Melbourne monarchists cut loose on a night to remember

Save articles for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.

Not everybody, no matter how ardently they might admire the royals, scored a ticket for the big show in London at the weekend, so local loyalists had to make their own fun in Melbourne on Saturday night.

Sounds like the 120 true blues who gathered at the exclusive Kelvin Club in the city – a place “where old world meets new” – made a decent fist of celebrating KCIII’s big bash.

The event, hosted by the Australian Monarchist League, heard from Robert Menzies Institute chief executive Georgina Downer – she’s Liberal royalty – and former Tim Wilson staffer Nick Langford, who now works in Daniel Andrews’ Department of Premier and Cabinet. Downer spoke about Australian connections to past coronations, particularly Sir Bob’s attendance at the last one, that of Queen Elizabeth back in 1953.

Other faces in the crowd included Liberal Bev McArthur, who is patron of the Victorian Young Monarchists, when she’s not in the trenches of her party’s factional wars; McArthur’s religious-right stablemate Mornington MP Chris Crewther; and shadow state treasurer Brad Rowswell.

They had a fancy cake, which was cut by navy captain Ian Young using a sword carrying the cypher of Charles’ great-grandfather King George V.

The sword was carried at the Gallipoli landing and later on the Western Front and supplied by military historian David Howell. A night out fit for a king was had by all, we’re told.

VERN AGAIN

CBD’s favourite political activist, Vern Hughes, isn’t the most high-profile figure in Australian public life, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s been in the game longer. And Vern, who started out with the ALP-adjacent Socialist Forum alongside young Julia Gillard and Jenny Macklin in the ’80s, is still thinking big.

Plans for a group he helped found, the Sensible Centre, to field 151 candidates in last year’s federal election didn’t work out. But undeterred, Hughes has told members of his latest venture, the Conservative Party (“the natural political party of 80 per cent of Australians”), that glory is just around the corner.

The party’s 10-year plan is ahead of schedule, with moves well under way to merge with a “small party” based in Victoria that has already secured state and federal registration, saving the Conservatives “those tedious administrative tasks”.

The most exciting part of the plan is the endgame: achieving government in Victoria by 2031 and in NSW and federally the following year.

But who are these lucky minnows selected to join in this great political project? We called Vern to ask. He didn’t call us back.

OH SO TAXING

Each twist in the PwC insider tax advice scandal gets a touch more excruciating for the consulting giant’s chief executive, Tom Seymour.

PwC chief executive Tom Seymour.Credit: Michael Quelch

The latest layer of the onion, peeled back on Friday, showed that Seymour himself was one of dozens of the firm’s partners who received emails about PwC’s planned use of confidential government tax policy information to win new clients.

CBD was beginning to get concerned about the depth of do-do in which Seymour finds himself, so imagine our alarm when word reached us on Sunday, from no less a reliable source than the Greens, that the poor man had “fallen on his sword” (another sword today).

Life comes at you pretty fast, we thought, considering Seymour had said on Friday that he was going nowhere.

But a call to the office of Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who put out the offending press release calling for an inquiry into the matter with more teeth than the effort proposed by PwC itself, soon set our minds at ease.

Pocock’s people told us there had been no resignation and conceded they might have chosen their words more carefully – Seymour has “changed his tune” would have fit the bill better – but pledged to spend this week in parliament working for a government inquiry into the matter.

After all that, we thought a quick call to PwC might not be a bad idea. They told us there was nothing new to report.

WIRTH A TRY

About 500 rugby nutters scrummed in for the annual sold-out lunch in Sydney held by the Cauliflower Club, a charity started 15 years ago by former Wallabies Peter FitzSimons and Nick Farr-Jones to buy equipment for sports-people with spinal injuries.

While the speeches came from Farr-Jones himself and another former World Cup-winning captain, John Eales, it was former federal treasurer Joe Hockey who drew most attention, and not just because he was seen talking closely on the top table with Michelle Wood, who heads up corporate affairs at AGL – fuelling rumours he’s sounding her out for a gig at his strategic advisory firm, Bondi Partners.

Former federal treasurer Joe Hockey is ready for take-off.Credit: Evelyn Hockstein

Hockey shut down the auction with a single bid, paying $25,000 for return tickets to London (valued at $18,000) organised by Qantas’ loyalty boss, Olivia Wirth – who once worked for Hockey – as a corporate donation, before wowing the mob with a witty “Toast to the Backs”.

Referring to his infamous “end of the age of entitlement” speech in 2014 and his admonition for the nation to be “lifters not leaners”, Hockey insisted that the backs are the leaners of the rugby world, but he loved them anyway.

Judiciously, Hockey avoided mentioning his own most famous rugby moment, the night in 1987 when he was knocked out during a Sydney University practice session by his teammate Tony Abbott.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.

Most Viewed in National

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article