And while the Photoshop dabbling City of Melbourne Deputy Lord MayorNicholas Reecehas engaged in won’t cause the same fuss as,we’d like to pay homage all the same.
Nick and tuck:City of Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece’s (far right) Photoshop fail.Supplied
Reece posted a lovely pic to his LinkedIn page this week,showing the former Labor state secretary lining up with other participants in Sunday’s Run for the Kids fun run in the city,including Herald and Weekly Times chairPenny Fowler – on whose profile page the picture originally appeared,unaltered – and Deputy PremierBen Carroll.
But observers noticed something amiss with the clearly digitally altered image,which has Reece’s hand erased and a slightly less noticeable alteration toRebecca Cowan,the executive director of the Good Friday Appeal,at the other side of the snap.
Reece explained to CBD that he merely tried to quickly tidy up the image,which he posted to celebrate the $1.3 million raised by the event for the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation,by removing some digital detritus and that his hand became collateral damage in the process.
The deputy mayor was keen to assure Melbourne residents that he had not had abdominal surgery and – unlike the princess – certainly had no plans to disappear from public view.
“I’m fighting fit and fully transparent,” Reece told us.
So while we’re prepared to accept he had the best of intentions in having a fiddle with the image,we’ll humbly suggest that he sticks to roads,rates and rubbish,and leaves the Photoshopping to the professionals.
POLITICAL FOOTBALL
The annual pollies versus press soccer game outside Canberra’s Parliament House is supposed to be a gesture of goodwill between two groups who have a sometimes testy relationship.
But patience was strained on either end of the pitch on Wednesday,with the game – due to be played before sittings got under way for the day – abandoned after just one player from the press gallery,Sky News’Cam Reddin,rocked up.
This year’s annual pollies versus press soccer game was a one-sided affair.Supplied
The politicians,meanwhile,managed to muster 18 eager roundballers,including former Australian rugby union international and now senatorDavid Pocock,Veterans Affairs MinisterMatt Keogh and Labor backbencherGraham Perrett,the chief organiser of the pollies’ team.
The details are murky,but it looks like the press team got their wires crossed – way to go for a bunch of professional communicators – about whether the game would go ahead on a soggy Canberra morning.
It appears there may also have been some trepidation about facing Perrett,whose robust approach to the game has been remarked upon in the past.
“I’ve seen him hack shins in the dry,imagine him in the wet. I wasn’t going to sacrifice my legs,” one press gallery insider confided.
The journos also pointed out the all-male composition of their would-be opponents,claiming the gallery’s side would have had a 50-50 gender split. If they’d shown up.
ARABIAN HEIGHTS
Saudi Arabian leaderMohammad bin Salman’s multitrillion-dollar attempts to launder his country’s reputation have brought a few Australians over to the kingdom.
,Australia’s youngest ever MP and a former assistant minister for innovation,was recently signed as head of innovation at Neom,Saudi Arabia’s futuristic desert dystopia. And it looks like Roy is having a grand old time in the kingdom,hanging out at the Formula 1 and using his Instagram account as a de facto PR feed for Saudi tourism.
Perhaps that makes Wyatt a bit of an influence,r because there’s another innovative and agile Aussie following him to the Middle East.Alex McCauley,the former diplomat turned founder of start-up lobby group the Tech Council of Australia,has moved to the desert to become Neom’s director of technology and investment.
The Tech Council is chaired byElon Musk’s,and counts and Canva’sCliff Obrecht among its board members.
McCauley,who left the council last year,took to LinkedIn to describe his latest career move as an “epic new adventure”. He’s particularly keen on the scuba diving.
To be fair,Neom,a linear green city running through swaths of uninhabitable desert,is just the kind of weird endeavour that would excite a certain kind of bloodless tech bro. But we reckon there are a few ways to get an adventure fix without working for someone like MBS.
ALL MINE
In October,was flown out to the infamous Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland,courtesy of its owner,Bravus,which readers might remember better by.
But Littleproud only declared that trip on Wednesday,which is strange because the Nats have never been shy about their relationship with foreign-owned resource titans.
Of course,a veteran like Littleproud might be aware that MPs must declare such freebies within 28 days of receiving them,or else have the potential to be found in contempt of parliament. We asked his office about this,but didn’t receive a response by deadline.
Littleproud was more forthcoming about another gift – membership of the struggling Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. His regional Queensland electorate of Maranoa is famously vast,but last we checked,doesn’t extend as far as Belmore. We didn’t get an answer on this one either,but Littleproud’s local amateur rugby league side,the Chinchilla footy club,are also known as the Bulldogs.
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