Scott Morrison’s Top Gun: Maverick fan day; Tolga Kumova defamation action takes a twist

Scott Morrison in the cockpit of a F-35A aircraft while on a visit to RAAF Base Williamtown in 2021.

Scott Morrison has kept a relatively low profile since his expulsion from office at the May election, leaving us wondering unto what lands he might embark in pursuit of employment and succour post life in politics.

But apparently PM30 has ventured barely that far from his Eden, the Sutherland Shire, where he appeared apparition-like last week and hired an entire cinema for about 50 former staffers in his office.

And the film they watched? Does it even need to be asked?

What else but Top Gun: Maverick, a patriotic movie with obvious attractions for Morrison. In common with his politics, it’s an admixture of old-fashioned values, military firepower and, importantly, the exiled hero’s stab at redemption.

Illustration: Rod Clement

For anyone unclear on the matter, Morrison is a Top Gun fanboy of the highest order.

It was in February last year that he strutted into RAAF Base Williamtown, settled into the cockpit of an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet, and hammed it up with a Maverick-worthy thumbs up for the cameras. Unfortunately, he was oblivious to a sign saying “ejection seat” universally captured, just off his elbow.

If that wasn’t enough, our reporter Alice Workman noted at the time that “officers were treated to not one but two roaring renditions of Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins”.

Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld, then prime minister Scott Morrison and Commanding Officer, 2 Operational Conversion Unit, Wing Commander Jordon Sander with an F-35A aircraft while on a visit to BAE Systems Australia’s in Williamtown, NSW.

But back to recent events, Morrison’s day out with staff was intended to be a show of gratitude, and Margin Call understands the guest list included electorate officers, administrative staff, media flaks and off-duty members of his Australian Federal Police protective detail.

From the cinema, the former PM and his entourage made a pilgrimage to a nearby bowling alley, a snippet of which was uploaded to his Facebook page, along with his score of 194.

Still buzzing from the movie, the 12-second clip featured ScoMo nailing a strike and, perhaps needing a few beers to put out the flames, dancing a jig in the unmistakeable style of Jesus Quintana from another film, The Big Lebowski.

John Turturro as Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski.

Quintana is an odd character, a point that shan’t be lost on anyone familiar with the Coen brother’s script and Quintana’s strange peccadillos.

We just hope ScoMo didn’t lick the ball, as the Jesus would do, before shooting his shot. And even if he did, we suppose that’s vile but, you know, that’s just like our opinion, man.

–

Club’s ‘closed shop’

It would be difficult to argue that Sydney’s Australian Club is not already an archetypal boys’ club given its well-known injunctions against female membership, reaffirmed barely a year ago.

But it turns out there happens to exist a boys-club-within-a-boys-club at the Macquarie St establishment causing much rumpling of feelings, with the matter currently being pursued by president Richard Fisher.

Fisher has foreshadowed a formal review of committee appointments, making it one of his first actions as club poobah. He recently succeeded former president John Macarthur-Stanham, although we note that Fisher was president roughly a decade ago.

At issue is how one goes about obtaining membership of the club’s various panels and boards and especially its esteemed and politburo-like General Committee, with appointments to these cliques regarded as a “closed shop” of cronyism.

Especially, it is said, when those who are anointed somehow lap other members who have “volunteer(ed) their time and energy” to the art shows, tedious book events and obscure interest groups (“Cancel Culture in The Iliad,” being one upcoming talk) that “contribute significantly to the life of the club”.

“The process of identifying prospective members of the General Committee is seen by at least some members as a ‘closed shop’,” Fisher wrote in his most recent epistle to members for June.

“I don’t have any preconceived ideas as to how we address this perception, irrespective of whether it is the reality. If there is to be a change, I would like to ensure that it is the result of as inclusive a discussion as possible.”

Accordingly, members have been instructed to contribute any wisdom for reform via email, although the diary of events over the next month could prove too much of a bacchanal for the matter to be given its due attention.

There’s the American Wine Dinner on June 30 followed by the Hunter Valley Wine Makers’ Dinner on July 21, which will dovetail superbly with the Annual Game Dinner on August 18.

–

Stock Swami’s twist

A plot twist in the defamation action brought by mining investor Tolga Kumova against Alan Davison, the man behind the anonymous Twitter account known as Stock Swami.

Davison’s barrister Dauid Sibtain confirmed in a bombshell moment to the Federal Court on Monday that his client would abandon the defence of qualified privilege for several allegedly libellous tweets, including some that accused Kumova of insider trading and the artificial inflation of stock.

Tolga Kumova and barrister Sue Chrysanthou. Picture NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard.

The announcement, which could noticeably alter the course of the proceedings, appeared to visibly upset Justice Michael Lee and prompted a flurry of apologies from Sibtain, who dropped the news after a long day of gruelling cross-examination.

And, we might add, only after his learned friend Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing Kumova, informed the court of the matter.

“I should have told your Honour that at the beginning of the day. I apologise,” said Sibtain.

“Well, let me try to work out what’s left in this case, then,” Lee shot back.

As it turns out, Sibtain had been aware of the news since Friday when he informed Chrysanthou that his client would no longer use Section 30 of the Defamation Act in his defence of the tweets. Instead, it means he will contest the defamation action using a truth defence.

In practical terms, it means Davison probably won’t be required to travel from New Zealand, where he resides, to provide evidence in the case, effectively ending any prospect of a cross-examination.

Margin Call reported earlier this month that Davison, aged 67, had sought to provide his evidence to the trial via video-link from New Zealand because he feared catching Covid-19 if he flew to Australia.

The application failed, which is unsurprising, given that he’d already flagged an intention with the court to travel to Vanuatu in July.