One might have been left thinking that federal MP Josh Burns is a committed, longstanding vegetarian after reading a sanctioned piece in the Herald Sun over the weekend chronicling his relationship with Victorian Animal Justice Party MP and noted vegan Georgie Purcell.
It would obviously be unthinkable for Purcell to date a meat-eater, which is why Burns was written up as a plant-based partner and a dedicated animal advocate who “publicly condemned the live export industry” soon after being elected to parliament.
All true, no doubt, except for one wrinkle we found: a photo of Burns in the Members section at the Caulfield Cup, taken just two years ago. Animal advocates tend to avoid horse racing entirely.
But that only led us to even greater confusion around his dedication to the vegetarian lifestyle. Photos provided to Margin Call appear to depict Burns gleefully carving up a leg of well-seasoned and smoked deliciousness. Whatever it was, it certainly had the blush of succulent red meat to it.
Were these deepfakes generated by enemies in the Liberal Party? Were they ancient photos dredged up from a bygone era? Was it meat grown in a lab? No! The pictures were snapped a couple of months ago, around March, not long before the pair started dating. Clearly Burns has just converted to the vegetarian cause and, yes, we think we know why.
Theirs is an unlikely romance: Purcell is an outspoken pro-Palestinian activist; Burns is a Jewish MP and Zionist. The Herald Sun article was supposed to be their plea for privacy, a railing against media intrusion, but also a chance to supply a loved-up picture of themselves, and to reveal they would be attending parliament’s midwinter ball together this week. Have we heard this argument before?
And so we asked Burns about his new-found vegetarianism and he explained that he’d tried it for a year in 2019, only to give it up once the pandemic hit (too hard basket during the Covid months, apparently). The more recent attempt was driven by health factors, he said, and because he’d stopped eating meat in front of Purcell.
As for the horse races, Burns said he hadn’t been to the track since that last outing in 2022, and had never waged a bet on our equine friends. We assume he’ll be saying Nup to the Cup in October, of course.
Tink in survival mode
Nothing strikes fear in the heart of an MP like an electorate redistribution. So is it any wonder that Kylea Tink has come out fighting for survival. She’s petitioning the Australian Electoral Commission to let North Sydney remain after plans were revealed last month to abolish the seat and partition the spoils to Bradfield, Warringah and Bennelong.
Tink has launched a Facebook campaign and a Change.org petition in recent days asking residents to formally object to the AEC’s proposal and to “save North Sydney”, as it were. She claims it’s not about saving herself, but there’s really no other worthy explanation.
Tink’s move, after all, is very unusual. Redistributions are decided independently, driven by population dynamics and carried out to ensure an equal number of voters exist in each electorate, to keep elections fair. For all her spouting on integrity in politics, the teal MP seems to have forgotten this point.
Yet here we are, Tink mobilising a small army to lobby the AEC, insisting her reasons for doing so aren’t self-motivated. “This has never been about me,” she said when the AEC announced its redistribution, and only a mook of the highest order would believe that now.
Then again, a slice of North Sydney finding its way into Bradfield might do some good for her teal-tinted sister, Nicolette Boele, the nutty “shadow representative” who’s been waiting to recontest since losing to Liberal Paul Fletcher in May 2022. Boele’s moment of glory is so close at hand, but only if Tink doesn’t swoop in to interfere, if her own seat is lost.
Forking out at dinner
A splendid $2.6m was raised at the Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinner held on Saturday ahead of the Paris Games later this month. Plenty of athletes, of course, but the machers of business were well represented by the likes of Hungry Jack’s billionaire Jack Cowin, Pact Group chair Raphael Geminder and wife Fiona (on the executive committee with chair Peter Fox), Bunnings CEO Michael Schneider, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson, Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott, ANZ’s Shayne Elliott and property developer Tim Gurner, whose call for more “pain” in the economy last year (for which he was savaged) appears to have come to fruition. Happy now, mate? Spotted, too, was Tony Lombardo, Lendlease CEO, seated on a table furthest from everyone as though he was in some kind of naughty corner.
There was a light joke from Anthony Albanese aimed at IOC vice-president John Coates during the official welcome. The PM described Coates as “my friend” and “the legend”, telling the room: “It’s always easier to just say ‘yes’ to John when he asks you something early. Just saves time.”
Cute, and obviously made in jest. But as they say, what we choose to joke about can be revealing.
Protester hurdles
Hard lessons have clearly been absorbed from the security shambles of May’s Labor state conference in Victoria, when violent, anti-Semitic protesters gatecrashed Moonee Valley Racecourse over the war in Gaza.
An email dispatched on Monday flagged “some significant changes” to the security conditions for Labor’s upcoming conference at Sydney Town Hall later this month.
Thanks to what happened in Melbourne, attendees in Sydney (including delegates) will be subjected to bag searches, with bags “larger than an A4 piece of paper” not permitted inside.
“All attendees will be issued with unique security credentials to stop the ability for credentials to be duplicated or shared,” the email said.
And notable, too, is that observers have to register two weeks out from the event. We assume that’s to give organisers time to deep-stalk them online and identify their affiliates, or any anti-social messaging.
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