CFMEU couple Elizabeth Doidge and Joey Myles enjoy Mexico wedding; ACU’s new media digest

CFMEU officials Joe Myles and Elizabeth Doidge, and friend, at their Mexican wedding.

Threats and thuggery in the Victorian branch of the CFMEU ­always make for an absorbing read, and reports of this kind have rightfully clogged up the news cycle for several weeks.

But all of that bruising coverage has eclipsed a heart-meltingly good-news story blossoming from the militant union, tainted as it is with much carbon and climate hypocrisy.

We speak of a wedding ceremony held on a balmy Mexican coastline for two of the CFMEU’s hardcore loyalists: ­Elizabeth Doidge and Victorian senior vice-president Joey Myles, both affiliates of the heavily-inked and hairy-knuckled construction division that was led until recently by John Setka.

Seriously? Cómo puede ser verdad?

Yes, even the CFMEU loves a tropical breeze and marg-soaked destination wedding, this one at a villa with private plunge pools in every room and a ceremonial donkey on hand for the amusement of guests.

By our count, some 24 attendees were flown in for the occasion (including 16 from Australia), a carbon-chugging venture that does seem unusual for Doidge, a Melbourne City councillor, considering she’s spoken so committedly and often about reducing greenhouse gas emissions for everyone else in Melbourne.

The air miles alone would have been enormous, but still short of what Anthony Albanese has clocked up.

Former CFMEU boss John Setka was not invited to the wedding.

Doidge’s core business on the council and practically all she talks about is stamping out carbon. Elected four years ago with the help of a cash injection from the CFMEU, she’s now the portfolio lead for sustainable building and the deputy lead for environment.

“We’re talking about getting off gas, electrifying buildings and making sure that energy comes from renewable sources,” she said last year, for a press statement on retrofitting skyscrapers and mid-rises.

And this: “We cannot meet our emissions reduction targets without some serious innovation in climate action, particularly in the building sector.” All of this affected piety about saving the planet but, still, the working man’s union, proudly Victorian, opts for the Mexican mountain retreat over serviceable Jan Juc.

Do we detect a theme building here? Mere weeks ago we revealed so-called working class Labor MP Luba Grigorovitch – a pal of both Doidge and Myles – had pretended to be working in her hard-up suburban seat of Kororoit while she was actually dangling her feet off a superyacht, Silver Dream, in the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean – on a boat owned by Hungry Jack’s billionaire Jack Cowin.

Doidge declined to comment, but we did hear the business end of the wedding, the nuptials proper, were formally signed off not at Casa Angelina, in Mexico, but in Las Vegas, on the way home. And no, neither Grigorovitch nor Setka were invited.

An ACU mention

“Truth in love” are the words stamped on the emblem of the Australian Catholic University, even though there’s little of either at the troubled institution.

Not much love for vice-chancellor Zlatko Skrbis, and loyal readers will know we’ve been at it for weeks searching for truth over that million-dollar termination of Dean of Law Kate Galloway.

And now, the mention of either, or anything else unpalatable, is being totally smeared out of existence at the university.

A “new and improved” media digest was announced for staff late last month promising a daily compilation of ACU mentions appearing in the press. Relaunched ostensibly for an optimised mobile-platform experience, the digest is intended to provide everyone with clips of news drawn, nationally, from the higher education sector.

Unless, of course, that coverage includes an ounce of negativity or shade about ACU and its delicate leadership. So, no mention of our revelation on August 2 that ACU had called in cyber mole hunters to root out those responsible for leaking details about the Galloway termination. And presumably this little morsel won’t make it to the digest, either.

Which is a shame, because we speak the truth and do it with love.

New Diggers dealers

Kalgoorlie’s Diggers & Dealers conference has become terribly respectable, hasn’t it? There’s even a modern corporate structure in place.

Owners Myles Ertzen and Sharon Giogetta announced just before this year’s annual Kalgoorlie mining bash that they’d invited fresh shareholders onto the register after buying the event five years ago – perhaps underplaying the changes just a touch.

Rather than introducing new equity partners into the business, as the press release said, the couple actually sold off 80 per cent of their stake in the conference to a consortium, among them long-time organisers Suzanne Christie and Gavin Everett, chairman Jim Walker, along with Northern Star Resources boss Stuart Tonkin, Capricorn Metals founder Mark Clark and Perth dealmaker Darren Martin.

But it’s not so much cashing out as spreading the wealth, Ertzen told Margin Call, saying the time had come to modernise the Diggers structure. For the first 25 years of its history the annual mining retreat was owned by Kate Stokes, widow of forum founder Geoff Stokes, and run by a company with a board of one.

And now look! It’s owned by a committee with a proper board and actual adults in the room. With a record 2800 punters attending Kalgoorlie this year, can an IPO be far away?