Simon says stop the story
When the Australian Financial Review publishes its Power List every year, it asks those who make it to pose in all kinds of ridiculous outfits.
We cannot reproduce the images for copyright reasons, but suffice it to say that the results usually undermine the dignity of the participants in the most ironic way, given the nature of the list to which they are added.
Some flatly refuse to cooperate, and they are the list members worthy of applause. Real power usually doesn’t involve playing the role of court jester to a photographer.
Last year’s power list included climate change campaigner and son of Australia’s first billionaire, Simon Holmes à Court.
He was first added to the list because of the influence he has on the group of teal independents whose electoral success is due in no small part to the money raised by Holmes à Court in the 2022 elections and in their campaigns injected.
Presumably his financial support will be just as important in this year’s elections.
The story about his publishing the list in the AFR involved attempts by Holmes à Court to remove himself from it.
A Teal MP (Allegra Spender) and a former employee of a Teal MP (Jim Middleton who worked for Zoe Daniel but now works directly for Holmes à Court’s Climate 200 fundraising non-profit) both contacted the AFR with the request to take it off the list. list.
Climate activist Simon Holmes à Court (pictured) initially attempted to have his name removed from the AFR’s Power List before agreeing to take part in the feature
Twisting their arms didn’t work. Ultimately, Holmes à Court even participated in the pictorial.
Of course, his ability to convince others in the blue-green movement to do his bidding and contact the AFR was real-life proof that Holmes à Court wielded power behind the scenes (and still does), no matter how much he who also trivializes it.
Once the story was published, the Teals were in an uproar in their behind-the-scenes attempts to publicly influence the media.
That’s because the images of these virtuous, non-major party political types depend on their integrity and transparency being paramount.
Zoe Daniel said her former staffer’s call was made ‘out of concern that the newspaper intended to imply on the Power List that Simon Holmes à Court holds a position of male power over the independent female community on the crossbench’.
I’m not sure the AFR has seen it in such gendered terms, but I think that’s exactly the power it has, if you choose to view this issue through such a prism.
If Holmes à Court was behind requests to have his name removed from the Power List, which Daily Mail Australia has confirmed, then according to Daniel, the man himself was the one concerned about the optics of male power over female MPs.
Before you start working with the image.
Teal MP Allegra Spender (left) and a former aide to another Teal MP, Zoe Daniel (right), both contacted the AFR asking for him to be taken off the list. Daily Mail Australia understands Holmes à Court was behind requests to have his name removed from the Power List
Frankly, I’m not surprised Teals were so quick to follow his orders. Climate 200 donates millions of dollars to teal campaigns, which can be the difference between winning and losing. It employs others within the teal movement, giving them a way to make a living.
In Daniel’s case, Climate 200 donated a whopping $710,000 to her 2022 campaign. Not exactly small beer!
Although Holmes à Court is no Clive Palmer when it comes to throwing his money around, his financial support is crucial to the success of the teal movement.
And he’s not what you might call a silent investor.
I believe that Holmes à Court’s interests in the movement stem from his ideological belief in climate action, and not from the fact that he has financial investments in renewable energy sources.
Some may think it’s a chicken-and-egg debate, but in my opinion, his investments reflect his passion, not the other way around.
In any case, to deny the influence of Holmes à Court on the teal movement is foolish. Trying to exert influence to prevent it from being publicized is downright stupid. Being caught doing so is perhaps a sign that the movement still has some way to go before it is refined into the kind of fluid political operation that can embed itself in the body politic.
If that can happen, Holmes à Court will truly earn its place among the powerful in Australian politics. And he can happily pose for another photo.
Do you miss politics yet, Julie?
The knives appear to be out for the Liberal Party’s now-retired longest-serving deputy leader, Julie Bishop.
Today, the former foreign minister is the chancellor of the Australian National University, which faces a range of institutional challenges.
So much so that the union is demanding her resignation. And Mrs Bishop thought leaving politics would put an end to such shenanigans!
The ANU union is calling for the resignation of the university’s chancellor (and former foreign secretary), Julie Bishop. Ms Bishop was seen with Jackie O at Australian Fashion Week last year
Oscar Wilde once said that the fighting in universities is so vicious because the stakes are so low, and as Chancellor, Ms Bishop doesn’t even get a salary for the headaches she gets trying to tackle the ANU’s many problems .
One of them is insolvency. ANU has a $250 million black hole to fill. That means job losses, which the bishop has already authorized, and the union is understandably angry about it.
Ms. Bishop has two years remaining in her seven-year term as chairman of the board
But to be honest, what else can an institution do to reduce costs when the majority of expenditure goes to staff salaries?
At large institutions like the ANU, the wheels often turn slowly, so perhaps Ms Bishop will reach the end of her seven-year term as chair of the board before things really get exciting.
She only has two years left to survive! If she leaves early, she will miss the lost income that comes with it!
Ms Bishop must be seeing red now that the union has her in its sights. Remember those iconic scarlet shoes she wore to stand out from the dudes while she was still in politics?
When Tony Abbott became Prime Minister, she was the only woman in his Cabinet.
By contrast, the ANU has 11 women on its 15-member board, known as the University Council, so it is not in the minority as it once was.
But reports suggest she does not have the full support of those around her at the ANU, even though a coup seems far less likely than what is happening in Parliament House.