By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
CBD was delighted to learn that Tabcorp, under the new management of ex-AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, has decided to take the brave step of banning politicians from its marquee on the hallowed turf of the Birdcage at Flemington during Melbourne Cup week.
Tabcorp chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Credit: Eamon Gallagher
The gaming, media and wagering services company missed its cost guidance at its results in August and its share price tanked, 18 days into the McLachlan tenure. So cost-cutting is now a big focus, even during spring racing. Tabcorp will also axe its secondary entertainment structure well away from the Birdcage near Flemington’s winning post.
Instead, it will lavish attention on its own clients in its marquee rather than self-important snout-in-the-trough elected officials out for a good time on someone else’s dime.
You have to hand it to McLachlan, CBD thought. Since taking the job in August, the tall man has moved with patrician assurance to stamp his mark on the organisation, and this ban is just the latest example of inspired leadership.
But that was before we learnt that McLachlan’s marquee ban also extended to journalists, including your columnists.
Those were the days: Liberal MP Paul Fletcher in the Tabcorp marquee in 2019.Credit: Chris Hopkins
So now we feel he is exhibiting a rather hamfisted approach to stakeholder relations and has given succour to critics who always thought his sector inexperience meant he was a bad fit for the job.
The Tabcorp ban is not the only big change. The Victoria Racing Club says the Birdcage will be a “magical mini metropolis” with “marquees, bars, gardens and other happenings”. It will feature “remarkable bespoke buildings” offering “unparalleled levels of design, sophistication, catering and entertainment” from its partners, which include Lexus, Penfolds, Furphy, G.H. Mumm, Crown Melbourne and broadcast partner Nine (owner of this column).
Curiously, no mention of the Herald Sun, which has had a prominent marquee in the Birdcage for more than a decade. For context, the Nine Network is the free-to-air broadcast partner of the Melbourne Cup carnival, taking over from Ten. And News Corp is the official print media partner of the carnival.
So it’s farewell to the famous Herald Sun marquee, but News Corp is still backing the VRC’s spring racing carnival in a big way with a heavy slate of corporate entertaining headed up by the company’s managing director of client partnerships, Lou Barrett. Expect the Terrace Restaurant in the Hill Stand opposite the winning post but well away from the Birdcage to feature heavily.
The loss of Tabcorp hospitality privileges will create extra anguish for politicians already smarting after some wise soul scheduled a House of Representatives sitting week as well as Senate estimates hearings for the first week of November.
Tabcorp, which declined to give us a statement, won’t even be welcoming politicians on the first Saturday’s Derby Day. That leaves Stakes Day at the unfashionable back end of the Cup week calendar for them to enjoy.
HELLO AGAIN
Once part of a sacked local council but keen to run for election again? That’s no problem in Victoria.
Two members of the Whittlesea council, which was plagued by a revolving door of five chief executives in five years before it was sacked by the state government on the advice of an administrator in 2020, are throwing their hat back in the ring in October for council elections.
Even Simon Overland, a former Victorian police commissioner, could not sort out the toxic culture before he departed in 2019.
Why am I doing this? Simon Overland at a council meeting in 2019 before he was controversially sacked.Credit: Eddie Jim
Lawrie Cox, who served as a Labor-endorsed councillor from 1979 to 1986 and 2016 to 2020, and was part of the council that was dumped as a whole in 2020, has nominated for the Ganbu Gulinj ward.
Cox said he had backed the council’s dismissal and was now returning to address “unfinished business”.
He felt the council needed a mixture of new and old faces to get things back on track.
“The council became dysfunctional as a result of people not getting their own way with their pet projects,” he said. “What we’ve got to do is get local government back on a stable track.”
Stevan Kozmevski, a former Labor-endorsed mayor and councillor of more than two decades is also back in the running despite being part of the 2020 group. He told CBD he was supportive of the decision to dismiss the council after Overland left. The councillor had disagreed with the circumstances behind Overland’s departure.
The previous council had been like “a bad marriage”, he said. Given that unpleasant experience, why is he running again? “I am running to give support to younger new candidates and be a mentor.”
BIRTHDAY CROWD
Graham “Richo” Richardson, the Labor powerbroker of yore, once described the adrenaline rush of being Bob Hawke’s numbers man as “better than sex and almost as exciting as a good feed”.
Richo’s heyday has passed, but the appetite for a long lunch never wanes. CBD’s spies spotted the former minister celebrating his 75th birthday in typical fashion – surrounded by a posse of influential friends at Sydney’s famed inner-city power-lunching venue the Malaya at the weekend.
Former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson. Credit: Ben Appleton
Seated next to the man of the hour was captain’s pick former foreign minister Bob Carr (also a former NSW premier). Other mates included Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, and Sam Crosby, head of Labor-aligned think tank the McKell Institute. We hear Crosby is keen to replace retiring Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney as the next member for the federal Sydney seat of Barton.
Also spotted were former Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates; human hairdo Richard Wilkins, entertainment editor at Nine; and former Socceroo Mark Bosnich. The boys celebrated with a chocolate cake adorned by a single candle.
While age and cancer battles have slowed Richo, once known as the “Senator for Kneecaps”, the man is still out hustling for Liberal powerbroker Michael Photios’ lobbying firm. Those lunches won’t pay for themselves after all.
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