauchie, the former chairman of Telstra, has been chairman of the owner of Australia’s biggest Wagyu herd since 2010.

And to go by the votes against McGauchie yesterday, almost 20 per cent of shareholders in the $762 million outfit think that a stint of almost eight years is more than enough.

McGauchie’s two fellow male AACo directors who were up for election, Tom Keen and David Crombie, also just escaped being taken out to the back paddock. Each had votes against them approaching 20 per cent.

Those unhappy shareholders couldn’t be clearer: they want more new additions to joinRudd, who shares her father Kevin’s Sinophile traits and mother Therese Rein’s entrepreneurial flair.

Taj passed in

The bad news first: the auction of Radhika and Pankaj Oswal’s demolished Taj on Swan was not a success. The lot was passed in at $15.6m.

The good news: the flamboyant heirs of a contested billionaire family fortune continue to be part of Australian life. Long may that last.

Negotiations are continuing post-auction for the remains of the Oswals’ Perth palace.

Margin Call hears for now all offers are below the ambitious $19m reserve set by the couple, who since abandoning Perth divide their time between Dubai, New York and Delhi.

Waislitz no fan of deal

Billionaire investor Alex “Warren” Waislitz is no great fan of joint Fairfax and Domain chairman Nick Falloon.

The latest source of friction is Falloon’s agreement to the Peter Costello-chaired Nine’s takeover proposal for Fairfax.

Waislitz — whose stake of 50 million shares in Fairfax is understood to have been trimmed to 35 million shares in recent months — yesterday made clear that he was underwhelmed by the roughly $4bn deal. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see other potential bidders emerge, because I think the price is too low,” said Waislitz.

Fairfax chairman Nick Falloon. Picture: Aaron Francis

Exactly who those potential bidders might be is a mystery to Margin Call.

Unless the Stokes family have tricked the entire market, it won’t be them. Ryan Stokes is believed to take a J ames Packer approach to media. He’s for selling, not buying.

And the Domain spin-off has only complicated a deal TPG private equity boss Joel Thickins wasn’t prepared to execute last year.

One person who seems to be much more confident than Waislitz that the union will eventuate is Fairfax Media’s group executive editor James Chessell, once a star media writer at this masthead (who, legend has it, never wore shoes).

This confidence was made clear in a note to Sydney Morning Herald and Ag e journos explaining Fairfax’s new print deal with our parent company, New Corp.

As Chessell explained, the terms of the deal mean Fairfax is “effectively fined” if the paper is not sent on time.

“If you don’t meet deadline we will run something else in your story’s place. Please ensure your excellent scoop does not become a house ad for Australian Ninja Warrior,” wrote Chessell.

At the same time the SMH’s editor, Lisa Davies,was reassuring subscribers the planned Nine takeover proposal did not mean the end of Fairfax: “While nobody is under any illusions at the significance of the proposal and how it could change the media landscape, last Thursday was absolutely not — as at least one of our competitors tried to claim — “the day Fairfax died”, Davies wrote in a separate note to the newspaper’s subscribers.