By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might have vanquished Scott Morrison at the polls three years ago, his performance during that election campaign didn’t always inspire confidence. Who could forget that infamous first-day gaffe, when the then-opposition leader forgot the unemployment rate during a press conference? A portent of things to come, in retrospect.
Three years on, Albo is floundering, and Dutton has turned his “strong man for hard anti-woke times” schtick into an electorally credible alternative. So the prime minister has called in a political bruiser of his own to help him prepare for upcoming election debates against the man who wants to make Albanese a one-term wonder.
Enter Daniel Andrews, Victorian premier from 2014 to 2023 and three-time election winner, who will role-play as Dutton in practice debates that Albo’s team hope will sharpen the boss up in time for a campaign which could kick off in a matter of weeks.
Dan was last seen in this column getting a lucrative hand-holding gig with Visy chairman and cardboard box billionaire Anthony Pratt, who donated a cool $1 million to the Labor Party, according to disclosures.
Andrews was also appointed chairman of youth mental health charity Orygen last November, which caused a stir given his fondness for putting the state into six lockdowns.
The last election featured a notoriously cantankerous debate on Nine, owner of this masthead, between Albanese and Morrison, in which host Sarah Abo put in a valiant effort to maintain the peace.
Does Albo really need Dan’s help in bringing back the (proverbial) biff? Well, Andrews definitely brings a take-no-prisoners approach to such things.
He gave an interview to the Socially Democratic podcast in 2023 where he summed up reactions to his time in office thus: “In Victoria, the haters hate and the rest vote Labor and that’s fine by me. Call me what you want.” Can’t say it’s really Albo’s vibe.
A Toorak tale
The latest Toorak property moves resemble a giant game of Cluedo: it’s Paul Little and Jane Hansen in Clendon Road for $130 million.
Paul Little and Jane Hansen’s Coonac estate in Toorak has sold for at least $100 million.Credit: Craig Abraham
Actually, the mystery is not that the rich-lister business and philanthropist couple have sold one of Melbourne’s most coveted addresses – the 1867 Toorak estate Coonac.
The two-storey 20-room Italianate mansion fronts sought-after Clendon Road and sits on a landscaped estate of more than one hectare with a grass tennis court and swimming pool complete with a cabana. Naturally.
Rather, the mystery concerns the identity of the buyer – and the price. The latest, closest sourcing that has come into CBD’s orbit is $135 million, not the record $150 million mentioned in some reports. But others put it into the $115 million to $120 million range. Perhaps it’s in the category of if you have to ask, you’ll never know.
And the purchaser? Several well-placed agents and sources are pointing at pharmaceutical billionaire Dennis Bastas, who has just bought out cosmetics firm MCoBeauty in a deal that values the firm at $1 billion. He is having none of it.
“I have no idea how my name came up,” Bastas told us. “I do not know anything about this transaction. I already have a wonderful house in Toorak.”
Can’t fault that logic. But logic stops at the borders of 3142, where barely anyone owns merely one home. Billionaire Little, the former Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman, and former investment banker Hansen, the chancellor of the University of Melbourne, already own a second house nearby. In 2020, they dropped about $18 million to buy Simmonds House on Toorak Road West in South Yarra with a view to restoring it.
All will be revealed when the property eventually settles. Unless the favourite technique of the super rich, a proxy in the form of a family company or solicitor or buyer’s agent’s name appears on the title deed instead. Maybe the envelope will open to reveal it was Colonel Mustard on Lansell Road holding a vape. When we know, you will.
Groth tees off
SPOTTED: Victorian deputy opposition leader and sport and major events spokesman Sam Groth dancing (sort of) at LIV Golf League event featuring DJ Dom Dolla performing inside a giant golf ball. His crew included wife Brittany Groth, TV presenter Jessie Roberts and ubiquitous major eventist Bec Judd.
And fun to see reports beating up some rather neutral comments from Groth into an “audacious bid” to “snatch LIV Golf from Adelaide”.
This would be an amazing political feat from opposition.
Shame for those who’d bought the line, given SA Premier Peter Malinauskas popped up on Sunday morning to announce Adelaide had secured the event through to at least 2028.
Supporting cast
The real-life succession battle dividing the children of billionaire media dark lord Rupert Murdoch has provided your correspondents far more entertainment than a certain over-hyped HBO dramedy could ever muster.
Rupert Murdoch walks on the sidelines before the Super Bowl.Credit: AP
Many of the gory details of a lengthy legal battle between the Murdoch children over the fate of the family trust were revealed in a New York Times Magazine piece last week. And without revealing too many spoilers, we did note a few intriguing cameos from old friends of this column.
One was former prime minister Tony Abbott, whose 2023 appointment by Lachlan Murdoch to the board of Fox Corporation angered older siblings Prudence MacLeod and Elisabeth Murdoch.
“I can’t support Lachlan if he doesn’t change his stance on climate change,” Prue wrote to her sister. “He has now appointed the ghastly Tony Abbott to the Fox board, which I’m sure you know.”
Liz reportedly responded: “Oh my God, what a bad move. Definitely making it clear I am voting against that appointment.”
Another recurring side character was News Corp broadcasting chief executive Siobhan McKenna, described as a longtime advisor to Lachlan, and a key participant in “Project Family Harmony”, as Rupert and Lachlan’s failed plan to strip the more progressive Murdoch children of power over the company’s future became known.
In these parts, McKenna is also chair of Australia Post, a position she was appointed to by the Albanese government in 2022. But in old CBD lore, she’s best known for her smutty thriller Man in Armour, published by News Corp-owned Harper Collins in 2020, described by this column as making 50 Shades of Grey look tame.
These are very serious people.
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