Star boss John O’Neill saved by the Bell; Gina Rinehart joins vote queue
The independent inquiry into Star Entertainment was delayed in April to summon forth additional witnesses. That alone increased the cost of the hearings by a few hundred thousand dollars and brought the total expense to something in the neighbourhood of what the high-rollers were washing nightly at the baccarat tables.
So it was with some bemusement last Monday that we were told hearings would once again be postponed – without explanation – just as Star Entertainment executive chairman John O’Neill was due to be sworn-in to respond to allegations of misconduct under his leadership.
Instead of resigning anyway, as he always intended, O’Neill waited until the week’s trading had ended on Friday night to release a statement to the ASX. By then, some newspaper deadlines had passed and the nightly news was about to go to air.
And the announcement was tossed out on the eve of a federal election, into a vortex of political distraction. Does that sound like the handiwork of someone trying to save their personal brand? Of course not.
As it turns out, Monday’s unscheduled delay was only supposed to last for 24 hours. It turned into an entire week, per a note uploaded to the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority’s website on Tuesday.
Such flakiness suggested that a nervous soul was probably waiting on the results of a PCR test, or so we surmised. And, we were damn close to the mark. It turns out the inquiry’s chair, Adam Bell SC, contracted Covid-19 and was forced onto the bench – or perhaps that’s off the bench – for the duration of the entire week. He was back on Monday, and so was O’Neill.
Asked for comment, a spokesman for the ILGA confirmed the public hearings were rescheduled due to “Mr Bell being unwell”, although the specific illness went unmentioned.
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Rinehart for real
One might suppose that Australia’s richest person would shun the masses and the voting queues, but time and again Margin Call is proven wrong in its suspicions and biases.
Preferring to exercise her democratic rights in the flesh, Gina Rinehart surprised volunteers at a public school in the West Australian seat of Swan, where she arrived at sundown to have her name crossed off.
Photos dispatched to Margin Call suggest an off-duty Rinehart, in thongs, sunglasses and wearing a sheer-ish gown, a handful of pearls at the wrist, barely even attempted or wanted to disguise herself in what looked to us like the working-class suburb of Belmont.
A spokeswoman said Rinehart did not vote in the suburb but did, in fact, vote in person, somewhere – they wouldn’t say where – and “enjoyed speaking with volunteers on Saturday”.
It would appear Liberal Party booth workers received most of Rinehart‘s attention. No great surprise there given Hancock Prospecting’s sizeable donations to conservative think tank The Institute of Public Affairs, ventilated during the ongoing legal dispute with her children.
For the record, the Liberals were unsuccessful in Swan, with Labor’s candidate Zaneta Mascarenhas emerging victorious on a convincing margin.
Elsewhere, in the Victorian seat of Aston, former Morrison government cabinet minister Alan Tudge appeared to retain his seat with a little help from another embattled Liberal Party colleague. Former Victorian shadow minister Tim Smith confirmed to Margin Call that he handed out for Tudge at Heany Park Primary School over the weekend. Smith resigned from his own shadow cabinet after crashing his car in a drink-driving incident.
Tudge, of course, stood aside as the education minister over a scandal of a very different nature, involving a consensual affair with a female staff member.
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Pyne connected
Christopher Pyne’s corporate lobbying outfit Pyne and Partners has moved swiftly to reassure clients of its burgeoning credentials with the incoming Albanese government, as well as the motley crew of independents and crossbenchers now en route to Canberra.
A seven-page memo, replete with images of Pyne yukking it up with a substantially better fed Anthony Albanese several years ago, makes it plain that Pyne and Partners has been busy fortifying itself “over several months” against the prospect of an incoming Labor government.
“My team and I have been reinforcing relationships and making ourselves known to the incoming Labor Ministers and Labor staff to put ourselves in the best position for engagement under the Labor government,” said Pyne, who listed his closest ALP relations as Albanese, Richard Marles, Tony Burke and Tanya Plibersek.
Rumours are circulating that Pyne may have been considering closing his Adelaide operations for a full scale tilt at the Sydney lobbying scene. But the former defence minister waved off our questions and said the opposite was in fact true.
“We have three offices in Adelaide, Sydney and Canberra. That will remain the case and there is no change to staffing levels. In fact, we are hiring,” he said, referring to the Canberra office.
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Shriro postscript
A postscript to the quarrelling within consumer appliance distributor Shriro, which announced on Monday that its director and barbecue strategist, Kim Slater, would resign effective immediately.
Slater was being eyed for replacement by investor group Ariadne, via its executive director Gary Weiss. Slater’s director’s position was due to be voted upon at an extraordinary general meeting, even though a majority of Shriro’s directors did not support replacing him.
But that meeting, scheduled for June 14, has now been withdrawn given Slater’s resignation. His successor is John Murphy, an Ariadne nominee.
To recap, there has been something of a revolving door at the Shriro boardroom, with former SurfStitch director Abigail Cheadle installed in March to replace Cornelia Meyer, installed just five months earlier. Another director, Cheryl Hayman, has also left the building.
As Margin Call revealed in late April, the board room ructions disquieted not just Weiss but another major investor, D2Asia and its nominee director Brian Bunker. Shriro chief executive Tim Hargreaves and chief financial officer Shane Booth did manage to placate D2Asia, flying to Italy for a meeting with their investor and scoring a comfortable stay at the luxury Grand Hotel Tremezzo at Lake Como while they were at it.
On Monday, Cheadle thanked Slater for his contribution in an ASX statement.
“Kim’s insight has been invaluable in helping formulate Shriro’s BBQ strategy,” she said.
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