Mates rates for Albo as Rusty steps into election fray

An otherwise lacklustre showdown between the two economics buffs got off to a competitive start when Frydenberg took the opportunity on the lectern to welcome Labor hardhead and ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr who had been left out of the official welcome address by Press Club chief executive Maurice Reilly and was not mentioned by Chalmers.

In his response, Chalmers made amends. “Josh has gotten in first with a shout-out to Andrew Barr,” the shadow treasurer shot back, noting the Minister for Speed Dial wasn’t likely to let him live the omission down.

And as the campaign drags into its fourth week, the usual corporate heavyweights left their lieutenants and lobbyists to do the repping at the event. But the best seat in the house at the event went to Westpac’s government relations boss Richard Shields. As the most senior representative of the bank which was the principal sponsor of the event, the lobbyist scored the seat directly between Frydenberg and Chalmers. A score and a half for the Woollahra deputy mayor who is a former NSW Liberal deputy state director.

Elsewhere in the room, Frydenberg’s chief of staff Martin Codina, a former Westpac executive, was spotted while down the front Barton Deakin lobbyist and Liberal veteran Grahame Morris sat near Newgate lobbyist heavyweight Steve Lewis who is the Press Club’s senior vice president.

SHE’S A SURVIVOR

Well, when you have got it, flaunt it. How else to explain the corflute of Sharn Coombes, the Liberal Party candidate for the Victorian seat of Dunkley, on the Mornington Peninsula. Labor’s Peta Murphy won the seat last time around on a 2.7 per cent margin.

Coombes is a criminal barrister who practised criminal law for the past 21 years, former Crown Prosecutor of Victoria, national ambassador for Habitat for Humanity and Future Women mentor.She has appeared for the Women’s Legal Service and is a keen charity fundraiser including for Ronald McDonald House and the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre. Coombes has run eight marathons, ultra-marathons and multiple triathlons and once trekked 150km for the Mark Hughes Foundation, raising money for brain cancer. And Coombes has four kids.

But rather than the standard posed studio photo, Coombes corflute shows her perspiring in a blue vest with a familiar-looking scarf around her neck. That’s because it was taken during an episode of Australian Survivor, where the Lib candidate was a two-time runner-up and holds a number of records, including “most days ever played in Australia, and the most challenges won in a single game in Australian Survivor history (23 in Champions v Contenders 2018)“. Good job.

“My experiences on Survivor were challenging and exhilarating all at the same time. A bit like life. In some ways Survivor is a microcosm of real life. Met with daily struggles, you don’t know what challenges lie ahead, but it’s the way you handle them that matters most,” Coombes told CBD. “On Survivor I handled each day, and challenge without my family, out in the elements, starving, with optimism and determination. I did the hard work, with a smile. I chose this image for my corflute as it was taken during a challenge and I feel it captures those things about me in the moment.”

After that, Canberra (if she gets there) should be a cinch.