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When asked why he would give this year’s Garma Festival a miss after promising to attend the Indigenous festival every year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he hadn’t “had a day off all year”, and would be on leave when the festival was set to kick off.
Well, it looks like he finally got that day off. It turns out the prime minister traded camping out in his swag under the stars last month for the spoils of the Saffire Freycinet, a luxury lodge in Tasmania where stays go for about $3000 a night, according to the retreat’s website.
The PM’s visit was part of a private holiday with his wife, Jodie Haydon, we’re told, and coincided with Haydon’s birthday. (Which makes Australia’s first lady a Leo, for those so inclined; Albanese, a Pisces.) No word on the precise dates that the couple spent at the Saffire, which bills itself as one of “Australia’s premier luxury lodges”, other than that they were there a few nights. But we’re told the jaunt was personally funded.
It looks like the retreat wasn’t the only stop on the couple’s Tasmanian tour. Albanese and Haydon were spotted at the Machine Laundry Cafe in Hobart, right by the offices of The Mercury, which dutifully papped the pair in sunglasses and ran an item on their visit.
When we asked the prime minister’s office for more details on the trip, however, it was crickets.
In late July, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the Labor government would be well represented at Garma by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Malarndirri McCarthy, the Minister for Indigenous Australians. The festival began on July 31 and ran for four days.
Albanese, meanwhile, told the ABC that he’d been at Garma every year since 2019, and he’d be travelling to the Northern Territory for another festival before he went on leave. The prime minister did not concede a broken promise.
Funnily enough, the last time the prime minister was in Tasmania, Albanese was asked about a different broken promise. That time it was negative gearing.
On that, Albanese was similarly careful not to concede. “Well, we’ve changed our position,” Albanese said in May when asked by a journalist if he had broken an election promise. “We’ve said that very clearly. But we’ve changed our position for the right reasons.”
Given Albanese’s proven flexibility, maybe Garma will get the nod next year.
Scots principal smiles no more
Until last Sunday, Scots principal Ian Lambert’s “Message from the Principal” emails to parents were accompanied by a photo of him sitting in a gold-trimmed chair, hands folded, with a smile on his face.
But one email that landed in the inboxes of parents this month didn’t quite match the cheer of the image that accompanied it.
“Dear Parents and Carers,” the email began, beneath a photo of a smiling Lambert. “I know that recent news involving members of our community will have caused concern for many parents and possibly raised difficult questions at home.”
It looks like the Scots publicity team has finally realised the boss was overdue for a new portrait, considering the news coming out of the elite educator. Because in an email to parents on August 16, it was smiles no more. In that one, Lambert was pictured with an appropriately sober expression.
“Dear College community,” Lambert opened his August 16 missive. “Since we last wrote, I have continued to hear from parents who have questions and concerns about the College’s response. Those questions deserve clear and direct answers. Before turning to those answers, I want to speak from the heart of who we are as a Christian community.”
Lambert has, of course, faced calls from some of the school’s parents to resign immediately after Scots became engulfed in scandal last week.
But our bet is there might be more than a few parents still waiting for “clear and direct” answers. At least the principal isn’t sending pictures to parents of himself smiling any longer, we guess.
Sussan Ley’s valedictory tour hits Sydney
It looks like the next stop on the Sussan Ley farewell tour is the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney.
On Monday, we received word of a valedictory cocktail evening planned for the former opposition leader in Sydney’s The Rocks in early October for “one final toast” to the erstwhile member for Farrer. Invitations to the get-together pictured Ley in a gold suit, superimposed in front of a Greyhound bus, a not-so-subtle nod to Ley’s trip across middle America, which she recently wrote about for The Australian Financial Review.
“Join us for a farewell toast as we celebrate Sussan Ley’s remarkable 25 years in federal politics,” reads the invite, seen by CBD.
John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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