Between a rock and a hard place

Labor MP Ged Kearney’s share portfolio has landed her in a tricky political situation.

Labor MP Ged Kearney.

Labor MP Ged Kearney is between a rock and a hard place, according to her share portfolio.

The member for the chic inner-Melbourne seat of Cooper purchased a stake in Mineral Resources Ltd last month … a savvy move, given the mining company’s market cap is above $7.5bn and its shares closed at $39 last week — a 64 per cent jump in six months.

Nonetheless, it could prove divisive within her Left faction and electorate, given MRL’s Koolyanobbing iron ore site won Australia’s “Hard Rock Mine of the Year” in the 2020 Mining Prospect Awards.

According to its website: “MRL is an innovative and leading diversified mining services company … (with) a large footprint, providing mining services to clients throughout Western Australia and the Northern Territory, operating mine sites in the Pilbara and Goldfields regions and shipping product through Utah Point and Esperance.”

This isn’t the former ACTU president’s only rock-hard investment.

Kearney and her spinner husband, Leigh Hubbard, have stakes in two safe haven gold assets that performed well during the pandemic downturn: Saracen Mineral Holdings and Regis Resources Ltd.

Saracen is merging with another miner, Northern Star Resources, in a $16bn deal that will put Kearney in line for a special dividend and shares in the new entity (expected to become the world’s eighth-biggest gold producer).

However, Hubbard — a former Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary, who left a job in Labor MP Libby Coker’s office to join Daniel Andrews’s COVID-19 team — sold out of the Kerry Stokes-backed oil and gas explorer Beach Energy last year. We can only guess why.

On the other side of the coin, Liberal MP Tim Wilson and husband Ryan Bolger sold their Rio Tinto shares in December.

Under pressure

Ed Husic hasn’t wasted any time as Labor’s new coal face, visiting an open-cut mine near Maitland, NSW, on Friday.

He and local member Meryl Swanson donned high-vis vests and hard hats for a VIP tour by the Bloomfield Group.

“The company’s been here for 80 years and their operations today generate over 500 local jobs along with significant export dollars,” Husic noted in a glowing Instagram post.

The western Sydney MP replaced Joel Fitzgibbon as opposition resources spokesman in November and has been working on winning back the blue collar vote.

Despite ongoing red on red attacks.

Husic and Swanson’s attempt to include a pro-coal amendment in Labor’s draft policy platform was blocked last month by Jenny McAllister.

The senior Left senator — who serves as deputy chair of the National Policy Forum and co-founded the Labor Environment Action Network — said it should be excluded after being logged half a day late. An issue sure to smoulder until Labor’s National Conference in March.

Well sooted

The Nationals aren’t the only ones making a move into the NSW Hunter, which lost its title of Very Safe Labor seat at the last federal election.

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts is hosting a $45-a-head dinner at the Bellbird Hotel on Thursday; a meet and greet with the party’s lower house candidate Stuart Bonds.

“Let’s start the year with a lovely meal and prepare for our fight for Hunter,” the invite says, noting COVID-19 has capped numbers at 60.

It’s been another spellbinding week for Pauline Hanson, who discovered a web address with her name had been bought by an e-prankster and redirected to the Refugee Council of Australia.

The charity said it has no knowledge or involvement but “welcomed the off-chance Senator Hanson has changed her mind on refugee police”.

Spoiler — she hasn’t.

“One Nation continues to do everything in its power to stop illegal arrivals entering Australia, we will do everything in our power to stop people illegally squatting on domain names,” the party told SBS.

Market growth

Health Minister Greg Hunt’s family is expanding its investment in Gro Intelligence, an unlisted US-African agricultural data start-up.

The Liberal MP sought advice from the Prime Minister’s Department before his wife, Paula Lindsey, daughter Poppy and son James got involved in 2019.

Hunt updated his register of members interests in early January to note their purchase of extra shares.

“Vetted and approved in advance by PM & C in writing prior to the first investment,” he wrote.

Gro Intelligence promotes itself as “the most comprehensive agricultural data platform”, aimed at mapping food supply and demand across the world.

Thank Coo

Australia’s No 1 public enemy Joe the Pigeon has been spared the executioner’s axe.

Discovered by the aptly named Kevin Celli-Bird in a Melbourne backyard on Boxing Day, Joe (named after incoming US President Joe Biden) was initially suspected to have ridden a strong wind 15,000km from Alabama.

After getting in a flap, the Department of Agriculture has declared the wayward racing bird is a local.

“Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not present a biosecurity risk,” a statement said. “The department is satisfied that the bird’s leg band is a fraudulent copy of a legitimate leg band. No further action will be taken.”

Making this a near-miss Pistol and Boo moment for Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack.

“I’m sure Joe the Pigeon has contributed mightily to the economic outcomes of, you know, avarium bird life from whence Joe the Pigeon came,” Big Mack said on Friday. “Good luck, Joe. But if Joe has come in a way that has not met our strict biosecurity measures, then bad luck, Joe. Either fly home or face the consequences.”

After a colourful week (the annual Parkes Elvis Festival was COVID-cancelled so Big Mack needed to fill his dance card somehow), we’re told many in the ministerial wing are Berry pleased to have Scott Morrison back at work on Monday, fresh from his seven-day sojourn to NSW’s south coast.

Acting Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, on Joe the pigeon. @10NewsFirst pic.twitter.com/jcZjvmx4nx

— Chloe Bouras (@ChloeBouras) January 15, 2021

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