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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews

Federation Square in Melbourne was sparkling new, 20 years ago; its deconstructive crap-clad style has dated so badly that it may now require a heritage listing. City Square — a genuine public space — was destroyed by the Kennett government, and Fed Square put up instead, a warren of restaurants, bars and cafes. The political intent was obvious: to deprive Melburnians of a central place to hold large political and social movement rallies.

So it proved on the weekend, when the management of Fed Square censored a political rally held by the “Stop Adani” movement, which had hired the square’s big screen to show a series of slides and information about the Galilee coal project. According to a report in The Guardian, the rally was threatened with eviction at the last minute unless they removed a whole series of slides, deemed to be “political”. Faced with a possible lockout, the rally complied — even though they weren’t told which slides were offensive.

Federation Square is managed by a private company, Fed Square Pty Ltd, which is wholly owned by the state government. Doubtless, whoever imposed the ban was a junior functionary, making an error of judgement, but the Fed Square board makes for interesting reading: one of its five members is Patrick Conlon, former South Australian Labor minister, for everything at one time or another, but mainly infrastructure. Once of the Left, Conlon left it in 2010, realigned as “non-factional”, left the ministry in 2012, and took part-time lawyering work while still an MP in 2013.

The chair of Fed Square Pty Ltd is Deborah Beale, otherwise known as the first Mrs Bill Shorten. Shorten divorced the daughter of former Liberal MP and minister Julian Beale in 2000, before marrying the daughter of former governor-general Quentin Bryce in 2009.

Just the board, of course, but not a good look is it? Labor is already taking flak for the outrageous double-duty role of lobbyist Cameron Milner, simultaneously representing Adani through his “bipartisan” lobby group The Next Level, and advising Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Milner is a former operative in the Victorian Labor Right, who headed north after one of the incomprehensible battles of the rightoids here. He left lobbying work with Adani to become Shorten’s chief of staff, and then left that role after the 2016 election to return to spruiking the Galilee basin and Queensland Labor, apparently a devotee of doomed projects.

[How much you’re paying for Adani’s polluting mine to save Turnbull and Palaszczuk’s jobs]

To add to the mix, Conlon has previously worked with Minter Ellison from 2013 onwards — an engagement absent from his CV on the Fed Square website. Minter Ellison has earlier, in 2011, advised GVK, another Indian company, which is the second-largest investor in the Galilee basin, through the Hancock-Alpha project, part-owned by Gina Rinehart. 

Deborah Beale herself is tied into Queensland finance, as a director of Pinnacle Investment Management, helmed by Queensland “Medici Prince” Steve Wilson, who once had an investment company with current Queensland employment minister Grace Grace. Wilson founded Hyperion Asset Management (Beale’s current gig, as CEO), which gained funds management business from Queensland union super funds in the early 2000s (when the Queensland Council of Unions General Secretary was … Grace Grace).

There’s quite likely not much to see here. Most smart political operatives know that censoring or obstructing a peaceful protest only extends the publicity and discussion. The ALP is going to be fighting for its life in the Northcote byelection in November, against the Greens; for people in Northcote, watching a PowerPoint presentation in the open-air on a late winter Saturday night is about as much fun as you could possibly have. Labor’s embrace of Adani may or may not hurt them in Queensland, but it’s going to rip the hell out of them in inner Melbourne, first at state, then at federal level.

Does the Andrews government really want to be the fall-guy for federal and Queensland problems? Or is it possible that it could draw on what remains of its civic and popular traditions, and remind Fed Square Pty Ltd that Federation Square is a public gathering place for the free exchange of ideas. The place should be in public hands, through the council or a public board, not a private company. It might avoid the regrettable influence that Adani, Queensland Labor, Shorten et al, are so freaked by the “Stop Adani” movement that even a slide show represents a threat.