Where’s Albo’s annual mazal tov message?; Is it destination Israel for L1’s Raph Lamm?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously made a point of reaching out to the Jewish community.

It’s practically tradition for Anthony Albanese to say mazal tov to the Jewish community on the date of Israel’s independence. Not this year. The day fell on Thursday, May 1, in grasping distance of the election.

History has shown Albo to be diligent on this point.

As Labor leader in 2020, Albanese sent out a “hearty mazal tov” for the occasion. “No matter which party is in power here,” he said, “Israel will have Australia’s friendship and support.” Note the lack of any caveat for minority governments and hung parliaments.

A year later Albanese was back with yet another hearty mazal tov, repeating that corny phrase and recycling chunks of the statement he issued the year prior. This happened again in 2023 and one more time in 2024, although the messaging by then had become much lower-key. You can’t even find what he said online.

But this year? Bubkes.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton issued a full-page statement saluting Israel statehood. Picture: Tony Gough

Not a word out of Albanese, even as Peter Dutton issued a full-page statement on Thursday practically saluting Jewish survival and Israeli statehood.

Albanese’s only gesture was to publish an election-day message in the Australian Jewish News that sought to shore-up Jewish votes ahead of polling day – and which conspicuously forgot to mention anything about Israel at all.

Was he worried that talk of Israel might play poorly among voters in Grayndler, or elsewhere?

We asked the prime minister’s office why he suddenly decided to break with years of hearty mazal tovs. But even with 12 media advisers available to answer questions, we received no reply.

Israel beckons for L1 Capital’s Lamm

Speaking of Israel, excuse us for not totally buying the idea that Raphael Lamm is stepping down from the management of L1 Capital to focus solely on stock picking. Pish posh.

And that’s if this deal with co-partner Mark Landau to merge with Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management actually goes ahead, as announced to the market on Thursday.

Yes, doing the Phil King thing, as Lamm and Landau suggest they’ll be doing, is what was sold to the press, to investors, and dutifully swallowed up by the lot of them like some sort of anodyne.

Not as widely known is that Lamm’s been talking about moving to Israel for years. His Hebrew is good. He has a block of land in Jerusalem that’s in line for development. His wife converted and speaks a bit of the language (plus fluent French). And they keep advertising on Facebook for Hebrew-speaking au pairs to help out with their trilingual kids.

So, come on, don’t tell us this merger with Platinum isn’t stage one of a broader exit strategy – although that’s exactly what Lamm did when we called.

He insisted he and Landau would step down as joint MDs if the deal went ahead, play no role in managing any Platinum funds, and remain focused on “on our existing investing responsibilities”.

As for the Israel bit: “It’s true that I bought a knockdown block of land in Jerusalem a few years ago, which I will eventually look to develop, but I’m totally committed to being based in Melbourne for the foreseeable future. In fact, I just recently bought a holiday house in Victoria, so I have no plans of moving.”

Ha. Like a holiday house ever tied someone to the ground.

You read it here first.

Spurned ACU professor lands at RMIT

RMIT University published a job advertisement in March seeking its first Dean of Law, and while applications are no longer being accepted we’ve heard rumours of a strong internal candidate suddenly in the offing.

Acting Dean Simon Pervan put out an email on Wednesday announcing a fresh hire at the school: Professor Kate Galloway, formerly of the Australian Catholic University.

We can understand why she wants absolutely nothing to do with the joint anymore, having been treated so shabbily through no fault of her own.

Galloway’s been named the School of Law’s deputy dean for learning and teaching, with Pervan laying out her extensive CV and calling her “internationally recognised as a leader in the futures of legal education”.

Professor Kate Galloway.

She was also, as Pervan noted, the Dean of Law at ACU for all of five minutes, a stint that might have lasted a bit longer had a handful of stakeholders not perceived her research into women’s rights and “reproductive justice” to be at odds with Church teachings.

We’ve written about this before.

ACU vice chancellor Zlatko Skrbis addressed the uproar by negotiating with Galloway to terminate her four-year contract as Dean, pay out her contract to the tune of more than $1m, and reassign her to a role with a fresh salary and the dubious title of “strategic professor”.

Who could blame her for running a mile at the first available opportunity. Much as other ACU leaders are doing, including Executive Dean Mary Ryan, who, as we reported this week, is ditching ACU for a job at Monash.