3 months ago
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The best thing about a life in politics is getting to be an ex-politician.
For the top ones, it usually means a vague but cushy job in the private sector (government relations, a miscellaneous board position or two), a few handy residual perks plus the odd free trip, all with the public glare dimmed down a little.
And nobody is #winning post-political life quite like Gladys Berejiklian.
The woman who saved Australia was found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and yet she is still probably more popular than anybody else the Liberal Party has served up ever since.
She has a dreamy-eyed boyfriend who isn’t engaged in criminal side-hustles like her ex.
And she has the perfect post-political gig, a total word salad for Optus (technically it’s chief customer officer, enterprise and business), that reportedly nets her north of $1 million, while also just becoming eligible for a lifetime $200,000-a-year pension from the Australian taxpayer, as this column recently revealed.
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Berejiklian, a veteran of so many COVID-era crisis press conferences, remained in the shadows while the telco faced yet another crisis of its own making during September’s Triple Zero outage.
But next year, the former premier is set to step out from the corporate shadows and add another line to her CV: tour guide. She will be fronting an “executive study tour” for female leaders to South Australia in May, alongside former Australia Post Christine Holgate. That halo clearly hasn’t dimmed: ICAC be damned.
Berejiklian and Holgate probably have a few good war stories, and at least one thing in common – a strained relationship with former prime minister Scott Morrison. When Holgate bought $5000 Cartier watches for four of her executives at Auspost, Scomo demanded her resignation in a manner the executive would later characterise as “bullying”. Gladys allegedly once called Morrison a “horrible person” in a text exchange she later said she had no recollection of.
For $16,500, aspiring girlbosses can spend a week with the pair. The tour, organised by the Trans-Tasman Business Circle, describes Berejiklian as a “widely-admired” leader, who was “known for her warmth and authenticity” in its promotional material.
It will take in Adelaide and the Barossa Valley, which looks like a blessed opportunity to get Berejiklian to open up about the ICAC of it all.
Sloane and Steady
Day two in the top job, and new Liberal leader Kellie Sloane was straight off to western Sydney, desperate to furnish her credentials among diverse communities in Parramatta and Harris Park.
She was duly heckled and told to “go on back to Vaucluse”, where Sloane is the local member in one of the state’s most affluent electorates.
No surprises then that the Liberals are already quickly moving to “de-Vaucluse” caviar Kelly’s online profile. Sloane’s old picture on the party website featured a photo of Bondi Beach in the background, coupled with a reference to Vaucluse and its “unique community and character”.
That background is now gone, and the bio is touched up with references to husband Tom and their three boys. But it’ll take more than a few sneaky edits for the Liberals to win back the west.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott hosting an Australian history documentary on Sky.
Tony on Tour
As any author with a new book out knows: ya gotta hustle.
This applies to nervous first-time authors as well as former prime ministers.
So it is not at all surprising that ex-PM Tony Abbott, is going to tour to spruik his new tome Australia: A History, subtitled “How an ancient land became a great democracy.”
The cover features a puff quote from The Australian’s eminent Paul Kelly and boasts of a foreword by Geoffrey Blainey. So far, so conservative.
But there is a clear audience for this. The related documentary went gangbusters on Sky News, we hear. And the book hit No.1 in non-fiction (source: @hontonyabbott, Instagram).
So the whole shebang is going on the road: with dates in November and December in Sydney, Perth, Hobart, Geelong and Brisbane. But not, curiously, Melbourne. The Massachusetts of the south, as it was described by former PM John Howard, has, for the moment, missed out.
Go for Goa
SPOTTED: Actress Rachel Griffiths out on the red carpet in the pint-sized beachside state of Goa on India’s west coast.
She was attending the International Film Festival of India as part of an Australian screen delegation, alongside Lion director Garth Davis. The trip included inking a historic memorandum of understanding with Indian industry representatives, and a special viewing of a remastered edition of Griffiths’ breakthrough film Muriel’s Wedding.
Actress Rachel Griffiths at the International Film Festival of India in Goa.
Also posing with the Six Feet Under star in Goa was Melbourne’s globe-trotting Lord Mayor Nick Reece, who’s recently also been in China and Brazil. Your move, Clover Moore.
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