‘People around me started sprinting': the Aussie star who unwittingly became part of history
In other puff of white smoke news, Tennis Australia announced that Chris Harrop a 'lifelong tennis fan and social player … (and) advisory partner for global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company' would replace ex-Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka as chair of Tennis Australia.
Hrdlicka's departure was something that CBD foretold back in October, when TA confirmed to us that her third term on the board would expire at the end of this year.
Last month, the exec landed the top job at Dan Murphy's owner Endeavour, but no doubt the tennis gig was her favouritest thing. It allowed Hrdlicka to hold court at O, the lavish Rod Laver Arena Tennis Australia hospitality suites, where tennis legends and sporting, political, business and celebrity creatures enjoyed multi-course dinners before a door at the back of the vast suite opened straight out onto the best seats in the stadium just in time for the match of the day. For a tennis tragic like Hrdlicka, it's a lot to give up
WhatAppened?
The electoral winds of change have blasted through the Liberal Party, which on Tuesday, made Sussan Ley its first female leader. Although the ABC news chyron that accompanied her debut press conference was a taste of the forces she's up against.
'Ley: I will be here in three years,' it read.
That's a vote of confidence!
It took the Liberals long enough to enter the 21st century (many are saying they're not there yet). It took Ley's staffers a matter of minutes to purge the remnants of the old leader's office.
Ley had barely left the party room on Tuesday when her media adviser, Liam Jones, quickly booted Peter Dutton 's old top spinners, Nicole Chant and Adrian Barrett, from a Coalition Campaign HQ WhatsApp group the party had used during the election to send announcements to journalists.
Also gone in a flash: John Hulin, chief of staff to new deputy leader Ted O'Brien.
The group chat was quickly renamed 'LOTO Ley – Coord'. CBD was told the whole change was simply a necessary matter of logistics. Whatever the motivations, a fitting symbol of changing times in the Liberal camp.
More Mabo trouble
Multinational mining company Rio Tinto's bankrolling of the Mabo Centre, a native title initiative at the University of Melbourne, hasn't gone down well with some family members of its namesake, pioneering Indigenous land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo.
As CBD reported recently, six of Mabo's grandchildren penned a scathing open letter claiming their grandfather would be 'appalled' at the centre taking money from the company which received global condemnation for its destruction of ancient Indigenous rock sites at Juukan Gorge in 2020. The letter demanded the centre cut ties with Rio.
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'Anything less is a betrayal,' they wrote.
In response, the centre told us the name had been gifted by members of the Mabo family following extensive engagement. But this week, Mabo granddaughter Boneta-Rie Mabo, one of the authors of the original letter, claimed that some hadn't been consulted.
'My father, Eddie Mabo Jr — the eldest son of Eddie Koiki Mabo and the most senior Mabo family member —didn't even know the Mabo Centre existed until I asked him about it after its launch,' she wrote in an article on IndigenousX.
In response, the university sent us the same statement it provided a month ago, telling CBD it stood by the response.
'The centre's name was gifted by senior members of the Mabo family following extensive engagement with them,' the university said.
'The senior Mabo family members were aware of the investment by Rio Tinto ahead of the decision to gift the name.'
Clearly, not everyone was.
Hanging on the telephone
We just have space to note this dispatch from the Geelong Advertiser, where a member of its political team tried for days and days to connect with Liberal senator Sarah Henderson.
And lo, on Thursday morning a precious callback.
But as the Addy recorded: 'Believing she had called her media adviser and not our intrepid reporter, Henderson launched into an almost minute-long monologue that detailed our efforts to contact her and the reasons why.
'Finally, the spin doctor was asked to convey her unwillingness to talk, for the time being at least.
'Seconds of silence were broken when our correspondent informed the hard-working senator that she had, in fact, called the subject of her spiel.
''Oh sorry, I rang the wrong person,' Henderson responded awkwardly.
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