Federal Labor staffers have been busy circulating an old Facebook photograph of teal MP Monique Ryan after her dust-up with Anthony Albanese in question time on Thursday; this after Ryan dared to query the PM on his appearance at a $5000-per-head Labor fundraising dinner on budget night, and whether fossil fuel representatives were in attendance at the function.
Albo’s answer to Ryan deflected the question entirely and drew a ruckus from the chamber and even a smirk from the Kooyong MP herself. He said he’d run 10 election campaigns in Grayndler and still hadn’t spent as much money as Ryan did to get elected in 2022 – what any of that has to do with carbon emitters at a Labor fundraiser, we don’t know.
But it seems merely asking the question catalysed Labor’s WhatsApp groups to run hot in the hours that followed, Albanese staffers gleefully disseminating a ten-year-old picture of Ryan that she uploaded to social media in 2014. The photo depicts her on a tram with an arm wrapped around a very large novelty penis, the caption reading: “So here I am in Bendigo on a tram with an enormous inflatable penis. You supply the context.”
Tempting as that might be, we’ll decline the invitation, and Ryan herself declined to respond to a request for comment.
No doubt the picture was taken in good fun and posted by Ryan herself as a gag. No harm in that. The more salient point to make is that Albanese was the person who led the calls to lift workplace standards in federal parliament. Did his staffers get the memo?
Wait your turn
The way Justin Hemmes tells it, even he can’t get a table at his newly christened Good Luck Restaurant Lounge in Sydney’s CBD. The Merivale mogul was out on the town recently and hoping to test the atmosphere at his Mike Eggert-run spot without distraction or irritation. But it turns out even the boss needed a reservation.
Hemmes was made to wait at least an hour by the door staff before he could finally take a seat and crack open a menu. Reminds us of another amusing anecdote we heard not long ago of Hemmes trying to order an off-menu Marg for a companion at Bar Topa, which he owns, and which doesn’t serve Margs, prompting the barkeeper to tut-tut and say that wouldn’t be possible, and resulting in Hemmes being given a menu and a few suggestions for an alternative. The gall! As for the bartender? He’s still in the job, miraculously.
Name dropper
And while we’re on the subject, it turns out everyone has been mispronouncing Hemmes’ surname for a generation or two. He told a Carlton IN Business forum held on Friday in Merivale’s Ivy ballroom that his surname is pronounced “Hemm-es”, or like “hemisphere without the sphere”, as opposed to the Hemmes we might associate with many sewn edges of cloth.
It’s a niblet that came to light as he was being interviewed on stage in front of about 500 people for the networking event, attended by Carlton President Luke Sayers and a sprinkling of board directors (Egon Zehnder partner David Campbell, JPMorgan Australia chair Rob Priestley, comms strategist Lahra Carey) plus hall-of-famer Chris Judd, former RBA governor Guy Debelle, and Rowing Australia CEO Sarah Cook.
Revealed, too, was how Hemmes picks venues for redevelopment (“gut instinct”) along with an outrageous concession that Melbourne slays Sydney on culinary excellence. “Melbourne has always been the culinary leader,” he said, prompting some groans but also some applause, given half the room had flown up to be there.
It also explains why Hemmes is attempting a project on Flinders Lane, one of many concepts in development, apparently. The Merivale CEO shocked everyone by revealing he has close to 25 projects on the boil (including a Mr Wong-style duplicate, a nightclub, and a rooftop bar somewhere) and surprised a few with an admission that the worst mistake he’d ever made – like, ever – was using a Merivale outsider with a “stadium psyche” to run catering at Allianz Stadium. “And that was the biggest mistake I made, because what I realised was we should just be using our incredibly talented people and implement our philosophy and our processes into a stadium environment.”
Magnis sued
And finally, not content with nosediving his listed battery and graphite company into the ground, Magnis boss Frank Poullas’ latest move appears to be taking care of himself rather than the company he’s chaired for 16 years. Corporate regulator ASIC is suing Poullas and Magnis over allegations that both made misleading statements to the market – this while Poullas shovelled directors’ fees into his pocket.
Law firm K&L Gates were acting for Magnis but withdrew their services when the company stopped paying its bills. Fresh filings now indicate that Poullas has appointed his own lawyers at legal firm William James. We’re just wondering what happens next for Magnis, given it’s carrying a $4.6m loan with monthly interest payments of 5.5 per cent … and, last we checked, about $28,000 in the bank.
More wrongs than rights at the AHRC?
A case of curious priorities over at the Australian Human Rights Commission where hand-picked appointee Giridharan Sivaraman seems to prefer playing politics over action on anti-Semitism.
Freehills partner given notice over synagogue tweet
Herbert Smith Freehills leaders have voted to remove one of its longstanding partners, Damien Hazard, over a ‘deeply offensive’ tweet targeting Jeremy Leibler.