After last year’s federal election defeat, the NSW Young Liberals suggested the Liberal Party take steps to distance itself from Sky News Australia’s late-night talking heads.
But we can only assume NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane hasn’t quite decided whether she agrees.
Until recently, Sloane was scheduled to appear in conversation at a dinner with none other than Rowan Dean, the host of Outsiders on Sky News Australia. Dean has previously described climate change as a “fraudulent and dangerous cult” and this month described US President Donald Trump as “the greatest political leader of our lifetime”.
Sloane and Dean were billed as the headline talent for a fundraising dinner initially scheduled at Roseville Golf Club on March 31. But the fundraiser has since been postponed due to an upper house selection process set to go ahead for the region between Manly and Hornsby, with a new date to be confirmed. The pair were slated to discuss “The road to victory: The path to the 2027 state election.”
In the hours after Sloane was elevated to the NSW Liberal Party leadership, she said she would bring her own “personal style” to the job, but initially steered clear of making any commitments to a policy shake-up. Instead, she described the difference between her leadership and that of her predecessor, Mark Speakman, as doing a “better job of telling our story”, according to The Australian Financial Review, and to remind voters in NSW “what we stand for”. Dean is certainly one way of going about that!
“The Leader of the Opposition Kellie Sloane attends a range of speaking events and engages in worthwhile conversations about the State of NSW,” a spokesperson for Sloane told CBD.
At least guests at the dinner, should it eventually go ahead as planned, can look forward to some light entertainment in what is only the latest in a jam-packed schedule of NSW Liberal Party fundraising events in the run-up to next year’s state election. Who knows, maybe Dean will even have some policy tips for Sloane to consider.
Star stuffs up in ‘disastrous’ legal fight
At this point, it’s beginning to look like a humiliation ritual. Just weeks after the Federal Court found two of Star Entertainment’s senior executives breached their directors’ duties, the casino operator has been left with a multimillion-dollar legal bill for a separate matter in the NSW Supreme Court.
In a judgment on Monday, Justice Kelly Rees branded Star’s effort to sue construction company Buildcorp in 2020 for $4 million in damages over dangerous cladding as “disastrous”, after the casino operator may have sued the wrong company and was able to claw back only a meagre $285,000.
“This judgment is about what costs orders should be made following protracted and, ultimately, fairly disastrous proceedings,” Rees wrote.
“The proceedings were fairly disastrous in two senses. First, the plaintiffs (Star Casino) may have sued the wrong defendant (being the builder as opposed to the architect). Second and relatedly, Star Casino sought some $4 million in damages but was awarded only $285,662.”
At issue was the installation of aluminium composite panels on two buildings over the course of three refurbishment projects undertaken between 2014 and 2016. After the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower in London in 2017, the NSW government required Star to remove the panels. Star then launched legal action in 2020. Star declined to comment.
“The full scale of this disaster is now revealed by the parties’ affidavits relied on in support of costs. Star Casino’s costs of this litigation were $2,470,424.14. The builder’s costs were $1,963,813.69,” the judgment reads. “The architect did not disclose its legal costs, but one could be forgiven for being apprehensive, given the ‘microscopic focus’ on events relevant to the architect at trial.”
All told, Star not only failed to convince the court to force its builder to cough up $4 million, it was also left to foot the bill for legal costs of more than $1 million. Whoops.
OpenAI taps former TikTok exec
In the months since Sam Altman’s OpenAI marked its arrival on Australian shores with an event at the Museum of Contemporary Art in December, one topic of intrigue in corporate and political circles has been who will lead the local operation.
While that question remains unanswered, the company’s recruitment efforts haven’t been a total wash. OpenAI has since brought in the former TikTok and AirBnB executive Brent Thomas to head up the company’s policy operation, after four years at TikTok, most recently as a campaign director on its global policy team. He starts his new gig on March 30.
As things stand, it looks like Thomas is set to have an easier run of things than his US counterparts, who are up against turning sentiment over the rapid expansion of data centres, and the cultural stink now associated with those who openly turn to AI chatbots for simple tasks. (“Sloppers”, as they’ve come to be known.)
But not in Australia – at least not yet. The Albanese government has been quick to clamour for a cut of the AI gold rush, lining up like little piggies at the trough to lure major AI infrastructure investment to Australia without yet asking much in return.
That could all change this year. Labor is expected to release a national AI plan set to include expectations around energy and water sustainability, and remains under pressure to loosen copyright laws for the benefit of training AI models.
John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.