Stars in her eyes: Pauline Hanson wants her movie on Netflix

2 hours ago 5

When CBD revealed that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was a guest at Donald Trump’s garish Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago resort, it came as a surprise to many of her Senate colleagues home in Australia.

Hanson has been missing in action during the latest parliamentary fortnight, even ditching the official swearing-in of NSW One Nation senator Sean Bell. Now we know why. But not, we should emphasise, due to any commitment to openness and accountability from Hanson or her party.

Pauline Hanson during a rare appearance in Canberra.

Team Hanson kept quiet when CBD came calling with pertinent questions about her attendance at Trump’s party. So imagine our (complete lack of) surprise when she later gave the full spiel to Andrew Bolt of Sky News. In conservative Australia, it seems, if it didn’t happen on Sky News, it didn’t happen.

The official reason Hanson is in the States is because she was invited to speak at a Conservative Political Action Conference event at (guess where?) Mar-a-Lago, where tickets start at US$5000-a-pop and go for $25,000 for anyone after “co-host” privileges.

For an absentee senator, Hanson has had an awful lot on her plate – not least with all that speculation about Australia’s greatest ever retail politician Barnaby Joyce coming for her job. But buoyed by a rise in the polls, she has big dreams for her goofy animated webseries Please Explain.

She wants to turn it into a movie, set for a release date on January 26 next year, because of course. The series, which was last on YouTube in 2024, was created by inner Melbourne animators Stepmates, whose co-founder Mark Nicholson has started showing up on Sky News himself.

Now One Nation want a bigger platform, with Hanson hoping to get Netflix to pick up the planned film. CBD hears this was news to Netflix too. But hey, maybe it’ll help the streamer meet its local content quota newly forced on it by the federal government.

The killing season

The killing season has come for the Liberal Party.

In Canberra, Sussan Ley is scrambling to keep her job after less than six months as leader. On Macquarie Street, Mark Speakman faces a terrifying final parliamentary fortnight as rumours of his impending demise grow ever louder.

Liberal MP Eleni Petinos and Opposition Leader Mark Speakman have had their differences.

In the Sutherland Shire, Liberal frontbencher Eleni Petinos is facing a battle to hold her seat of Miranda, with local branch support evaporating ahead of a potential challenge from former federal MP Jenny Ware.

Ware is hoping for a shift to state politics after losing her safe seat of Hughes in May, with a preselection imminent. Local Liberals reckon the only way Petinos survives is if Speakman falls. Despite the pair representing neighbouring electorates, and belonging to the same faction, we hear they have their differences. In fact, Petinos voted for Speakman’s rival Anthony Roberts in a 2023 leadership election.

As for who might replace Speakman, some Liberals are increasingly warming to first-termer “Caviar” Kellie Sloane – a nickname which has caught on in party circles courtesy of her very Vaucluse order at a recent lunch interview with News Corp. Despite years of speculation, Sloane is still unsure whether she wants the poisoned chalice just yet.

There’s also been some momentum around Manly MP and shadow environment minister James Griffin. He is, after all, the last Liberal standing on the northern beaches.

Scots castle sympathiser

Well, we found it.

An outspoken fan of Scots College’s $60 million faux-Scottish baronial castle who isn’t the school’s headmaster Ian Lambert has finally reared their head above the parapets.

The John Cunningham Student Centre, which finally opened in April after years of delays and looks like the unholy bastard child of a Mormon megachurch and suburban McMansion, left more than a few parents disgruntled.

But it won gushing praise from Tony Abbott’s former international advisor and handpicked ambassador to the European Union Mark Higgie.

Architecturally divisive… Scots College John Cunningham Student Centre.

“Great call by Scots College Sydney replacing its modernist monster of a library with a building in Scottish baronial style,” Higgie wrote on X.

“Increasingly around the world, people are defying the modern architecture lobby with traditional designs that most people prefer.”

While we at CBD sympathise a little with Higgie’s animus toward the shapeless utilitarian blocks that have polluted our cityscapes for decades, the Scots castle simply ain’t it. A 12-year-old’s idea of what a cool building is meant to look like.

But hey, let people enjoy what they enjoy, we guess.

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