Dutton makes guest appearance at Joe Hockey’s Washington shindig

Peter Dutton has been barely seen or heard from since leading the Coalition to its worst election result in more than 70 years.

Liberated from parliament by the voters of Dickson, the former opposition leader has the luxury of staying out of the public limelight and living off his extensive multimillion dollar property portfolio. Forget The Lodge, that’s the true Australian Dream!

It’s a pretty charmed life. Last week, the Duttons listed for sale their luxury farmhouse on the Brisbane outskirts which had been the family home base for a few years. It’s estimated to go for up to $8 million at an upcoming auction. Dutton and wife Kirrily are planning to give unit living a go, after taking some time off to travel.

What’s on the itinerary? CBD hears the Duttons have been holidaying in the United States, heading from New York to Washington DC where they were guests at former treasurer Joe Hockey’s Christmas party at his swanky apartment overlooking the Lincoln Memorial last week.

In fact, DC has been swarming with former senior Liberals of late.

Also seen at Casa Hockey on Thursday night was former prime minister Scott Morrison, who is regularly in the United States for his numerous part-time jobs. His most recent trip was for a conference hosted by the International Democracy Union, the centre-right organisation of which he is executive vice-chair.

Another former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott also spoke at the conference, and ex-foreign minister Marise Payne was there too. Although we hear Abbott didn’t stick around for his former treasurer’s do.

While we hear the Dutton trip was for pleasure, rather than business, there are worse places he could go to audition for a job than the US capital.

Hockey, a former ambassador to the United States known for having good golf rapport with president Donald Trump, is based there half the time, where his consulting-cum-lobbying firm Bondi Partners has enjoyed a fair bit of success.

The whole “Trump thing”, ruthlessly exploited by Labor to make the Liberal leader electoral poison in Australia, won’t hurt Dutts all that much in DC.

Good neighbours

When your columnists were crouched in the Bellevue Hill gutter, keeping tabs on arrivals at News Corp boss Lachlan Murdoch’s annual summertime soiree, we encountered some neighbours who had not scored an invite to the star-studded do.

Turns out they weren’t the only slightly aggrieved locals. Back in October, this column revealed the Murdochs had bought the neighbouring mansion Fernlee. No comment on it from the Murdoch camp, but the $21 million home had been purchased by an overseas buyer, in the name of a trust that was also used by the couple for another recent property purchase.

CBD’s suspicions were strengthened when our spies spotted Lachlan’s entourage walking through the front door of the neighbouring property, and then heightened further last week when an obnoxious, outward-facing security camera was installed on the house’s exterior.

Neighbours aren’t thrilled by this development, we hear, concerned that it invades their privacy by capturing footage of their premises. To add insult to injury, those same neighbours weren’t even invited to last week’s party either. No comment from the Murdoch camp on this either.

One person who did get an invitation, and who we neglected to mention in our wrap last week, was disgraced Australian music industry titan Denis Handlin, who arrived alone carrying a gift bag.

Handlin was abruptly dumped as chief executive of Sony Music Australia in 2021, a few months before a Four Corners investigation revealed widespread allegations of bullying and harassment perpetrated by him during his tenure at the top. None of this, it seems, is a barrier to scoring a golden ticket to Sydney’s most exclusive Christmas Party.

Rude head

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is doing his utmost to stay relevant by keeping Australia waiting.

After a protracted exit from the Nationals, the nation’s Greatest Retail Politician has refused to commit to joining One Nation, despite sitting down with Pauline Hanson for steak cooked on a sandwich press in the senator’s parliamentary office. Talk about an offer you can’t refuse!

Anyway, should Joyce make the great defection after summer, his new party might have a wee merch problem. Punters looking to line the One Nation coffers can purchase on the party’s website a stubby cooler featuring a cartoon of Joyce, depicted as a cranky, sentient beetroot in a suit, alongside a ukulele-strumming Scott Morrison.

The cartoon is a still from Hanson’s animated web series Please Explain, which is being turned into a 90-minute feature-length film Hanson wants to get shown on Netflix (which was, as this column pointed out, news to the streaming platform).

Hanson was also forced to cancel a planned viewing of the film in Parliament House, after authorities said no. The film is set for release, somewhere, on January 26. We’ll keep you updated on whether Joyce has gotten a hero arc.

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