John Alexander the great commuter to Bennelong

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Poor old now-resigned Liberal Member for Bennelong and potential dual citizen John Alexander doesn’t seem to know where his roots lie.

This former Aussie tennis great, who’ll face a by-election on December 16, is all over the place.

Yesterday, Alexander was in the process of renouncing his British citizenship, with his fingers crossed that’ll happen in time for him to nominate for the seat by November 23. He hopes it will take a week.

There’s also the matter of gaining preselection from the ­local Libs to once again contest former prime minister John Howard’s old seat.

But even that might not be as straightforward as JA hopes.

Margin Call understands that the pollie hasn’t actually lived in his electorate, which he’s held since 2010, for about eight months since settling on the $2.7 million sale of his Putney home in March.

Instead, we hear the government’s resident housing affordability expert has been residing in his boss Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate of Wentworth, more specifically North Bondi, just a hop away from the PM’s beloved Icebergs.

But perhaps not so great now that the sports legend is facing a by-election in his own, far-away seat. His (former) electorate office in Epping is at least a 35-minute, 31km commute from the beachside lifestyle suburb.

Alexander confirmed to us yesterday that he’d been bunking in with his partner Debbie Chadwick. He didn’t want to say where, but we can tell you that in mid-2016 Chadwick paid $5.2m for a Bondi pad, nice and close to seaside Speedo’s for a morning coffee.

“Like many people, when their children move out, I’ve taken the opportunity to downsize the family home,” Alexander told Margin Call.

“I’m currently in the process of finding suitable smaller accommodation.”

To that end, in June JA paid $4.845m for Moss Vale estate Iona Park in the Southern ­Highlands, with a little financial help via a mortgage from Brian Hartzer’s Westpac.

At the time Alexander described the property as a “business in the Southern Highlands”.

Yesterday JA was busy kicking off his campaign in Bennelong, where he’d been joined by his mate and fellow federal parliamentarian and former publican Craig Laundy, the member for nearby Reid.

Liberal millionaire Laundy doesn’t live in his inner-west electorate either, favouring an $8.3m three-level Parramatta riverfront mansion in Hunters Hill. What a pair.

NBN in Kelly country

Brilliant news: the NBN is coming to Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly O’Dwyer’s Higgins.

Andy Penn’s Telstra has been out on the hustings alerting locals that the transformative infrastructure is on its way to the once blue-ribbon electorate. We hear it’ll be in the first quarter of 2018.

“Prepare to experience magic,” a letter from the telco giant declares to residents.

The communication is all about convincing potential customers to sign up before the NBN arrives, so they can “enjoy a world of magic at home”.

Trouble is, the marketing collateral has landed in letterboxes just as Penn has announced compensation for 42,000 of its existing NBN customers, with the telco admitting to promising download speeds that were never achievable “in real world conditions”.

That’s a tough sell.

Warehouse plans

Meanwhile Andy Penn and his Nebraskan-born gallery curator wife Kallie Blauhorn are contemplating life as property developers.

Late last year the newlyweds paid $3.5m for a 500sq m warehouse site in the heart of Prahran.

It’s still sitting empty, although it is in the process of being cleared out. It was sold with a permit for the development of 10 luxurious apartments on the site, which sits at the end of a dead-end street.

Andy Penn and wife Kallie Blauhorn. Picture: James Croucher.

For now it appears the pair remain in their South Yarra apartment, which was sold in September for north of $3.3m, but which is yet to settle. So far there’s been no application to the local council to alter the plans that were sold with the block, which would be a big project for the telco exec.

Perhaps the hold-up is that Penn’s waiting for the NBN to go past the development site in early 2019.

McInnes settles in

Billionaire Solomon Lew’s retail lieutenant Mark McInnes looks to have finally landed on where he and his young family will put down roots in Melbourne.

After a period of some uncertainty McInnes and wife Lisa Kelly have settled on their $12.3m purchase of a Toorak mansion, complete with tennis court, pool, pool house and a basement set-up that could handle any party scenario that McInnes and his new mate and Domain boss Antony Catalano could conceive.

The new home is mortgaged to Shayne Elliott’s ANZ, with the bank boss also a resident of the moneyed suburb. Last year, McInnes paid $10m for a historic home on prestigious nearby Hopetoun Road, which came complete with a view of his boss Lew’s front gate up the road on Whernside Avenue. But the family never lived in the home and flipped it within a year.

The booming local market for prestige property meant the Melbourne-born McInnes managed to cover his costs and then a bit more on the deal.

Now the family is in the process of moving from their nearby rental in Malvern into their new expansive abode, which is still close to the boss, but out of his direct line of sight.

PM’s withdrawal

But back to Canberra.

While the Australian Taxation Office’s Chris Jordan and his foot soldiers are licking their lips at the prospect of combing through Bermuda law firm Appleby’s so-called Paradise Papers, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has unwound another of his own investments in the Cayman Islands.

Our one-time rich-lister leader has sold out of MSD Torchlight Partners, a private hedge fund registered in the Caymans, which has had a reported minimum investment of $10m.

The fund is still operational and as recently as mid-this year made a fresh offer for new investors.

Businesses registered in the Cayman Islands charge no corporate or income tax on money earned outside its borders.

Since he became a minister in the Howard government, the PM’s interests are managed at arm’s length.

Turnbull has also just revealed he has invested in the more mainstream Thornburg Strategic Income Fund, a mutual fund that seeks to generate a high level of income, with less focus on long-term capital appreciation.

Supplementing his prime ministerial pittance, no doubt.