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Until now, we’ve only been able to make educated guesses about what Daniel Andrews has made of the furore that’s been kicked up in certain quarters over the very suggestion that the former premier might join the Portsea Golf Club.
Well, now we know what he reckons, and it’s typically to the point.
Daniel Andrews in golfing mode back when he was state opposition leader.Credit: Julian Kingma
Andrews has had a lot to say in the past few days, appearing at a St Kilda synagogue on Saturday to voice his support for Melbourne’s Jewish community and then showing up at Joy FM’s annual general meeting on Monday at the Victorian Pride Centre in St Kilda.
An impassioned defence of transgender rights from Andrews came with the trademark barbs against those behind a failed push for a parliamentary inquiry into gender-affirming care in the state’s hospitals.
“We don’t need a bunch of politicians, who none of you have ever heard of, and the ones you have heard of, not for the right reasons, having an inquiry into whether there should be [trans health] services at the [Royal Children’s Hospital],” he said. “These matters are settled.”
Andrews seems to be enjoying his post-politics licence to be a little more “frank”, which brought him to the matter of golf.
“I’ve got a little more freedom these days and whether this makes it onto a front page of a newspaper tomorrow, I doubt it,” the former premier told the audience.
“They’ve got more interesting things to worry about, like where I am, or where I’m not, playing golf, apparently.
“But for all that bullshit, there’s a very serious point to be made here.
“Every single thing that’s been achieved, none of it was easy.”
COURT OUT
Just months ago, Seven insisted it had not paid former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann for an interview with the network’s Spotlight program.
“7NEWS Spotlight made no payment to Bruce Lehrmann for the interview. However, the program assisted with accommodation as part of the filming of the story,” was the official line.
That story fell apart in the Federal Court on Tuesday, when, under cross-examination from barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, Lehrmann admitted the Kerry Stokes-controlled network was paying his accommodation costs for a year.
Lehrmann is suing Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation, alleging an episode of The Project accused him of raping fellow staffer Brittany Higgins.
A criminal trial over Higgins’ allegations was aborted last year after juror misconduct, and the charges were dropped by ACT prosecutors.
Media insiders held suspicions over Seven’s line, which made it look like it just covered a few nights in a hotel, after Lehrmann’s legal team had made it clear to other journalists that he wouldn’t be going on camera without payment.
As for how much Seven is paying, well Chrysanthou seemed incredulous when Lehrmann said in court on Tuesday that he didn’t know the figure. We reckon it’s not cheap.
Bruce Lehrmann leaves court on Tuesday.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Similar apartments in the Sydney ocean-side block where Lehrmann was living were being rented for between $1200 and $1500 a week. He’s since moved to a northern beaches three-bedder with sweeping ocean views, where the rent recently doubled to $2500 a week. For a whole year, we could be looking at an amount in the six figures.
Seven’s piece of chequebook journalism was nominated for scoop of the year at last week’s Walkley Awards. It didn’t win.
A spokesperson for the Walkley Foundation told CBD it was “considering its position” after learning what Seven had paid for its “scoop”.
Seven, meanwhile, kept on spinning.
“We said at the time we were assisting Bruce Lehrmann with his accommodation costs. It was well reported back then,” a spokesperson said. “The 7NEWS Spotlight report was rightfully judged by the esteemed Walkley Foundation as one of the top three scoops of 2023.”
We reckon those judges might have viewed things differently if they knew what it cost.
LATE STUFF
Not many of us can honestly say we’ve never missed a deadline, but the Victorian Liberals have managed to produce an instant classic of that genre.
Party insiders were fuming on Tuesday as news trickled out that the Liberals’ submission to a crucial Australian Electoral Commission review of federal electoral boundaries in the state – a review that is expected to abolish one of Victoria’s 39 seats in the national parliament – had missed the commission’s deadline on Friday.
We’ve asked Liberal state director Stuart Smith for a chat about what the hell happened, and we haven’t heard back, but what is clear is that the Liberals’ 124-page effort – the result of “many hours” of work by a party committee – does not appear among the 63 submissions on the site.
But, in a bit of a lifeline really, the commission said the party could still submit its work as a comment on the existing suggestions.
“The Liberal Party can include their submission during this time to be considered by the Redistribution Committee,” an AEC spokesperson said. “All written comments on suggestions, along with the suggestions, will be considered.”
For the record, the Liberal committee recommended, not surprisingly, that either Labor cabinet minister Brendan O’Connor’s seat of Gorton; Fraser, held by another ALP type, Daniel Mulino; or Bill Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong should be the one for the chop.
Labor concluded that the fair and decent thing was to abolish Liberal Aaron Violi’s outer eastern seat of Casey, which will give you a sense of how these things work.
The Nationals, the Greens, the ALP and many others, including, intriguingly, the Punjabi Club of Victoria, managed to get their act together and file their submissions on time, so we will be interested to hear what happened to the blue team’s homework.
YULE BEAUTY
We thought that the bunch of federal parliamentary crossbenchers with their Love Actually-themed Christmas Party had set the benchmark for naff this festive season.
But maybe we spoke too soon. Labor’s Social Services Minister, Amanda Rishworth, and Veterans’ Affairs Minister, Matt Keogh, have set themselves up in open rivalry for whose office can lay on the Christmas schmaltz the thickest.
The battle is under way for the title of best Christmas tree in the ministerial wing, Rishworth’s or Keogh’s, in a duel they’ve dubbed “Rishmass versus Mattmess”. All ballots cast require a donation to the Giving Tree Foundation.
Whichever of the trees makes the most money wins one leg of the contest, and the overall prize is to be awarded on Wednesday morning by House Speaker Milton Dick and Senate President Sue Lines.
And what a job those two will have. Rishworth has a real tree and fake fireplace, going up against Keogh’s inflatables, plus baubles with his face on them.
God bless us, every one.
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