But not the Treasurer. He cut a conspicuous sight on Monday walking the halls of Parliament with several of his classmates from Mount Scopus Memorial College of Melbourne’s class of ’88. The tour included a stop by the press gallery and both chambers before the Treasurer dropped the guests off for lunch. Sadly, the member for Kooyong couldn’t stay.

It’s worth noting Frydenberg has made a show at various points of his career of promoting his high-powered friendships. Recall the bromance spectacle at his maiden budget in 2019 when media scion Ryan Stokes, Sydney pub tsar Justin Hemmes and Aussie Home Loans executive James Symond so dazzled the public gallery that attendees found it hard to concentrate on the budget itself. But things were more low-key on Monday with Frydenberg’s high-flying but low profile schoolmates. Mount Scopus in Melbourne’s east has a storied list of past students including late, legendary tour promoter Michael Gudinski, publisher Louise Adler and retail magnate Solomon Lew.

LAST MINUTE ENTRANT

Plugging holes created by worn out staffers isn’t the only hard basket task keeping the NSW Liberals and Nationals busy.

Legislative Council members and their advisers have been burning the midnight oil attempting to shore up a consensus candidate to replace John Ajaka as Legislative Council president ahead of a vote on Tuesday. A 14-year upper house veteran, Ajaka will retire from politics and will leave the president’s chair in April.

While the starting gun has fired on a preselection to fill his position as an upper house member, the process to decide his successor as president has been far more complex. In past weeks, the Liberals have settled on parliamentary secretary for health Natasha Maclaren-Jones as a consensus candidate, who has also attracted support from some wings of the Nationals. But a late campaign from renegade Liberal Matthew Mason-Cox could derail the Coalition plan and upset a vote in the Legislative Council taking place on Tuesday.

A one-time consumer affairs minister, Mason-Cox famously emerged as one of three Liberals who tried to roll the Premier during a contentious abortion bill debate in 2019. He has also been spotted in the past week burning the shoe-leather in Parliament as he attempts to shore up support from the crossbenchers.

Liberal upper house members will caucus at 9am on Tuesday to decide, which will likely be endorsed by the Nationals in a joint party room meeting straight after. A vote on the position will then be put to the chamber for a final decision. And while some Coalition members are confident it will be a straightforward process for Maclaren-Jones, others have been made uneasy by the fact Labor MPs are keeping shtum on their pick. Watch this space.

OFF THE WALL

Paddington restaurateur Lucio Galletto couldn’t bear to watch his celebrated art collection go under the hammer at a Bonham’s auction on Sunday evening.

But learning the sale had generated some $1.7 million certainly would no doubt have eased the pain of parting with the collection that included works by Tim Storrier, Garry Shead and Elisabeth Cummings collected over 40 years. The “Lucio’s: Food Art and Friendship Auction” featured 167 pieces collected over the eponymous restaurant’s lifetime. Top sellers included Storrier’s ‘Point to Point: (The Midday Blaze Line)’ which sold for $86,100 and Shead’s ‘Feast on Mount Pleasant’ which netted $59,040 after a round of furious bidding. But it was a plate that emerged as the auction’s standout sale item. The ceramic plate by contemporary artist Laura Jones measuring 29 centimetres in diameter was originally expected to fetch around $2000. It went under the hammer for $43,050. Reflecting on the sale on Monday, Bonham’s director Merryn Schriever called the spectacle a “career highlight”. Galletto presumably would say the same thing.