Last week was a big week for Peter V’landys, who just days ago was anointed rugby league’s all-powerful executive chairman. But there were a couple of nagging issues he needed to square away before he could move on with his new life.
Chief among them was the simmering feud between Racing NSW and NSW MP Mark Latham, who, until last week, was the subject of a long-running investigation launched by the state racing body over allegations of abusive conduct towards a race club official.
But as V’landys was preparing to relinquish control of Racing NSW, the Latham matter represented a loose end. A truce with Latham would give V’landys’ successor Graeme Hinton a fresh start in the job, with the added benefit of making sure an old enemy didn’t follow him to his new job. V’landys, in a sense, needed to clear the decks.
Come Wednesday, Racing NSW had dropped the probe. But the outcome was only possible as a result of closed-door peace talks brokered by a mystery third party, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
V’landys met with Latham this month at the suggestion of the third-party mystery man, we’re told, with Hinton in tow. The mystery man brought V’landys and Latham together and urged them to clear up their “miscommunication” and whatever “misinformation” each thought had come out of the matter, and encouraged them to finally move on. The men ultimately smoked the peace pipe. (V’landys and Latham were contacted for comment.)
The outcome can’t have come cheap for Racing NSW, which brought in a former federal court judge and a former chief executive of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to assist with the probe, only to now call it off. On Wednesday, Latham seemed pretty pleased with himself.
“In relation to Racing NSW, I have slipped the noose,” Latham told Parliament on September 23. “I’m back, baby. Don’t worry, I’m back big time. If this was set in the classic paradigm of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, I would just have to say, ‘Beep beep, I’m off’. They could not catch me.”
Frydenberg’s comeback tour
There’s been no shortage of will-he-won’t-he speculation over a possible return to politics for former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg since he lost his seat of Kooyong to Teal MP Monique Ryan at the 2022 election. Most of it, we’d guess, has had cooperation from the man himself.
The former treasurer continues to tell people close to him that he’s been enjoying life outside politics and hasn’t made any decisions about a return. But how else to interpret the looming publication of his new memoir, A Grateful Son, out next month?
The midlife memoir, written with the help of Gideon Haigh and out through News Corp’s HarperCollins next month, charts Frydenberg’s introduction to politics working for former prime minister John Howard and former Liberal leader Alexander Downer. It goes over his 12 years in Parliament and covers his antisemitism advocacy.
The book has been in the work for years, so our guess is there may not be explicit tips for Opposition Leader Angus Taylor. But we’d be surprised if there aren’t at least a handful of Liberal Party powerbrokers who read the book as a leadership pitch.
Still, we don’t expect to hear the former treasurer make the case explicitly at the string of events he has scheduled to coincide with the book’s publication next month.
Howard will launch the book in Sydney. In Melbourne, Frydenberg will appear alongside Jennifer Westacott, who he worked with closely when she was chief of the Business Council of Australia. There’s also a launch set for Brisbane, where Queensland Premier David Crisafulli is scheduled to speak, and in Western Australia, where Frydenberg will appear alongside former premier Roger Cook. Downer will launch the book in South Australia.
Substack’s charm offensive
Earlier this year, the newsletter-cum-social media platform Substack poached Annabelle Russell from TikTok to lead its partnership efforts. In the months since, the platform has quietly ratcheted up its efforts to coax Australian creators and readers onto the platform.
It’s part of what we’d guess is an effort to find Australia’s answer to Emily Sundberg, author of the hit New York-based business and culture newsletter, Feed Me. The search, best we can tell, has yet to yield a blockbuster hit. But the charm offensive has certainly sparked intrigue in media circles.
The latest of the platform’s quiet cultivation efforts took place on Wednesday evening in the back room of The Rose Read Bookshop, a bricks and mortar book retailer which opened its doors in Summer Hill just this year.
There, a gaggle of self-described “five-star nerds” showed up to celebrate the five-year anniversary of author Bri Lee’s Substack newsletter, News and Reviews. It was all very earnest – cupcakes, kazooing – but proof if nothing else of the platform’s ability to connect creators with readers who love them enough to pay and even show up for them in person. (Russell was there and heaped praise on Lee; the author was sure to say nice things in return.)
Also there were a handful of authors to offer up reading recommendations. They included Olivia O’Flynn, author of Ever Blessed, and Rapture author Emily Maguire, along with Sarah Dingle, an ABC reporter and presenter and author of Brave New Humans.
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