Darwin dash for Bridget McKenzie

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie is set to get back into cabinet on Friday, but the NT Covid-19 outbreak nearly scuttled her big moment.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie is set to get back into cabinet on Friday, but the Northern Territory Covid-19 outbreak nearly scuttled her big moment. Strewth can reveal the incoming Regionalisation Minister was among a bevy of Nats attending the Country Liberal Party conference in Darwin this weekend – where Jacinta Price beat incumbent senator Sam McMahon for preselection– and had to escape when NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner locked the entire territory down. After her guest speaker spot at the conference, McKenzie on Sunday had to quickly arrange a flight out of the Top End to avoid spending her winter in quarantine. At the same time she was attempting an Indiana Jones-style escape from the jaws of pandemic doom, her once and future boss Barnaby Joyce happened to announce on the veranda of a Walcha pub that she was back in cabinet after a long exile. “When I got home, I got the tests and isolated and went above and beyond,” she told Strewth. It’s unclear if the Covid-19 situation nationwide will let McKenzie get to Government House in Canberra. But at least she won’t be Zooming in from a Darwin hotel room. McKenzie wouldn’t even have been free to go see the crocodile park if she was trapped miles away from her Wodonga base. Other Nats who had to flee from the CLP conference up north included Queensland senator and Joyce consigliore Matthew Canavan and chief whip Damian Drum.

The dashing senator Bridget McKenzie. Picture: Getty Images

Swearing-in soiree

Scott Morrison’s first big event outside of his post-G7 Lodge quarantine will be the Government House swearing-in. It’ll also be the first time he’ll get to see his new deputy prime minister, Joyce, in the flesh since Michael McCormack was deposed. It’ll be a relief for parliamentarians and punters alike to see the Prime Minister is alive and not trapped in that pandemic Zoom TV he’s been communicating to us all from like some sort of cursed Covid spirit. Everyone will be waiting to see the chemistry – or lack of it – between the nation’s new dynamic duo. The body language experts must be getting booked by TV stations as we speak. Other Joyce appointees did want to go to Government House but most expect they’ll have to stick to Zoom due to the changing Covid-19 situation. New Regional Health Minister David Gillespie alsotold Strewth he wants the full in-person swearing-in experience but he’s awaiting advice from the Governor-General’s office on how the proceedings are to ultimately look. Assistant Minister Kevin Hogan – who’s adding local government to his responsibilities – is staying put in Queensland and Zooming in. “I can’t go through the Gold Coast, which is the nearest airport so it’d be nigh on impossible for me to go,” Hogan said.

Election Watch

As of Thursday, the nation is officially on federal election watch. Thursday is the first day that the PM is able to go to Governor-General David Hurley and request a half-Senate poll. Morrison can ask to devolve the House of Representatives at almost any time, but a lower-house-only election is generally considered to be really, really annoying for everyone. If Morrison were to call the house and half-senate election on Thursday then the G-G could then issue writs on Monday for an August 7 poll. Chances of an election being called this week? Minuscule, but you never know your luck in a big city.

Pride power

LGBTQI Pride Month is over and there has been some rather out-there virtue signalling from the nation’s big corporates. But the winner for weirdest woke stunt has to go to AGL Energy, who this month put up a Pride rainbow on a coal-fired power station in eastern Victoria. “We’re proudly flying the colours of the rainbow flag on Loy Yang A’s cooling tower … if you’re in the area drive by and check it out!” the energy giant tweeted. No doubt the nation’s gay community was flocking to AGL’s Tralagon site to breath in the fumes and the corporate support. Or maybe not. Australia doesn’t really do Pride Month. Our states’ different LGBTQI festivals are spread out throughout the year. Someone should alert AGL management.

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