By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles′ latest social post has us asking: what on Earth was he and/or his team thinking?
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles posted a meme referencing an infamous scene in The White Lotus.Credit: Instagram
In a fit of post-budget euphoria, a meme was posted to his Instagram account featuring an infamous scene from prestige murder mystery drama The White Lotus, in which the character Rick (played by Walton Goggins) visiting Thailand, goes for a drink with his old friend-turned local resident Frank (played by Sam Rockwell) only to be shocked by his mate’s revelations.
The attack post aimed at the Coalition included a photo of Frank with the caption, “The Liberals explaining how they’re opposing a tax cut for every taxpayer”, and then a reaction shot of a shocked Rick with the caption “Australian voters”.
The purpose, we guess, is as if to frame the federal opposition as the party of The White Lotus weirdness and Australians as the shocked everyman grappling with bizarre scenarios beyond their comprehension limit.
Just one problem.
The scene in the drama is so full of sexually graphic dialogue that inclusion of it invites accusations that Marles and/or his team are displaying terrible judgment.
What follows (and we are summarising here) is a graphic recounting by Frank of a Heart of Darkness-style voyage through a post-colonial sexual economy in an age of unlimited desire encompassing explicit references to sex addiction, drug use and penetrative anal sex.
It’s highly unusual, to say the least, to be able to link quotations from the scene such as “sex is a poetic act” and “I picked Thailand because I always had a thing for Asian girls” with the second-highest office in the land.
Suddenly, we are a long way from Labor’s budget and its three-day childcare guarantee.
The social media snafu comes on top of the controversy this week over Labor repurposing a racist meme to promote Medicare.
And a few months earlier, a Labor attack ad used a five-year-old newspaper article about Peter Dutton and his wife, Kirilly Dutton, with the headline “He is not a monster” to mock their marriage. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ordered that it be taken down.
We asked Marles’ people for a response, but they declined to comment.
One consolation: The White Lotus scene has been widely acclaimed as one of the best TV moments of the year.
Pride of place
The annual budget week charade continued on Wednesday, when Treasurer Jim Chalmers gave his customary lunchtime National Press Club address in the Great Hall of Parliament House.
Top business leaders who once flocked to Canberra in droves for budget week stayed home, but that wasn’t the case for Westpac, which paid $3 million to replace NAB as the club’s principal sponsor in 2015.
Newish chief executive Anthony Miller got the most coveted seat in the house, right next to Albanese, who made it to Chalmers’ speech with seconds to spare. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher (who Chalmers labelled “the best colleague I ever had”) and Marles were also up the front.
Westpac chief Anthony Miller and Anthony Albanese at the Press Club on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Westpac occupied prime real estate in the Great Hall. Guests on its tables included Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet boss Glyn Davis, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, and Labor national secretary and campaign mastermind Paul Erickson.
Trade Minister Don Farrell supped with the folks from Macquarie, and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland was on the Telstra table. But the MPs in attendance were all forced to rush out when a division bell summoned them back to the House.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and wife Laura Chalmers arrive for his National Press Club speech.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
CBD spotted former ABC news director Gaven Morris, now leading the corporate affairs team at Commonwealth Bank, seated at the table bought by Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s private investment company Tattarang.
Chalmers’ address began with a jibe about there being two new presidents since his last budget – “Trump and Connell”, a reference to Sky News’ Tom Connell, who replaced the ABC’s Laura Tingle in the press club’s top job.
The treasurer also drew chuckles with a few jabs at his Coalition opposite number, Angus Taylor, who he clearly sees as an easy target.
“I’d happily debate him every week of the campaign,” Chalmers said.
Party by invitation only
On Wednesday night, there was an event 35 years in the making – a birthday celebration of master caterer Bruce Keebaugh’s The Big Group at The Commons Collective off St Kilda Road, doubling as the launch of his commemorative book By Invitation Only.
Flashback: Chyka Keebaugh and Bruce Keebaugh in 2015. Credit: Shaney Balcombe
Keebaugh was on hand with his wife, erstwhile Real Housewives of Melbourne star Chyka Keebaugh, but before the night started, the event planner in him couldn’t resist issuing instructions to guests with a set of “rules of engagement”.
These included the following travel rules:
“Do not drive … Do not try and park ... Get an Uber/taxi - it’s going to be busy, and you want to have fun!”
The dress code was listed as “dress f****** fabulously”, with the following addendum: “But you do you – there is no pressure, unless you look terrible?”
More on what sounds like a fabulous night when we have it.
In high demand
There was much talk about the vapid content creators (we hear they don’t like being called #influencers) who received the red carpet treatment from the Albanese government on budget day.
But at the Kingston Hotel, the knockabout watering hole beloved by gallery hacks and staffers of all stripes, the celebrity drawcard was ... Pauline Hanson.
Senator Pauline Hanson was a crowd favourite at the Kingston Hotel on budget night. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The One Nation leader, whose reactionary views on immigration are now accepted as a feature, not a bug, of the Australian political landscape, was constantly accosted for selfies throughout the evening at the Kingo. Perhaps this is the vibe shift they keep talking about.
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