PMs AUKUS moment turns into an awkward moment

It’s always the little things. Prime Minister Scott Morrison had an international win this week when he unveiled Australia’s new whiz-bang AUKUS alliance. But he suffered a particularly relatable tech fail when he tried to deliver the good news to his troops.

Credit:John Shakespeare

The PM was forced to shelve a virtual Coalition party room meeting on Thursday after tech issues derailed his attempts to spruik the new triumvirate to his parliamentary colleagues. The meeting started at 9.30am before dropping out promptly as Morrison tried to open proceedings. He then tried again. But the video link and sound connection continued to drop out before the PM could utter more than a few words. By 10.15, a visibly irritated PM was admitting defeat and pulled the plug on the whole thing.

A shame because it’s been a while since the Coalition leader has had a nuclear-submarine sized reason to celebrate anything. Even so, the PM’s colleagues couldn’t help but ponder the timing of the tech issues, noting the military step-up is a firm response to China’s activity in the region. Dodgy Wi-Fi, or were hackers behind the interruptions? Wouldn’t be the first time.

PORTER PROBLEM

Even so, the tech malfunction may have worked in the government’s favour. After all, it stopped MPs from piping up with questions about Industry Minister Christian Porter’s decision to accept funds from a mystery blind trust to help cover his legal bills â€" which is probably a good thing given the widespread unease about the arrangement in Liberal and Nationals circles. Privately, the West Australian MP’s colleagues are fuming about the secret-squirrel arrangement that helped pay for his defamation action against the ABC.

“I’ve never seen colleagues like it before,” said one disgruntled Coalition MP. Another was more forthright. “It just makes us a look stupid,” they said. “People need to know who’s standing behind candidates.”

Others told CBD they were glad they didn’t have to face the public on Thursday and any potential grilling. No such luck for Wentworth MP Dave Sharma, though. He was scheduled to front Q&A on Thursday night. Tough break, that one.

Industry Minister Christian Porter has faced intense criticism for accepting an undisclosed sum of money through a blind trust.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

ALL AT SEA

But the Biggest Loser of the Week award goes to the French-owned Naval Group. On Wednesday, the defence manufacturing monolith had a handsome contract to furnish the Royal Australian Navy with 12 Attack-class submarines. But the next day that plan was sunk in favour of AUKUS and its eight nuclear-powered subs. It’s worth noting that the firm responsible for repping Naval Group to the government was none other than DPG Advisory, the lobby shop headed by Scott Morrison’s mate David Gazard, Morrison’s former senior adviser Sasha Grebe and long-time man about Parliament Scott Briggs. There are tough conversations between friends, but we’re pretty sure tearing up a $90 billion dollar contract constitutes something entirely different.

But it’s good to see Naval Group chairman David Peever has another iron in the fire. The former Rio Tinto executive who notably led Cricket Australia for a particularly tumultuous 2½ years until November 2018 was this week appointed to conduct a review of Defence innovation, science and technology. As they say, when one door closes …

$90 billion between friends: Lobbyist David Gazard. Credit: Louie Douvis

STARY EYED

New beginnings for criminal lawyer Rob Stary, who has retired from the partnership Stary Norton Halphen, which he founded in 1995 as Robert Stary Lawyers.

Two years ago, CBD revealed that Stary had pressed pause on his legal practice after suffering a heart attack.

He had made a career representing underworld kingpins Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel, as well as our favourite Ecuadorian embassy hideaway Julian Assange, and was dubbed the “lawyer to whom Australian terror suspects turn more than any other”.

Rob Stary is retiring but definitely not the shy type.Credit:Fairfax

Making his retirement decision LinkedIn-official last month, Stary wrote thanking his colleagues and friends for “all your support in pursuit of justice and reform”.

He added: “I look forward to the next chapter.”

Quite what that next chapter will be is unknown, but it won’t be as colourful as his previous.

Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet once dubbed Stary as “the second-most important terrorist lawyer in the country” (no prizes for guessing whom he thought was numero uno).

He also had a sharp tongue for our politicians, including Julia Gillard who like Stary was a partner at Slater & Gordon early in her career. But that didn’t stop Stary, when representing clients in an industrial dispute in 2009, calling for Gillard (then deputy PM) to face contempt of court charges. He later insisted the pair remained friendly.

On other occasions he called Julie Bishop a “parasite”, Eric Abetz “bitter, twisted and irrelevant”, Tony Abbott “nihilistic, arrogant, corrosive and dangerous” and Daniel Andrews “grandstanding”. He will be missed.

MARCH OF HISTORY

Oh, dear. Clive Palmer is quite unhappy with our coverage of his United Australia Party and name changes to accommodate recently arrived leader, former Liberal MP Craig Kelly.

But some of our readers are quite unhappy with Palmer and his rewriting of history. A section of his UAP website is dedicated to “Our history - United Australia Party Prime Ministers”. In the 1930s the United Australia Party (which has no connection to Palmer’s organisation bar the name) gave the country two prime ministers, Joseph Lyons and Robert Menzies.

Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party erroneously claims former PM Billy Hughes as one of its own. Credit:Fairfax Media

The website also lists “William (Billy Hughes), 7th Prime Minister of Australia, Leader of the UAP 1941-1943”.

But as several readers pointed out to us, Hughes was not a “United Australia Party prime minister”. He served as a Labor prime minister before changing parties, and he was dumped by his own Nationalist Party in 1922 long before the UAP was even thought of. The party was formed nine years later and Hughes joined it in 1931.

If you get far enough into Palmer’s website, you will find that information in a lengthy biography of Hughes that the party has taken from peerless historical source Wikipedia.

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Stephen Brook is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former features editor and media editor at The Australian, where he wrote the Media Diary column and spent six years in London working for The Guardian.Connect via Twitter or email.Samantha Hutchinson is a CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. She recently covered Victorian and NSW politics and business for News Corp, and previously worked for the Australian Financial Review.Connect via Twitter or email.

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