By Kishor Napier-Raman and Gemma Grant
As sure as death and taxes is the conga line of ministerial staffers leaving their jobs in politics after an election.
The highest-profile of those departures is Anthony Albanese’s press secretary Katharine Murphy, who CBD can report is moving on from the prime minister’s office after just 18 months in the role, and was busy saying her farewells to the press gallery on Wednesday morning.
Katharine Murphy on the set of Insiders in 2017, when she was political editor for Guardian Australia.Credit: Meredith O’Shea
“Murpharoo,” as she’s affectionately known, left her role as Guardian Australia’s political editor to join the prime minister’s office last January, in a move that was mocked by former opposition leader Peter Dutton during one of his numerous broadsides against the press gallery.
“I am genuinely shocked to see Murpharoo take up a spot to now be officially running lines for Labor,” Dutton quipped before taking a swing at this masthead’s then chief political correspondent David Crowe.
Murphy was replaced by veteran journalist Karen Middleton, beginning a period of instability in The Guardian’s Canberra bureau. Reporters Dan Hurst, Amy Remeikis and Paul Karp, along with photographer Mike Bowers, all left the bureau in quick succession.
Middleton and Karp would both make claims of workplace misconduct against each other, before the political editor formally left in March, after taking several months of medical leave. Karp, who joined our stablemate, The Australian Financial Review, said he “left with my head held high and with a clean record” in a farewell speech to colleagues. Middleton hasn’t commented and CBD is not taking sides.
That leaves the influential role of political editor very much up for grabs. CBD hears recruitment has been put on hold while The Guardian’s forever editor Lenore Taylor is in Europe. Could Murphy return to the fold? We reached out to her and The Guardian but didn’t hear back.
There is precedent for Murphy making a comeback. Anne Davies, the outlet’s Gold Walkley-winning former investigations editor quit to work as a spinner for teal MP Sophie Scamps in 2023, but returned to The Guardian last year and is filing from NSW Parliament in Macquarie Street.
But CBD hears Murphy is likely to take a bit of a breather to spend some quality time with husband Mark Davis, a former journalist and senior Labor staffer who is retiring from the game.
For Australia’s sake, we hope Murphy’s latest departure doesn’t trigger a similar meltdown in the PMO. Not likely, given Albo has eight more spinners left to pick up the slack.
Clive’s courtroom capers
Nevertheless, Clive Palmer persisted.
The eccentric billionaire mining magnate and wannabe populist political leader is well known in this column for his tally of legal losses, including five before the High Court.
But this month, a once in a blue moon event came around, as Palmer’s Mineralogy was finally awarded legal costs following an epic dispute with Chinese conglomerate CITIC over the $20 billion Sino Iron project in Western Australia.
Blue moon… Clive Palmer had a rare legal win.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
And by epic, we mean the original proceedings ran between 2013 and 2017, followed by a 10-day trial and a rejected High Court appeal in a matter compared by a judge to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. With less bloodshed.
The fiendishly complex matter brought a rare victory for Palmer’s company, awarded hundreds of millions in relief.
But then, for reasons never explained by either side, the parties refused to work out the legal costs owed to Mineralogy. Primary judge Kenneth Martin, who’d retired by the time the parties first held a mediation in 2023, described both sides as gripped by “sustained inertia”.
Justice Michael Lundberg wasn’t thrilled about having to pick up the case years later, chastising the parties for an “extraordinary and excessive” delay he suggested might break some kind of record for commercial litigation in Australia.
Palmer’s company was ultimately awarded costs. But Mineralogy’s claim that CITIC pay is costs on an indemnity basis, allowing the company to effectively recoup all its squillions in legal fees was rejected by the judge, who pointed to both parties’ role in the “grossly excessive” delay.
This didn’t stop Palmer claiming victory.
“This is another clear win for Mineralogy. Justice has again been served and the truth continues to prevail,” he said in a statement.
“We stood firm through years of legal delay, and this ruling confirms the legitimacy of our position. CITIC must now meet the costs of their failed defence.”
With Clive’s courtroom record, you take the wins whenever you can.
Flying low
Premier Chris Minns is normally so well put together.
Fly in the chamber… Premier Chris Minns had to attend to an “urgent” matter in parliament.Credit: News Corp Australia
Less so during question time in state parliament on Tuesday, when the premier began his first response with his fly undone.
It didn’t go unnoticed. Enter Sports Minister Steve Kamper, who quickly bowled up the premier while he was at the dispatch box yelling out “urgent”.
Minns gathered his composure and fixed his trousers in time to answer a dixxer from Leppington MP Nathan Hagarty.
“I thank the member for Rockdale for his urgent message. There seems to be a fly buzzing around here.”
Handled like a pro.
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