Ex-digital minister’s advocacy Sympli the best – especially for his former adviser

AFL chief Gillon McLachlan and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles at Tuesday’s Collingwood versus Essendon ANZAC day match. Picture: Getty Images

While he was in the NSW government, Victor Dominello drew effusive praise from Sympli Australia, an electronic property settlement outfit ginned up by the ASX and software company InfoTrack.

It goes without saying that Sympli’s representatives adored the former digital minister, perhaps even more than he adores himself (how else to explain his need while in office to post selfies on a daily basis?)

For years, Dominello led a campaign against the dominant player in the e-conveyancing market, Property Exchange Australia (or PEXA, as it’s known) and boldly pushed for interoperability – the kind that would see PEXA open its system up to competitors.

“The last thing I want is another Apple that basically says, ‘You use my ecosystem and that’s it and we’ll charge you a premium for it’. That will kill innovation,” Dominello once told an audience in Sydney.

Former customer service minister Victor Dominell. Picture: Adam Yip

That was in 2018, and he never lost his ticker for the cause; with every thundering speech about a lack of competition, Dominello was rewarded with an ’attaboy from Sympli.

We note that its representatives met with Dominello, or members of his office, on at least six occasions between 2019 and 2021, according to diary disclosures.

PEXA didn’t seem to get quite the same level of attention.

“A real leader and advocate for more competition in the sector,” Sympli said of Dominello in one announcement. In another he was thanked for his “strong advocacy and leadership” on the interoperability reforms.

So, should we be at all surprised to learn that Dominello’s senior adviser, Jerome Boutelet, recently accepted a job with Sympli as their public affairs manager, now that the NSW Liberals are out of office?

“Great opportunity pushing for reform, competition and innovation in the digital space, most of which benefited from the hard work and leadership of Victor Dominello,” Boutelet wrote on LinkedIn last week, announcing the career move.

AFL in the black

Still no word on a replacement for outgoing AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, who was spotted enjoying himself with 95,000-odd footy fans at the MCG on Tuesday for the traditional clash between the Magpies and the Bombers.

Whoever takes over – rumours are firming towards AFL executive Andrew Dillon – seems to be inheriting an organisation in reasonably fine fettle, without too much debt on its books.

Potential chief executive in waiting Andrew Dillon. Picture: Getty Images

Documents filed by the AFL reveal McLachlan returned $94m of long-term bank borrowings, with the code’s total loans currently sitting around $76m.

That’s down from $170m last year, an appreciable sum, when the AFL managed to produce a $20.1m underlying profit from a previous year’s loss of $46m.

That story got even better in FY22, with bottom line profit improving to $113m, boosted by government grants for the league’s $225m redevelopment of Marvel Stadium.

Exotic concoction

Much spruiking of late for Nick Kyrgios’ soft-drink tie-up, with the drink now being sold in Coles supermarkets. There was a T-shirt signing and a fan meet-and-greet at one of its Melbourne stores on Sunday.

Little did we know that the sulky tennis brat is actually in bed on the deal with the millionaire Besen family. Turns out the probiotic elixir is 10 per cent owned by Kyrios and 90 per cent owned by Melbourne food group GenU Brands.

Nick Kyrgios spruiking the Alive soft drink brand.

This latter is half-owned by Melbourne brand entrepreneur Matthew Bailey, with the other half belonging to investor Daniel Besen through one of his private vehicles.

Presumably they’re hoping to recreate the kind of brand hype that YouTuber Logan Paul achieved with his own drink, now on sale in Australia. Hopefully it’s an improvement on his other venture, a cryptocoin named Dink Doink. It collapsed not long after he boasted to six million Twitter followers that he was “all in” on the junk.

The only other item of curiosity is that Kyrgios’ stake in his beverage is owned via NK Spends Pty Ltd, a company registered in the Bahamas through a Nassau-based trust company.

All in the timing

How exactly does a company lose out on trumpeting a success they’ve been building towards for nigh on a decade?

That’s a question for Vikas Rambal’s Perdaman Chemicals, which has been cobbling together cash over more than 10 years for a $6.3bn fertiliser factory on the Burrup Peninsula.

When the breakthrough moment arrived last week, Perdaman was nowhere to be seen on the news of this development; instead it issued a bizarre round of “no comments” to journalists clearly apprised of the matter.

News that Perdaman had finally signed enough bankers to build the plant ended up being broken by two listed companies – Incitec Pivot in Australia and Webuild in Italy, with Perdaman missing the boat entirely.

One reason why, apparently, is that Rambal was hoping to keep the matter on the D-L and parlay it into an even more spectacular announcement with WA Premier Mark McGowan, planned for the days ahead.

That obviously backfired given the news was clearly market sensitive and had to be released immediately.