By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
It looked for a while there like the humble office Christmas party was under threat. Two years of COVID-induced paranoia about having fun were followed by a cost of living crisis and mass layoffs in sectors like tech that led some companies to decide a big, extravagant bash might be a bad look.
But for those lucky enough to land an invite to a private do held by Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar last December, the party never went away. Farquhar managed to get US rockers The Killers – in Sydney for an Australian tour - to play a private set, with local electronic meme lords The Bag Raiders a handy support act.
Scott Farquhar.Credit: Bloomberg
Atlassian wouldn’t comment on the whole extravagance, which we hear was a private party held by Farquhar. And while those in the know are tight-lipped about the price, it can’t have been cheap given a similarly exclusive Killers show held by Liberty Financial in Melbourne last year cost around $3 million.
Which seems a lot to hear Mr Brightside, but a mere drop in the ocean for Farquhar, recent owner of Australia’s most expensive house.
BACK IN THE HOUSE
Parliament House Canberra has a way of drawing people back. But even we were surprised to see disgraced former Labor MP Craig Thomson — someone who’s been in the news a bit over the years, what with one thing or another — hanging out at one of the building’s cafes last Friday.
BenkeCredit: Joe Benke
Thomson wouldn’t tell us who he was in town to meet, but we doubt it could be anyone on the Labor side. After all, it’s been nearly a decade since he was expelled from the party.
Whatever Thomson was up to in Canberra last week, it was clearly important enough for the former MP to take time out of his busy schedule of appearances in Central Coast courtrooms, as he faces state and federal criminal charges over alleged COVID support payment and visa migration frauds, plus another over allegedly breaching an apprehended violence order.
SETTING SAIL
CBD loves to see people get back on their feet after a tough time, so we wish a bon voyage to former City of Melbourne chief executive Justin Hanney, who sets sail in a new direction after his resignation from his $530,000-a-year job at the council last year.
Readers will recall that Hanney was under investigation by the council at the time he called it quits, after crowdsourcing about $36000 to fund a Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race entry, with some of the cash coming from anonymous donors.
The council later found that the money should have been declared, and Hanney returned most of the payments to the Australian Sports Foundation, the funding body through which the donations had been raised.
Hanney co-owned the yacht with Nick Foa, the former head of transport services at Victoria’s Department of Transport, who resigned from his senior public service role following a separate government internal probe into his role in the crowd-sourcing activities.
But, onward and upward and Monday morning sees Hanney, charting a fresh course when he starts his new gig with workplace solutions gurus Davidsons as a senior partner.
Looks like the mutual admiration between Hanney and his new employer isn’t new. He wrote the foreword for the consultants’ 2022 local government index and offered a few kind words for promotional purposes.
“I commend Davidson for their leadership in providing this invaluable information on our Local Government Sector,” the then council CEO wrote.
Hanney told us on Sunday that he was excited to be joining Davidson’s business advisory arm.
POPPIN’ OUT
Looks like that time-honoured Melbourne tradition — a big opening night for a large-scale theatre production — is well and truly back.
CBD’s informants on the red carpet of Her Majesty’s theatre for the premiere of Mary Poppins on Friday night lost count of the famous faces, many of whom had their children in tow, out for the opening night.
Mary Poppins media call at Her Majesty’s Theatre.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Patti Newton brought along her grandson Monty and was sporting a necklace celebrating her late husband, TV legend Bert Newton, while vocalists Clare Bowditch, Casey Donovan were on hand to check out Stefanie Jones in the lead role of the Disney musical production.
There was a smattering of former and serving politicians with former Labor minister — for pretty much everything at one time or another — Martin Pakula and from across the aisle, Victoria’s grumpy old ex-premier-in-residence Jeff Kennett with Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Sally Capp also spotted in the throng.
From the wireless and TV, we had the ABC’s Sammy J and Mary Gearin, theatre dude — and sometime Play School presenter — Eddie Perfect, veteran TV funny man Tom Gleisner, Get Krack!n’s Kate McCartney, former Carlton footy club bad boy-turned radio bloke Brendan Fevola and FM presenter Fifi Box too.
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