Michael Kroger in flap over Liberal Party funding

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Returned president of the Victorian Liberal Party Michael Kroger has dug his designer heels in as key party fundraiser the Cormack Foundation withholds money over concerns about governance.

Cormack chairman and former Western Mining Corporation boss Hugh Morgan, 76, and fellow distinguished directors, including John Calvert-Jones, 80, and former ANZ chairman Charles Goode, 78, are holding back $500,000 of 2016-17 funding to the cash-strapped Victorian Liberal division as they demand changes to its governance structure.

Kroger, a baby-faced 59, is still to satisfy their demands.

The foundation wants to separate the role of state president from the chairmanship of the fundraising committee, roles Kroger presently holds in tandem.

The simmering conflict is part of the fallout from the $1.55 million theft from the Victorian Libs by their former state director Damien Mantach, which happened well before Kroger’s return as president.

In February last year, Mantach was jailed over the fraud for five years in the Margoneet Correctional Centre (which some Libs have dubbed, imprecisely, the “Barwon branch” after its neighbouring prison).

Following the scandal, the Libs commissioned PPB Advisory to undertake a review of the party’s governance structure. The advisory firm made 37 recommendations for change.

Margin Call understands 36 of those have been implemented. The outstanding 37th recommendation is the one about separating the party president from the fundraising chairmanship.

Recent weeks have seen Kroger write to Morgan explaining that the governance reform would require a change to the party’s constitution at state conference early next year.

However, we gather Kroger is reluctant to make the change as it would set a precedent of conditional donations.

Of course, the change would also see Kroger — who, if you listen to his wilder critics, administers the Victorian Liberals a bit like Napoleon Bonaparte ran France — step down from a key role.

Concern is mounting in circles close to state Liberal leader Matthew Guy that the dispute could affect Cormack Foundation funding for 2016-17, as Victoria heads for an election in November next year. That’s happy Easter news for Labor Premier Dan Andrews.

It’s also not ideal for Malcolm Turnbull’s federal Liberals as they contemplate costly recommendations in the Andrew Robb report (more research, perpetual campaigning, tastier finger food, among others).

Already the Victorian Liberals have been forced to take out a mortgage over 104 Exhibition Street, the party’s building in Melbourne’s CBD. There’s little appetite to sell the property to raise funds.

Lots of reasons for Morgan the Elder and Kroger the Younger to book lunch at The Australian Club and sort it out.

Party rumours fly

Speculation continues as to who will succeed Richard Alston as federal president of the Liberal Party.

Will Malcolm Turnbull ask Julie Bishop-confidante and formidable fundraiser Danielle Blain? Without the PM’s clear support there is no way the Perth-based Blain will be putting her hand up for the unpaid role and its many headaches.

Or does Turnbull have other well-networked business figures in mind? Both Michael Chaney and Warwick Smith have been discussed in Liberal circles. The former seems impossible. And the latter?

All will be revealed when the Liberals gather for Federal Council in Sydney on Friday and Saturday, June 23 to 24, to vote on organisational positions. Before that gathering, the Libs are expected to have appointed the federal director who will replace the head-kicking, rose-gardener Tony Nutt. But first the PM has to decide who he wants — and then, of course, get that person to agree. At least the federal director pays (about $400,000 a year), although it does require a move to Canberra, which is far from ideal for many candidates on the Liberals’ wish list.

One thing settled is the special guest at Federal Council: retired General David Petraeus, who many will remember as Barack Obama’s man in Afghanistan and then director of the CIA.

Others may remember Petraeus for having an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, who co-authored the aptly titled All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.

What a lot to pack into his address at the Liberals’ Gala Dinner.

The Lowe road

The Philip Lowe-era is well under way at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The son of Wagga Wagga, Lowe (dubbed “Tintin” by his fun-loving Martin Place colleagues) took over as RBA governor from pilot Glenn Stevens last September.

As is the way with these things, the new era has had a cascading effect on staff. The RBA’s PR boss Vanessa Puli retired in February after serving for eight of governor Stevens’ 10 years.

Taking over as the RBA’s head of communications is Judy Hitchen, who will join Martin Place’s high priests of banking after more than a decade — with a few years’ break — at Citi.

Hitchen starts next month.

A balanced ledger

First some good banking news, then some bad.

Happy birthday to NAB boss Andrew Thorburn, who just turned 52. There was no slacking off for Thorburn, who was in his loudest pinstripe on the big day, Thursday, toiling away before the Easter break.

Thorburn is the second-oldest of our big four bosses. ANZ’s Auckland-born Shayne Elliott is the grandaddy, turning 54 this December.

The baby is CBA’s former child actor Ian Narev, who turns 50 in coming weeks. CBA operatives are downplaying any suggestions of an ostentatious Festival of Narev to mark the occasion.

That’s a shame. But it seems the 50th party Westpac boss Brian Hartzer threw for himself at the Opera House in March was judged a bad look by some of his banking peers, the killjoys.

And speaking of killjoys, there’s more Adani grief on the way for Hartzer.

Fresh from helping disrupt Westpac’s 200th Birthday Ball last weekend, Isaac Astill, a campaign organiser at anti-fossil fuel lobby 350, used Good Friday to spruik the activists’ next move: “Westpac Week of Action”, which will run from May 5-13.

In an email, Astill urged his comrades to make “a ruckus” in an effort to get Westpac to rule out ever funding Gautam Andani’s massive Carmichael coalmine.

“Sign up to host an action at your local Westpac branch and let’s make this huge!” wrote Astill. An ominous Easter greeting for Hartzer.