Tiger King crowned in exotic WA

Could a former Western Australia premier’s son be the next Tiger King? Sam Barnett has big plans.

Is Sam Barnett set to become WA's Tiger King?

Could Colin Barnett’s son be Australia’s Tiger King? Sam Barnett, the youngest child of Western Australia’s former premier, tells Strewth he is planning to open a 350ha exotic animal sanctuary in the East Kimberley. And he has just bought two Sumatran tigers from the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in the US — the Oklahoma zoo once owned by notorious big cat collector Joe Exotic, star of the popular Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, Madness. The eccentric Exotic, most recognisable for his bleached mullet, is (spoiler alert) serving 22 years in prison for trying to hire a hitman to kill big-cat activist Carole Baskin. Hence Barnett’s friends call him “the Australian Tiger King with no hair”.

Sam Barnett, the youngest son of former WA Premier Colin Barnett, is in talks with the new owners of Joe Exotic’s Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park about importing two pure–bred Sumatran tigers.

The 30-year-old has left his party-boy life behind and splits his time between Western Australia and Florida while running his property investment company, Pearllargo. In November last year he closed on an isolated Kununurra property that he will develop into the private open-range Kimberley Zoo. But he won’t say exactly where or who the previous owner was. All we know is that it has a “climate suitable to many native African and Asian species of animal”. By 2022, Barnett hopes to house 40 exotic species, including six pure Arabian horses, three Grevy’s zebras, three critically endangered scimitar-horned oryx and four Congo buffalo. Unlike Exotic’s enterprise, Barnett’s park won’t be open to the public. Instead, it will “preserve the pure genome of endangered animal species” and Barnett has already hired a former Queensland Zoo veterinarian to run the breeding program. How is he funding all this? With the help of a “mystery donor” who we understand is a “well-known Fort Lauderdale businesswoman”.

Living out the plot of Matt Damon flick We Bought A Zoo must run in the family. The senior Barnett also planned to build a safari park in Perth’s Swan Valley, but that went out the window after the Liberals’ thumping state election loss in 2017.

Colin and Lyn Barnett, with son Sam Barnett and girlfriend Melissa Garbin.

As for the two Tiger King tigers, Mittens and Bobby, the critically endangered animals already have travelled from Oklahoma to Florida. In August they will arrive in Queensland, where they will be quarantined for up to two months before moving to Western Australia, pending approvals. And for the record, Barnett tells us: “I’m actually not naturally bald. I shaved my head because my hairline was receding more than the Sumatran tiger population.”

The one that got away

How did Malcolm Turnbull celebrate the first anniversary of Scott Morrison’s miracle election win last May? With a spot of socially distanced fishing from the private wharf behind his harbourside mansion, Strewth is reliably informed. Dressed in boat shoes (no socks), black track pants, a Kathmandu gilet (a fancy term for a puffer jacket) and sunglasses, the former prime minister ventured out solo in Sydney’s crisp autumn weather to cast a line from the pontoon behind his $52m Point Piper abode. He struggled with his lure for a few minutes before heading back inside, empty-handed. The fish, perhaps, were scared at the prospect of a grilling, like the one Turnbull gives former colleagues in his bestselling tome.

21st-century Albo

Labor leader Anthony Albanese is on the hunt for a new senior press secretary based in Sydney, who will cost taxpayers between $130,000 and $159,999. “Working as part of the Media Unit, the Senior Press Secretary is responsible for providing high-level media advice to the Leader of the Opposition,” reads the listing on Seek. The new spinner will need seven to 10 years’ experience to “manage complex media issues and promote the policies of the Australian Labor Party”. “Desirable” criteria include “highly developed … storytelling skills, particularly in social media and email formats”. After the latest Newspoll — and the rise of the factional Otis group of 20 Labor MPs and senators — poor old Albo needs all the help he can get. We wonder if the new staff member’s duties will include transitioning the 57-year-old into the digital age? At a press conference with Eden-Monaro candidate Kristy McBain on Tuesday, Albo bizarrely said: “I don’t have a fax in the car, so I haven’t had the opportunity to go through all the details” of the government’s carbon capture storage plan.

Good word to get right

Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt claims his COVID-19 economic recovery plan will create a whopping 870,000 jobs! However, one eagle-eyed Strewth reader identified a bigger problem in the graphic shared by Bandt and his senators on social media — an elementary typo, “43,000 jobs to save the arts and rebuild eduction (sic)”. Perhaps Bandt needs a new press secretary (or copywriter).

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