Teal donor:Fred Woollard has big investments in the oil sector.Alastair Bett
There’s no better exemplar of that conflict than teal bankrollers Climate 200,which,during its NSW election fundraising drive,received two donations worth $3300 each from Keep Them Honest Pty Ltd. That company,registered to a $13 million Darling Point residence,is owned byFred Woollard,founder of Samuel Terry Asset Management,a boutique fund with significant investments in Horizon Oil and US-based Diamond Offshore Drilling.
Woollard’s been a regular recent donor to progressive causes,with Keep Them Honest giving $270,000 to Climate 200 and various teal candidates before the last federal election. But a recent $7000 donation to the NSW Greens was,as reported in this masthead, over Woollard’s connection to big oil.
We asked Climate 200 whether it was prepared to do the same,but didn’t hear back by deadline.
House of Hockey
For a man with a lot of formers in his prefix (treasurer,ambassador to the United States to name but two),Joe Hockey certainly knows how to draw a crowd.
Life of the (ex) party:Joe Hockey pictured in 2020.
Now returned from Washington DC,Hockey hosted aWho’s Who of Sydney’s political and media elite at his recently refurbished Hunters Hill mansion,Wybalena House,for drinks in the Sunday afternoon mug.
Spotted entering were plenty of Hockey’s fellow illustrious formers:ex-premierGladys Berejiklian,ex-Queensland premierPeter Beattie,ex-governor generalPeter Cosgrove,ex-communications ministerPaul Fletcher (although at least he’s still a shadow in thePeter Dutton-led opposition),ex-Nats MPPeter McGauran,who works at Hockey’s booming boutique advisory firm Bondi Partners,and soon-to-be ex-Customer Service MinisterVictor Dominello.
But it wasn’t all political has-beens. AsDominic Perrottet andChris Minns sweated on the campaign trail,NSW’s unofficial joint premiers,ARL Commission chairPeter ‘Showbags’ V’landys and 2GB hostBen Fordham were also enjoying the hospitality at the House of Hockey.
They were joined by a few more media heavies in News Corp Australia executive chairmanMichael Miller,Sky News host and Wuhan Lab Leak trutherSharri Markson,her Sky colleagueLaura Jayes,and theAFR’s pugnacious Rear Window columnistJoe Aston.
All change
A few big recent moves in the Liberal-verse give us the impression that there’s some long-overdue generational change hitting the party of landlords and other old fogies.
On the weekend,ACT Liberal stalwartRobyn Nolan lost a vote for another term as president of the party’s federal women’s council to EY consultantDanielle Young. Nolan’s cause wasn’t helped by her being forced to apologise for comments made about Brittany Higgins – which can’t be reported for legal reasons – at a party function in Canberra recently.
Elsewhere,there’s been a big change at the Menzies Research Centre,which functions as the party’s main policy think tank. After nearly a decade in charge,the group’s executive director and regular anti-wokeism screederNick Cater is stepping down from the helm,and will be replaced by formerScott Morrison stafferDavid ‘not Hughesy’ Hughes.
There were plenty of discontented rumblings among the younger pews of the Liberal broad church last year when Cater penned a typically bloviating oped about how single young women were the biggest threat to conservative parties,owing to their support for state intervention.
But we hear the change,which will still see Cater employed by the organisation in a research role,was down to the former boss hoping for a quieter life further from the frontlines of the culture wars.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights..