Lions Club bash gets out of hand

Cartoon: Rod Clement

An alcohol-fuelled balcony fight broke out at NSW state parliament this week, one with links to the highest office in the land.

It’s a nightmare scenario for those pushing Premier Mike Baird to repeal lockout laws at Sydney drinking venues.

At a dinner to support the community-minded Lions Club on Thursday night, consultant Joseph Hanna attacked Harry Hughes, the head of media and public affairs at the NSW Minerals Council. Hughes, as it happens, is also the nephew of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Is no one safe?

According to multiple witnesses, Hanna — who was previously an executive general manager at UGL, had never met Hughes before and, tellingly, lists “martial arts” as a hobby outside work — was roaming the balcony aggressively, cigarette in hand.

Hughes suggested Hanna calm down — or words to that effect.

Hanna’s response? A palm in Hughes’s face, which was smashed into a glass door.

“We were just having drinks,” Hanna told us, sheepishly.

That’s one way to describe the encounter.

We gather that a different account, corroborated by multiple witnesses, was given to the state parliament’s special constables on the night, and again to the NSW police yesterday.

Murray’s Telstra hell

Former Commonwealth Bank boss David Murray copped a bit of criticism for his recent spray about outgoing Business Council of Australia president, and former Telstra chair, Catherine Livingstone.

David Murray

But after the year Murray has had with the telco, can you blame him for being a bit tetchy?

Murray revealed his telco backstory in an interview with the ABC’s Ticky Fullerton on Thursday when he was asked about his strong criticism of Livingstone back in August.

(In an interview in this paper, Murray said Livingstone’s legacy as chair of the BCA was “about as bad as her legacy as chair of Telstra”. Livingstone has since been made chair of CBA, the bank Murray used to run.)

“I have to tell you that (comment) was after six months absolute nightmare service I got from Telstra personally. It was devastating trying to deal with that,” Murray told the ABC.

“And yet she as chairman, with the CEO, had held out to the world at large that they had made a service transformation. And they hadn’t,” Murray continued. “That is not a good position to start from as chairman of the Commonwealth Bank.”

Murray was reluctant to go public with more details about his Telstra ordeal.

But we’ve heard his was a nightmarish story involving fixed phone lines being cut, numbers on mobile phones lost, messages not received, concerns about identity theft and, throughout it all, woeful customer service at call centres and in store.

For some customers, it would seem, the Telstra service transformation has a way to go.

Flaunting it

Ad man turned pastoralist and Crown board director Harold Mitchell is nothing if not efficient.

His private jet was spotted flying out of Perth at 12.30pm local time, just over an hour after the Crown AGM wrapped up at the gaming giant’s entertainment complex on Thursday. Maybe he’ll stay around longer once the group’s new six-star hotel Crown Towers opens up in December.

As well canvassed, Crown’s major shareholder James Packer kept away from the AGM at Crown Perth.

Gina Rinehart at Crown Perth

But the venue wasn’t without the presence of a billionaire for long: iron ore and cattle empress Gina Rinehart was along on Friday for the Parkerville Children and Youth Care Lunch.

Accompanied by her daughter Ginia, the still shrinking Hancock Prospecting boss was along in an above-the-knee dress. If you got it, flaunt it.

Fox and hound lovers

Meanwhile, across the country, trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox was out of Toorak and seated next to Premier Mike Baird at a NSW Liberal Party fundraiser in Sydney at the Four Seasons (incidentally Rinehart’s hotel of choice in the Harbour City).

Almost all the Baird ministry, including his beaming Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian, were along to meet with their business backers.

Premier Mike Baird and Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian

With the $16 billion sale of electricity distribution business Ausgrid just approved — thumping the abandoned greyhound ban off the state agenda — it couldn’t have been better timed.

Nine director David Gyngell was along, but had left his beard back in Byron Bay. The former Nine boss sat near billionaire Bruce Gordon’s lieutenant Jon Adgemis (KPMG’s head of M&A) and Nine star Mark Bouris, who is still to fire himself from his financial business Yellow Brick Road.

Crosby Textor co-founder Mark Textor — key strategist on the Baird government’s successful return in March 2015 — was along, as was former Premier Nick Greiner (the author of the unsolicited proposal legislation that was used for Baird’s Ausgrid transaction), Gina Rinehart’s new recruit Sophie Mirabella (visiting from Victoria), PwC managing partner Joseph Carrozzi and his fellow GWS Giant Tony Shepherd, incoming Menzies Research Centre enterprise boffin Andrew Bragg and the Premier’s dad Bruce Baird.

Sydney food and entertainment tsar Justin Hemmes was accompanied by his extremely well connected lobbyist Michael Photios, who was busy preparing for today’s Liberal State Council AGM, which will be held in the same venue.

Baird cabinet minister Anthony Roberts (a leading figure in the Right faction) was also along, and working the room, ahead of his showdown against Photios’s Moderates and Alex Hawke’s Centre Right over party reform today.

Tolls for thee

With the Liberal Party stoush bubbling away in the background, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his better half Lucy took refuge as the star attractions at Ken Allen’s Advance Global Australian Awards ceremony at the NSW Art Gallery last night.

The event — which celebrates the most talented members of the Australian diaspora — was an excellent way for the PM to welcome the weekend after a week dominated by tedious internal party politics.

Australian-born Genevieve Bell

This year’s marquee winner was Genevieve Bell, an Australian who leads the innovation team at Intel in Portland, Oregon.

Fitting in perfectly with the PM’s economic narrative, Bell also won the Technology Innovation category. Well done.

Chairman of it all

As flagged in this column last month, former finance secretary Jane Halton is joining David Gonski’s ANZ board as the Chairman of Everything improves its gender balance.

Jane Halton.

With the addition of the razor sharp Halton, ANZ has three female members on its nine person board.

That leaves Lindsay Maxsted’s Westpac in last place among the Big Four banks with only two women on its board — an awkward fact for an institution that’s made a lot of noise about its success at increasing the proportion of women in senior positions.

Meanwhile, the long-serving chief executive of the Australian Bankers’ Association, Steven Munchenberg yesterday formally announced he is leaving the banking lobby.

A process is under way to find his successor.