David Feeney’s housing problem

Coalition MP Julia Banks speaks to ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott in Canberra yesterday.

Labor powerbroker and demoted member for Batman David Feeney has abandoned his grand plans for a Rob Mills-designed luxury abode in Melbourne’s north.

After just holding off the Greens to retain his seat at the last election, Feeney, who forgot he owned the $2.3 million residence on Northcote’s Clarke Street, has moved with his family into a rental just down the road while fresh renovations plans are enacted at the substantial site.

ALP member for Batman, David Feeney. Picture: David Crosling.

Feeney, politically bruised after being booted off leader Bill Shorten’s front bench in May as news of his overlooked home ownership erupted, last week moved out of his $3 million-plus East Melbourne luxury apartment.

Feeney and his wife, Maurice Blackburn lawyer Liberty Sanger, who have a two-year-old son, have lived in the city fringe location for five years.

Tenants moved into the two bedder this week, with Feeney now listing that real estate as an “investment” on his latest register of members’ interests.

The couple boast combined property holdings worth about $10 million — not bad for an ally of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association. Feeney has listed the previously forgotten Northcote home, mortgaged to Ian Narev’s Commonwealth Bank, as his “residence”.

They also have an investment property in Seddon in Melbourne’s west and an apartment in Canberra.

Despite the fresh disclosures, the family won’t reside in Northcote for some time yet as new reno plans are issued with building permits by the local City of Darebin and work is carried out.

So the family does intend to make the house its home — just not right now.

Eventually, reality will catch up with the Member for Batman’s parliamentary disclosures.

Which we guess is what Feeney might call a champagne problem.

The stand-in man

For the second time in five days, NAB’s Maserati-driving chief customer officer Andrew ­Hagger stood in for his CEO Andrew Thorburn.

NAB chief customer officer Andrew Hagger. Picture: Adam Yip/The Australian.

Yesterday, Hagger fronted up for a video apology as NAB’s mobile service outage continued into a second day.

“This delay is not acceptable,” said Hagger, in his message to customers. “And I apologise.”

In a sign of the times, he managed another two apologies in the 57 second video.

His boss Thorburn will want that fixed up before he appears for his three-hour grilling by David Coleman’s banking committee today at 9.15am.

Over the weekend, Hagger represented the bank in Mike Fitzpatrick’s Olympic Room, which was the AFL grand final venue for Labor leader Bill Shorten, the chief campaigner for a royal commission into the banks.

Thorburn watched from the room NAB sponsors, with an entourage of more bank-friendly parliamentarians — young Liberal senator James Paterson, Minister for Small Business Michael McCormack and fellow National Bridget McKenzie, the gun enthusiast.

Dash for cash

The Westpac ATM that is lodged in Parliament House, about 50 steps from the Coleman banking committee, was still down yesterday during ANZ boss Shayne Elliott’s appearance.

The broken Westpac ATM at Parliament House.

The clock is ticking to get it working before Westpac boss Brian Hartzer’s appearance today at 1.15pm.

Otherwise consumer bank boss George Frazis might have to save the day with a contrite Facebook video, Hagger-style.

Long memory

The only female member of Coleman’s committee had the best cut-through during yesterday’s appearance by ANZ’s expressive boss Shayne Elliott.

Star performer Julia Banks. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch.

Julia Banks, the star performer in Liberal president Michael Kroger’s Victorian division on July 2, made the TV bulletins after her 15 minutes with Elliott.

“Have you read my maiden speech?” Banks asked Elliott.

“No,” the ANZ boss had to confess.

“It’s not out of some narcissistic request,” Banks added — and, to be honest, we were wondering if her recent election heroics had gone to her head a bit.

Not so. Rather, she wanted to retell a story in there about a “smarmy, smirky” bank manager who Banks spoke to a bit more than 20 years ago about her first home mortgage.

“A general manager ... clearly one of the blokey culture, said he would only factor in my husband’s income, not my income, because I was married woman of child-bearing age. Even though I was a fully qualified corporate lawyer,” she said, the offence still fresh.

Banks suggested to Elliott it might be worth giving his staff “unconscious bias” training.

“I think it’s a good idea,” he said.

We called to check which bank it was that she had had the encounter with — and what happened next?

“It was the ANZ. And, yes, I took my business elsewhere,” Banks told us.

So perhaps don’t be surprised if she turns up as a surprise witness in next August’s
hearing for the case between ANZ and Elliott, and dismissed broker Angus Aitken, who
has also has a focus on the bank’s supposedly “blokey culture”.

Rankin on the move

Crown chair and gaming billionaire James Packer’s right hand man Rob Rankin is flat chat.

Brett Ratner with James Murdoch, in front of the Washington Monument.

On Saturday he was the Melbourne Cricket Ground flying the Crown flag at the AFL grand final, then by Tuesday night he was in Washington at the White House for a special screening for President Barack Obama of RatPac Entertainment climate change documentary Before the Flood.

A visit to the White House.

It was probably worth the effort, with chief executive of 21st Century Fox James Murdoch the doco’s executive producer and Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio all along for the ride.

Meantime, Packer’s Arctic P icebreaker was all the while steaming towards his beloved Israel after recent weeks in Mediterranean.

FIRB rethink

A month after getting approval from Treasurer Scott Morrison’s department to become a senior adviser to US-based private equity giant, Foreign Investment Review Board chair Brian Wilson announced yesterday he was delaying the appointment.

Foreign Investment Review Board chair Brian Wilson. Photo: Shane Eecen.

Wilson said he has delayed the appointment “to ensure there can be no question as to the integrity of Australia’s foreign investment review”.

Wilson also clarified his the date he will step down from his FIRB duties — April 2017, five years after he was appointed to the role by then Treasurer Wayne Swan.

That should be enough time to consider at least one more attempt by the board of S. Kidman & Co to sell the country’s largest privately held collection of land.

So who will replace Wilson as chair of the most mysterious of regulatory bodies in corporate Australia?

Two the seven members on the board were appointed in the Morrison era — former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director David Irvine and former managing director of Rio Tinto Australia David Peever.

Irvine’s spook credentials would be welcomed by national security Hawks of ASPI boss Peter Jennings ilk. Peever, who watched the NRL grand final with Morrison on Sunday and is now the chair of Cricket Australia, seems a more traditional appointment.