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There’s been no shortage of intrigue surrounding former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern since she and her TV presenter husband Clarke Gayford arrived on Australian shores this year.
Most of it, of course, has been focused squarely on the high-profile couple’s house-hunting efforts. Well, it would seem the search is finally over.
The couple has bought a $5.3 million home in Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches, according to people familiar with the purchase, in a transaction that represents the biggest sale the suburb has recorded this year.
The sale brings to an end months of speculation over where the couple would choose to settle on the city’s northern beaches.
Regular readers will no doubt recall when CBD brought word that one real estate agent to open their doors to Ardern was Michelle Galletti, of Cunninghams on the northern beaches. At the time, we were hearing Ardern was developing a taste for Curl Curl. But it sounds like Galletti lost out to Barnaby Devaux at Raine & Horne Northern Beaches.
Representatives for Ardern and Devaux were contacted for comment.
The last time we heard from Ardern’s office, a spokesman for the former New Zealand prime minister said the family has been travelling for a few years now and that, “for the moment”, they would be basing themselves out of Australia. “They have work there, and it brings the added bonus of more time back home in New Zealand,” her spokesman told CBD in March.
Ardern has been spotted around Sydney on several occasions in the months since. There was the trip to the Chatswood Chase Apple Store, sightings at auctions on the northern beaches, and, of course, the image of Ardern waiting for a bus on the northern beaches.
At least those commuting alongside the former politician can look forward to seeing more of her. Welcome to Sydney, Dame Ardern!
One Nation heads east
It looks like One Nation, after a few months of juice in the polls, has become a little ambitious.
At least that’s what we were left thinking when we received word of One Nation volunteers leafleting outside Edgecliff train station on Tuesday morning, where we’re told they were the target of at least one round of epithets.
The 2027 NSW election campaign, we guess, is well and truly under way if the party of Pauline Hanson is trying to win over voters in Sydney’s gilded eastern suburbs. Apparently there were about 10 leafleters crawling around the station entrance.
We were expecting the party to direct its resources to seats where it might have a better chance. Which is to say, our guess is the eastern suburbs residents who are Pauline-curious are probably already major donors to the party. The rest of them, meanwhile, probably fall into at least one of the demographics the party has historically laid into. Just this month that extended to BYD drivers.
Still, One Nation isn’t the only party out leafleting. Labor MP Jo Haylen has been seen out and about in recent weeks at Sydenham metro station, which has become a bottleneck for commuters shuffling off those cursed pink buses that move travellers between metro stations until the Bankstown line opens. The Labor team has also been out in Ashfield, which falls into Haylen’s electorate.
Creevey’s guide dogs
The revolving door between public office and public affairs has produced no shortage of former government staffers eager to monetise the years they spent working in the public service to help corporates get more of what they want in the halls of Parliament House.
The latest entrepreneur to hang out their shingle is Nick Creevey, perhaps best known in political circles for his time working as an adviser to former prime minister Scott Morrison. In the years since, he’s worked stints at Commonwealth Bank, Airwallex, and most recently at the corporate regulator.
Now he’s offering counsel under the banner Hume Strategies, according to fresh paperwork filed with the attorney-general’s lobbyist register. His first client – well, at least the first one he’s had to disclose – is Guide Dogs NSW, which we’d imagine is doing wonders for Creevey’s cortisol.
After all, to think he could still be at Airwallex, just begging co-founder Jack Zhang to stop fighting with people online.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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