Tony Parkinson exit leaves only one ‘Parky’

Cartoon: Rod Clement.

When Malcolm Turnbull returns from his dash to APEC in Peru for the final parliamentary fortnight of the year, there will only be one Parkinson left in his inner sanctum.

His senior political adviser Tony “Parko” Parkinson has just finished up in the Turnbull PMO.

The Prime Minister persuaded Parkinson back into politics after toppling Tony Abbott in September last year.

Parkinson had been running government relations at supermarket Coles under Kevin Rudd’s former chief of staff turned Richard Goyder protege Alister Jordan.

Before that he worked for Turnbull in opposition, and before that was a senior adviser to Alexander Downer when Downer was foreign minister.

Parkinson is hanging up his senior adviser boots to return to the less manic world of corporate life.

That leaves Martin “Parky” Parkinson as the lone Parkinson in the Turnbull inner circle. Parky, the former Treasury secretary, also succumbed to the PM’s charm offensive last year and abandoned his second career as a company director to run Turnbull’s public service.

Judging by his many doting fans at the Business Council of Australia’s annual dinner on Thursday night, Parky wouldn’t have any trouble returning to a director’s life — once he’s moved on from running the country.

Cloak and dagger

Justin Di Lollo’s 18-year association with Labor-aligned government relations firm Hawker Britton is coming to an end. He’s off to get his James Bond on.

Hawker Britton’s Justin Di Lollo.

Di Lollo — a long-time adviser to Kim Beazley — is leaving to establish a Sydney office of the secretive global management consultancy Hakluyt.

The London-headquartered firm is the sort of shop Ian Fleming would have run had he gone into government relations. It was founded in 1997 by former MI6 British secret service agents.

Fellow Australian man of mystery Alexander Downer was on the advisory board of the firm. The long-time yellow-suitcase-carrying foreign minister stood down when he was appointed Australian High Commissioner to Britain in 2014.

Di Lollo’s departure is the latest change at the leviathan now called WPP AUNZ, the product of the April merger between STW Communications Group and the antipodean businesses of Martin Sorrell’s British behemoth WPP.

Di Lollo had been running their portfolio of government relations firms, including the Liberal-focused Barton Deakin and Labor-focused Hawker Britton.

Libs fight over seats

Numbers are being crunched, references passed around and shit sheets prepared. Liberal state seats are up for grabs in president Michael Kroger’s Victoria.

Industry, Innovation and Science Minister, Greg Hunt.

In a fortnight, candidates will fight it out for the prize seats of Nepean (on Saturday, December 3) and Brighton (on Sunday, December 4).

IPA boss John Roskam.

Raising some Nepean eyebrows, Clem Newton-Brown (undeterred by losing his seat of Prahran to the Greens in 2014) is getting around with a reference from Malcolm Turnbull (“I have no hesitation in warmly commending Clem’s candidacy to you”). Good get, but will it sway the locals?

Also in the Nepean race is Sarah Meredith, who has a decent local supporter: her old boss, Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Greg Hunt. Meredith worked for the member for Flinders for 14 years, so backing her over his boss’s candidate is the least Hunt could do. And, really, who knew our Point Piper PM would get involved in a preselection contest on the Mornington Peninsula?

The other seat is Brighton: the site of the infamous preselection battle of 1999 between Mitch Fifield (who, despite the backing of Peter Costello and his then political soulmate Michael Kroger, lost) and Louise Asher (who, with the support of the pugnacious premier Jeff Kennett, won). Seventeen years on and Asher is finally tapping out.

In the hunt to replace her is James Newbury, her chosen successor, who also has a reference from Peter Reith. Meanwhile, his main rival Felicity Frederico has one from the man who dudded Reith for the Liberal presidency, Tony Abbott. The former PM’s involvement has been put down — if you can believe it — to Newbury’s poisonous relationship with his former chief of staff Peta Credlin. That movie again.

Also in the race is Margaret Fitzherbert, whose move to a blue ribbon seat from the Upper House is backed by David Kemp and Institute of Public Affairs boss John Roskam.

As for Roskam, will he try once again for a state seat for himself? Applications to challenge sitting members open on Monday. Roskam will have to fill out his paperwork, and cough up his $1500, by December 9 if he — or anyone else — wants to take on any of Matthew Guy’s sitting members.

Only way is up

Sounds like Lisa Harrington’s stellar rise at Andy Vesey’s energy retailer AGL continues.

AGL boss Andy Vesey. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian.

We hear Harrington — once an adviser to then NSW treasurer Mike Baird — is about to move from being Vesey’s chief of staff to the boss of AGL’s corporate affairs division.

The gig has been vacant since previous Vesey hire Jeni Coutts — who worked with the Vin Diesel lookalike back at CitiPower — left in July, after only a year in the role.

We have contacts

The election of Donald Trump to the presidency has meant one thing for political and business strategy group Crosby Textor: a great business opportunity.

Mark Textor and Lynton Crosby.

The partners of the campaign and strategy group — Lynton Crosby, Mark Textor and Mark Fullbrook — were in Washington DC to launch their new office this week, and doing their best to show off their links to the Republican president’s incoming administration.

Along at the launch were congressman George Holding, former RNC communications director Doug Heye, Reince Priebus confidant and Trump campaign battleground states director Wells Griffith (whose stocks have shot up with Priebus’s appointment as Trump’s chief of staff) and Trump transition team FCC overseer Jeffry Eisenach.

Former rep Pete Hoekstra (rumoured to be the next CIA director) was also there, along with former deputy assistant secretary of defence Mary Beth Long, CBS News vice-president and Washington bureau chief Chris Isham, and Google’s government affairs honcho Jesse Suskin. Not a bad start.