Malcolm Turnbull tucks in for a busy week ahead

The former PM hosts Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor and the ABC’s Laura Tingle among other guests at a family knees-up.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: John Grainger

There’s no turning back for Malcolm Turnbull after a difficult week that saw the former prime minister removed from a NSW net-zero emissions board just eight days after his appointment. He’ll turn up today at a hearing for the Senate’s inquiry into media diversity, and will no doubt he highly critical of News Corp Australia, the publisher of this newspaper, which he blames for his removal from The Lodge. And there were certainly a few journalists to consult — if he had any need — on Sunday when he and his wife, Lucy Turnbull, threw open the doors of their Point Piper spread for an afternoon lunch in the sun.

In attendance? None other than Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor and senior ABC political reporter Laura Tingle. Turnbull, as he writes in his memoir, introduced Taylor to the Guardian’s then editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger when the British masthead was exploring opening an antipodean operation. The knees-up, attendees told Strewth, was partly to belatedly celebrate Lucy Turnbull’s March birthday and to mark the couple’s wedding anniversary. We’re told the afternoon was a hit. Others who scored a coveted invitation included Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons, Hamilton producer Michael Cassel, author and editor Georgie Dent, businessman (and yachtsman) Neville Crichton (who lives next door) and local socialite Skye Leckie. Of some note was the appearance ofNSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. After a rough few days between the Turnbulls and the NSW government, all seems forgiven.

Philip’s island blues

While the world reels from the death of Prince Philip, a small island village in the South Pacific is feeling his loss more than most. For the Yaohnanen people on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, the prince was much more than the gaffe-prone husband of the Queen or the man behind the Duke of Edinburgh awards. The tribe believed he was a “pale skinned son of a mountain spirit” and descended from a spirit ancestor. The cult of Philip is thought to have been established in the 1950s, but the movement gained greater popularity when the prince and Queen visited Vanuatu on official duties in 1974.

Some of Prince Philip’s fans in Vanuatu. Picture: Facebook

“According to our ancient tales, the son travelled over the seas to a distant land, married a powerful lady and would in time return,” the Prince Philip Movement’s Facebook page read. “After observing the respect accorded to Queen Elizabeth II by colonial officials and the high regard afforded His Holiness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Saviour of All Mankind, we have concluded that His Divine Majesty Prince Philip, must be the Son from our prophesies.” Philip caught wind of the cult over the years and sent numerous letters to the village’s chief, as well as autographed photographs. The villagers in return sent him gifts including a traditional pig-killing club called a nal-nal. Despite the chief’s pleas for a royal visit, the duke never made it to Tanna. “Can you tell Prince Philip we are waiting for him?,” they wrote in 2012. Following the duke’s death, the group declared his spirit had “returned to Tanna”. Perhaps they got their long-awaited visit after all.

His spirit returns to Tanna!

Posted by Prince Philip Movement on Friday, April 9, 2021

Match made in Nyngan

Long before she met and married Energy Minister Angus Taylor, Louise Clegg had her sights set on a king rather than a politician. Once upon a time (1973 to be precise) in a land far, far away (Nyngan in central NSW) a five-year-old Clegg was entertaining the idea of her own royal wedding and sent a personal request to Philip through her grandfather — the then-mayor of Dubbo. “DEAR DUKE, Please keep your youngest prince for me. If you do not have a prince, a King will do. LOVE LOUISE,” she wrote at the time. The letter was passed to the duke by her grandfather, Macquarie Country Council chairman Harry Clifford Clegg, when Philip came to town during a royal visit. “We’re hearing many charming examples of the way Prince Philip was so adept at touching the lives of ordinary people — here’s a personal one,” Taylor wrote on his Facebook page. “As a five year old, my wife Louise wrote a letter to Prince Philip. It made the front page of the Dubbo Daily Liberal on October 29, 1973, which happened to be her fifth birthday.” The local paper reported that the Duke of Edinburgh flew out of Dubbo with “goodwill and a little girl’s written request for a ‘prince or a king’ tucked securely in his pocket”. Taylor said that the prince’s passing had brought back a lot of wonderful memories for many people, including his wife. Presumably there’s no hard feelings between Clegg and the duke considering his youngest son, Prince Edward, went on to marry Sophie Rhys-Jones.

Gender pay gap

According to the ABC’s political editor Andrew Probyn, Scott Morrison learned about the gender pay gap only two weeks ago. The journalist told Insiders on Sunday that the Prime Minister had been “gobsmacked” when he recently learned of an economic disparity between the sexes. “I’ve heard inside government that Scott Morrison was gobsmacked that there was even a gender pay gap because he can’t understand why you would have women and men paid differently for doing the same job,” an equally gobsmacked Probyn said. Considering Morrison served as treasurer for three years, Strewth calls Probyn’s bluff on this one. A spokesman for the Prime Minister agreed and said the claim was “demonstrably false”. According to him: “The Prime Minister has for many years discussed and sought to directly address the gender pay gap in Australia. Under our government, the gender pay gap has shrunk from 17.4 per cent in September 2013 to 13.9 per cent in the latest figures.” Going back through the archives shows Morrison used the term in a September 2018 tweet in which he called Labor out for failing to address wage inequality when they were in power.

The more you know.

Under Labor, the gender pay gap increased from 15.5% to 17.2%. Under our Government it has fallen to 14.5% and heading in right direction #Moretodo.

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 22, 2018

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