Piers Morgan,Penny Fowler,Anthony Pratt attended the Kentucky Derby in the US.Illustration:John Shakespeare
And in fine company,no less.
The Visy packaging boss attended the $US1.86 million ($2.6 million) headline race along with Visy’s impeccably connected advisory board memberPenny Fowler,who is best known professionally for her role chairing News Corp’s Herald and Weekly Times and a slew of charitable positions including National Portrait Gallery chair. In the personal stakes,she is known asRupert Murdoch’s niece.
Also in the entourage? Murdoch empire royalty and Sky News Australia’s latest very big-name recruitPiers Morgan,who even posted a snap to social media from the race but regrettably took the photo down shortly afterwards. Two days later,the crew regrouped in Britain at London’s Ritz Hotel for dinner. A real whistle-stop tour.
News Corp declined to comment on Morgan’s attendance with the gang.
Fowler travelled to Kentucky in her capacity as a Visy board member - but it’s evident Pratt’s links with News Corp are in good shape. On the Friday leading into race day,the billionaire took out a near full-page ad in the News-ownedWall Street Journal spruiking Visy’s latest Kentucky paper mill with an emphatic “Thank you Gov.Andy Beshear” along the bottom,referring to the state’s Democrat governor who has given the company the green light to construct a billion-dollar “millugator” paper mill and box-making factory in Henderson,Kentucky - about two hours out of state capital Louisville where the Derby has run every year since 1875. Pratt shared a snap of the advertisement on social media,taking care to tag Fowler and News Corp’s global chief executiveRobert Thomson.
But there was another thanks due to Beshear:he hosted Pratt and Fowler on race day.
BITTER NEWS
It’s the sleeper economic issue that has come to bite just in time for the election. And never has the creep of inflation been so close to home for federal politicians.
The skeleton staff still left at Parliament House received a rude awakening with their coffee orders this week after a handful of coffee outlets inside parliament lifted their prices on cups of joe.
A sign went up late last month inside parliament’s cafeteria known as “The Trough” advising customers that the price of some cups of coffee had been lifted by as much as 50 cents.
“We haven’t increased our hot beverage prices for at least five years and we’re committed to maintaining our quality suppliers,” an apologetic sign posted by a cash register read.
Did someone say Nescafe? A new notice inside parliament’s cafeteria.SMH
Since then,the trend has caught on at other refuelling stops throughout the building. CBD parliamentary spies confirmed that the prices had also gone up at Aussies Cafe and at a popular coffee cart located next to the press gallery on the second floor of the Senate wing.
“It’s now $4.30 if you bring your own coffee cup which gets you a discount … up from $3.80,” a caffeinated hack told CBD as they pondered a weary return to the office supply of International Roast.
Dark days.
PURPLE HAZE
Social media followers started the day with a reminder that polling booths had officially opened thanks to a Facebook banner at the top of its website announcing early voting had gone live.
It was an interesting look for the US-owned tech giant which is furiously attempting to convince users it’s a force for good rather than a high-school-ex stalking machine occasionally seized upon by Russian bots during election time. A steep challenge,indeed.
But the latest caper caused no end of confusion among politicos given the ad was printed in the Australian Electoral Commission’s official purple and white colour scheme and didn’t carry any of the usual “authorised by” disclaimers.
Was it an official ad or Facebook trying to do good? Turns out,it was a bit of both.
An AEC spokesman told CBD Facebook’s parent company Meta had worked with the commission on the banner.
“This is something that Meta has provided as a free prompt to Australians to let them know that early voting has started and to direct people to the AEC website. Meta liaised with us about the content,including the colour,” the spokesman said.
″It is a fairly generic prompt to draw people’s attention to the start of the voting period in an election period where it is more important than ever to plan how you’ll vote according to your circumstances. We’re appreciative of Meta’s efforts.”
If only all political parties felt the same way.
Timing matters in elections where voters are notorious for changing their votes in a campaign’s dying days. Early voting and encouragements to cast your vote ahead of polling day is a boon for the party who is ahead when pre-polls open and a hindrance for the party relying on the final two weeks of a campaign to change peoples’ minds. On Monday,Newspoll figures showed the Opposition had increased its two-party preferred vote lead to its largest margin since the start of the campaign. Guess that made it a doubly good day for Labor,then.
END OF AN ERA
Step asideJohn Roskam and step forwardScott Hargreaves. The so-called free market think tank which is the Institute of Public Affairs has appointed Hargreaves as its new executive director. He succeeds Roskam - who is best known to column readers as a Liberal preselection candidate andBill Shorten’sXavier College schoolmate - after more than 17 years helming the Liberal-ish think thank which doubles as a libertarian support group. Hargreaves has edited the IPA’s in-house quarterlyIPA Review for the past four years and before that was director of policy. Roskam will stay on as a research fellow.