Shy rich-lister Naomi Milgrom lavished a substantial donation on Climate 200 and the teal independents during the 2022 election campaign, and from what we hear that tap’s about to be turned off real fast, this being surely one of the most serious cases of philanthropic remorse we’ve diagnosed in a while.
Milgrom and her three children gave $500,000 to the teal independents via Simon Holmes a Court and his Climate 200 initiative (don’t call it a political party!). Seems like Milgrom’s generosity may have gone even further than hard currency, too. Last year C200 moved its operational headquarters out of Sydney and into a building owned by the Milgrom family in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Richmond.
Hard to tell if C200 is paying any rent to their landlord, or whether it’s being paid at a market or sub-market rate. We asked Milgrom and C200 for clarity, but didn’t receive a response.
Our concern, however, is whether or not C200 will survive its tenancy through the winter, given Milgrom’s feelings of immense betrayal.
Margin Call understands the Sussan Group owner has made it clear, privately, that she’s ceasing support for the teals as a consequence of how some of the MPs responded to the October 7 massacres in Israel.
Those with short memories might recall North Sydney MP Kylea Tink and Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps joining with Greens leader Adam Bandt and Tasmania’s Andrew Wilkie to white-out parts of a motion condemning terrorist group Hamas over the attacks.
What ended up happening was that Tink and Scamps voted to erase a reference to Australian support for Israel and its “inherent right to defend itself”.
In its place, they called for a ceasefire and wanted to add a line denouncing “war crimes perpetrated by the state of Israel, including the bombing of Palestinian civilians”. This was nine days after the massacres took place.
And that was followed up by Kooyong MP Monique Ryan, who went online in early November posting about the suffering under way in Gaza – without mentioning the role of Hamas in that suffering, or the 240 hostages being held captive at the time by the terrorist group. You bet that cheesed off a large number of people.
All of which sure makes for an awkward arrangement between Milgrom and C200 over its tenancy in her building. If she’s having second thoughts, we can only wonder who else might be repocketing their chequebook in 2025.
Cashed up in Cook
Simon Kennedy captured more than 70 per cent of the vote during that by-election in Scott Morrison’s former seat of Cook earlier this month. Not that taking the seat required much of a fight; the Greens’ Martin Moore provided the semblance of a two-horse race, securing 28.7 per cent of the vote after preferences, and almost certainly because there was no Labor candidate contesting the seat. Suffice it to say it was always Kennedy’s to win, and yet the NSW Liberal Party still threw so many sacks of cash around to ensure its victory.
Financial accounts leaked to Margin Call reveal $96,000 was spent on Cook to March 22, a date still weeks out from the actual vote. Clearly the final amount would have come in north of $100,000, a surprisingly high figure given there was never any serious opponent.
And from what we can tell, there’s no room for this kind of splurging. The latest income statement for March indicates the NSW Liberals are battling a $97,000 deficit against a budgeted amount of $37,000, the Cook by-election being the reason for that variance. Meanwhile, the party’s YTD surplus of $263,000 is well short of the $488,000 that everyone had been hoping for.
Finance operations director Peter Wheatley put the discrepancy down to depreciation, along with a $290,000 shortfall in fundraising income.
Meanwhile, the party’s sitting on $5.6m in cash that’s earning an astonishingly low rate of interest each month, given what’s being offered by some of the major banks. The documents say $3009 was received in interest payments on those cash holdings for February.
The YTD figure received is $39,409.
On more than $5m?
That sounds like one-fifth of what the Libs could be earning if anyone on their finance committee bothered to make some inquiries. They’re clearly content with sweeping up crumbs from a Dollarmite account.
Superior economic managers? A basic Google search reveals that the yearly interest payments on $5.6m in a business term deposit with any major or minor bank would have paid for the Cook by-election and left some spare change to hire Mark Speakman a permanent media adviser. Better than relying on the part-time services of HQ’s Ian Zakon.
Thankfully, someone raised this missed opportunity during the state executive meeting in March but they were fobbed off, according to the minutes taken. “Mr Wheatley noted that the matter is discussed and considered at meetings of the finance committee.”
Yes, and haven’t they just done sweet F-A during these many months of interest rates sitting at 13-year-highs.
Small world
Not that there isn’t sound fiscal advice to be found in proximity. We note that HQ’s balance sheet lists $1326 owing to financial adviser Cambooya for its services. Ah, but these aren’t advisory services that the Libs are paying for (although clearly they’re needed); Cambooya is actually the party’s landlord in the Hudson House building on Macquarie St.
If the name chimes with anyone it’s because Cambooya Pty Ltd is adviser to the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and its CEO is Jenny Wheatley, wife of the aforementioned Peter from accounts. Small world. That explains the cheap rent.
Cambooya’s located on level 14, with sweeping views of the bridge and park; Liberal HQ is closer to terra firma, on level two, near the toilets in the lobby.
Medical skirmish not so healthy
Almost the entire board of the Heart Research Institute will be called to give evidence in a contract dispute with ex-head of cardiovascular research, Professor Shaun Jackson.
‘The scapegoating of business has to stop’: literal alarm at corporate Oscars
Seats were in short supply at business’s equivalent of the Oscars, but the speeches didn’t miss and at least one big name couldn’t wait to hot-foot it out of there before the dessert plates were even cleared.