Battle for Wentworth heats up with Saunders-Weinberg; Hamish Douglass and wife plot asset carve up
Battle lines are emerging in the blue-blood eastern suburbs electorate of Wentworth as incumbent Liberal member Dave Sharma builds his own firepower to take on new independent candidate Allegra Spender, daughter of the late Carla Zampatti.
In the two weeks since Spender was revealed by Margin Call as the candidate for the seat, Spender has garnered support of the likes of Jillian Broadbent, Wendy McCarthy and even former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate (though her vote is cast in the just as contentious seat of Warringah, potentially to be contested by former premier Gladys Berejiklian).
All that is to say Sharma’s in need of some serious extra support.
Enter, Westfield heiress Monica Saunders-Weinberg.
Just a day after announcing her departure from the board of the Gold Dinner committee, Sydney’s most exclusive fundraiser, Saunders-Weinberg and husband Richard Weinberg were holding court with PM Scott Morrison, Sharma and 14 of their nearest and dearest at their Bellevue Hill mega mansion.
And far be it for the wealthy philanthropist to put on any old lunch fare, dialling up top chef Guillaume Brahami of his eponymous French restaurant Bistro Guillaume for the menu. From what Margin Call can see, the menu stuck to the green and gold theme, Brahami posting to Instagram that he had made asparagus with sauce gribiche (translation: cold egg sauce) and a touch of bottarga (translation: mullet roe).
Here’s hoping there was a little more sustenance on the menu as well. After all, the PM had already had a busy day.
His lunch was all just hours after shooting hoops with Nine Network sports presenter Erin Molan and the girls at Penshurst High in Sydney’s south, the content of which was shared widely across his socials.
Funnily enough his wealthy eastern suburbs lunch didn’t quite make Instagram. Thank goodness we have the regular poster Saunders-Weinberg, known as @itsmondotcom, for that.
“It’s not every day you get to have our Prime Minister and our amazing local representative come for lunch!” she wrote.
“Really amazing conversations about real things – climate, international relationships, security, vax, immigration, the economy and the upcoming election.”
Sharma and Morrison no doubt are hoping real things also extended to generous donations, too.
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Premier hails PM
Meanwhile, in Victoria, a similar ilk congregated to hear new Premier Investments boss Richard Murray declare his support for the nation’s great leader.
No, not his new chairman Solomon Lew, rather Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Murray, chairman of powerful Liberal fundraising arm the Higgins 200 Club, was all too keen to talk up the party’s prospects, going so far as to urge the crowd to join his club, in support of Higgins MP Katie Allen,or Josh Frydenberg’s Kooyong 200.
When it comes to those in attendance, he was largely preaching to the converted.
Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger was among the crowd, as was Kogan founder David Shafer, serial tech start-up founder Adir Shiffman and inaugural director of the Doherty Institute, Sharon Lewin, who spoke to the crowd on the organisation’s work.
Campaign mode is well and truly activated.
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Douglass kept busy
Shares in Magellan may have been buoyed by reassurance from founderHamish Douglass and now separated wife Alexandra they will not sell their shares, but when it comes to their bountiful assets there’s plenty more just waiting to be carved up.
News announced to the market on Wednesday caught even several close to the fund manager by surprise after hearing Douglass had rushed back to the big smoke earlier in the week to be by his wife’s side as the rumours of the circumstances behind chief Brett Cairns’ hasty exit ran rampant.
Margin Call hears the 53-year-old fundie had been spending time at the family’s NSW Southern Highlands estate over the weekend after returning from his four-month European sojourn.
So taken was Douglass by the trip, word is there was even a suggestion the group expand its remit with a new European office. Still lots of work to be done on the home front first, however, the family’s long-held home in Neutral Bay midway through a transformative renovation.
Plans lodged in 2019 estimated costs in the realm of $3.13m, though with several modifications and further significant excavations, that figure is likely to blow out well above that.
Those in the area noted to Margin Call the work was very much ongoing at the home on Wednesday. At last check no one home but plenty of heavy machinery and several workers still on site, and a large recess for what is to be the new underground swimming pool seemingly a while away from operation.
No wonder, then, that Douglas opted to retreat to the serenity of the Southern Highlands instead.
There, the family runs a horse stud and showjumping training club dubbed Chatham Park, where the Douglasses and their four children are known to spend plenty of time.
That club is also said to be in the throes of a major makeover, with a profile of head trainer George Sanna in showjumping magazine Eqlife remarking last year that the facility was going through “huge infrastructure changes” set to make it “an amazing training facility for the future”.
Lots to work on by the looks.
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What’s in a name call
There’s nothing like a little name calling to get your point across, no truer for NSW Premier Dom Perrottet, who on Wednesday admitted he hadn’t handled relations well with his West Australian counterpart, Mark McGowan.
“Now, I might not have handled that situation in the most diplomatic way, calling him ‘Mark McGollum’, but sometimes you need a bit of colour to draw attention to the travesty,” he told the National Press Club gathered at Sydney’s Fullerton Hotel.
And there were plenty in the room no doubt prone to adding a little colour themselves. Front and centre for the event was Perrottet’s deputy Stuart Ayres sitting alongside Westpac’s latest recruit, former Australian Banking Association spinner Hayden Cooper, who only took the job in recent weeks.
Cooper nudged out his fellow Westpac representatives Anthony Miller, head of institutional banking, and Carolyn McCann, head of corporate relations, for the coveted spot next to Ayres.
What a score.
On the same table, Financial Services Council deputy Blake Briggs also got a look-in.
Elsewhere, liberal powerbroker Michael Photios made an appearance, along with QR code enthusiast Victor Dominello, his Police Minister colleague David Elliott and NSW Liberals director Chris Stone.
Not a bad turnout for Perrottet’s maiden press club speech. If only he could get as much support for his war on the GST distribution.
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