Listening tour

The Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s travel calendar has raised a few eyebrows, especially among FIFO politicos keen to participate in her review of Parliament House’s culture.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins.

Kate Jenkins’ travel calendar has raised a few eyebrows within women’s WhatsApp groups, especially among FIFO politicos keen to participate in her review of Parliament House’s culture. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner appears to be working against the sitting week schedule, as she tours the country interviewing past and present staff. While parliament was sitting in Canberra last week, Jenkins was conducting chats in Adelaide and Perth. During this week’s sitting, she’ll be holding one-on-ones in Sydney. Jenkins has promised to provide an update in July, after spending the first two weeks of parliament’s winter break flying between Brisbane, Melbourne, Hobart Townsville and Darwin. So far, the only fully book~ed sessions are in Canberra between July 7 and 11. “We’ll provide an update in July on the response we’ve had,” Jenkins said last week. “A number of people have registered for interviews, we’ve started those interviews and also provided submissions. So we’ve been really heartened. The conversations we’ve had, which are strictly confidential, have been really open and frank and we are really thinking anyone who’s worked in or with parliament, federal parliament, including electoral offices and around it, to contact us to make a time to contribute.” The terms of reference encourage anyone who has been employed in a federal electoral office (including volunteers, interns and students) or within parliament, in hospitality, retail, cleaning, security or other service providers, to be interviewed or contribute a written submission.

Kristina Keneally.

Spin cycle

There’s been some confusion in Labor circles about the familiar name joining Kristina Keneally’s spin team. Liz Jackson starts work on Monday as the new press secretary for the opposition Home Affairs spokeswoman, fresh off the boat from a year running media for the Disability Royal Commission. Jackson previously worked for 26 years at the ABC as a presenter of local breakfast radio in Canberra, and current affairs show Saturday AM. Avid readers may recall that for two decades, Aunty was home to not one but two Liz Jackson’s. Liz Jackson – the Walkley Award winning host of Four Corners and mother to NSW Labor MLC Rose Jackson – passed away from Parkinson’s in 2018.

A handful of recruits have come and gone from Keneally’s office in the past six months, so here’s hoping Jackson sticks the landing.

The Saturday AM crew broadcasting from delightful Melbourne today pic.twitter.com/7ckmYpH22r

— Liz Jackson (@liz__jackson) September 12, 2015

Rule Brittania

David Feeney has emerged from section 44 Siberia to offer some *cough* constructive criticism to the media. The former Labor frontbencher is best remembered for forgetting that he owned a $2.3m house and being forced to resign in 2018 from his Melbourne seat of Batman (renamed Cooper) after failing to prove he had renounced his British citizenship. Or as Malcolm Turnbull put it: “He lost his papers. Did the dog eat them? Did he leave them in the house he overlooked? If you can overlook a house, you can presumably overlook a few papers.” Liberty Sanger, Feeney’s wife who “does the finances”, popped up last week on the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the law and community, for her work as a principal lawyer and director at Maurice Blackburn. Since leaving politics, Feeney has been quietly working as a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a contractor for the Victorian Defence Council and member of firearms company NIOA’s advisory board. He is also pursuing a PhD in classical and ancient studies at Melbourne University. Somehow, the forgetful Feeney found himself offering analysis on Stephen Donnelly’s podcast Socially Democratic this month. Things started comically. “The bigger issue for Victoria Labor is, how do we continue to manage covering up the fact that Daniel (Andrews) got into a fight with John Setka and the Comanchero while staying in Lindsay Fox’s secret headquarters underground in the Mornington Peninsula,” Feeney chortled, before turning his eye to the fourth estate. “The Australian media has been a desperate case for a long time,” he claimed. “I mean, on the one hand you’ve got News Limited who aches to be a Trump rally and is just getting worse and worse and worse, and on the other hand we have the ABC, the Guardian and the Age, who are just desperate for Adam Bandt to step up to the challenge of leading this country forward. So it’s pretty lean pickings out there. Remember only the Pope and journalists are infallible.” This from a guy who once leaked sensitive Labor briefing notes by leaving them behind in a Sky News studio.

Liberty Sanger and David Feeney.

Green thumb

Speaking of the Victorian Greens, Strewth apparently ruffled a few feathers when we started asking questions about the party’s yet to be announced candidate in Macnamara. We hear Steph Hodgins-May is taking her third stab at the federal inner city seat formerly known as Melbourne Ports, against incumbent Labor MP Josh Burns. Hodgins-May’s Instagram account – @vote1Steph – has come out of hibernation in recent weeks, she’s posed for new headshots and the perennial Greens hopeful penned an op-ed for the Canberra Times about climate action. The 30-something lawyer received an endorsement from former Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs in 2019, but faced a backlash in 2016 after snubbing a debate organised by the Jewish News and Zionism Victoria.

That’s in Queensland

Q: “Regarding Norfolk Island, will they get a member of parliament?”

Annastacia Palaszczuk: “No, they will not. Because they are still administered by the federal government. But it is nice to see we are taking a little bit from NSW. First Norfolk Island, next Byron Bay. Only kidding, Gladys.”

We’re sure NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is too busy with her hot spots and her new lawyer “boo” Arthur Moses, to respond to the Queensland Premier’s sledge.  

Arthur Moses, Gladys Berejiklian and Mary Berejiklian.

Baby got backhand

Tennis legend and Liberal MP John Alexander received his first AstraZeneca jab on Friday, two weeks before turning 70. “When you're playing for big money in professional tennis you play the percentages, so, too, the ‘Game of Life’. Play smart, play the percentages, look after your health and the health of others: get vaccinated,” he said. “The rewards outweigh the tiny risks.” Just like those who have bared arms before him, Alexander had a piece of sartorial advice after getting served a shot — “if you have a business shirt, I recommend wearing a T-shirt underneath or a singlet …!”.

JA GOT HIS FIRST ASTRAZENECA JAB TODAY: "Play the percentages, when you're playing for your life, and the life of...

Posted by John Alexander on Thursday, June 17, 2021

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