The Australian Grand Prix race started with a beautiful moment of inclusion in that most exclusive of sports. Minutes before the race started, two blonde DJs supplied by Heineken, twin sisters Olivia and Miriam Nervo, urged the crowd to unfurl their national flags, and the people rose to the occasion and unfurled flags from Italy, Slovakia, The Netherlands and elsewhere, emphasising the global carnival that is Formula 1.
Melbourne’s corporate aristocracy had already converged on the “Paddock Club” (neither a paddock nor a club) hospitality suites stretching alongside the track.
Off and running: Scott Morrison in election mode. Credit:Joe Benke
In Network Ten, chief sales officer Rod Prosser held court with stars including F1-nut Angela Bishop, Masterchef judge Melissa Leong, I’m a Celebrity host Julia Morris and The Project presenter Waleed Aly. Also present until he went up to the rooftop viewing platform, was the man who can guarantee himself the best vantage point in any crowd: AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan.
Tennis star turned Liberal Party candidate Sam Groth walked in and exchanged pleasantries with Eddie McGuire, who started his career as a sport reporter at Ten. “You’d better be careful now mate, you are a politician,” the broadcaster advised. Also present, prominent Toorak Road hairdresser Joey Scandizzo, sufficiently recovered from Wednesday’s Glamour on the Grid party of the year.
Meanwhile at the Heineken suite, Peter Crinis, the former Crown boss, now head of hotel firm Public Group, sunnies perched on head (what is this, Queensland?), was animatedly talking to Paul Guerra, chief executive of the Vic Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Later Richmond star Jack Riewoldt walked past balancing the Heinekens while in his element was Kris Smith (the Myer ambassador and ex-spouse of Dannii Minogue, not the Sky News after dark host).
AMBASSADORS IN TOWN
Throughout the week, the drivers descended on Melbourne to sprinkle their celebrity.
Aussie superstar Daniel Ricciardo took to the wheel of a life-sized orange replica McLaren Formula 1 car made entirely of Lego. Why not?!
Daniel Ricciardo a favourite among fans at Albert Park. Daniel Ricciardo.Credit:Eddie Jim
Then there was the “Ricciardo Decanter’. The “unique decanter is inspired by Ricciardo’s podium celebration ritual and modelled on Ricciardo’s own racing shoe”. It’s a collaboration with St Hugo’s winery.
On Thursday the Bang & Olufsen flagship shop on Church Street Richmond was hosted by … Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.
Alonso was actually genuinely enthusiastic for the brand; when living in Dubai in 2012 he went out and bought a speaker for his home sound system – with his very own money. “Did they realise who you were when you walked into the shop?” Alonso was asked.
“No, no, no they didn’t.” The brand collaboration didn’t happen until eight years later.
The two-time world champion was asked where were his favourite places to hang out in Melbourne. “Well from now this store will be one of my favourite places to visit,” the Spanish superstar said. See, that’s why they pay him the big bucks!
Seven-times world champion driver Lewis Hamilton revealed he was having local piano lessons and last night surfing at the Urban Surf wave pool in Tullamarine.
”I try and switch off. I skydive and I like surfing,” he said. But he revealed he stuck to Urban Surf to avoid the risk of a shark attack. The British driver told the crowd of 320 women at Mercedes-Benz Ladies Day he was petrified of spiders. “I check my hotel room, I always check under the toilet.”
While Lewis might be scared of sharks, former Australian Grand Prix winner Formula 1 broadcaster David Coulthard certainly isn’t scared of giving his opinion.
No sharks, please, we’re British. Credit:Getty Images
Although without specifically mentioning COVID-19, the man with the most chiseled jaw in motorsport told the crowd in the Mercedes-Benz Star Lounge that he thinks Australia’s “health and safety has gone crazy”.
TO THE POLLS
Scott Morrison’s mission on Sunday was hot-footing it to Government House, the second most important building in the leafy Canberra suburb of Yarralumla. (Number one is the legendary Yarralumla kebab shop). Before meeting the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament and kickstart the election campaign, the PM squeezed in some eleventh hour board appointments. Morrison’s 6.22am press release was the latest in a flurry of appointments to plum postings before the government went into caretaker mode. This time around it was the board of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympics Games Organising Committee. In probably the last bipartisan act we’ll see for the next six weeks, the announcement was co-signed by Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Pałaszczuk.
The duo revealed that former Dow Chemical head honcho Andrew Liveris will serve as president of the organising committee board. Other directors will include former Olympic rower Rob Scott and Reconciliation Australia co-chair Shelley Reys. The government previously appointed Liveris to advise the now defunct National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, where he recommended a gas-led economic strategy to recover from the pandemic.
By our count, that is 157 appointments or reappointments made since March 21 (the last three weeks), which means the wheels of government can turn (when they want to) faster than Charles Leclerc’s pole position Ferrari down at Albert Park.
GUEST OF HONOUR
Bonhomie was in the air at the University of Sydney’s great hall on Friday night when alumni gathered for a special occasion: the installation of a portrait of former prime minister and student politics brawler Tony Abbott. The painting, by artist Simon Fieldhouse, was commissioned by St John’s College, the Roman Catholic university college where a young Abbott lived in 1976.
Former St John’s house president and top barrister Guy Reynolds was in attendance, fresh from successfully convincing the High Court to allow Prime Minister Scott Morrison to select his hand-picked candidates to run in key seats. So was NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell. The Australian’s star conservative columnist Janet Albrechtsen was there too with her partner, investment banker John O’Sullivan.
One special guest had to drop out at the last minute: Abbott himself. The former Rhodes scholar has been diagnosed with COVID-19, forcing him into isolation. Abbott delivered his speech to the crowd, which included his sisters and daughters, via Zoom. Because of his diagnosis, Abbott was forced to cancel plans to travel to Western Australia this week to raise funds for several Liberal candidates.
The Abbott portrait by Simon Fieldhouse.Credit:Simon Fieldhouse/ Supplied
Fieldhouse’s painting shows Abbott clutching a set of rosary beads and wearing his trademark blue tie. In the background a mysterious man stumbles around with a knife in his back, an allusion to Malcolm Turnbull’s 2015 political assassination of Abbott. “There’s a lot of things Tony says that I don’t agree with,” Fieldhouse, a self-described Kevin Rudd fan, told CBD. “As a person I get along quite well with him,” he added, echoing a comment you often hear from those on the left after they meet Abbott.
The former Liberal leader is not the only prominent ex-politician to be felled by COVID of late. Former NSW Premier Bob Carr also has the virus, meaning the steel-cut oats aficionado had to miss last week’s launch of Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons’ latest book, a history of the Sydney Opera House. “My once athletic vocal cords reduced to scratchy razor blades,” Carr lamented in a text to FitzSimons. “I won’t be singing Rigoletto as planned at your launch.“
Additional reporting by Cara Waters, Lachlan Abbott
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