Cashed-up Abbott campaign up for election battle

Rod Clement Margin Call cartoon for 29-03-2019.Version: Business Cartoon (1280x720 - Aspect ratio preserved, Canvas added)COPYRIGHT: The Australian's artists each have different copyright agreements in place regarding re-use of their work in other publications.Please seek advice from the artists themselves or the Managing Editor of The Australian regarding re-use.

Tony Abbott’s Warringah campaign team has agreed to spend up to $1 million defending the former prime minister from the GetUp!-backed independent Zali Steggall.

Margin Call is told by sources familiar with the goings on in the Sydney north shore electorate that Abbott’s FEC campaign committee met earlier in the week to map out the campaign.

The seven-digit number was also flagged.

Now only six weeks away from the mid-May election, Abbott’s FEC president Roger Corbett and campaign manager Peter O’Hanlon have agreed on a whatever-it-takes strategy.

Abbott has already raised well over $500,000 for the battle.

Tony Abbott holds court at the Sydney Institute dinner. Picture: Jane Dempster.

That’s expected to be topped up by third-party campaigners, such as the Abbott-aligned political machine Advance Australia, which includes as a member of its advisory board former ABC chair and Mosman resident Maurice Newman.

No billboard in Manly or social media page logged in from Mosman will be spared.

Shorten hails Pratt

The spectre of the late cardboard box billionaire Richard Pratt loomed large over Raheen on Wednesday night as almost prime minister Bill Shorten set out his vision for Australia to the Melbourne business community.

With wife Chloe by his side, the Opposition Leader was welcomed back to the historic mansion’s ornate ballroom with open arms by latter-day Visy billionaire Anthony Pratt.

Pratt, on behalf of his family including wife Claudine and mother Jeanne, warmly remarked to the 90 or so guests along for the $5000-a-head sit-down dinner that he had known Shorten for a very long time.

It was lovely, the billionaire said, to have him return to Raheen after an absence of some years.

Shorten was previously married to Deborah Beale, who was like a goddaughter to Richard and Jeanne.

Notably, the businessman had been overseas when the Pratt family a fortnight ago opened up their Kew mansion to PM Scott Morrison for a reciprocal political fundraiser.

Guests at the Labor function were served an entree of artichoke hearts, a main course of beef and dessert of figs with ice cream.

In for dinner along with Peter Scanlon, Raphael Geminder and Harold Mitchell was Geminder’s wife and Pratt’s sister Fiona, Liberty Oil co-founder David Goldberger, Telstra boss Andy Penn and new Australian Amazon head Rocco Braeuniger.

Penn, we note, is wisely playing both teams, having been at a Higgins fundraiser hosted by outgoing Liberal member Kelly O’Dwyer at the Toorak home of JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray last December.

Shorten worked the room before and after last night’s dinner, with the mood said to be buoyant.

The Labor leader’s address featured much talk of the late Pratt, describing him as a generous man and lauding the contribution that he and his wider family had made to Australia.

Shorten recalled Pratt’s fondness for the line from great Russian thespian Konstantin Stanislavski: “There are no small parts, only small actors.”

Shorten, speaking without notes, added that everyone — even humble billionaires — had a part to play in Australia’s future.

Diva reveals all

Pop diva Mariah Carey is writing a book. Oh dear.

They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, so it could be bad news for Los Angeles-based Australian gaming billionaire James Packer, who was engaged to the unpredictable songstress in 2015 only for the whirlwind romance to end in 2016.

Packer has called his engagement to the volatile star (which came complete with a whopping $10 million ring) a “mistake”, with the union ending following an intervention by Packer’s close friend, father figure and fellow billionaire Kerry Stokes.

Packer has revealed his side of the failed fairytale to our esteemed colleague Damon Kitney in his ripping Packer biography The Price of Fortune.

Now Carey, who remains a firm friend of Packer’s
also-former-mate Brett Ratner, is having her turn at publicly defining their history.

Oh dear, indeed.

Domain on the menu?

Interesting to spot Domain director Greg Ellis as a guest on the table of investment giant KKR at the Sydney Institute’s 30th black tie dinner.

Ellis is now a free agent after recently returning to Australia having finished his lucrative gig in Germany running digital real estate and car ads business Scout24, which was backed by private equity giant Hellman & Friedman.

What now for Greg Ellis? Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Back in 2017, Ellis — once the boss of Australia’s biggest online real estate classifies REA Group — was enlisted as an adviser to private equity giant H&F’s fabled tilt for Domain, which was then also being sized up by Joel Thickins’ rival private equity firm TPG.

Despite then Domain boss Antony Catalano’s best efforts, no deal eventuated — although Ellis did end up getting appointed by chair Nick Falloon to the property outfit’s board.

Things have been rocky at Domain under the leadership of former Google Australia boss Jason Pellegrino since he took over in August.

Since then Domain — 60 per cent of which is owned by Peter Costello’s Nine — has shrunk by almost a third. It’s now worth less than $1.5 billion.

Cheap enough to interest Ellis’s Wednesday night Sydney Institute tablemates KKR’s head of Australia Scott Bookmyer and KKR’s local private equity boss David Lang?