SSM vote: Celebrating marriage of equals

Illustration: Rod Clement.

After enduring cream pies in the face and contributing $1 million of his own money to the campaign, Qantas boss Alan Joyce was understandably ebullient after the yes campaign’s emphatic win.

“I’ve told my PA to clear the diary tomorrow morning!” a beaming Joyce told us at the Marriage Equality sunny gathering in Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park yesterday, minutes after the AEC announced that 62 per cent of postal votes in the same-sex marriage campaign ticked yes.

A wise plan. The Marriage Equality campaign’s after-party last night at The Beresford Hotel — a joint effort with Andrew Bragg and Trent Zimmerman’s Libs and Nats for Equality — looked like a hangover factory as we went to print.

Earlier in the day at the Prince Alfred announcement, a mighty ensemble of the campaign’s corporate and political supporters had assembled on and just off stage to hear chief statistician David Kalisch unveil the much-anticipated result.

Along with Ian Thorpe and Magda Szubanski, there was Canberra Airport heir Tom Snow, SBS boss Michael Ebeid, CBA’s corporate affairs boss Andrew Hall, Qantas’s government relations honcho Andrew Parker, former ASTRA boss Andrew Maiden, local state Greens MP Jenny Leong, the local federal member, Labor’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek and Liberal councillor Christine Forster, sister of the member for Warringah, Tony Abbott.

“And the last thing I will say,” Forster said at the end of her short, sharp speech. “There was a 75 per cent yes vote in the federal electorate of Warr-in-gah!”

At which the crowd went wild. She got him in the end.

Looking on bright side

Lyle Shelton’s no campaign held what would be its wake over in Sydney’s CBD at the InterContinental.

At it happened, that was the same venue where Alan Joyce started his day before joining the hundreds celebrating in Prince Alfred Park.

The Qantas boss was at the InterContinental for a business media conference and almost bumped into Shelton in the hotel’s coffee lounge just a few hours before the historic announcement. Small world.

Shelton’s indoors event was a more modest affair than the yes campaign’s festival in the park.

There were about 100-odd campaign staff, volunteers and fellow travellers, including Tim James, a conservative Liberal who has been eyeing off a seat on Sydney’s yes-voting north shore for years, and Jean Claude Perrottet, one of NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet’s younger brothers.

Interestingly, the lectern Shelton spoke at had the hotel’s logo covered over. We’re told the InterContinental didn’t want its name televised next to the Coalition for Marriage’s slogan.

Lyle Shelton at the InterContinental in Sydney yesterday.

Shelton — whose Australian Christian Lobby will have its annual conference in Sydney over the weekend — tried his best to be upbeat about the outcome, despite receiving only 38 per cent of the vote.

“This is the start of a new movement,” he told us.

There’ll be more on that at the ACL knees-up, whose speakers include Nationals minister Matthew Canavan and pin-up boy for the “new movement”, Cory Bernardi.

Banking on a no

NAB boss Andrew Thorburn took a very different approach to his CEO peer Alan Joyce during the same-sex marriage campaign.

There wasn’t a peep out of the pin-stripped banker, who — as it happened — was along at the same business media event as Joyce yesterday morning, just over the way from Shelton’s wake.

Well-placed informants at the bank tell us the church-attending Thorburn was personally opposed to the social change. That put him in the same camp as his star recruit Mike Baird (one of the minority voters in Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah who opposed same-sex marriage) — but in the other camp to his big four banking CEO peers — CBA’s Ian Narev, Westpac’s Brian Hartzer and ANZ’s Shayne Elliott — who were prominent in their support.

Despite being seated in the front row of one of Joyce’s Qantas jets, Thorburn looked a bit downcast on his flight from Sydney to Melbourne yesterday afternoon — six hours after Australia said yes.

However, the NAB boss’s sombre mood might have been less about the social change and more about his business. A footnote in the bank’s annual report has revealed it is “investigating and remediating” a number of compliance issues with anti-money laundering legislation.

As CBA’s Narev knows only too well, no good comes of trouble with Austrac.

Billionaire’s burgers

It’s not all dirty, big holes in the ground when it comes to mining magnate Gina Rinehart.

On Tuesday night the billionaire was in Sydney to launch her latest passion, Wagyu beef, raised on her grazing properties at Glencoe and Caigan, near Mendooran in NSW.

Her mate from the west and Paspaley executive chair Nick Paspaley threw open the doors of his flagship Paspaley Pearls boutique on Martin Place to host the launch of Rinehart’s 2GR beef brand.

Gina Rinehart and Gary Korte, CEO of Hancock Prospecting.

A hunk of Wagyu and a string of pearls. What more could a girl want?

Rinehart, sparkling in red, was surrounded by her loyal execs, including right-hand man Ted Watroba, the boss of her Hancock Prospecting Gary Korte, head of her Hancock Agriculture David Larkin and Rinehart’s media man and former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles. Former leader of the NSW Libs Kerry Chikarovski was also there for the tasting.

Guests were greeted with a glass of Bolli on arrival before the Paspaley family’s Bunnamagoo Estate Wines were poured long into the night as Rinehart showcased her premium cuts via courses prepared by Nobu chefs.

The gathered were told that Nobu, which is 20 per cent-owned by James Packer’s Crown Resorts, had committed to introduce the 2GR Wagyu to their restaurants.

Later into the night the dashing Paspaley was seen dancing with Rinehart, whom Forbes this month named as Australia’s richest person worth $US16.6 billion ($21.85bn).

A vote for Mal

So now we know.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull can count on at least one vote in his seat of Wentworth.

Former Liberal member for Bennelong and resident of North Bondi John Alexander has confirmed to Margin Call that he’s now enrolled to vote in the eastern Sydney seat.

That’s a 30-plus kilometre commute JA was tackling to his Epping electoral office, before the former Aussie tennis legend was forced to resign after finding out he was a dual citizen.

So if JA is able to renounce his dual citizenship in time to nominate for preselection in the seat ahead of the December 16 by-election, he won’t even be able to vote for himself.

The empty-nester has been living by the seaside with his partner Debbie Chadwick since he sold his home in Putney in March, but Alexander says he is still looking for a new base in same-sex marriage-opposing Bennelong.

We’re told the candidate has his eye on some real estate (in the past he talked about wanting a townhouse or apartment), but doesn’t want to say much more in case he tips off the agent and drives up the price.

And he won’t want to stretch too far after paying $4.845 million midyear to buy the stunning Iona Park in Moss Vale, 15 minutes from Bowral. The property is mortgaged to Westpac.

In his disclosure to the parliament, JA describes the property as a “business in the Southern Highlands”, which sits in Labor member Stephen Jones’s seat of Whitlam (formerly Throsby).

To that end, Alexander has the eight-bedroom, five-bathroom home advertised for holiday rentals on Airbnb and Stayz, as well as engaging local property agent Highlands Holidays to manage bookings at the estate.