DRY ARGUMENT
And another thing: in what could be a controversial departure from a beer-soaked 2019 election, Labor’s 2022 foray will be teetotal. No more crying into your cups, Laborites!
Sources say Erickson and Co. have laid down the law: no booze shall be consumed inside campaign HQ. Readers might recall during the 2019 campaign where a series of brewers sent cases to both the Liberal and ALP campaign teams. Liberal HQ has been a strictly dry affair since the days of John Howard – which was a particularly easy edict to abide by in 2019 when its campaign offices were located opposite the Castlemaine Perkins XXXX brewery and four others were in walking distance.
But Labor was keen for some brewskis. The Libs returned all their gifted cases while the ALP enthusiastically accepted theirs.
OLD COUNTRY INVASION
Across the divide, Liberal federal director Andrew Hirst is keeping a tight lid on the Coalition’s campaign plans. But its headquarters will again be located in the inner Brisbane suburb of Milton. How good is Queensland?
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The Libs have contracted Crosby Textor for a portion of its campaign polling work. But there are likely to be some additions to the team. Party sources told CBD the door has been left open to pollster wunderkind Isaac Levido, who helped UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson clinch the 2020 General Election. For that, Levido earned an Order of the British Empire in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Hard to top that.
The one-time Ferrier Hodgson liquidator could be joined by New Zealanders Sean Topham and Ben Guerin who successfully led the Liberal’s social media campaign in 2019. Will Hirst and Morrison decide to put their 2019 cassette in the boom box and press play for a repeat of the party’s surprise win? Can’t blame them for trying.
OFF THE WALL
The seachange of chef Shannon Bennett continues. In February the Vue de monde creative director sold his Melbourne home for about $24 million to wealthy hotelier Robert Zagame just days after listing it. He had bought the five-bedroom property for $16 million four years earlier, the same year he first split with his partner and mother of his six-strong brood, former Neighbours star Madeleine West.
Shannon Bennett has sold his “Toorak Art Collection”.Credit:Simon Schluter
And on Wednesday Bennett completed another transaction, selling the mansion’s paintings known as the “Toorak Art Collection” at auction house Deutscher and Hackett as part of its Important Women Artists + Selected Australian and International Fine Art.
The 13 pieces, billed as “really interesting works, some rarely seen in Australia” included a painting by Australian figurative and surrealist painter Peter Booth. It proved to be the star of the show, as Booth’s chilly snowscape Untitled, 2007 sold for $175,000, way over its $120,000 estimate. Dystopian gloom is so hot right now.
Patricia Piccinini’s Radial, 2005, a distorted car tyre sculpture of fibreglass, automotive paint and stainless steel (nope, us neither) fetched $15,000.
A print by US photographer David LaChapelle fetched $19,000, while Melbourne sculptor Callum Morton’s Cover Up #1, 2012, a “large sculpture shaped in the form of a painting, seemingly covered by a sheet in an effort to conceal the work underneath”, sold for $30,000. How frightfully meta.
All up, the collection cleared $307,500, including buyers premium and the GST.
“He was relaxed with the reserves and some were therefore bought for bargain prices while others attracted stronger competition,” reported Deutscher and Hackett’s Damian Hackett.
And why the sale? Last year Bennett established Living Well Northern Rivers an “innovative lending and mentoring initiative” based near Byron Bay in far north NSW, with well-heeled social impact investor Danny Almagor.
“He was very philosophical about art collecting, having loved the works on his wall but hated the idea of locking them away in storage now that he has moved to Byron,” Hackett said. It seemed Bennett couldn’t take the Toorak Collection north because he already had a Byron Collection in situ.
Labor dumps Western heartland for 2022 election gambit
Source: Philippines Alive
