Nobody can accuse the NSW Liberal Party of failing to embrace the Mardi Gras spirit. Every year, we’re told, the party’s Liberal Friends of LGBTIQ+ holds a fundraiser to help members and party operatives cover the costs of marching in the parade.
But this year, it can certainly be accused of trying to hold its funding hostage.
The fundraiser will come just weeks after the NSW Liberal Party called for a funding review of the tent pole Sydney event. Liberal frontbencher Chris Rath last week accused the iconic event of being “hijacked by left-wing extremists”.
At issue – well, at least for Rath and his colleagues – are concerns about the board, which has faced pressure from one of its factions to focus more on transgender rights. As a result, Rath accused the event of not being “inclusive” enough.
A little too on the nose, even for us. Of course, history shows that there is nothing less diverse than a Liberal Party party. And that is before we get into relations between conservative politicians and the queer community, which have been anything but convivial.
Like clockwork, the NSW Labor Party seized on the political attack as an opportunity to accuse the Libs of trying to defund Mardi Gras, which, we should note, technically isn’t the case. But that didn’t stop Minister for Climate Change Penny Sharpe, who dubbed the call a “brain explosion” and an “extraordinary, disappointing step” from the Liberals.
To be fair to the Libs, it is entirely justified to have concerns about the future of Mardi Gras. We are just not sure political knee-jerks are the way to go about it.
Anyway, the fundraiser is scheduled to go ahead on February 18 in Potts Point, and will feature Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, with an event e-vite promising a drink (yes, singular) and canapes on arrival. We fear the hospitality offer in the singular has sadly misread the room. We hear the event will be serving both kinds of Liberal Party alcohol – gin and tonics and sherry.
Best we can tell, Sloane has yet to walk back Rath’s calls for a review, and her office didn’t get back to us.
Justice Michael Lee’s busy summer
For most of Australia, January is a write-off. Not so for Justice Michael Lee.
The Federal Court judge is now a media celebrity for presiding over Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation case against Network 10. In a famous judgment, Justice Lee noted that “having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat”, only to be found, on the balance of probabilities, to have raped his former colleague Brittany Higgins.
Now we hear Lee endured something of a long hot summer with his head buried in paperwork since he returned from long service leave, and worked all through January. That is, with the exception of attending the Ashes.
So we were glad to learn that Justice Lee got some time out and was spotted dining with his bank manager at Chiswick in Woollahra on Tuesday, carrying what one CBD spy described as – wait for it – a panama hat. It was a hot day, and he was wearing it to keep cool, CBD was told. But on the matter of who took whom to lunch, banker or client, we are none the wiser.
Justice Lee has been busy working to complete what we hear will be a “very long and complex” judgment, set to be handed down by the end of this month, in the marathon case launched by ASIC against the directors of the casino operator, Star Entertainment.
Given the avalanche of media coverage the Lehrmann matter received, we have no doubt Justice Lee will be taking his time to finesse each and every word.
Fight over simple maths in Victorian education stoush
James Merlino, former No.2 in Dan Andrews’ state Labor government, has come a long way since his days as a stalwart comrade in the shoppies union.
The former brickie – it’s true, we checked – now chairs the Board of the Victorian Catholic Education Authority (VCEA), an outfit with a reputation for taking a tough line with its workplace unions.
Now the Merlino led-authority’s latest spat with the Independent Education Union – representing most of the state’s Catholic school teachers and support staff – is turning nasty.
The union says it won a ballot of 33 of the separate church-related education entities which bargain under the VCEA umbrella, claiming a majority of the staff who voted (which numbered up to 35,000) were in favour of being treated as a single workplace as they wrangle for a new pay deal.
But the authority reckons the correct number of workers at its associated entities is 45,000, and therefore the union ain’t won a majority at all.
This is weird because the VCEA website, as recently as last week, put its workforce at 32,500 souls. Super-impressive recruitment drive, or does somebody need to book in for remedial maths?
The union certainly reckons someone does, with IEU state boss David Brear publicly alleging the authority had “inflated” its staff numbers in a bid to stymie the vote for a single agreement.
Independent ballot agent Gavin Ryan, examining the numbers, certainly had some questions, asking the authority for clarification on the status of nearly 7000 workers, amid concerns there may have been some “duplication”.
Brear’s public comment has miffed Professor Elizabeth Labone, VCEA chief executive, who said the union allegations were “unfounded” and it would raise the issue with the Fair Work Commission.
“There is no justification for the IEU to make baseless claims about VCEA and Catholic school employers while the assessment is under way,” she said.
Word out of the authority’s East Melbourne HQ is that it is possible that some confusion has crept into the process, given there are tens of thousands of employment records from each Catholic school employer and some casual relief teachers might work at multiple different schools at different times.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
Stephen Brook is a special correspondent for The Age and CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously deputy editor of The Sunday Age. He is a former media editor of The Australian and spent six years in London working for The Guardian.Connect via X or email.