Kevin Donnelly, the serial Liberal candidate in waiting and Petro Georgiou critic,
has a dead
albatross hanging around his neck, dating from his days as a front-man
for tobacco
giant Philip Morris’s duplicitous efforts to convince the world they
really hate
it when kids start smoking.

Donnelly’s company produced an anodyne
teaching
manual for schools in Australia
and NZ called “I’ve got the power” which gave a couple of mentions to
tobacco, but was mostly awash with content-free edubabble.

The kit for
teachers made no mention of Philip Morris,
presumably because Donnelly knew that any self-respecting teacher would
bin it, wanting no part in assisting a tobacco company in its PR
efforts. Donnelly was heavily criticised
and lamely
tried to defend
it
all. He’s since removed the website.

CRIKEY: The question of who will challenge Petro in Kooyong is
getting more interesting. The Australian’s Michael Bachelard produced
this story last week which included the following lines:

State Liberal president Helen Kroger ruled out a tilt, saying she was
“denying any consideration of running.”

Another potential candidate, Josh Frydenberg, would not comment. The former
staffer for Alexander Downer and John Howard is now director of global corporate
finance for Deutsche Bank. He recently moved to Melbourne and bought a flat in
Wallen Road, Hawthorn, on the eastern edge of the electorate.

Sources also suggested that right-wing Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt might
be interested in preselection for a federal parliamentary seat.

“I can neither confirm nor rule out that I will stand for Labor or Liberal;
all I can say is that it’s not on my horizon at the moment,” Bolt said
yesterday.

John Pesutto, an industrial relations lawyer, could not be contacted late
yesterday, but party sources say he is keen to challenge for the seat.