Is the PM a hooker? At tennis, that is.

Our field agents in Anthony Albanese’s electorate report the PM’s behaviour at his local tennis club, the Marrickville District Lawn Tennis Club, is raising eyebrows amongst some members.

No, the PM didn’t trash the clubhouse during his recent party there to celebrate his 30 years in parliament. The complaints are about his sportsmanship, with word reaching Open Politics that our local member and fellow tennis tragic has a reputation for being a hooker: a player who intentionally makes bad line calls. You know, occasionally calling his opponent’s balls out when they’re in.

Normally if a player makes an incorrect line call the other side will politely suggest the point be played again, but there's a power imbalance when the person on the other side of the net is the prime minister with several AFP close personal protection officers surrounding the court (always Court 1 for security reasons, apparently). 

Perhaps Albo's decades as a hard left factional warrior and Tory fighter have made him bent on winning at all costs. Or could it be a case of Old Man Albo not being able to see the line that clearly anymore. We suggest he get his eyes tested at Specsavers Marrickville.

Open Politics sought comment from the PM's office but we didn’t receive a response. It appears he doesn’t comment on on-court matters.

The day Albo called Rudd a c#@*

Rudd and Albo in happy times

Staying with Albo and tennis, when the PM was a minister in the Rudd government he played competition matches on Saturdays at the less fancy Marrickville Hardcourt Tennis Club.

One weekend during a break between sets Albo’s phone rang, with another player asking him, ‘Is that the PM?’ Albo replied under his breath that he wasn’t talking to that ‘c#@*’.

We doubt there was much ill feeling behind the comment as Albanese was one of Rudd’s most devoted supporters during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era. Maybe Albo was just exasperated by his fifteenth call from Rudd that day?

And it’s hard to believe anyone would really think of Heavy Kevvy as a c#@*. Well, except for senior public servants Rudd's office would call at all hours of the night to prepare urgent briefs that Rudd wouldn't end up reading.

Actually, Taylor does need to disclose his trusts’ assets

Taylor and family with their corgi McKinsey

The Sydney Morning Herald ran an interesting story last week on Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s extensive wealth and use of family trusts and holding companies, but Open Politics was puzzled by the journalists’ claim that any assets and proceeds from Taylor’s trusts do not need to be declared.  

The thing is that the Explanatory Notes for the Register of Members’ Interests states on page 3 that MPs need to declare shares held by a trust or nominee company. 

As for declaring real estate in a trust, the explanatory notes are silent on this, however officials who manage the interests register have previously informed Open Politics that if an MP is a beneficiary of a trust that owns real estate then that real estate should be disclosed.

Our view is that real estate held in a trust has just as much potential to create a conflict of interest as real estate directly owned by an MP.

So Angus, if you and Louise have any undisclosed assets in Maclaughlin River Land Trust No. 1 and AJ & L Taylor Family Trust, you need declare them.

A trust does not technically own assets. A trustee - the person or entity that manages a trust - is the legal owner of its assets, but they only hold them for a trust’s beneficiaries.

Share trades: Nats MP goes nuclear and Israel war machine

The Nats can't let go of nuclear energy despite it being electoral poison.  

NSW Nationals MP Alison Penfold declared last week that her trust Valbar Memorial Trust has invested in Global X Uranium AUD ETF with the delightful ASX code ATOM.  

The fund's largest holding is in Canadian uranium producer Cameco Corporation, one of the world's largest fuel suppliers for nuclear reactors, followed by nuclear reactor designer Oklo Inc and uranium explorer NexGen Energy Ltd. 

Penfold also disclosed Valbar invests in Global X Defence Tech ETF (ASX: DTEC), a fund with holdings in Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems, US defence giant Lockheed Martin and data and AI firm Palantir Technologies.

All three companies have contracts with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and have been accused by Amnesty International of enabling Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. 

The companies are also involved in Trump's and Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran under Operation Epic Fury Cluster F*#k. 

Open Politics asked Penfold whether she was aware of DTEC's holdings and if she had any concerns, but we didn't receive a response. Her office said she was on the road!

Liberal MP goes on her 7th junket

Spare a thought for Victorian Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie’s poor constituents in Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula. Getting face time with their local MP when parliament is not sitting must be hard because McKenzie is often tens of thousands of kilometres away from her electorate on junkets.

Last week McKenzie declared her seventh privately-funded trip overseas since being elected to parliament in 2022: a two week jaunt in February to Germany, Belgium and France courtesy of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), a German government-funded political foundation associated with the centre-right Christian Democrats. (McKenzie funded the French leg herself.)

In January McKenzie attended the four day Political Tech Summit in Berlin courtesy of the Meliore Foundation, a philanthropic organisation based in Belgium, and in September last year the Danish government partially funded her one week trip to see their windfarms.

The Germans appear to be targeting McKenzie as KAS paid for her 12 day visit to Brussels and Berlin in October 2023 while the Robert Bosch Stiftung foundation picked up the tab for her nine day stop off in India on her return leg. 

In December of that year genocide deniers the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) paid for her six day trip to Israel.

McKenzie’s first junket as an MP was to COP27 in Egypt in November 2022 courtesy of the pro-nuclear energy group Coalition for Conservation.

No record of Kentucky Colonel Richard Marles

The Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles’ former chief of staff Jo Tarnawsky wrote in The Saturday Paper last month that his ministerial office in Geelong has a framed certificate of his commissioning as a Kentucky Colonel.

According to the certificate the US lickspittle was handed the honorary commission in 2003 by former Kentucky governor Paul E. Patton, however the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels has no record of a Richard Marles in its directory of recipients.  

One Australian we did find in the directory is cardboard nepo baby Anthony Pratt, who was commissioned in 2021 by former governor Andy Beshear. Pratt calls himself ‘Colonel Anthony Pratt’ on LinkedIn.

Now before you go thinking Marles is not a real fake Colonel, the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels acknowledges that its directory might be incomplete and encourages overlooked recipients to contact them.

Marles is of course too busy protecting the nation to do this himself so Open Politics is taking the liberty to do it for him. It’s the least we can do for the man who loves titles. Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Colonel Richard Marles has a nice ring to it.