Defamation case a gamble for John McGrath

Illustration: Rod Clement.

“Mr Property” John McGrath has finally made contact with his chairman Cass O’Connor, as the Sydney real estate millionaire considers legal action against Fairfax Media after it reported on the weekend he had a $16.2 million gambling debt.

Yesterday’s communication was their first direct contact in the more than three days since The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the property guru owed millions to his favourite bookie Tom Waterhouse’s William Hill.

“McGrath’s chairman Cass O’Connor has been in contact with John McGrath today and will be making no further comment on private discussions other than to assure you that John has indicated he is committed to executing the 2018 growth plans for McGrath as he has outlined recently to staff,” a spokesman for the troubled listed real estate company told us yesterday.

Before that contact, chairman O’Connor’s only communication from her executive director and 26 per cent shareholder was the email to staff he tapped out — apparently without any input from the company — and sent over the weekend.

John McGrath is considering suing Fairfax for defamation

That email described the Herald report as “ridiculous”.

“I will deal with it & its authors,” McGrath wrote.

As Rebel Wilson could tell you, defamation in Australia can be lucrative.

So is the Walsh Bay-residing Mr Property going to sue the Herald’s parent company, Fairfax Media?

“The matter of legal action regarding Mr McGrath is a personal matter and it is not appropriate for the company to comment,” said a McGrath company spokesman.

Margin Call can reveal the 54-year-old real estate agent’s camp approached various defamation lawyers on Friday when he learned the Herald story was imminent.

It’s understood that some warned legal action by McGrath could expose him to legal discovery, including the details of any gambling activity with William Hill.

Margin Call can also reveal McGrath has been getting advice from defamation lawyer Bill Kalantzis, who has had some success suing Fairfax over the years.

But for now, it seems no decision to launch legal action has been made.

Meanwhile, the word is that Fairfax’s team are confident.

“They’d love him to sue,” says one source familiar with the matter.

It’s McGrath’s call now.

Ruddock rules

Philip Ruddock was in Canberra yesterday, days before he takes the stage at Sydney’s Town Hall on Saturday as the all-but-formalised next president of the NSW Liberal Party.

The former Howard government minister has the backing of PM Malcolm Turnbull, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Liberal federal president Nick Greiner to become Victorian president Michael Kroger’s NSW state counterpart.

Ruddock, who since leaving federal parliament in 2016 has returned to politics as the Mayor of Hornsby, also has backing from senior NSW Right faction members, including Dominic Perrottet (the state treasurer), Anthony Roberts (the state planning minister) and China’s least favourite Turnbull minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

Philip Ruddock is set to become NSW Liberal Party president

There’s been a shake-up of the rest of Ruddock’s ticket since previous reports.

Former Howard minister Helen Coonan — who was also in Canberra’s Parliament House yesterday, on other business — is not running as a vice-president. To take up the gig, Coonan would have had to step down as co-chair alongside Hawke-Keating minister John Dawkins of lobbying outfit GRA, not to mention squeeze the unpaid role in among her duties as a director on James Packer’s Crown Resorts board and Noel Cornish’s Snowy Hydro board.

Instead, Ruddock’s factional rainbow of vice-presidential candidates — who are all short-odds favourites to get up — are current acting NSW Liberal president Kent Johns (a Moderate like Ruddock), former NSW attorney-general Greg Smith (a member of the Right) and Australia’s most unlucky would-be politician Hollie Hughes (a member of the Centre Right faction).

Hollie Hughes

Running against them is an extremely long-odds ticket led by Right faction hopeful Philip Argy, who has the support of a disgruntled collective that includes new NSW senator Jim Molan (whose parliamentary career began this week with some Facebook trouble) and our always free-thinking former PM Tony Abbott.

Saving grace

Where do the financial allegiances of former TV journo turned Liberal pollie Sarah Henderson really lie?

The Member for the marginal seat of Corangamite, which includes Victoria’s stunning surf coast, is tipped to replace David Coleman as head of the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Economics, which grills the big four bank bosses and their chairs every six months.

Ahead of the announcement of Henderson’s leg up, it’s worth setting our her banking preferences.

Margin Call can tell you that she banks with Brian Hartzer’s Westpac. But despite owning an extensive share portfolio, the former ABC host has no four pillar stock after flogging her shares in Andrew Thorburn’s National Australia Bank last year.

Her’s will be a high-profile new role that has catapulted previous chairs to more senior government positions.

Former media exec Coleman (literally the Member for Banks) is now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Assistant Minister for Finance, while Coleman’s predecessor as committee chair Kelly O’Dwyer is now the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services.

Take note

ANZ’s agile chieftain Shayne Elliott was on the hustings in Melbourne yesterday morning, doing his bit to boost bank bosses’ reputations.

Shayne Elliott selling The Big Issue with Darryl outside ANZ’s Melbourne HQ

Elliott joined vendor Darryl to sell copies of street newspaper The Big Issue. He managed a decent 60 copies in 30 minutes, but lamented that “not enough people carry cash these days”.

An unintended consequence of the ANZ-enabled Apple Pay?

“We are working on solutions,” agile Elliott told us over Twitter. Keep us posted.