Labor faithful, spinners line up for Albanese election knees-up

Wayne Swan and Tony Burke are all smiles at the election night party. Picture: John Feder

Three years ago, some of the country’s highest-profile businessmen – from Anthony Pratt to Lindsay Fox – turned up at the Hyatt Place hotel at Melbourne’s Essendon Fields to watch what they thought would be a Bill Shorten victory over Scott Morrison.

It was not to be.

Saturday’s election night Labor knees-up at Sydney’s Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL was a somewhat different affair, and not just for Anthony Albanese’s win over the Coalition. Despite Labor’s 53-47 lead in The Australian’s election-eve Newspoll, it seemed many were hedging their bets.

Early arrivals included Hawker Britton managing director Simon Banks – his lobbying firm will no doubt be a beneficiary of Albanese’s arrival in The Lodge – and former NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal.

Eric Roozendaal at the Labor election night party Picture: John Feder

The ex-chief executive of Huang Xiangmo’s Yuhu Group was spotted deep in conversation with Labor frontbencher Tony Burke.

“Covid may have been good for Albo; it took him out of the spotlight and as soon as the spotlight was back on Morrison, people realised they didn’t like him,” Roozendaal told Margin Call. “It looks like Sussex Street is starting to get its act back together (and) that says good things for (NSW Labor leader) Chris Minns.”

Albanese’s Labor Left faction was well represented, although some were quick to quietly note that Right figures were far and few in-between. Spotted: Former NSW Labor assistant general secretary Rose Jackson, now the party’s state housing spokeswoman and a close Albanese ally, and her predecessor as convener of the Left, John Graham, now the shadow NSW roads minister. From the Right, NSW industrial relations spokeswoman Sophie Cotsis and the shadow treasurer, Daniel Mookhey.

Burke spent some of the evening catching up with former cabinet colleague Wayne Swan. The former treasurer under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard is now not only Labor’s national president but the chairman of Cbus.

“This campaign has been nothing like 2019,” Swan told Margin Call. “People have had enough on climate and integrity.”

Carmel Tebbutt at the Labor election night party at the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL, Sydney. Picture: John Feder

There were few other Labor figures – or for that matter any corporates – although Margin Call noted Chief Executive Women president Sam Mostyn. The ex-Transurban director, who now sits on the board of developer Mirvac, once worked for Paul Keating. She was less enthused about speaking to the media.

The room began to heave late in the evening, as one broadcaster after the other began to call the election for Labor. Spotted among the rush: Labor advisor and lobbyist Eamonn Fitzpatrick, once dubbed the “agent of infection” by the Coalition for his dark arts campaigning in NSW and Queensland.

Also in attendance? Carmel Tebbutt, the health minister under Kristina Keneally’s NSW premiership. Tebbutt, of course, was also married to Albanese until 2019. The incoming prime minister has previously said she has been supportive of his campaign for The Lodge.

Staffers and the superannuated

Across town, the Liberal faithful – a mix of young staffers and old salamanders from the party’s superannuated membership – filed into the Fullerton Hotel in Sydney’s CBD. The mood took a decidedly sharp turn once live images of a conceding Josh Frydenberg were beamed onto enormous displays.

Josh Frydenberg mobbed by supporters including Ted Baillieu, at the Grace Park Hawthorn Club. Picture: David Caird

The Treasurer’s speech induced tears for some and otherwise silenced the room whose atmosphere appeared to deteriorate markedly once Sky News called the election for Labor.

Some brave individuals still worked the room.

Unsurprisingly, one was PremierState lobbyist Michael Photios, the Moderate powerbroker whose faction’s federal representation had totally crumbled with the loss of Mackellar, Bennelong, Reid and Wentworth. The grouping even lost one of its conveners, Trent Zimmerman. Its other, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean, did not make the Fullerton, and was instead consoling the North Sydney MP.

Former Prime Minister John Howard mingling upon arrival at the hotel. Picture: Nikki Short

In Wentworth, Photios said, the polling had predicted doom but the messaging had stayed deliberately optimistic in an effort to turn the tide. Asked about the VIP room, the former NSW cabinet minister would only say: “There were no billionaires.”

John Howard, of course, worked the room, his arrival from the VIP enclosure acting as tonic to attendees’ spirits, drawing cameras, boom mics and a throng of fans. Others in attendance included the far lower-profile former NSW Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski, NSW Corrections Minister Geoff Lee and Jonathan O’Dea, the speaker.

Philip Ruddock waits with the party faithful for Scott Morrison to arrive after the election result at the Fullerton Hotel. Picture: Nikki Short

Farewelling Frydenberg

Former communications minister Richard Alston led the Liberal Party luminaries gathering – and later commiserating – with Frydenberg at the Grace Park Hawthorn Club. Alston, now on the Ryan Stokes-chaired National Gallery of Australia board, was in the room with his Howard-era ministerial colleague Rod Kemp. Also spotted: ex-Hawthorn MP John Pesutto, now biding his time at the Melbourne School of Government, Victorian Liberal treasury spokesman David Davis and former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu. His son Rob, who publicly split with the family over Frydenberg, was presumably celebrating with Kooyong victor Monique Ryan.