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Call it a case of West Wing Syndrome, the Trump bump, or a reaction to our own blissfully boring Canberra bubble, but interest in US politics has never been higher.
That feverish excitement has made Australia an increasingly regular stop for US figures on the post-politics speaking circuit. In recent years, we’ve had visits from former president Barack Obama, ex-veep and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris (twice), plus Hillary Clinton (and a hologram of Julia Gillard, no joke).
Next up is Michelle Obama, whom CBD can reveal will be in Australia next May for events in Sydney at the ICC theatre (recently rebranded as the TikTok Entertainment Centre) and Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre.
It’s Obama’s first time speaking in Australia, and she’ll discuss her experiences as a wife, a mother, the first lady and as a best-selling author, we’re told, as part of a tour organised by corporate speaking firm Growth Faculty, which organised her husband’s trip in 2023. Another great get, and we’re expecting two full houses.
As for who will be conversing with Obama, the MC gig is up for grabs. But we’re sure there will be plenty of interest from such ABC favourites as Leigh Sales, Annabel Crabb, Sarah Ferguson and Julia Baird. A lengthy list of hopefuls.
Ever since the Trump era began, misty-eyed liberals who must’ve slept through the 2016 election have speculated about the prospects of another Obama in the White House. Michelle has repeatedly poured cold water over those fantasies, last week telling an interviewer that the US was simply not ready for a female president.
Anyway, being a former president’s spouse sounds like a whole lot more fun. Two years ago, Obama raised headlines after she reportedly took home $US750,000 for an hour-long speech. On diversity. In Germany. No word from Australian organisers on what they paid for the privilege of her insights, but we imagine neither Obama comes cheap.
Why Caviar Kellie vetoes Vaucluse
Change has finally come to the NSW Liberals.
After years of the party grumbling about his anaemic performance, nice guy Mark Speakman is finally out, replaced by “caviar” Kellie Sloane following a protracted, but ultimately bloodless, coup.
New leadership brings with it the possibility of a new crop of senior hacks running the show. And while there’s no chance of Speako’s painfully unpopular chief of staff Cheryl Gwilliam hanging around, a few of the former leader’s old foot soldiers have landed softly in the successor’s office.
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We hear Speakman staffer Dimitry Palmer, a former NSW Young Liberal president who is staying on with Sloane, is now in the running for chief of staff. Also sticking around with the new regime is media guy Clem Hall.
First order of business seems to be erasing the perception that Sloane, the member for Vaucluse, is a product of Sydney’s wealthiest harbourside postcodes. An unfair perception – given the new opposition leader grew up in regional South Australia and attended a public school – but one that’s clearly sticking, given one of her first acts was to head west to Parramatta, where hecklers told her to go back to Vaucluse.
Plus, as CBD reported this week, there were those subtle tweaks to “de-Vaucluse” her online profile. Fair enough, since the last member for Vaucluse to lead the NSW Liberals was Peter Debnam, a disaster who managed to ensure the state suffered four more years under a rapidly rotting Labor government controlled by the likes of Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi.
Party animals
Just two more sleeps until school breaks up for some of the inmates of Parliament House. Thoughts and prayers to any senators and staffers forced to stay behind for detention next week (also known as estimates).
As the days lengthen, the Canberra bubble calendars have become cluttered with silly season festivities. On Monday night, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley celebrated making it to the end of the year (touch wood) by holding drinks with the press gallery in the saddest place in all of Canberra – the Coalition party room.
Most of Ley’s cabinet colleagues stayed away, aside from deputy leader Ted O’Brien. Shadow minister for the Melbourne Cup Tim Wilson also popped in.
On Tuesday night, the Greens had their do at Bar Lola in the Canberra CBD, though most hacks were busy at the launch of Niki Savva’s book (which you read about in this column first).
Later this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will open The Lodge to press gallery hacks for his end-of-year drinks. That tradition has been curtailed in the Albo era: festivities have been kept short to avoid the undignified displays of yesteryear, which involved at least one infamous tale of a guest jumping, inebriated, into the prime ministerial pool. Canberra just ain’t the same these days.
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