NSW Liberal strategists are hoping to see former premier Dominic Perrottet retire from politics in tandem with the party’s traitor-in-chief Matt Kean, who was named incoming head of Labor’s Climate Change Authority on Monday, effectively putting him at odds with his own side and their ambitions to campaign on nuclear energy.
Kean, we hear, tried to engineer a twin exit from parliament with Perrottet, who stepped down as premier almost 18 months ago and is eager to get on with life outside of politics.
Exiting together would have averted a headache for the party and led to parallel by-elections being held on the same Saturday in their seats, rather than separately, which apparently annoys voters – except Perrottet wasn’t in love with the idea of bending to anyone’s schedule, least of all Kean’s, and double-least-of-all when he hasn’t even got a job lined up.
But things could yet work out in Kean’s favour, with Perrottet said to be on the verge of signing on for a private sector position and basically a lock to leave parliament rather soon, meaning a day of by-elections could actually go down for voters in Hornsby and Epping.
Presumably Natalie Ward, an upper house Liberal who quietly, and desperately, wants to be premier one day, is toying with the idea of running (for without a lower house seat ce n’est pas possible).
Perrottet wouldn’t tell us the name of the firm he’s in discussions with, or the sector, or anything, but discussions are at their pointy end, we’re sure of it, and he laughed loudly at rumours it’s something with Larry Fink’s BlackRock, and then less loudly about a possible role with the World Economic forum.
In any case, his trip to the northern NSW town of Lismore a few days ago suddenly makes a bit more sense. Quite odd for a backbencher to abruptly land in a region so remote, ostensibly for an update on flood recovery efforts more than two years in the making. Was it a victory lap before the inevitable departure?
We’ll find out soon enough.
Caviar capers
An intriguing application was made earlier this month in the NSW Supreme Court, prompted by a request for help from the Embassy of Uruguay. Diplomats there received a letter from back home about a case on foot in the capital, Montevideo. Some kind of dispute over caviar, it seems.
The corporation involved is Esturiones Del Rio Negro, better known as Black River Caviar, and if you haven’t heard of it (you pleb!), it was described by The Wall Street Journal in 2011 as creating “the Faberge of edible fish eggs”.
Founded by Uruguayan businessman Walter Alcade, his son Javier is named as plaintiff in the case.
As for the defendant and what this furore is all about, that part’s unclear. Interesting, though, is that the filing was made by the NSW Attorney-General in order to obtain evidence from one Joshua Samuel Rea, founder of Gourmet Life, a shop in Sydney’s east that bills itself as the nation’s “No.1 caviar and truffle supplier”.
To be sure, Rea even calls himself, in capital letters, on Instagram, “AUSTRALIA’S CAVIAR AND TRUFFLE KING”. This might be true (forgive us, your majesty), because Rea’s posted photographs online of Jimmy Barnes purchasing his delicacies, as well as chef Manu Feildel.
A judge agreed to the Uruguayan application, which green-lights a prospective examination of Rea as a witness, and also for a transcript of said examination to be sent with a sealed certificate back to Montevideo.
Efforts to contact Rea weren’t successful, but it seems he has no obvious linkage to Uruguay. He grew up in Hobart, lived for a time in Melbourne and later set up shop in Sydney, according to the Gourmet Life website.
His store does sell two varieties of Black River Caviar’s buttery globules: the BR Oscietra Tradition and the BR Oscietra Imperial, which start at $36 and $46, respectively. But that amount will only score about 10g of these culinary pearls. And you best believe anything larger will add zeros to the tab.
Lobby registering
Only one half of lobby shop Brookline Advisory is listed on the federal lobbyist register. Lidija Ivanovski is named there but for some reason there’s no mention of her business partner, Gerard Richardson, a former chief of staff to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and a former communications director to Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Richardson had been registered for a couple of months last year but took himself off in October. It’s not known why, but somehow we doubt this demarcation ended his professional contact with ex-colleagues in the federal government. Perhaps it did.
Regardless, one of Brookline’s biggest clients to date is PwC Australia, the corporate pinata of 2023, and whose many scandals ultimately led to a government response that, in the words of Chalmers, would become “the biggest crackdown on tax adviser misconduct in Australian history”.
Richardson’s pedigree with the Treasurer (and government) almost certainly attracted PwC as a client, not least while the firm continues to quest a path back to reputational repair. We’re betting PwC hired Brookline in the hope that Labor goes easy on them. And maybe they will.
The point being that Richardson would be right to engage his former boss, or his office, in the service of PwC. Anyone not suffering from frontal lobe difficulties would expect as much … but only if he’s down as a registered lobbyist! Richardson wouldn’t take calls.
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.