Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s top aide joined all-male Australian Club

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley made history when she became the Liberal Party’s first female leader. And Ley’s chief of staff Dean Shachar is making history of his own as one of the youngest people to hold the top position in the party leader’s office.

Ley’s decision to retain Shachar in one of the party’s most powerful staffing roles raised a few eyebrows, as doubters wondered whether the 30-year-old former University of Sydney student politician was experienced enough for the job. For the record, CBD has no problems with youth.

But there’s no question that Shachar is a man in a hurry. Last year, he sought membership of the all-male Australian Club on Macquarie Street, and was accepted. Ley wasn’t yet leader, but she was the most senior Liberal woman at the time, and the optics of Shachar seeking a membership of the old boy’s club haven’t been lost among party critics. Both Shachar and Ley’s office declined to comment.

The club might be the only institution in Australia with a worse record on gender than the Liberal Party. Its membership in 2021 voted overwhelmingly to keep the women out. But it remains a pretty good ticket for any ambitious Liberal hack hoping to network with the big end of town and party elders.

Former prime ministers John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull are members. And in recent years, there’s been a flurry of men from the blue team joining up. That includes newly unemployed Peter Dutton, former minister and ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos, ex-NSW frontbenchers David Elliott and Stuart Ayres, and current MPs James Griffin and Anthony Roberts.

Not on that list is former prime minister Scott Morrison, brutally snubbed by the Australian Club when he sought membership last year.

Rather hilariously, Morrison used to be Shachar’s boss – he worked in the then-prime minister’s media team before the 2022 election.

It’s early days, but we can safely say that no matter how Ley fares as Liberal leader, that’s one snub she’ll never have to endure.

Revolving door

Is public affairs firm Anacta becoming the Club Med for ambitious Labor operatives taking a break between hard-hitting gigs on the political frontlines?

Word from Western Australia is that Anacta WA director Mark Reed is measuring up the curtains at Labor’s state office, after being elected unanimously to become the party’s next state secretary last week.

But wait, as Reed exits stage left, enter Ash van Dijk. The former ACT Labor secretary is rumoured to be joining the firm after resigning his party role with an enviable track record, having served as ACT campaign director for three elections, all successful for the party: the ACT 2024 election, and federally in 2022 and 2025.

Meanwhile, Anacta research partner Talbot Mills, helmed by the firm’s co-founder David Talbot, was among those who received a hat tip from ALP federal secretary Paul Erickson in his post-election victory lap at the National Press Club.

And he apparently had good company during the campaign. Fellow co-founder David Nelson was also rumoured to be giving strategic counsel behind the scenes, perhaps drawing from his 2024 stint in Britain working closely with Keir Starmer’s victorious Labour campaign team during last year’s election.

Nelson’s work on the Starmer campaign drew comparisons to Howard’s old electoral necromancer Lynton Crosby, who earned the nickname “the Wizard of Oz” for his role masterminding Conservative victories in Britain.

Meanwhile, Reed was sharing his wisdom about how to win in WA. (Safe to say he learnt a bit about that while advising the state’s emperor, Mark McGowan, who became Australia’s most popular premier.)

All of which is to say: if you’re eating a pie today, look out. Anacta may well have its fingers in it.

Fitting tribute

It’s been two weeks since we lost our beloved friend and former colleague John Shakespeare, a veteran cartoonist for The Sydney Morning Herald and esteemed illustrator of this column for decades, who lost a battle with an aggressive cancer.

Since then, the tributes have continued to pour in for Shakes. And on Monday night, he’s set to be commemorated with a minute’s silence at the City of Sydney Council’s monthly meeting.

“John was beloved by not just readers – there has been a huge outpouring of grief from them – but also his Herald colleagues, many of whom own a caricature he’d drawn of them among their most prized possessions,” Councillor Jess Miller will move in a tribute to Shakes.

Miller’s tribute will also toast his love of cycling, and there are even rumours about renaming the Oxford Street cycleway “Shakes’ Way” in his honour.

“Like an athlete, he transformed when he climbed onto two wheels. On a pushbike he could go through the gears on one wheel, which he often did on the streets of Sydney,” she said.

Shakespeare left The Sydney Morning Herald in 2024 after 39 years with the paper, a tenure even longer than Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s time in Town Hall. It’s no surprise, then, that Moore found herself on the receiving end of Shakes’ delicate visual barbs more than once, with his framed illustrations hanging in the Town Hall and her office.

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