Boris Johnson, Crosby Textor thick as thieves

Illustration: Rod Clement.

How close is Boris Johnson to Australian political exports Lynton Crosby and Mark Textor?

Close enough that the first stop the visiting British Foreign Minister made on his visit to Australia this week was to the new Sydney office of their strategy and research shop Crosby Textor.

CT this week moved out of its not-that-old digs at Governor Phillip Tower into its sparkling new offices in the CBD sister building, Governor Macquarie Tower.

Bright and early on Wednesday morning, fresh off a plane from seeing New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English (another centre-right politician well known to the political strategists), Johnson was Crosby and Textor’s guest of honour to launch the new digs.

Not a bad trick to impress CT’s clients.

And a clear demonstration that, despite their unhappy experience with British Prime Minister Theresa May in June, the Australian political advisers and Johnson are as tight as the stubbies the young Johnson got around in back in the 1980s after his gap year teaching at Geelong Grammar.

At the top table

Westfield billionaire Frank Lowy — his superyacht Ilona last spotted on the French Riviera — sent his apologies on Thursday night for Boris Johnson’s address to his foreign policy think tank, the Lowy Institute.

Fellow billionaire and Seven mogul Kerry Stokes also didn’t make it.

But it was still a mighty turnout at Sydney’s Town Hall for the highly anticipated Lowy lecture, without a doubt the social event of the week.

Frank’s son Steven Lowy sat at the head table next to Johnson. Joining them was our Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, her partner David Panton and Commonwealth Bank chair Catherine Livingstone.

Greg Medcraft with Boris Johnson at the Lowy Institute.

Fellow bank chair, ANZ’s David Gonski, was on the neighbouring table, getting on ­famously with opposition spokeswoman for foreign affairs Penny Wong.

Australia’s man in London Alexander Downer was on the table on the other side, along with Department of Foreign Affairs boss Frances Adamson and former ABC chairman Jim Spigelman (who along with Gonski is a Lowy Institute director).

Treasurer Scott Morrison was in the dress circle on Qantas government relations boss Andrew Parker’s table, along with opposition trade and investment spokesman Jason Clare, while Lendlease boss Steve McCann was next to the visiting Lynton Crosby.

Also spotted in the packed room was Andrew Hirst, who has just downed tools at Crosby Textor to start as the Liberal Party’s new federal director, CBA chief executive Ian Narev, AustralianSuper chief executive Ian Silk and ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft, who caught up with Johnson during pre-dinner drinks.

Medcraft could have had a lot to do with Johnson’s colleagues in the May government if he had snagged that gig as the head of Britain’s corporate watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority. At least he’ll always have Paris. Right?

Everyone’s a winner

Australia Post chairman John Stanhope and his board have come to the same decision as Aramex chairman Abdullah
al-Mazrui. While as of today Ahmed Fahour is no longer our head postie, the $5.6 million man will continue as a director on the Dubai-based express and logistics company in which, during Fahour’s dynamic 7½ years, Australia Post bought a $200m stake.

Following a board decision on Thursday evening, a spokeswoman for Australia Post said Fahour will continue to be its rep on the internationally focused Aramex board for up to six months.

The spokeswoman added Stanhope’s board “retains the right to replace Mr Fahour as the nominee director on the board of Aramex at any time throughout the interim period”.

Although it’s hard to see why they would. It seems everyone’s a winner under this arrangement.

Al-Mazrui gets to tap Fahour’s considerable brain around the boardroom table. We’ve even heard of a scheme — that has been considered but not approved — which could see Fahour, since March Aramex’s deputy chairman, continue after the six-month extension as an independent director to be joined by another Post rep.

Meanwhile, Fahour will have all his associated travel to the Middle East paid for by Aramex. It seems the Dubai-based firm will also take care of Fahour’s deputy chairman fees, which he currently forfeits to Australia Post.

And it’s been made clear as the address on a carefully prepared envelope that Stanhope’s Post won’t have to spend a cent — not something often written about an arrangement involving Fahour.

Place your bets

After toasting his friend Ahmed Fahour at his Australia Post farewell at Melbourne’s Aerial, former Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy finished the week in Darwin.

We gather Conroy — who is now the executive director of online lobbying outfit Responsible Wagering Australia — was spotted in the NT where he was visiting Labor Chief Minister Michael Gunner.

Darwin’s a key spot in Conroy’s new gig. His online gambling members — James Packer’s CrownBet, along with Bet365, Sportsbet, Betfair Exchange, Unibet and, as of the start of the month, Ladbrokes — are all licensed in the famously light-taxing Northern Territory.

In return for reducing their tax bill, Conroy’s members have to run call centres for their phone bets and servers and IT out of the Territory — making them a not insignificant employer in the Top End.

But it’s an arrangement with a future as precarious as the endangered Arnhem Land skink, as state governments follow South Australia’s new 15 per cent wagering consumption tax, which started this month.

All in all, a bit for Conroy and Gunner to talk about in addition to that terrifying croc on the front page of yesterday’s NT News. Did you see that thing?