Coal-fired ScoMo has seen the light in solar; Star chief’s tennis sojourn at his own expense
Scott Morrison has been working double-time post politics to make a crust on the speaking and advisory circuit; hence his roles with Dubai engineering firm Sidara and Boston-based DYNE Maritime.
Extra cash has slid in from his roles as chair of Space Centre Australia and vice-chair of American Global Strategies, founded by former Trump White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
But now we know what he’s been saving up for since his retirement from parliament: he’s pimping out his Shire abode with a $1m knockdown-rebuild. The estimated cost, according to documents filed with Sutherland Shire Council, is $1.05m. Let’s call it $2m to be safe. Isn’t there a tradie shortage at the moment?
Morrison wouldn’t engage with us on his plans for the house but our spies clocked a bulldozer sitting in the yard, the documents in our possession pointing to a levelling of the joint with a two-storey, five bedder upgrade.
We were surprised, however, to note the presence of 18 solar panels due to be spread across the prospective rooftop, per the technical drawings lodged with the council. Morrison, as prime minister, showed an absolute commitment to the future of fossil fuels, spending billions on gas projects and oil refineries and embracing coal with the vigour of Matt Kean wrapping his arms around an EV charging station. Morrison even brought a lump of coal into parliament one time.
“This is coal!” he shouted at Labor MPs, brandishing the hunk at them. “Don’t be afraid! Don’t scared! It was dug up by men and women who work in the electorates of those who sit opposite!”
Funny, as well, that the DA couldn’t be assessed by the usual council cardigans because Morrison was determined to have “affiliations with councillors within the Sutherland Shire Council”, which is a cute way of saying that the Libs on council probably owe him their careers. It’s also why external assessors and a senior manager were engaged to cast an eye over the application. YB
Copping a serve
For anyone wondering about the bizarre sight of Star Entertainment’s CEO Steve McCann at the Men’s Open finals on Sunday, we’re told he made his own way to the venue and did so on his own dime.
Star’s chair Anne Ward was also courtside on Sunday but she lives in Melbourne, which means Star’s ailing shareholders didn’t have to pony up to put them on a plane. Small mercies.
Still, a very odd look to swan into Rod Laver Arena while the house is burning down, and while the leadership is going cap in hand to governments seeking a handout and warning that cash reserves might run dry by February. Business is tanking? F..k it, let’s watch the tennis!
As one of our readers put it: “Like going to the unemployment office with a Dior jacket on!” YB
No drama
No hard feelings after all between former Aussie Home Loans boss James Symond and acclaimed architect Rob Mills. The pair remain rather close.
We had a scooplet on Tuesday revealing that it was Symond’s Bellevue Hill pile – “Kambala” – at the centre of a workplace dispute between Mills and an employee who’d worked on the project (she settled her case against Mills last week).
The filings all but hinted at a rift between Mills and his very important client, and of course our antennae went wild when we noticed the Kambala project had been taken offline from Mills’ website.
Had Mills been dumped? Not at all, apparently. But for a minute we wondered if all this legal hullabaloo was what fouled up Kambala’s construction schedule. Instead, and very sadly, it was a battle with cancer suffered by Symond’s wife, Amelia, that saw work halted at the site for months. Symond, responding to queries about the slowdown, said the delays were a result of handmade windows that were yet to arrive from Italy – not exactly true, but he wanted to protect her privacy.
As for the build, we’re hearing that Symond has already received at least one unsolicited offer in the realm of $60m, and that’s while the sprawling home is still months from completion. Bit low, all things considered, especially when food blogger Stephanie Conley-Buhre and her venture capitalist husband Oskar Buhre snaffled $80m for a mansion of similar size just around the corner last year. YB
No happy ending
Movies legend Steven Spielberg, Australian showbiz veterans the late Glenn Wheatley and Andrew McManus, and Linc Energy found Peter Bond all have one thing in common: they’ve been dudded by would-be entertainment finance group Audient Capital and partners Mark Spillane and Richard Bucaria.
And now it appears the group didn’t even pay at least some employees of the supposed $1.8bn private equity firm – now accused by one former worker of being little more than a fraud.
Spillane and Bucaria have left a trail of destruction a mile wide through the entertainment industry, here and in the US, since founding Audient a few years ago.
They were successfully sued by one of Spielberg’s production houses for failing to deliver a promised $US15.5m film investment and are still being chased by McManus’ Apex Entertainment for $6m – that’s over allegedly failing to deliver funding for Sydney’s Pandemonium music festival.
Companies associated with the pair have been partially blamed for a financial disaster at the Vanfest festival at Mount Panorama in 2022, which left bands unpaid and hundreds of ticket holders out of pocket when it was washed out.
Their companies also squibbed on deals to buy a stake in Wheatley’s Talentworks, and on a $20m offer to buy Dunk Island from Bond – later snapped up by Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Audient and Bucario are also being chased in the US courts by at least two former investors, who claim they stumped up millions on the promise of a quick turnaround and returns of up to 50 per cent – also never delivered.
But the latest lawsuit is a little more personal. It comes from former Audient investor relations manager Crystal Barkley, who filed a claim in the US court that she and her child were left homeless when Audient failed to pay a dime of her $US120,000 salary in 2024. Spillane and Bucaria offered excuses about payroll system problems, escrowed funds and imminent investments. NE
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