Andrew Charlton updates wife’s interests; James Packer’s Edenville

Member for Parramatta Andrew Charlton is at least he’s giving the old college try to correct the record. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Labor’s Andrew Charlton has been busy updating the federal parliamentary register over the past fortnight. That’s after Margin Call revealed his wife, Phoebe Arcus, holds company shares and directorships that were never disclosed, per the requirements.

Omissions like these might seem out of character for the former economist but, then again, this is the same MP who owns so many properties that he somehow caused a minor scandal by scribbling down the wrong address on his electoral paperwork last year. High class problems, right? As Margin Call reported, Charlton’s disclosures to parliament have always been conspicuously light on his wife’s direct interests.

Our inquiries subsequently established that Arcus is involved in several investment and superannuation companies alongside her father, Terrey Arcus, a founding partner of advisory shop Port Jackson Partners.

But that’s not all! Having now lifted the veil further, Charlton conceded that his wife also maintains interests in several Morgan Stanley investment funds, two hedge funds operated by Elliott International and a McKinsey subsidiary, and the ASX-listed Po Valley Energy and Coro Energy, whose shares trade on the LSE. There’s even a couple of Treasury bonds thrown in.

Phoebe Arcus is involved in several investment and superannuation companies alongside her father, Terrey Arcus.

Of course, we can poke fun at Charlton for flubbing his paperwork – again – but at least he’s giving the old college try to correct the record, as opposed to that rascal Liberal MP Paul Fletcher, who’s been claiming for years not to know of his wife’s additional holdings – because he never asks her.

“I do not know if Manuela Zappacosta is a director of any other companies and I have not made inquiry (sic),” the manager of opposition business wrote in his most recent registrable interests.

A case of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, if we’ve ever seen it; and here we were thinking that outmoded policy was still only used by Nickelback fans.

Packer’s surprise downmarket property play

The last time James Packer dipped his toe into the property game, Sydney ended up with a $2.5bn tower at Barangaroo that Packer is still yet to see with his own eyes. That should change later this month when he lands harbourside for the first time since 2020.

We’re guessing Packer might also chance to drop by the Victorian satellite city of Geelong while he’s here, if only to check on his other recent foray into the housing market.

Projected to cost more than $100m, plans have been lodged for an entire residential community with about 120 dwellings to be located in the downmarket locale of Corio, of all places.

The working title is Edenville, which suggests some sort of terrestrial paradise is in the works. Is it just us or have we heard this story before? Hopefully it ends better this time.

James Packer with his children Jackson, Indigo, and Emmanuelle at their luxurious mansion in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Picture: Ana Badillo/The Australian

Packer’s move in this space caught most observers off-guard given it was one of his first investment decisions after the sale of his stake in Crown Resorts last year.

Plans filed with the local council shed a bit more light, suggesting a provision for 48 apartments, and it seems the council is pressing Packer and his investors for a few more details, too, ahead of the gauntlet of public commentary still to come.

Whatever the feedback, it can’t be worse than a royal ­commission.

Still, it’s all a far cry from the usual scale of the billionaire’s gambits. In this caper he’s accompanied on the ground floor by former Crown executive Todd Nesbit, Melbourne property identity and ABC director Joe Gersh and developer Deniz Sivasli.

The consortium paid $7.12m last year to the Victorian Education Department for a 3.6ha site that was once a primary school. It’s on those grounds that they plan to lob the new ­community.

Macquarie’s ascent

A very healthy turnout on Tuesday evening for the launch of The Millionaires’ Factory: The Inside Story of How Macquarie Bank Became a Global Giant, written by our esteemed colleague Joyce Moullakis and journalist Chris Wright.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones dropped by the TITLE Barangaroo store to toast the success of the book alongside dozens of journalists and Macquarie alumni who packed in for speeches, snacks and probably a few signed copies. Jones conceded that he nearly didn’t make it owing to a flight delay coming out of Canberra.

Sighted among the many was Macquarie’s storied head of property and banking Bill Moss, its former executive Peter Yates – these days the chairman of AIA Australia – and former director Helen Nugent, currently the chairman of Ausgrid.

Unmasking trolls

Perhaps taking inspiration from the recent unmasking of Twitter ghoul Alan Davison, a fresh round of troll hunting is slated to be heard on Wednesday in the Federal Court, this time involving some aggrieved members of the Victorian Liberal Party.

The action’s been taken up by former political candidate Sean Armistead.

He’s seeking to lift the lid on the online trash receptacle that once dubbed itself RealFreedom News, and which published a litany of slanderous and crackpot rubbish too defamatory to print here. Most of those comments were directed at a cohort of Liberal wets, among them Armistead but also Ian Quick, Michael O’Brien, Robert Clark, Georgie Crozier and Sam McQuestin.

Margin Call affiliate David Ross happened upon documents filed with the court suggesting that Armistead, once a contender for the seats of Melbourne and Frankston, is attempting to saddle discovery orders on the now-defunct website, which slunk onto the political scene in 2021.

It’s all in the name of unmasking those who actually ran it.

They seem to have scurried off like Manhattan rats in a kitchen once the Victorian Liberals engaged lawyers.

Archived posts from RealFreedom News suggest some links with the still-active Grassroots Engagement website, which touts itself as an “independent platform for communication, discussion, debate” among those with an interest in “Victoria and Australia”.

Justice Bernard Murphy will hear the case.