Eddie McGuire first to break news of Andrews’ departure

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The hundreds of footy enthusiasts who shelled out $230 each for a seat at the Carbine Club’s grand final lunch at Crown’s Palladium on Tuesday got a bargain – an inside tip, a good 45 minutes in advance, on Daniel Andrews’ seismic resignation.

One of the speakers, TV host, former Collingwood club president and general dude-around-town Eddie McGuire tipped that Tuesday would indeed be the day many had been anticipating for some time. Eddie’s remark, it must be said, was greeted with some cheering in the room.

News-breaker Eddie McGuireCredit: Getty Images

We brought news a couple of weeks back of Eddie halting proceedings at Choi’s restaurant in Hawthorn to regale dozens of diners with the news that Magpies defender Brayden Maynard had avoided suspension and was free to play in the club’s preliminary final.

Looks like Eddie’s rediscovered his old passion for the news business.

BEERS, MATE

So, will Dan now “get on the beers”?

If he does, one of his political opponents, Liberal MP for Narracan Wayne Farnham, has the departing premier covered.

Farnham told us that he bumped into Andrews both before and after that final press conference at Parliament House on Tuesday, and although at pains to point out he would “never agree with what he’s done to our state”, Farnham was gracious enough to extend a parting gift to the departing leader.

“I gave him one of my bottle openers, because I had one in my pocket” he told CBD. “And I said, ‘All the best. This can open your first beer.’ ”

STANDING JOKE

Disgraced former Labor faction man Adem Somyurek was never known as a music enthusiast or humorist – his passions, famously, lay elsewhere – but the former Andrews government minister, who was sacked twice by the man himself, had a memorable contribution to the online reaction to Tuesday’s resignation.

Somyurek, who is still somehow a member of parliament, posted the video on Elon Musk’s X website (formerly Twitter) of Elton John’s1983 hit I’m still Standing – geddit?

But in fairness, who would have bet as the huge branch-stacking scandal forced Somyurek out of cabinet and the Labor Party in mid-2020, that his parliamentary career could outlast Andrews’?

BISHOP’S GAMBIT

Taking a break from Dan for a moment, former federal parliamentary speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s political career never recovered from the revelations she billed taxpayers for a $5227 helicopter ride to a Liberal Party fundraiser.

But from the ashes of the Choppergate scandal, the party veteran has reinvented herself as a firebrand conservative pundit, recently going viral with her attacks on the Voice to parliament.

It’s this career move that has taken Bronnie to some rather strange places.

Next week, she’s set to front an online event hosted by Pat Mesiti, a former Hillsong minister (booted from the church after getting caught paying prostitutes) and self-confessed sex addict turned prosperity gospel life coach.

Bronwyn BishopCredit: Brendon Thorne/ Getty

Now, Mesiti may no longer be a Hillsonger, but his penchant for fire and brimstone remains, with an event description billing Bronnie’s words of wisdom as a lifeline for Australians living through seemingly apocalyptic times.

“Australia is under siege and its people are being sacrificed,” the preacher-cum-mindset guru wrote. It’s a conclusion he says he’s come to by simply following his own research.

“We are seeing the total destruction of Australia. What is happening is straight from George Orwell’s 1984,” Mesiti writes.

Thank god for Bishop, who will apparently reveal her thoughts on “Australia’s future and economy, [and how] you can safeguard your wealth in these trying times”, plus some things she can’t discuss in the mainstream media.

It’s free, if you’re interested.

PHON NATION

When you’ve got one of Australia’s most recognisable, and provocative, political brands you’d be smart to let it hang out there at every opportunity, right?

So it made perfect sense back in 2015 for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to put its founder and most recognisable asset front and centre in the party’s name as it rebooted itself.

Trouble was, electoral authorities around the country took immediately to using the double take-inducing abbreviation PHON to identify One Nation candidates on ballots and the like. PHON, hardly electoral dynamite, right?

PHON leader Pauline Hanson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But not for much longer, as the party moves to sort out this little brand recognition problem with electoral authorities around the country, lodging applications to change the official abbreviation, not the name of the party, to the unmistakable One Nation.

A man from the party told us on Tuesday that he wasn’t aware of the uninspired PHON moniker actually losing votes from confused would-be supporters, but the party was keen to get “One Nation” onto ballots, especially before next year’s Queensland election, where PHON is planning a big push, running candidates in every lower house seat.

It’ll be a good test of whether Hanson and her brand still have their old pulling power.

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