Ladies Who Lunch

B/W Chair Susan Diver * TV news reader Natarsha Belling * Mem Fox * Julia Baird * Dame Marie Bashir * Kate Carnell

 The Black and White Charity Committee raises funds for Vision Australia to provide support services for children and their families.  Each year they hold the Women Of Achievement lunch at the Four Season's Hotel at Circular Quay.
This is a great event: every penny raised goes to the charity as the ladies on the B/W Committee, cajole, beg, borrow and steal every aspect of the day. They are all unpaid volunteers and it's a pretty good achievement in itself to be able to draw over 500 attendees as they did this year, to pack the hotel ballroom.
Three distinguished ladies of "achievement" give a speech outlining their career and how they got there. Most started from humble beginnings This years speakers were Mem Fox who is married to the billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, ABC TV presenter Julia Baird and Kate Carnell former Chief Minister of the ACT and currently the Ombudsman for Small Business.
Among the guests, Gina Rinehart arguably the world's richest woman with a mining fortune and Dame Marie Bashir former NSW Governor, Professor Ross Steele, one of world's great experts on the French language and Olympian Jessica Gallagher.

Judith Crawley * Daniel Trelease * Maria Finlay * Professor Steele* Jessica Gallagher * Mike Levendi

Ottos' lunch- for a good cause

Those hard working ladies of the Black & White Charity Committee have a lunch on Tuesday 14th November at the uber restaurant Ottos on the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo. The guest of honor will be the previous NSW Governor Dame Marie Bashir and she's well worth the price of admission alone, quite apart from Ottos' superb food.
Tickets can be bought here. There will be loads of great prizes and remember- every penny raised at these functions goes to support services for children and their families.
# You may even spot superstar actor Russell Crowe escorting a group of refugees to his sensational penthouse which is at the end of the wharf.

Went To A Garden Party

Pictured in our snap is TV personality Deborah Hutton attending the elegant garden party at Boomerang, that  much sought after mansion in Elizabeth Bay. The Shuttle has attended numerous parties there over the years with invites from at least 3 owners during it's long life. Guests can come from all areas of society. We've encountered Prince Frederick and Princess Mary of Denmark, Tom Cruise during the filming of Mission Impossible 2 and the recently released Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks chatting to the NSW Governor Marie Bashir.

The Governor also attended Friday's event, the launch of an expected yearly Mother’s Day garden party in support of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute which honours the Institutes founder, the late Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. Amongst those attending - Sarah Murdoch, Ros Packer, Alex Perry and Lady Primrose Potter with treats dished up by chef Darren Taylor.

Below is Ricky Nelson's wonderful 1985 hit "Went To A Garden Party".

 

Martin Sharp Honoured

He was an invited guest to last week's autobiography launch for the late film-maker Albie Thoms but illness prevented him from attending : artist Martin Sharp whose work was featured in Thoms' book.

Earlier in the week Sharp had received a long overdue award at the University of Sydney- an Honorary Doctorate of Visual Arts.
Martin joined a host of names when he received his award from Governor Marie Bashir in her last official act before she retires . They include Cate Blanchett, former NSW Art Gallery head honcho Edmund Capon, fashion designer Peter Weiss and musician and singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.

Martin Sharp & Nevile Wran

Sharp was part of the infamous Oz Magazine trio of Richard Nevile and Richard Walsh who were busted for obscenity in the 1960s in Sydney and again in London. They were found innocent in both trials-defended in Sydney by a young barrister Nevile Wran who later went on to become NSW premier for 10 years.

His colourful works are now hung in galleries worldwide and he designed album covers for some of the 1960s major rock groups including Cream and wrote songs with Eric Clapton whilst living in Chelsea's famous Pheasantry building. Other residents at The Pheasantry included Clapton, Germain Greer and the film director Anthony Haden Guest. In the early 80s he campaigned to preserve Luna Park and redesigned the famous entrance.

During the last 10 years of his life, the unique performer Tiny Tim found a huge fan in Sharp who financed Tim's career and records and made a film of the eccentric singer's life. The movie still hasn't been screened.
Below is Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through The Tulips:

Hick's Prosecution Dropped

Hicks at Boomerang

 NEWS THAT the Federal government has dropped the case against David Hicks over his book Guantanamo, My Journey under proceeds of crime legislation complicates the claims used against him the US Military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay where the incarcerated Hicks entered an Alford plea, a US technical device where the accused admits the prosecution has enough evidence to find him guilty. In that way, the evidence is never tested in court.

In return Hicks was immediately repatriated to Australia after years of being held in jail on no charge.

NSW Governor Marie Bashi

Hicks was castigated by then PM John Howard   and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as being the "worst of the worst", an ironic charge from 2 politicians who failed to notice under their watch the Australian Wheat Board was illegally bribing Saddam Hussein with over $200M.
The Shuttle met David Hicks and his wife at a cocktail party in 2010 at the Sydney harbourside mansion Boomerang (where Mission Impossible 2 was filmed) and it was difficult to reconcile the dastardly image painted by politicians with the polite young man. NSW Governor Marie Bashir also chatted to the couple in a friendly manner.

An opinion writer of the right leaning IPA 'think tank' who contributes to the ABC's The Drum also attacked attendees of the 2011 Sydney Writers Festival  for listening attentively to Hicks tale about his treatment at Gitmo where he says he was drugged and tortured. In this piece published in the SMH, "Audience on their feet for a fraud"  he calls them 'incredulous fools".
 The Shuttle tangled with that writer via email but thankfully he has now gone to the bosom of Opposition leader Tony Abbott as an adviser. That's the same Abbott who was also a Minster in Howard's government where he also apparently over-looked a stream of emails indicating that against UN sanctions, the AWB was sending hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to the Saddam regime. Despite the mass of evidence produced during an investigation and Downer's evidence he couldn't 'recall' seeing memos about the scandal, no-one was every charged (or required to enter an Alford plea).
Incredulous fools indeed!.

A Swell Birthday Present

Laurent Boidevezi, Maryanne Shearer & Boris de Vroomen

We admit to being a tad jealous of this award as we love the product. Maryanne Shearer is the lucky recipient of the 2012 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award. 
  
The award was presented at a lunch at Cafe Sydney restaurant by Veuve's International Director Laurent Boidevezi, appropriately on International Women's Day last  Thursday (other notable events-Europe's biggest selling tabloid Bild has promised no more nudes will appear in the publication!). 
The lunch was attended by some of Australia's best known business women including NSW Governor Marie Bashir, Deeta Colvin, Janet Holmes à Court, film producer Rebel Penfold Russell and our favourite pearl producer Marilynne Paspaley.

Ronni Khan of OzHarvest

Maryanne Shearer is the founder and CEO of Tea Too P/L (T2) and while everyone else was pondering whether a Cafe con leche was superior to an Espresso Con Panna or if the intricacies of an Latticino really were appreciated by the inner city latte crowd, she realised there was a huge gap in the market-tea drinkers were demanding, but not getting much more than their morning cup of Billy Tea. 
And thus 16 years ago an empire was born with Maryanne now employing 300 people with 30 stores throughout Australia selling her superb premium blends of tea.

But not only does Ms Shearer get the well deserved accolade from Veuve Clicquot-the awards were held jointly in 16 countries to celebrate female innovation and achievements in business -she will fly to Reims in France and, this is the good part-she'll receive a bottle of champagne on Madame Clicquot's birthday every December 16.
Also receiving an award for innovation was Ronni Khan who runs OzHarvest Food Rescue a non profit company that collects and delivers surplus food to charities. And that is something worth raising your glass to.

A Right Royal Mix-Up!

On Friday evening the Sydney Town Hall will be decked out in it's finery for the 75th year gala Black & White Ball which will raise much needed funds for children who are blind and vision impaired.


For decades the Black & White Ball was the pinnacle of Sydney's social calendar when Eastern Suburbs socialites would frock up in their best ball gowns and dinner jackets. Tonight is expected to be a very special evening and the young debutantes who compete in the Derby (they reel in sponsored wooden horses across the dance floor !) should be trembling with the excitement of it all.


Alas, there has been a bungle.

The head table is always reserved for an Admiral of the Navy, an Air Force representative and possibly the chief of the Australian Defence Force and the most important guest of all, the State Governor.

Marie Bashir MIA

All guests are seated before the National Anthem is played and the official table parades down the red carpet to take their seats.

This year, HM The Queen's representative and patron of the charity Governor Marie Bashir will be missing. And why ?. A mix-up with the date according to our mole disguised as a bunch of white gladioli in the charity committee's board room in Double Bay.
First Elizabeth11 snubs Sydney, now the Governor is snubbed !.

HRH Princess Birgitta 

Relax though. Royalty is within our midst.Her Royal Highness Princess Birgitta of Sweden and Hohenzollern is in town for a few days of R & R.
She's the sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and is married to Prince Johann of Hohenzollern. You may have spotted them at British Royal Family weddings. In the seats over at the side reserved for European royalty (they were at William & Kate's wedding).

Birgitta is in town to play golf and see old friends.
                             ***********************************************

Someone who was snubbed her entire life by the British Royal Family was the Duchess of Windsor who married HM The Queen's uncle Bertie which led to his abdication.

At the Hampstead Theatre in London tonight, a play called The Last of The Duchess based  a book by Lady Caroline Blackwood opens. It tells of the last days of the Duchess as Blackwood attempts to interview her in Paris but is blocked by her ruthless lawyer Suzanne Blum (played by Sheila Hancock in the play) who it was said kept her prisoner in her final years.

Lunching With Dame Edna Everage

Sad to see young Cody Simpson got egged yesterday at his Miranda appearance just like Justin Beiber did on his visit here last month.

One star who would make mince meat of anyone foolish enough to upstage her is Australia's roving ambassador abroad Dame Edna Everage.

There are still some tickets available for Dame Edna's appearance at the Black & White Charity Committee's Woman of Achievement lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday June 21st. These lunch time events sell out quickly so hurry up and go to the B&W website here.

Edna will be joined by former Art Gallery of Australia director Betty Churcher and our favourite NSW Governor Her Excellency Marie Bashir.
If you have never been to one of these events they're pretty good fun. A top lunch followed by each of the special guests giving a twenty minute talk about their career and as you can imagine, Dame Edna's talk will be hilariously funny and is bound to run well over time. Take the afternoon off-you won't get out under 3 hours.

Ticket prices are $295 (stage side table), $200 (ballroom) or $155 in the hotel's top restaurant Kables with a live feed. In fact there are always huge screens in the ballroom so grab a seat anywhere even with strangers as they are always a friendly lot. Phone 02 9327 5698.

Governor Marie Bashir

It's the 75th anniversary of the B&W charity and remember-every single penny raised goes to Vision Australia Children's Services. These ladies strong arm (no, they're really very nice) everyone to donate their services including the Shuttle who will be there with bells on (and paying !)

We'll be filming the event so watch out for that but in the meantime here is a small reminder of what to expect:

Terrible People

Former Foreign Minister under the Howard government, Alexander Downer  still believes David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib were "terrible people' and says 'the government always regarded Mr Habib as the more dangerous of the two" according to today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Alexander Downer

This follows the release of new Wikileaks cables about the inmates of Guantanamo Bay. Both Habib and Hicks spent years confined there without trial. The latest cables proclaim the two men were "dangerous terrorists and that Habib had 'trained the 9/11 hijackers" and had confessed in Egypt that he had "planned to hi-jack a Qantas jet"

When Egyptian students helped overthrew the dictator Mubarak in Egypt secret police files revealed that Habib had been rendered to Egypt  by the USA-despite official denials- where he was tortured for 5 months and questioned whilst an Australian government official was in the room.

Alexander Downer had always emphatically denied Habib's claim that he was sent to Egypt. Habib was eventually flown back to Australia (not by Qantas but in a government leased Lear jet) after being released without charge.

The Julia Gillard government has just made a secret settlement with Habib rumoured to be around the 2 million dollar mark to nip in the bud embarrssing claims about that torture. The exact details still may emerge because Habib is now suing the Egyptian government.

"No, I won't be changing my mind about them. They were both terrible people - absolutely shocking." continues Downer in the SMH.

Hicks was said to "have links to senior Al-Qaeda leaders" (he met Osama Bin Laden once) and he too was flown back by private jet when released on a dodged up charge. He has said of Alexander Downer  :" he is hardly in a position to call me shocking "

Aloysia & David Hicks with Governor Marie Bashir at Boomerang

The Shuttle met David Hicks seven weeks ago at a party at Boomerang, the Spanish style harborside mansion of trucking magnate Lindsay Fox. He seemed a likeable and friendly chap, if somewhat wary of the press but the NSW Governor, Her Excellency Marie Bashir chatted amicably to Hicks and his wife Aloysia and didn't seem at all 'shocked' by him.

Fact : from 1999 tthe Australian Wheat Board paid bribes of nearly $300M to Saddam Hussein in the 'wheat for oil scandal'. During a Royal Commission evidence was heard that the money was used to buy weapons that were used against the allies invading Iraq to depose Saddam.

The minister responsible for the AWB-Alexander Downer claimed that he had never read the hundreds of emails informing him of the bribes. Although the Commission recommended charges against 12 people, no-one ever faced a court.

Going Out In Style

One guest who hit the red carpet at last week's world launch of the new musical Dr Zhivago-A Musical was the American born and accented New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally.

 Immaculately dressed, tall and elegant Keneally is one politician the camera does not do justice. She is extraordinarily beautiful and charismatic in the flesh, And that is one reason that despite the unpopularity of State Labor, Keneally has spent the last year visiting every electorate in the state to press the flesh.

As the Shuttle accurately predicted 6 months beforehand, Kristina was elected by the Labor Caucus as Premier in December 2009. Although she has become highly popular in the top job, that popularity isn't translating into percentage points for her ruling Labor Party which is expected to be defeated at the polls in 5 weeks time although the rumoured Coalition landslide is highly unlikely. While Labor languishes in the polls at anything from 23 to 27 %, Kristina stills comes in at just under 50%.

At a televised election debate with Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell this week the audience overwhelmingly declared the unflappable Keneally the winner by far.

 A party in power for 13 years was bound to suffer from the tiredness factor and although media speculation at the time was that it would be Keneally's role to stench the flow of blood from the coming defeat. there have been more concrete plans in the wings.

Born in Las Vegas and brought up in Colorado, Keneally cut her political teeth as an intern for the US Democratic party working for the Colorado Governor. When she emigrated to Australia with her Aussie husband in 1998 she joined the Labor Party and after being elected to the state seat of Heffron in 2003, her rise has been meteoric albeit quietly in the wings. Those granite jawed men who run the party had their eyes on Keneally from day one and marked her out as leadership material.

Brought into Cabinet on the strength of Emily's List that promotes greater numbers of female politicians, Keneally joins the growing list of Labor Party women who are going places.

Now with Julia Gillard as PM , Quentin Bryce as Governor General, a state Governor in Marie Bashir and with QLD premier Anna Bligh's approval rating soaring 35 points since her handling of  the flood catastrophe, when Kristina Keneally is re-elected to her seat at the end of March it will be for a short time.

When the country goes to the polls in the next general election in 2013, expect Kristina Keneally to be standing side by side with Julia Gillard as a star candidate.

When have we ever been wrong ?

exclusive: HRH Prince William's Praise For Ian Thorpe

To one of Sydney's best restaurants, Bennelong at the Opera House. A black tie dinner to celebrate one of the world's greatest sportsmen, swimmer Ian Thorpe's tenth year of charity work.

Michelle Catelam,Mark Jason, Christa Billich

Ian's Fountain For Youth does superb work for disadvantaged Indigenous and Torres Straight Islander children. Naturally his good pal Cathy Freeman was on hand to celebrate with Thorpie along with NSW's highly popular Governor Marie Bashir and the Thorpedo's mentor , broadcaster Alan Jones.

Alan Jones, Geoff & Belinda Griff

But the surprise for the evening-a video taped message of congratulations and best wishes from the newly engaged Royal, HRH Prince William. ( or Prince Williams as the TV monitor display read !).



the only way to welcome guests !



Thorpie not only loves his charity work with Aboriginal kids, he gets things done. Visit the website and donate if you can. In his words :

"Visiting Aboriginal people, in their homes, their communities, on their land, has allowed me to listen and given me some idea of the problems that Aboriginal people face.

I listened to the concerns of mothers and fathers for the betterment of their children. This unwavering strength, in the face of social injustice. Within these communities I witness poverty, despair and pain…. but I also see hope….hope from those men and woman who want more for their children."