PM’s office a land of milk and Peter Hendy

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Well, well, well, look who was lurking on the fringes of Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce’s meeting with the tattered board of dairy producer Murray Goulburn: Peter Hendy.

Best known as the host of last year’s Queanbeyan dinner party that plotted the end of Tony ­Abbott’s prime ministership, Hendy is a controversial figure in Coalition circles.

Peter Hendy campaigning with Malcolm Turnbull. Lyndon Mechielsen/News Corp.

He made political history — but not the good sort — by losing his marginal seat of Eden-Monaro, which from Gough Whitlam’s election in 1972 had always been won by the party that formed government.

Its bellwether status ended when Mike Kelly, the mustachioed Labor politician Hendy beat back in the Abbott-slide of 2013, knocked him off on July 2.

And — just like Kelly did as a defence adviser in the Gillard administration — Hendy has since retreated to the PMO. The former CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is now Turnbull’s chief economic adviser.

Going off his lurking presence at the Murray Goulburn showdown yesterday, it would seem that remit includes dairy policy.

Kelly toiled industriously throughout the last term of parliament ahead of his ultimately successful re-election tilt.

Few expect Hendy — who has what’s known in Australian politics as a “senator’s personality” — to follow him down that laborious path.

Rather, Hendy’s best shot at a return is the Senate. Will he be in the queue, asking for the PM’s backing for a plum spot on the NSW Senate ticket when the next federal election comes around?

We’ll see. For now he’s got a dairy crisis to sort out.

Mullen dives in

Tomorrow night, the corporate staff of ports and rail group Asciano will hit a pub near their office in North Sydney.

Departing Asciano boss John Mullen.

By Friday — thanks to a $9.05 billion takeover by Qube and Brookfield Infrastructure — ­Asciano will be no more. So then what?

Well, for its departing chief executive John Mullen — who leaves with a happy share registry and a tidy $10 million payout — it will mean more time to focus on his Telstra chairmanship duties.

It will also free up time for his boat restoration project.

Our seafaring contacts have informed us that Mullen — a devotee of maritime history — has secured an original steam yacht from 1900. It was in danger of being lost to an overseas buyer.

Mullen is currently restoring it. And we understand, once finished, it will be given to Peter Dexter’s Australian National Maritime Museum — not that the discreet Mullen is at all keen on promoting the benefaction.

Our seafaring contacts also tell us of a second addition to the Mullen fleet — a vessel equipped for exotic diving expeditions in remote areas.

Mullen — as well as being a worthy, if unlikely, successor to replace Catherine Livingstone as the president of the Business Council of Australia in November — is a salvage diver on shipwrecks.

And he’s got an extraordinary personal collection of reclaimed treasures to prove it.

We hear the new boat is far more functional than glamorous — a bit like its owner.

Floating more boats

Moving to the ritzy rich — we hear retail billionaire Brett Blundy has a whopping new super yacht under construction in Italy. Apparently the thing will rival the enormous boat James Packer has commissioned, also in Italy. Keep an eye out for them next European summer.

Brett Blundy's super yacht.

Exactly why Blundy — who has a fortune last valued at $1.16bn — needs a new one is a mystery to us. He already has an enormous, 200 foot super yacht, Cloud 9.

That was last spotted docked off Singapore, the tax-friendly Southeast Asian city-state where Blundy currently lives.

Praise Vishnu!

There was heartbreaking speculation yesterday that the Oswals were going to settle their $1.5bn-plus case against Shayne Elliott’s ANZ — and all before Pankaj’s “wifey”, Radhika Oswal,took the stand.

Radhika Oswald leaving court. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith.

Thankfully, the two parties’ handsomely paid lawyers talked them out of that miserly scheme.

And so, finally, Radhika took the Supreme Court stand and answered questions from her lawyer.

It helped flesh out a figure, who at times has been reduced — even in this corner of the Australian media — to a cliche of a vegetarian, high caste, Indian billionaire.

You know the type.

Yesterday gave Radhika a chance to flesh out her more substantial self — and the backstory that made her.

The court learned that she grew up in a wealthy family. “Yes, I was very blessed,” she answered her lawyer.

The businesswoman also revealed that at the age of eight, she went to a “boarding school in the Himalayas” (which makes Geelong Grammar School’s Timbertop Campus sound pedestrian).

And after that? “I did a year at finishing school in Switzerland.”

She also completed a gemology diploma.

And what did she learn at finishing school?

“It was a social, cultural education ranging from cordon bleu cooking, wine tasting, French, various forms of arts and music, fashion, make-up application, all sorts of event organising — if you were the daughter of, or married to an important man — as you would be expected to (be) if you went to that school,” she said, matter of factly.

All of which helps to explain a certain je ne sais quoi.

And to think we’d previously put it down to her just being a big fan of the Kardashians.

“Days of our Oswals” continues in the Supreme Court today.

Moran’s new gig

A lot of readers have written in to ask: what ever happened to the “Boy from Boya”, Matt Moran?

Source: Facebook

The Walkley Award-winning Ten news reporter made headlines after he joined Malcolm Turnbull’s press office last September.

Moran left the PMO after the election, as we have reported.

Now we can reveal — thereby hopefully ending the Alan Jones-proportioned letter writing campaign from readers — Moran’s next move.

The Australian Army Reservist is now working for Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne.
Moran is helping on major projects.

Greenhill still alive

Life goes on at boutique advisory shop Greenhill after the departure of former managing director Michelle Jablko, who — you may have heard — has joined Shayne Elliott’s ANZ as the bank’s chief financial officer.

ANZ chief financial officer Michelle Jablko.

Former JPMorgan investment banker Jon Gidney has replaced Jablko on Greenhill’s Australian board, joining the boutique’s managing director, Roger Feletto.

ANZ group executive, digital banking, Maile Carnegie.

Gidney joined Greenhill in 2015 after 10 years at JPMorgan, where he was integral to some of corporate Australia’s bigger deals, including advising SABMiller’s $12.3bn takeover bid of Foster’s.

It was something of a return to the fold for Gidney, who before that was a key part of the Caliburn team along with Simon “Don” Mordant, Ron Malek and Peter Hunt.

After selling Caliburn to Greenhill, The Don and Ron have formed rival boutique Luminis Partners with Jamie Garis. Hunt’s still at Greenhill.

Meanwhile, Jablko has kept a remarkably low profile during her first month at ANZ. The same cannot be said of fellow high-profile ANZ recruit Maile Carnegie, who — a fortnight into the job — has announced a plan to transform the bank into the new Google. Someone has been feeling overlooked.