The knives are out for anyone who backed Simon Kennedy for preselection in Scott Morrison’s seat of Cook earlier this month. Those who helped Kennedy get up over Carmelo Pesce – humiliating the local mayor in his own backyard – appear to be in a line for some serious character liquidation. And it seems like that’s well under way.
What else are we to make of long-held and embarrassing recordings of former NSW Liberal Party vice-president and Sutherland Shire councillor Kent Johns, a prominent backer of Kennedy, being released to Margin Call so soon after the defeat? The audio is far from flattering.
Captured in October 2022 at a local government conference in Cessnock, a slurring and swearing Johns spares no one in the minutes-long tirade, telling one person present to “shut the f…k up”, calling another one a “c…t” and a third hapless figure a “nobody”.
Former energy minister Matt Kean, who wasn’t present, was dubbed a “piece of s…t” during the rant, although something tells us Kean has been called that many times before, and only sometimes when he’s not around.
Apparently the recordings were made just months after Johns was beaten to a seat in the NSW upper house by Peter Poulos, a staffer in Kean’s office at the time; Kean was – and remains – leader of the NSW Liberal Party’s ‘‘moderate’’ faction and plainly lent Poulos all of his influence and support at the time, causing Johns to lose by a vote of 58 to 26.
Johns confirmed to Margin Call that the events of that night occurred after “a night out being an idiot” in which alcohol had certainly been consumed.
Arguably the lowest point in the recordings is when he strangely takes aim at his own constituency, telling a number of people present: “The Sutherland Shire Council, they do the best for our community – by the way the community is f..ken stupid. They are the dumbest f..kers in the world.”
The irony of that will be lost on none of the ratepayers in Miranda and Cronulla as they head to polling booths for local government elections in September.
You can imagine Johns was most contrite on Monday when asked about this material. Remarking on his constituents being “stupid”, he said: “While I don’t remember the conversation I’m sure it was part of a conversation meant in a joking manner and self-deprecating – I could have meant, ‘I can’t believe they would elect me’.”
And we’ll see if that washes. He later added: “I would never mean it in a derogatory manner and I’m sorry if I offended anyone.”
What’s clear enough is that the Liberal Party still takes a best-served-cold approach to matters of revenge. But who are we kidding? That much needed no confirmation at all.
Chancing his arm
Billionaire party boy Laurence Escalante didn’t let a broken arm hold him back from popping bottles after the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. There he was at Melbourne haunt Ms Collins yukking it up with newly minted rich-lister Adrian Portelli and a swag of pals, although there was no sign of the guy who cracked his humerus.
We were hoping Devon Larratt might have been the culprit but turns out it was just a rough-housing mate who caused the damage.
No hard feelings between them despite the mishap, however.
Escalante, arm in a sling all weekend, even went out of his way to introduce said mate to former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski inside the Casa Ferrari party house, even posting a photograph of the moment on Instagram.
“Setting up the next arm wrestling match,” Escalante joked; actually that was the caption of a second picture, one of Escalante standing alongside the champ. Ha. Those two up against each other? And here we thought Jake Paul v Mike Tyson would be a laugh.
But truth be told this situation with the humerus – no laughing matter at all. An initial round of surgery after the March 1 incident led to a 17cm titanium plate and nine screws inserted into Escalante’s arm to keep the bone in check. One of the screws came loose, meaning a further round of surgery was necessary.
It’s why Escalante uploaded shots of his private jet on Monday morning as it taxied on the runway out of Melbourne bound for Perth, where he lives – and this included a gratuitous shot of the billionaire crushing a packet of Kettle chips in a double bed at the back of the mahoganied cabin.
We can only wonder if he’s a shareholder in the brand of crisps, too, given he spent Sunday at the Grand Prix heavily plugging a liquid hangover cure and telling followers that, yes, he’s an investor, but seriously “it actually works”. Surgery to correct the arm was scheduled to take place Monday afternoon. Seems like it went well – the jet was back in the air that evening.
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