McLachlan dithers on Racing Victoria role; Dull Star dazzles at least one group

The man most favoured to lead Racing Victoria, former AFL boss Gillon McLachlan. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Who else but Gillon McLachlan to make a job appointment so tortured. For months he’s been flirting with the possibility of chairing Racing Victoria and has made a doe-eyed, fawning fool of Racing Minister Anthony Carbines, who just adores him.

And now it looks like the minister’s been left standing like a dope at the altar, given Friday night’s sheepish announcement from RV that its sitting chairman, Mike Hirst, will be staying in the job another month.

If that’s not a signal of the havoc or even failure to secure McLachlan then we’ll eat our hat.

Friday, of course, was the scheduled departure of Hirst himself, so his sudden postponement to late June on the very day of his retirement can only mean the effort to secure McLachlan hit a giant snag.

Victorian Racing Minister Anthony Carbines. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

What is it with McLachlan? He took a geological age to leave his job at the AFL (partly Richard Goyder’s fault), and now he’s breadcrumbing the hapless chaps at RV while word gets around of his interest in private equity work.

Ye Gods, what a mess. Carbines had been on McLachlan’s case for months to apply for the job but McLachlan only sat down with RV’s Council of Elrond for an interview earlier this month, a formality at best considering he was the shoo-in candidate. Apparently he got cold feet because he wants a proper day job. The RV chairman only gets paid about $200,000, which in McLachlan’s world is considered voluntary. He wants a gig with a salary of $3m, like he earned at the helm of the hand-egg game.

Mike Hirst is sticking around a bit longer.

None of this was contained in the RV’s statement, of course. “We can confirm that Mike Hirst has advised the Minister for Racing that he will not be retiring with effect from today and will continue in his capacity as RV’s Acting Chairman to the expiry of his current term unless ­otherwise advised.”

Or, to put it plainly, unless McLachlan changes his mind, or an alternative is plucked from somewhere quick-smart (newly appointed director Tim Rourke, maybe?)

We did hear McLachlan might be reconsidering an earlier temptation for the role of Tabcorp CEO, a pitch he apparently declined months back but which pays well and, if he was to take it, would conflict him out of the RV chairmanship. Does that explain the kerfuffle? In the meantime, he’s jobless, a house husband, and effectively mooching off his wife’s inheritance.

Star shines

Speaking of debacles, there’s that other shambles engulfing The Star Entertainment Group, which has lost its chairman, David Foster, its CEO, Robbie Cooke, and is now the subject of yet another inquiry into its suitability to hold a casino licence. That ain’t looking good, either; closing submissions from counsel assisting Caspar Conde heard last week that The Star remains unfit to hold a licence in Sydney, and possibly never will.

But an unexpected twist is that The Star is still kicking goals with its LGBTQ+ inclusivity, the business given the top honour and named Employer of the Year alongside DLA Piper at an awards ceremony held in Sydney on Friday.

Robbie Cooke’s departure as Star chief executive was messy to say the least. Picture: David Clark

Obviously no cares given to the casino’s general dysfunction, the evidence of that having been ventilated en masse at the ongoing inquiry. That includes a claim about bulk approvals being given to high-risk customers (instead of checking the source of their wealth), and an allegation that the casino was falsifying welfare-check documents. Never mind.

The Star’s guernsey was awarded alongside plaudits for EY, KPMG and Qantas, companies beset with their own scandals and each wallowing in the ignominy of the corporate sin bin. ASIO, too, received a little prize at the awards. Their motto is Securing Australia, Protecting its People. Protecting from what? Being misgendered?

Injudicious post

Who else but a lawyer to know the limits of throwing wild accusations into the online ether? So we thought, but maybe not a certain Victorian Legal Aid practitioner who may have inserted herself into a defamatory spot of bother. Kali Wischmann let fly on LinkedIn over a post made by Melanie Kiremitciyan, who had been angered by a discussion put on by the Women Barristers Association on Thursday night. Kiremitciyan’s target was Family Court Justice Andrew Strum, who featured on the evening’s panel. It was a talk that started with the topic of cultural diversity in the legal profession and ended up veering down a path towards Israel. Strum, who is Jewish, made some remarks on Judaism and a few characters in the audience flounced off in protest, including Kiremitciyan, who posted her outrage on LinkedIn. “Strum declared himself a proud and privileged Zionist and then unabashedly began vomiting the false narrative that Judaism and Zionism are inextricably linked,” said the Department of Transport and Planning official, who blamed the Victorian Bar for this “disgraceful, underhanded attack” against those “on the right side of history”. Wischmann replied: “Couldn’t agree more it (sic) was shocking to have a proud racist speak at such an event.” Ah, so the sitting judge is a proud racist? Quite a claim to chuck out, especially by a Legal Aid solicitor – and perhaps a risky proposition considering how easy it is for people to print-screen those blurtings and get them to the Legal Services Board. We’ll wait and see if Strum responds.