There’s no question Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has guts.
But the uncompromising leader gave Melbourne’s movers and shakers a real-time demonstration of his nerves of steel on Wednesday afternoon, when he arrived 17 minutes late for a high-powered Zoom briefing. It’s unquestionable that the Premier has a lot on his plate, but it’s not often that a room – sorry, Zoom call – full of billionaires and captains of industry, is left waiting.
The Premier was scheduled to give a private briefing to more than 100 members of the Australian-Israel Chamber of Commerce, with a welcome delivered by Visy boss Anthony Pratt, Australia’s wealthiest man. The event was originally planned for July 1, but pandemic concerns got in the way. A make-up briefing for the group, which included Crown Resorts chief executive Ken Barton, media buyer Harold Mitchell, Seek chief executive Paul Bassatt, lawyer Mark Leibler and businessman Solomon Lew was then diarised for October 1. But was cancelled at an hour’s notice. Attendees were then told the Premier had set aside an hour for the briefing at 5pm on Wednesday. But at 5.16pm, they were still waiting.
At 5.17, the Premier made an appearance, warmly welcomed by Anthony Pratt. Others on the call included Amazon Australian chair Sir Gus Nossal, property investor Carol Schwartz, Mesoblast chief executive Silviu Itescu, Medibank chief executive Craig Drummond and La Trobe University vice-chancellor John Dewar.
Read the article by Stephen Brook and Samantha Hutchinson in The Age.