Danielle Blain in the running for Liberal Party presidency

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Three years after then minister for women Tony Abbott thwarted her tilt, Julie Bishop’s good friend Danielle Blain is in the mix to be the Liberal Party’s next federal president.

Blain, a former successful businesswoman and former West Australian Liberal state president, pulled out of the race last time after then PM Abbott made it clear he wanted Richard Alston to get the job.

But will she put her hand up this time?

Back in 2011, Peter Reith ran thinking he had Abbott’s backing, only to find out on the day that the then Liberal leader had voted for Alan Stockdale.

After that debacle, Abbott’s unambiguous captain’s pick was perhaps the best course of action — however much it annoyed Bishop.

Danielle Blain.

Blain is known as a superb fundraiser, particularly among the Liberal-leaning Sandgroper set.

Malcolm Turnbull well knows her suitability for the most important task required of a Liberal president right now: bringing in dosh. She threw one of the more lucrative $10,000-a-head fundraising lunches for the Prime Minister in Perth during last year’s mammoth campaign.

Last time around Blain had the support of Reith, who would be in the mix for the presidency himself if his health was up to it. Last month, the former Howard government minister withdrew his challenge of Victorian president Michael Kroger, following a stroke.

On paper, campaign review author Andrew Robb looks well suited to the unpaid role. Since stepping down as trade minister, Robb has picked up roles at investment bank Moelis & Company, the Chinese behemoth Landbridge Group and Network Ten, on whose board he sits as billionaire Gina Rinehart’s representative.

That’s quite a collection to pass the hat around to. But it’s hard to see where the almost constantly travelling Robb would find the time.

Another super-connected Liberal grandee is spoken of dreamily: the hydra-headed Warwick Smith.

Look at his titles: chair of the NSW branch of David Gonski’s ANZ, adviser to billionaire Kerry Stokes, former exec at the “millionaire factory” Macquarie Bank, chairman of the Australia China Business Council, with a spot on the head table at last month’s Great Hall visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to prove it.

And, as a Tasmanian, Smith would have the all-important Launceston business community stitched up. But would he agree to do it?

Brazil exits Crown

Gaming billionaire James Packer’s love affair with investment bankers seems to be waning, with Macquarie banking powerhouse Ben Brazil the latest departure from the John Alexander-chaired Crown Resorts board.

Brazil, 47, is one of Macquarie boss Nicholas Moore’s highest-paid executives and profit-makers. He has been on the Crown board for almost eight years, but has not held one Crown share over the period of his service.

Along with Packer’s close-again confidant and adviser, UBS banker Matthew Grounds, Brazil was one of the masterminds of Packer’s sale of PBL Media to private equity giant CVC in 2013.

His departure from the Crown ranks is the latest in a series of changes to the casino operator’s board, including Alexander taking over as chair from former banker Rob Rankin. He will be replaced shortly by old Packer lieutenant Guy Jalland, while Packer himself will also return as a downtable director. As soon as he passes probity.

Advantage Seven

It was a win for Kerry Stokes’s Seven West Media in the Supreme Court yesterday as Justice John Sackar thwarted Team Amber Harrison’s attempt to transfer the bitter legal battle to the Federal Court in Melbourne.

No dice, was Sackar’s decision. That’s good news for Seven’s legal tactician Bruce McWilliam. And it’s even better news for eager spectators of the messy sex-expense-and-governance jamboree.

Bruce McWilliam.

The year’s most hyped legal circus will be heard in less than three months — unless federal justice Mordecai “Mordy” Bromberg throws a legal spanner in the works at his case management hearing on April 28.

The eager Sackar is keen to get the dispute to trial. At least four hearing days are scheduled to start on July 10.

So assuming the mediation fails, it will soon be show time in the Supreme Court. If the judge gives the nod, the following are expected to be called to the stand for questioning by Harrison’s star barrister Julian Burnside: Harrison’s former boss and lover Tim Worner, the PM’s good friend McWilliam, Foo Fighters fan Simon Francis, Bauer Media boss Nick Chan, Newcrest’s new hire Melanie Allibon, the recently overlooked Davanh Inthachanh and her Seven HR offsider Danny Klepac, and our former colleague at the Australian Financial Review Joe Aston.

A few moving parts there.

Missed the call

Oh, the cruel permanence of the written word!

JPMorgan senior telco analyst Eric Pan had a bad day at the office yesterday after the release of a fresh report on Telstra, which upgraded his recommendation on the national carrier from neutral to overweight.

His report went to clients 12 hours before the telco giant’s shares dived almost 9 per cent to a 4½-year low of $4.17 after telco billionaire David Teoh revealed TPG’s plans to spend $600 million to build its own mobile network after a $1.2 billion splurge on spectrum.

For the record, Pan’s price target on Telstra was $5.35. The stock ended the day down 7.5 per cent at $4.22.

“Fear of a fourth mobile operator, while unlikely, is premature,” Pan’s hot-off-the-press note told his clients.

“While the threat of a fourth operator is certainly real, we believe it remains unlikely.”

Mercifully, TPG’s announcement dropped just before 9.30am on the east coast — before JPM clients had a chance to trade on the note.

An evil opening

After his Adelaide ambush by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and a tough month dealing with the nation’s energy crisis, Josh Frydenberg was on more comfortable terrain yesterday at the Pratt family’s Raheen mansion in the heart of his blue ribbon Kooyong electorate, discussing a topic close to Visy billionaire Anthony Pratt’s heart — food waste.

Three days earlier the Energy and Environment Minister was also in the company of Pratt (one of the Liberal Party’s most generous donors in recent years) watching family matriarch Jeanne Pratt’s beloved Carlton defeat arch rival the Essendon Bombers in a wet-weather AFL slug-fest at the MCG.

Anthony Pratt with Richard Alston.

Pratt was also in good spirits at yesterday’s Raheen forum, remarking that his late father Richard always did his bit to cut food waste by under-ordering on his Chinese takeaway.

A day earlier the billionaire celebrated his 57th birthday, posting on Twitter the unusual gift card from his partner Claudine Revere.

On the front cover it read: “See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.” But inside it followed: “Of course that leaves do no evil wide open!”