Joke’s on Twiggy as gag tanks; Katherine Deves poor fundraising support; Carruthers’ Australian ties

Fortescue executive chairman Andrew Forrest’s joke tanked at the recent Sydney Energy Forum dinner. (Picture: Luke Dray/Getty Images)

It’s an old comedian’s trick to make light of a gag that tanks in front of an audience. As a PR tactic, it’s probably unwise to attempt the same and draw unnecessary further attention, especially when the offending joke was blurted out by the company chairman.

We are, of course, referring to a lowbrow joke delivered by Fortescue’s executive chairman, AndrewForrest, during a keynote address in front of business leaders and foreign dignitaries at a Sydney Energy Forum dinner last week.

The Forum’s chairman, Alan Finkel, introduced Forrest with a tasteful rib-tickler about an atom that walks into a bar complaining of a lost electron. “Are you positive?” asks the bartender.

Cue slide whistle, approving levels of merriment from the room.

Then Forrest, like a rude uncle, appeared to try one-up Finkel with another knee-slapper by asking the audience: “Do you know what happens when two hydrogen atoms decide to have a threesome with an oxygen atom?”

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Twiggy’s punchline – “You’re all here because of it” – yielded a couple of polite titters but mostly confounded the room.

Margin Call has since learned that the gag was actually pre-packaged for Forrest by an employee at his Fortescue Future Industries. We know this because the staffer followed up by lamenting the joke’s poor reception on social media app TikTok.

@green.hydrogen We thought it was funny… 🤷‍♂️ #greenenergy #greenhydrogen #renewables #hydrogen #australia #journalism #renewableenergy #netzero #jokes #corporatehumor #corporatetok #newspaper ♬ saikis center of attention - angie

Using a screenshot of Margin Call’s coverage of the speech, the staffer posted a short video of herself alongside text which read: “POV: You write a joke for your boss and no one likes it …”

It all might have gone unnoticed had it been posted on her personal account, but instead it was published on Fortescue Future Industries official TikTok page with the caption: “We thought it was funny …”

A spokeswoman for FFI confirmed the account was genuine but provided no further remarks. As for the post, it remained on the company’s TikTok account as of Tuesday evening.

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Deves’ demise

Just how bad was the backlash in Warringah against Scott Morrison’s captain’s pick of Katherine Deves to stand for the Liberal Party at the election?

We now know, thanks to a meeting of the Warringah Federal Election Committee on Monday night, where an in-house autopsy was laid out for attendees.

We’ll let the numbers do the talking. On fundraising alone Deves appeared to have been badly outmanoeuvred by her opponent, Zali Steggall. Liberals say Steggall had a war chest of more than $1m to spend while the gaffe-prone Deves had a mere $250,000 by comparison. (Steggall was contacted for comment.)

Katherine Deves and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Apparently the bulk of those funds were actually left over from Tony Abbott’s campaign to keep the seat in 2019, indicating how difficult it was for Deves to raise money. Despite Abbott’s repeated endorsement and many street walks, it was evidently not enough to win over the hearts and minds of the Liberal Party’s northern beaches membership base.

To illustrate this lack of support, volunteer turnout during the campaign was said have reached record lows, with just 96 out of a total 880 party members willing to assist Deves on the hustings.

Deves was absent from Monday night’s meeting owing to a skiing injury, but those in attendance voted unanimously to support a range of reforms that will be brought to the Liberal Party’s annual general meeting next month.

The reforms will seek to amend the constitution to prevent any further attempts by the party’s executive to override local selectors and hand-pick candidates.

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King of the castle

Compared with its shiny new $2.3bn Sydney counterpart, some say Crown Resorts’ 25-year-old Melbourne entertainment facility is looking a little tired.

So let Margin Call offer some insight into the tastes of newly named boss Ciaran Carruthers, 53, who will join the Blackstone-owned group after Steve McCann leaves in September.

Carruthers, who has been chief operating officer at Wynn in Macau for more than five years, has been billed by Crown as a “global gaming and hospitality executive” who’s “built his career with large US gaming and integrated resort companies operating in some of the most highly regulated gaming jurisdictions”.

But Carruthers is already plugged deep into Australia, with his wife Maria and children living in South Australia for years while Dad toiled in the Chinese Special Administrative Region that’s otherwise known as “the Las Vegas of the East”.

Long has Carruthers, who was born in Ireland, run his private interests from Adelaide. His wife was born in Manila, the capital of The Philippines, but has lived in Oz for much of her life and like Crown’s man is an Australian resident.

New Crown Resorts CEO Ciaran Carruthers. Picture: Supplied

The couple have two homes in South Australia, one in Adelaide that they tried to sell last year and another outside the capital that has captured our ­attention for its potential inspiration for any cosmetic update Carruthers might be conceiving for Crown’s ageing southern base.

Over the past two decades the Carruthers have created a suite of private Australian companies – among them C&T Carruthers Investments, Casino Services International and Elevation Resorts – some of which are run from the couple’s castle. Yes, an actual castle, located 35 minutes drive from the Adelaide CBD.

The home, which sits on 24ha and which the couple purchased in 2015, can only be described as the ultimate faux chateau – the name of which we will keep to ourselves to prevent rubber­necking.

“This royal residence offers all the style and ambience of a historic fairy tale life with all the conveniences that would befit a modern day King or a Queen,” the marketing campaign boasted at the home’s time of sale. The five-bedder, finished in 2008, offers “full grandeur with beautiful stone walls, gargoyles, stained glass windows, ramparts (and) arches”. There’s even custom curtains that used to belong to the estate of the late Princess Diana.

As if Carruthers’ role at Crown was destiny, woven into the castle’s carpet is its CC crest, also featured in marble flooring and on internal walls.

Does Chris Tynan know he’s hired himself a Lord?