Scott Morrisons night to remember in the Big Apple

It’s been a compulsory itinerary tour stop for our prime ministers visiting the US for years. No, not a tour of the White House Rose Garden with the First Lady, but a forelock-tugging visit to News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch.

However, the nonagenarian media mogul had to disappoint Scott Morrison this trip. But the consolation prize was an exclusive dinner with News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson. The inscrutable Torrumbarry-born Thomson, a former Melbourne Herald copy boy and former Sydney Morning Herald Beijing correspondent (who shares the same birthday as Murdoch) was the special guest at an intimate meal hosted by New York Consul General and ex NSW Liberal premier Nick Greiner. Also in attendance was US ambassador Arthur Sinodinos.

Dinner in the Big Apple: Robert Thomson, Scott Morrison, Nick Greiner and Arthur Sinodinos.Credit:Illustration: John Shakespeare

The venue was Greiner’s lavish pad in the exclusive Beekman Place, the consul-general’s rather enviable home on Manhattan’s East Side. It has views of the East River and home to more than a dozen ambassadorial and government residences. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper recently placed his late mother the heiress Gloria Vanderbilt’s “layered, sumptuous jewel box” two-bedder Beekman Place apartment on the market for $US1.125 million. Yes, it’s that kind of place. And certainly, more than a few notches above the west side steakhouse and strip club Scores where former New York Post editor Col Allan took a startled Kevin Rudd, then opposition leader, in 2003.

Back to the dinner. No word on whether UN ambassador Mitch Fifield, who lives across the corridor from Greiner, was on the guest list. With News Corp going green, maybe Thomson had some Net Zero by 2030 tips for PM30. The Monday night dinner came just hours before Morrison’s meeting with US President Joe Biden. It’s the natural order of things, we guess.

DISCORDANT NOTES

There’s been a bombshell development at the Administrative Appeal Tribunal in the Voices of Casey community choir case, with AAT Senior Member Ann O’Connell prepared to haul lawyer Mills Oakley partner Stuart Gibson and choirmaster Dr Jonathon Welch, AM, before the Attorney-General and the Legal Service Commission.

For those who came late, the case involves Welch, who made his name leading the famous Choir of Hard Knocks of disadvantaged people and his former friend, choir manager Paulien George, who registered the Voices of Casey name with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in September 2018.

But in September 2020 Welch registered the name “Voices of Casey Choir” with ASIC. George is taking ASIC to the AAT to attempt to reverse its decision.

Welch and his Play It Forward musical business became a party to the AAT proceedings, which gave him access to George’s submission.

Welch then hired Mills Oakley partner Gibson to write a legal letter to George to tell her that her AAT submissions contained some “defamatory publications” about Welch.

“It goes without saying, if our client has been, or is ever, slandered, defamed, or has any falsehoods conveyed about him by you in actionable publications â€" either verbally or in writing â€" we have instructions to immediately sue you and any and all entities responsible for the publication and any re-publication,” Gibson wrote, emphasising the phrase in bold.

“We consider that it is therefore equally in your interests to refrain from making any publications about our client.”

Gibson signed his letter, in bold type: “Govern yourself accordingly”.

Quite a thing to send during the middle of a tribunal case.

Twice this week the AAT has attempted to hold a directions hearing but Welch has called in sick both times. Something about a nose bleed.

But on Tuesday O’Connell held a hearing in his absence and asked Welch and Gibson to provide written submissions explaining why they should not be referred to the Legal Services Commissioner and the Attorney-General for making legal threats in the middle of tribunal proceedings.

She also asked why the letter shouldn’t be regarded as the equivalent of a contempt of the tribunal.

Gibson and Welch have seven days to make submissions. Govern yourself accordingly, boys.

OVER THE BORDER

There’s been a big over-the-border hire inside the New South Wales Treasury. Former Insurance Council of Australia communications director Campbell Fuller emerged this month inside NSW Treasury as the department’s executive director of communications. The one-time NewsCorp veteran will report to deputy secretary Kim Curtain and secretary Mike Pratt. Fuller left the ICA in late 2020 as part of a major shake-up inside the lobby group under new chief executive Andrew Hall, which also had its long-time Liberal-aligned government relations boss Richard Shields head to the government team at Westpac. Hall moved to the Insurance Council from CBA where he held a senior position in the bank’s government relations and corporate affairs team. He then picked Mathew Jones to replace Fuller as the communications boss. In a neat coincidence, Jones moved to the ICA from the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet where he was executive director of communications and engagement. The government hiring wheel in action!

Since leaving the ICA, Fuller has been in Melbourne where he has family â€" and also where he took on a new passion project leading MAMILs inside the vaunted St Kilda Cycling Club. But the Treasury gig will see him migrate back to Sydney as soon as borders open.

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.

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