In their view such candidates,who are standing in seats that include North Sydney,Wentworth and Kooyong,are little more than green-left stooges. Certainly,these candidates have some familiar faces working as advisers behind the scenes. And it has to be said,the employment history of the advisers will give succour to those who support the Green-Left-Fairfax-ABC love-in theory.
First up,heading communications for the campaign funding group Climate 200 and its moneybags founderSimon Holmes a CourtisJim Middleton,the Howard-era housewives’ favourite ABC News political editor. Middleton,who left Aunty in 2014 after 44 years (!),started advising HaC in August after post-ABC gigs as a vice chancellor’s fellow at the University of Melbourne,Sky News presenter and adviser to short-lived Independent South Australian senatorTim Storer.
Middleton’s position inside Climate 200 comes with a wide purview,including a hand in other Voices campaigns in New South Wales and Victoria.
In North Sydney,where McGrath Foundation chief executiveKylea Tinkis challenging Liberal MPTrent Zimmerman as an independent,Middleton is a media adviser alongside PR veteranBelinda Noble.
HOME TURF
In other seats,it’s the former journo crowd running the show. In Wentworth,where company directorAllegra Spender is standing against Liberal incumbentDave Sharma,formerHerald environment and energy reporterHeath Aston is heading up the media team. Turns out that he’s in good company on the Spender campaign trail,which also includes theHerald’s former cadet political reporterMax Koslowski.
Meanwhile,Abbott-slaying Warringah MPZali Steggall has appointed podcaster and former federal Labor stafferAsh Berdebes to head the communications effort. A one-time media adviser to then-shadow environment ministerTony Burke,the radio host and producer now also fronts Greenpeace’s “Heaps Better” podcast. Over in Hughes,where ANZ senior lawyerGeorgia Steeleis now running as an independent against Liberal-turned-UAP memberCraig Kelly,it’s former News Corp and AAP reporterHeather McNabrunning the media effort. McNab has notched up experience writing across NewsCorp’s local titles,including theInner West Courier,theWentworth Courier and theNorth Shore Times,and has had pieces published inThe Daily Telegraph andThe Australian. After that,she went onto the City of Sydney as a community engagement co-ordinator. All of which goes to show that she knows well what Steele is up against.
DOWN SOUTH
When former ABC Washington correspondentZoe Danielwas contemplating a tilt at Melbourne’s Bayside seat of Goldstein,held byTim Wilson MP,she turned to former ABC News Victoria sports presenterAngela Pippos. But Daniel probably didn’t reckon on Wilson himself acting as her unofficial publicist by announcing her candidacy inThe Australian before Daniel herself had a chance to get the story out inThe Age. Every bit helps,as they say. Daniel and Pippos go way back,having met on the first day of doing a media degree at the University of South Australia in 1991. Daniel was the out-of-towner from Tasmania and Pippos the friendly local.
Earlier this month,Pippos was helping neurologistMonique Ryanlaunch her Voices of Kooyong campaign,but she’s full-time Team Daniel. Ryan is searching for a comms person. Former Channel 9 court reporter and Domain property writerKaren Michaelis one name in the mix.
YOU HAD ONE JOB
Good news,Brumbies fans. Your membership pack will soon be arriving via Australia Post.
This year,the Canberra-based rugby union team crashed to sixth in the Super Rugby competition,a plunge from second the year before.
It’s too early to predict how they will fare in the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season against teams from Australia,New Zealand and two new teams from the Pacific.
But there’s already one competition the team has come dead last in – the Spelling Bee.
As the team messaged supporters on Monday:“We’re contacting you to let you know that an unfortunate production error was made by one of our suppliers,resulting in the word “Brumbies” being printed incorrectly on our 2022 lanyards.”
How does anyone stuff up the spelling of “Brumbies”?
At least it wasn’t the team’s fault,apparently. “This error was made after we approved final artwork that featured the correct printing on the lanyards.”
The message continued:“All members who selected a lanyard as part of their membership pack will receive a replacement lanyard in the coming weeks,well before the season commences.” Thank goodness.
CASH FOR COFFEE
Hot on the heels of her declaration over a set ofhas had another gift slide into her parliamentary stocking. Last month,the cat-loving senator updated her register of interests to show:“The president of the Human Rights Commission provided me with a small ceramic mug (estimated value approximately $50AUD) on 14 October 2021. This item will be returned to the president.”
CBD is assured that no slight was intended against HRC president Emeritus ProfessorRosalind Croucher,AM. Rather,the Attorney-General,as the minister in Parliament responsible for the commission and who has a number of powers under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act,thought it inappropriate to keep it. Propriety on steroids. That and the wish to avoid a Senate estimates interrogation over a $50 mug,CBD presumes.
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