Frydenberg’s personal $7 billion secret weapon
So now we know: Josh Frydenberg has a personal $7 billion secret weapon.
And it — or rather, they — were out in force on budget night. The Treasurer’s richie rat pack: Ryan Stokes (scion to the Seven fortune, just valued on The Australian’s The List at $5.38bn), Justin Hemmes (the Merivale pubs and dining mogul, just valued at $1.05bn) and James Symond (CEO of the Aussie mortgate empire which was was founded by his uncle John Symond, who was just valued at $691 million).
“We’re here for Josh,” Stokes, 42, told us, as the Treasurer’s three amigos set off to a private function before watching their man take the dispatch box in the House of Representatives.
It was a Parliament House reunion for the friends. All three were along for Frydenberg’s first speech as an MP, back in 2010.
Thanks to his father Kerry Stokes’s media empire, Ryan is no stranger to Canberra.
Symond and Hemmes, both 46, are less frequent visitors.
The Merivale billionaire told us that last night was, to the best of his memory, only his third visit to our federal parliament.
Along with two visits for Frydenberg milestones, his first visit was a school trip.
“It was the first time I saw frost,” Hemmes told us, before the trio took their seats in the House next to Aria boss Dan Rosen.
Symond has been slightly more active in Canberra — but is far from a regular.
While his telegenic rival Mark Bouris — of the troubled Yellow Brick Road empire — got the media headlines, behind the scenes it was actually the Aussie CEO Symond who (along with GRA Cosway’s Richard King) was key in lobbying against Kenneth Hayne’srecently thwarted mortgage broking recommendation.
The member for Kooyong is also well connected with our more distinguished billionaires.
Also along in Frydenberg’s Canberra entourage last night was retail billionaire Solomon Lew — just valued on The List at $2.03bn — and his wife, Roza.
After joining the younger trio at the private pre-speech function, the recently wed couple listened from the front row in the House of Representatives (in the row ahead of Frydenberg mentor Michael Kroger) as the Treasurer gave his budget speech.
Lew’s verdict? “It was great,” he told us on his way out of the house.
So all up that makes for billionaire connections in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth — and a bit over $9bn of personal support.
Not a bad foundation of powerful friends for the 47-year-old Frydenberg to have behind him should he decide to campaign to be the Liberals’ next-generation leader — should the Morrison government’s fortunes not miraculously turn around.
No party at Julie’s
The end of Julie Bishop’s reign as foreign minister also ended her famous budget night party.
Around Canberra’s diplomatic corp went the distressed cable: “Where do we go now?”
NAB executive Mike Baird and Liberal federal president Nick Greiner came to the rescue. Unquestionably, the place to be last night was the private dinner put on by the European Australian Business Council, which was sponsored by the bank.
Council chair Greiner and deputy chair Simon Crean (once Labor federal leader) made it a uniquely civil night.
It was the only bipartisan room in the house on what is otherwise an intensely tribal affair.
Margin Call spotted Shorten frontbenchers Jason Clare, Clare O’Neill and Joel Fitzgibbon along to mingle with Baird, his father, Bruce Baird, a sparkling Bishop, CSIRO chair David Thodey and Crown director Jane Halton.
And our encounter with Greiner also gave us further information on the Liberals’ recent fundraiser at Australia’s richest man Anthony Pratt’s mansion Raheen, arguably unfairly compared by this column to Bill Shorten’s reciprocal effort last week.
“Our tickets were twice the price,” Greiner told us. “And they sold out.”
Jitters at Treasury
There were reasons other than the imminent election for a nervous energy in the budget lockup. These are interesting times for two of the most senior Treasury officials who yesterday roamed the paper-strewn rooms with the Treasurer.
Treasury secretary Phil Gaetjens, appointed King of the Boffins last August, finds himself in an uncomfortable position as a Shorten government looms.
His trouble? His immediate last job — as then-treasurer Scott Morrison’s chief of staff. It was a reprisal of a role he had earlier held for treasurer Peter Costello.
Another seemingly destined for an interesting May is Simon Atkinson, one of Gaetjens’s five deputy secretaries who was previously the chief of staff to Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.
Treasurer-most-likely Chris Bowen has made no secret at his unhappiness with the appearance that the department has been infected with “partisan politics”.
Perhaps complicating matters is Gaetjens’s evident popularity with the abacus and spreadsheet crowd.
Margin Call is yet to hear of anyone at Treasury not describe Gaetjens, whose CV includes decades of nonpartisan public service, as a great improvement on his predecessor John Fraser, the former UBS exec who has since joined David Murray’s AMP board.
Dr Dastyari comes knocking
Leaving the Canberra bubble — well, sort of.
Margin Call can reveal Sam Dastyari’s relationship with former Liberal health minister Michael Wooldridge extends beyond mere spruiking for the medical industry.
Not only has Dastyari signed up with the former Howard minister’s lobbying outfit The Strategic Counsel, the pair has also teamed up as fellow directors of a private equity-backed outfit called NHD HoldCo Pty Ltd, which is the parent entity of the National Home Doctors Service (aka 13 SICK), the leading provider of after-hours GP services across Australia and Canada.
That puts the former pollies in bed with Sydney-headquartered private equiteers Crescent Capital, which has a controlling stake in NHD.
Crescent Capital founder Michael Alscher (a former Bain consultant) and partner Nathaniel Thomson (a former McKinsey consultant) are directors of the HoldCo alongside Dastyari and Wooldridge.
The private equity shop — whose motto is “Grow. Increase. Expand” — is also a Strategic Counsel client.
After his abrupt departure from the Senate, Dastyari joined the NHD board in mid-June last year, while Wooldridge joined in May. The group operates under the National Home Doctor Service banner in Australia and bulk bills Medicare card holders for its services.
All of which should see Dastyari make regular trips to shadow health minister Catherine King’s door after the May election.
Shareholders in NHD include a range of nominee companies, so it remains unclear whether the pair are also equity holders in the group, which turns over about $55 million a year for a profit most recently of just over $2 million.
Previously, the local operation was run by Ben Keneally, the husband of former NSW premier Kristina Keneally, who replaced Dastyari in the senate in early 2018.
Mr Keneally, a former Labor mayor of Botany who now works at the Boston Consulting Group, was also a NHD shareholder until he parted ways with the firm in late 2016 and his stake lapsed.
Still, a few familiar faces to help out the 35-year-old Dastyari as he learns the roll up stethoscope trade.
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