Ex-Beach chief focuses his energy elsewhere

Andrew Hastie has joined Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. Picture: Gary Ramage

It’s been almost 18 months since Matthew Kay abruptly left the top job at the billionaire Kerry Stokes-backed South Australian oil and gas producer Beach ­Energy.

Kay had run the company for six years but was suddenly off to pursue “other professional ­opportunities”.

He’s kept a low profile since then, but news has bubbled up to Margin Call that the energy exec is back, having jumped into bed with some old friends who are just as plugged in as Kay.

The group has come together to form a fledgling outfit, GRNTK Australia, which will pursue investment in the renewables sector, with a particular ­interest in waste to value opportunities emerging out of the production value chain.

That means using mill, industrial and mining waste to create value via recycling processes. This saves money, is good for the environment and can create renewable sources of energy.

Matthew Kay is part of GRNTK Australia, which will pursue investment in the renewables sector.

Jumping into bed with Kay are three of Canberra’s leading masters of the dark arts, who have been representing some of Australia’s biggest resource ­giants and renewables players in the political process for years, but are now seeking to deal themselves into the main game via ownership.

Kay’s long-time friend and former aide to ex-prime minister Scott Morrison, Sasha Grebe is on board the project, which has been percolating since about September last year. GRNTK is believed to be assessing several investment opportunities.

Also on board are fellow lobbyists Damon Jalili and Michael Morgan, who together run strategic communications consultancy Northstar Public Affairs. Jalili was an adviser to former ­finance minister Mathias Cormann, who is now secretary-general of the OECD.

All three operatives will continue their work as lobbyists and advisers. Grebe, who had been considering a run as the Liberal candidate for Warringah against incumbent teal Zali Steggall in the 2022 election, is a senior operator atDavid Gazard’s DPG Advisory and also runs his own outfit, Leonis Advisory.

GRNTK representatives declined to comment on their plans. We will endeavour to keep you informed.

Second boat bobs up

Well, what d’ya know? Resources billionaire and philanthropist Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and wife Nicola have a second luxury yacht on which to trip about the high seas and cast off the stresses of being uber rich.

We have long known of the Forrests’ mighty Pangaea Ocean Explorer, the 24-year-old mega motor yacht that the couple sail under the flag of Jamaica that is said to worth in the order of $60m and run at a cost of about $6m a year.

But why stop at one when you can have two?

Margin Call has just learned of the Forrests’ second, previously unreported, pleasure craft, Thalanyji, which is currently in Fremantle, where it is penned when not in use.

The 22m yacht, which is sailed under the Australian flag, was bought by Twiggy about a decade ago.

It was named to reflect the deep commitment and affection that the businessman has for the Indigenous people around Minderoo Station, where he grew up and which Twiggy bought back in 2009 after it had been sold by his father Donald amid crippling drought and debt in 1998.

We hear that Twiggy, who is a doctor of marine science, likes to venture over to Rottnest Island for an afternoon with family aboard his second vessel, but it can present something of a problem with mooring.

Seems there are only a few slots at Rottnest for a pleasure craft like Thalanyji so at times Twiggy has had to tie it up at a spot owned by fellow Perth billionaire Kerry Stokes, with whom Twiggy finds himself enmeshed in a low-level feud.

A small town problem, to be sure, but how totally awkward.

Hastie goes global

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie is going global.

The former SAS officer is joining the organising committee of Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson’s new international organisation, Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.

The group is being set up as an alternative to the World Economic Forum and features as its supporters a clutch of mostly conservative and centre-right politicians, business leaders, scholars and social commentators from around the world.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie. Picture: Gary Ramage

Alongside Hastie, other early Australian members of the global organising committee include former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, former deputy PM John Anderson and former Queensland senator and assistant minister Amanda Stoker.

Hastie, who represents the people of Canning in the West, was nominated for his spot on the ARC’s still forming organising committee by Gerard Holland, who works with Phillipa Stroud at British think tank Legatum Institute. Stroud is a member of the House of Lords and also on the ARC committee. Holland was a staffer to former Nats senator for NSW Fiona Nash.

The ARC will hold its first conference in London in October.

Down but not out

Here’s one that almost slipped past us concerning the defeated member for Goldstein, Tim Wilson.

Last year, Wilson fought a torrid campaign to retain his seat that pitched the Liberal against ultimately successful teal independent and former ABC reporter Zoe Daniel.

Amid combat, Wilson and husband Ryan Bolger’s Sandringham home was targeted by vandals as he battled Daniel for the formerly blue ribbon Liberal seat.

Tim Wilson with husband Ryan Bolger. Picture: Gary Ramage

Having lost at the May election, a disappointed Wilson and Bolger three months later put their street-facing townhouse up for sale, prompting speculation Wilson was chucking in the towel on the electorate and wouldn’t be back for another crack.

Alas, the renovated two-bedder failed to sell, with the couple by October opting to rent out their former home at a cost of $740 a week.

It seems talk of decampment was premature, with Wilson and Bolger a couple of weeks ago turning up as the new residents of a nearby and slightly larger townhouse on the same street, one which is well sheltered by its neighbours from the public eye and Wilson’s detractors.