Cracks show at Frank Walker’s National Tiles; James Packer’s low profile

Frank Walker and his wife Rhonda of National Tiles. Picture: Jason Edwards

It’s a delicate time for home building companies staving off collapse against crippling supply delays, sagging demand and labour droopage.

Morale was hardly helped on Thursday when contracting business Plumbfirst went into administration, the third outfit of its kind to falter after Richstone Group did the same in February, followed by CDC Plumbing and Drainage, which went into liquidation that same month.

With this in mind, should we be concerned about Frank Walker’s National Tiles? Walker and his wife Rhonda, sole shareholders of the flooring company, began the financial year with a $33m deadline advancing upon them.

At balance date, the group had borrowings with NAB of $33.6m, the bulk of which – $29m – was due on June 30, 2022. The remainder was supposed to have been paid by October.

Walker, beloved for his kitschy Melbourne-based radio advertising, was thrown a lifeline on September 14 when NAB let the company renew its facilities.

That provided some breathing space until June 30 – that’s another 10 weeks before the bank sends in the toecutters.

We called and emailed National Tiles’ head office in Port Melbourne repeatedly this week seeking to discuss the impending expiration of the finance facility. Alas, crickets.

Last year’s accounts point to an increase in revenue at National Tiles, but the business still suffered a bottom-line loss of $252,944 off a $4.1m profit recorded a year earlier.

Might this squeeze have anything to do with Walker and his wife trying to flog their $25m Toorak mansion? The pile is located on Clendon road, not far from Cranlana House, owned by the Myer family, and a short dance from historic Coonac mansion, which belongs to transport billionaire Paul Little.

The home, mortgaged to NAB since 2020, has been Walker’s for a decade, among others in South Yarra and the Mornington Peninsula. The expressions of interest are set to close on April 26, just in time for that banking deadline.

Night on the tiles

Julian Leeser is putting out feelers looking for Liberal Party donors to join him for a budget-reply tipple in his office – at a modest price of $2000.

A drink and dinner with Julian Leeser and his comrades will set Liberal Party donors back $2000. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Ben Symons

Leeser’s invitation, dispatched on Thursday, beckons guests to join with “my shadow cabinet colleagues” for a round of refreshments.

The plan is to then sally forth to the Member’s Dining Room in Old Parliament House for the regulation dinner.

That’s one way to skirt the prime minister’s injunction on fundraising activities. Anthony Albanese nixed the practice in the public gathering areas of the new parliament last year as a sop to the do-gooders of the crossbench.

Apparently beveraginos are still technically allowed in private offices, it seems.

Angus Taylor and Peter Dutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

But hang on – what’s all this in Leeser’s email about “my shadow cabinet colleagues”. Didn’t he resign as the shadow attorney general just this week over his “yes” position on an Indigenous voice to parliament?

Looks to us like a staffer shrugged off some editing before firing off the invitation. Anyway, $2000 is steep when considering that drinks with actual Labor ministers costs $1500, while a seat at the Liberal Party’s formal budget-reply dinner, to be hosted by Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor, is also a $1500 charge.

That function will be held at the National Museum of Australia, a fitting choice, really. No shortage of fossils to gawk at.

Low profile

Billionaire James Packer kept a compact set of movements during his 10-day stay in Sydney, so much so that he didn’t even set a loafer inside Crown Resorts’ VIP casino at Barangaroo – the one he ostensibly drew up with Barry O’Farrell over a meat pie and some mash at Alan Jones’ place in 2012.

Margin Call has learned Packer was sighted not once at the gaming tables of the Mahogany & Crystal rooms, as they’re known, foregoing the annoying paperwork governing the VIP membership process entirely. Maybe that’s why he didn’t bother?

For years its dominant shareholder, Packer had considered the $2.5bn conception of Crown Sydney, along with its approval and construction, to be a spectacular accomplishment.

He sold his stake to Blackstone last year for $3.3bn, ending his 20 years of involvement with the Crown Resorts gaming business.

The father of three was snapped by the paps just once while in Sydney, and that was at the airport when he stepped off a private jet that shuttled him, former wife Erica Baxter and their children into town.

Outside of that, he reportedly spent most of his time inside the $72m apartment that he purchased in 2021, located in the Crown tower. Fair enough – the weather was rubbish anyway. Plus there’s Nobu available on room service.