Rugby Australia adviser has form with Israel Folau

Cartoon: Rod Clement

A reunion of NAB heavies is leading Rugby Australia’s response to the Israel Folau crisis.

Margin Call can reveal Bastion Reputation Management managing director Brian Walsh has been enlisted as a behind-the-scenes adviser to Rugby Australia as it navigates a year full of issues.

With the 2019 Rugby World Cup kicking off in Japan in September, the governing body for the code they play in heaven (or at least at Knox Grammar) can more than justify the hiring of external assistance for chairman Cameron Clyne and chief executive Raelene Castle.

Walsh was NAB’s corporate comms boss back when Clyne was running the bank.

For almost another five years, Walsh continued as an adviser to the Melbourne-headquartered bank as it navigated, among other crises, the banking royal commission.

That arrangement came to an end in April after Kenneth Hayne blew Clyne’s replacement Andrew Thornburn out of the NAB CEO job.

It seems the bank’s loss was Rugby Australia’s gain.

While Rugby Australia is taking counsel from Bastion’s “values-based” strategic commun­ications shop, Folau’s PR crusade is being led by Civic Reputation’s Chris Newman and the resurrected Australian Christian Lobby.

Walsh has some history with Folau.

Before he joined what was then Clyne’s NAB back in late 2011, he ran communications for the AFL.

One of Walsh’s responsibilities back then was overseeing Folau, who had then switched from rugby league’s Brisbane Broncos to join the AFL’s Greater Western Sydney Giants.

For Clyne and Castle, the plan seems to be to focus on the things they can control (the Wallabies’ preparation for the World Cup) and accept the things they can’t (young Australian Christian Lobby leader Martyn Iles’ ­spirited campaign to recruit members) as their player contract dispute has transformed into a Holy War.

Gay rights advocate

In case you missed it, Margin Call yesterday noted CBA’s good fortune in no longer being a lead sponsor of the Bingham Cup, the biennial gay rugby union tournament.

But what we forgot to mention was that none other than CBA customer Israel Folau was an ambassador for the tournament when it was held in Sydney in 2014.

Israel Folau on the cover of Star Observer

“Israel is a strong advocate for ending all forms of discrimination in sport,” a Bingham Cup spokesman said back in August 2014 when Folau graced the cover of Star Observer, a publication operated by Gay & Lesbian Community Publishing Limited.

It was a simpler age.

Packer man in Aspen

You’d go so far as to call him “Mini-Me”.

Crown Resorts billionaire James Packer’s old Cranbrook chum Ben Tilley is officially calling Aspen, Colorado home, now that being part of the troubled businessman’s entourage has evolved into a full-time gig.

As of earlier this month, Tilley, who used to play poker with Packer’s late father Kerry Packer, officially calls a condominium in the upmarket North of Nell hotel home.

Tilley’s new abode is just a 15-minute drive to the mansion in Aspen’s West Buttermilk estate that Packer officially lists as his address.

The billionaire, who has just banked almost $900 million from the sale of Crown stock to his “brother” Lawrence Ho, also has a substantial, circa $80m house in Los Angeles, where he also spends time to be near his children.

After the collapse of his almost 20-year marriage to wife Tiffany Tilley in 2017, Packer’s mate sold the couple’s harbourfront Point Piper home, which was next door to Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull.

It was said that the Tilley marriage fell apart because the businessman was travelling so much with Packer, who also has homes just outside Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv and London.

Packer is also building a resort-style escape in Mexico’s party city, Cabo San Lucas.

Meanwhile, Packer’s new floating palace — the way-over-budget $200 million gigayacht IJE — is still sitting in the Tuscan port of Livorno.

The vessel, which has been under construction for three years and was meant to be delivered to Packer at the start of this European summer, remains at the home of shipbuilder Benetti.

The luxury yacht has been there since it returned from sea trials on June 1. It is said to now be scheduled for delivery at the start of August.

The delay has meant that Packer has chartered fellow mega richie Ian Malouf’s $400,000-a-week luxury yacht Mischief, which was last spotted off the Italian island of Capri.

Along with Tilley, other key members of Packer’s coterie include North Bondi-based trainer and former rugby league player Damien “Chappy” Chapman, long-time trusted lieutenant Guy Jalland, who heads up Packer’s private company Consolidated Press Holdings, and Argentinian polo player Martin Pepa.

Underemployed Nine personality Karl Stefanovic is also part of the clique.

Does anyone work any more?

Brandis wins again

Life is good for George Brandis, the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Scott Morrison’s election has extended Brandis’s time in Stoke Lodge.

And now the Australian cricket team is dominating the World Cup.

Former attorney-general Brandis was yesterday in the stands at Lord’s to watch Aaron Finch’s Australians thrash the hosting English side.

In addition to cheering on the century-making Finch at the hallowed home of cricket, Brandis caught up with Ed Sheeran, the most streamed pop star in the world.

George Brandis and musician Ed Sheeran

The Oxford-man Brandis — who replaced Alexander Downer as our man in London in May 2018 — wasn’t one of Australia’s most memorable arts ministers for nothing.