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Like millions of Australians this time of year, Q+A has itchy feet.
CBD can reveal that ABC’s flagship panel show is keen to broadcast from India in coming weeks. An ABC spokeswoman said the show, which goes to air on Monday nights and is hosted by Patricia Karvelas, is “exploring the idea of broadcasting from the G20 but nothing is confirmed”.
Q+A and host Patricia Karvelas might be heading to India in September.Credit: John Shakespeare
Delhi will host the Group of 20 summit in September.
Q+A is no stranger to overseas broadcasts – in 2013, then-host Tony Jones and Australian cricket great Stuart MacGill appeared in an episode from Gurgaon, near Delhi.
Meanwhile, Q+A’s Melbourne set was filled with boomers last weekend as the ABC Southbank Studio opened its doors for Open House. The broadcaster’s big names – News Breakfast hosts Michael Rowland and Lisa Millar, sports reporter Catherine Murphy and comedian Charlie Pickering – were on hand to snap selfies with the sold-out crowd.
Eagle-eyed fans spotted the old Melbourne set for Insiders (RIP) and queued for pics with the biggest names in TV, Bluey and Bingo. Sonia Kruger, eat your heart out.
Dad (Bandit), Mum (Chilli), Bluey and Bingo in Ludo Studio’s Bluey. Credit: Ludo Studio
Accounting went from blah to blood-boiling when it emerged that former PwC partner Peter Collins had leaked confidential government tax crackdown plans to his firm, which used that information to drum up business.
The two-timing only came to light this year when the Tax Practitioners Board published its reasons for disqualifying Collins’ registration for two years.
CBD has chanced upon another fascinating Tax Practitioners Board matter.
The regulator sought an interim injunction against Anthony Dean Buckland, accusing him and Apat, the Philippines-based company that bought his business in 2017, of preparing and lodging tax returns for about 600 taxpayers while not being registered tax agents.
But Buckland, who lost his tax registration in 2017 and now describes himself as an artificial intelligence consultant, has denied providing tax services. He argued the taxpayers may, in fact, have interacted with somebody purporting to be him – or a bot.
The Federal Court last week ruled the evidence was “arguably capable” of showing Apat was providing tax services – through people or bots – and restrained Buckland from preparing and lodging income tax returns.
Buckland, who recently advertised one-day courses on AI for “senior government and private firm executives, senior lawyers, senior accountants and other senior industry managers”, did not respond to our request for comment.
Victorian politics has been hardly normal for yonks, but even long-time observers found allegedly corrupt property developer John Woodman’s DIY press conference on Monday particularly colourful.
Property developer John Woodman (right) in his press conference about the IBAC findings, with ex-Casey mayor Sam Aziz. Credit: Jason South
Woodman was last week found by the state’s anti-corruption body to have made more than $1 million in payments to councillors and Liberal Party members, including cash payments in suitcases and shopping bags, for favourable development decisions in Melbourne’s south-east.
Journalists were invited to “The Victims of Operation Sandon” press conference in a South Melbourne office to find Woodman – with no lawyers or PR people present – waving a wooden ruler at a flickering PowerPoint presentation, rambling for an hour and pretending not to hear shouted questions from reporters. Why Woodman chose to go it alone, we can only guess.
Given the allure of a European summer and cashed-up junkets at this time of year, CBD is cheered to note a group of soul-bettering pollies convened in the Adelaide Hills for a ministerial boot camp last month.
Since 2021, the McKinnon Institute for Political Leadership has spirited away a select gaggle of 20 politicians to hone leadership skills, practise “active listening” and cultivate “ministerial longevity” during a five-day residential intensive. Last year’s event was held in the Hunter Valley, leading CBD to believe these learnings can only be achieved while deep in wine country.
Bass MP Bridget Archer attended ministerial boot camp.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
A panel comprising Dr Heather Smith, who heads up the Australian Institute of International Affairs, former WA premier Colin Barnett and former Labor MP Andrew Fraser selects pollies who are likely to step into ministries in the near future, for a tailor-made leadership program for budding ministers.
The program is backed by the Susan McKinnon Foundation, which aims to “improve our governments and democracy” (we pray they are thoroughly cashed up). The foundation was set up by Sophie Oh and entrepreneur Grant Rule, who sold his SMS marketing technology company MessageMedia in 2021 for $US1.3 billion.
Partnering with Monash University, the foundation shouts politicians the $24,000 course fee. Presenters for this year’s program included former state premiers Mike Baird and Jay Weatherill, along with former prime minister Julia Gillard.
Joining this year’s cohort of pollies was Bridget Archer, the Tasmanian Coalition MP who has crossed the floor 27 times and was the only Liberal to vote in favour of censuring Scott Morrison during the secret ministries affair. That’s points for political pluck.
As for political longevity, the vast majority of the previous two cohorts remain in their respective state and federal parliaments, with apologies to Tim Wilson and Fiona Martin.
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