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Floppy-haired British prime ministerial flop Boris Johnson might not, on the surface, have much in common with US pop juggernaut Taylor Swift, but it turns out that just like Tay Tay, Johnson’s Australian fans cannot get enough of their idol.
In scenes reminiscent, in their own little way, of the fuss surrounding Swift’s Eras tour, organisers have scrambled to meet demand for tickets to Johnson’s John Howard Lecture in Sydney on Wednesday night.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson.Credit: AP
The Menzies Research Centre, a Liberal-Party affiliated think tank, had to boost the event’s capacity to 1000 after tickets to see Johnson, on his first visit to Australia since being ousted as leader of his riven Conservative Party, sold out.
The centre’s David Hughes – not the comedian – said Johnson had proved an all-time chart topper for the conservative ideas factory.
“The biggest Menzies Research Centre event, I think, ever,” Hughes told us.
The annual John Howard Lecture is usually headlined by a centre-right political figure from a Commonwealth country.
Previous headliners have included former New Zealand prime minister John Key and Canadian former leader Stephen Harper.
Australian Liberal Party grandees will be, well, liberally sprinkled through the crowd on Wednesday night. Former prime ministers Scott Morrison and Howard and former high commissioner to the UK George Brandis are expected to be among the audience. Key is also expected to be there.
Howard had to postpone his annual Christmas drinks this year because of knee surgery, but we’re told the former PM is recovering well and fully intends to make an appearance.
Readers will be pleased to note that the Australia-UK trade relationship in failed prime ministers is a bilateral affair.
CBD’s dear friend Tony Abbott will join David Frost, Johnson’s chief negotiator of the Brexit deal – and didn’t that go well – on stage in London next week for a joint talk to the Westminster-based Centre for Policy Studies.
PRESS GANG
When a political party has had six leadership changes in 11 years, it only takes a little thing for the big talk to start. So tongues started wagging on Spring Street after some state parliament press gallery types showed up at Christmas media drinks hosted by shadow police minister and former Liberal leadership contender Brad Battin in his electorate in Berwick on Sunday.
We called Battin, asking if he’d staged a rival bash to his leader John Pesutto’s well-attended festive media drinks held late last month and Battin told us “that is so not it that it’s not funny”.
Well, it’s kind of funny, Brad.
Brad Battin got the rumour mill going.Credit: Paul Jeffers
But anyway, the opposition frontbencher said that the function was planned for local media but then the Herald Sun’s state political reporter Mitch Clarke, who started out at the Pakenham Gazette and likes to stay in touch with the locale, invited some of his Spring Street pals along.
Next thing you know, the rumour mill cranks up. And before any leadership talk gathers pace, Battin added, that’s the last thing on his mind.
“We’ve got so many things that we’re going to be doing to get ready for [the election in] 2026, without worrying about who is going to be leader,” he told us. So there.
RUNNING SAGA
Remember Sneakerboy, the ill-fated Australian retail chain selling trainers for up to $1000 a pair that made waves in the business world in 2022 and again this year by going belly-up? Twice.
Long story short: the retailer that peddled its high-end foot wares in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane collapsed last July owing creditors $17 million, before UK-based sporting goods giant Frasers stepped in to buy Sneakerboy.
But after just seven weeks, the British outfit placed its new local subsidiary into administration after being unable to secure supply agreements with the big brands. See you later, Sneakerboy.
Now it looks like another venture from the boys behind Sneakerboy – Nelson Mair, Theo Poulakis and Jay Hewamanna – is facing a spot of bother.
Corporate regulator ASIC has commenced a “striking-off” process against Bio Safe Australia, a firm whose sole director is Poulakis and which has Hewamanna as company secretary.
Mair resigned as a director in June. Now, ASIC wouldn’t tell us exactly why it was moving to cancel Bio Safe’s registration, but most of the time, striking-off processes are brought against companies that have failed to pay registration fees or simply stopped trading.
So many questions, right? Not least among them, what exactly does Bio Safe do? That’s far from clear from the material held on the firm by the corporate regulator, but it doesn’t sound much like it sells $800 Alexander McQueen sneaks.
Unfortunately, neither Nair nor Hewamanna have responded to our requests for comment, the businesses associated with the three men are either shuttered or not answering their phones and Poulakis, who has kept the lowest of profiles since Sneakerboy’s final collapse, simply couldn’t be found. We’ll keep trying.
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