Star reporter blows up at offensive rumour about her husband. Plus, two Hollywood A-listers (and Nigella) drop into Peter and Lisa’s leftie love-in election party: INSIDE MAIL

Leftie Christmas on the lower north shore

Forget winning a seat in parliament – the biggest prize on election day was winning a seat in Peter FitzSimons and Lisa Wilkinson‘s lounge room as the live vote count got underway.

The media power couple opened their sprawling six-bedroom mansion to a star-studded selection of international identities – from acclaimed writers and television stars, to Hollywood actors and celebrity chefs – as they followed all the thrills and spills of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s landslide victory.

Inside Mail can reveal the heavy hitters who converged on Sydney’s lower north shore for the soirée included Golden Globe-winning actress Rachel Griffiths; political commentator David Marr; breakfast radio host Amanda Keller, celebrity silk Sue Chrysanthou; Blanche D’Alpuget, the biographer-turned-mistress-turned-wife of the late ex-PM Bob Hawke; Man Booker prize nominee Steve Toltz; novelist Geraldine Brookes; Kelly Sloan, the chair of Destination NSW; Georgie Dent, the CEO of parents’ advocacy group The Parenthood; and one-time The Chaser-comedian-turned-ABC-radio-host Craig Reucassel.

That was a mouthful. And that’s not the half of the guest list – we just couldn’t fit any more names in that sentence.

Indeed, there were so many A-listers at FitzSimons and Wilkinson’s ballot-box bash they couldn’t fit them all in one room; and they had to spread their venerable guests across several rooms as the election broadcast played out across two massive TVs.

It’s no shock to learn invitees were glued to the ABC’s coverage in one of the lounges, including The Mentalist star Simon Baker who is ‘super into his politics’ and was particularly engrossed in ousted Opposition leader Peter Dutton‘s failed bid to retain his Brisbane seat of Dickson from former journo Ali France.

However, insiders tells us they were surprised to see Channel Nine’s election coverage on the big screen in the other room, given Wilkinson’s acrimonious exit from the network in 2017 amid a pay disparity dispute with her Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic (who was in Brisbane covering Dutton’s sombre election night party).

(Fear not … we hear that TV was switched over to the public broadcaster as the night wore on, too).

Sources tell us the glitzy evening was vaguely reminiscent of the couple’s famous annual Australia Day parties – a tradition they nixed in 2023 out of political correctness – and which, as everyone knows, involved all guests being invited to ‘bring a plate’ of food.

And this bash was no different. We hear the communal buffet laid out on the duo’s elegant dining table at the weekend included everything from plates of humble party pies to an oversized pavlova, with an eye-watering leg of lamb the smorgasbord’s star attraction.

FitzSimons’ longtime friend, former radio co-host Mike Carlton and his ABC Foreign Correspondent exec producer wife Morag Ramsay also brought ‘a delicious sponge cake of their own creation’. Osher Günsberg, who has plenty of time on his hands after all his Channel 10 shows were chopped last year, rocked up with a ‘fantastic hot curry’. And one-time Sunday Night reporter-turned-ABC producer Rahni Sadler kept things cool and casual with a prawn salad.

Naturally, all eyes were on what renowned British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, who is in Sydney to host three specially curated dinners for the Vivid festival next month, would whip up for the occasion.

And while she was a bit hamstrung by the fact she doesn’t have a kitchen to cook in while in the Harbour City, she certainly didn’t disappoint after arriving with a bulk delivery of expensive French bubbly. Viva la Nigella!

It certainly didn’t go to waste. While FitzSimons famously gave up booze – and somehow sugar as well – years ago, we hear others were more than happy to indulge throughout the night.

In a surprising twist halfway through the evening, there was absolutely no jeering as Dutton gave his concession speech live on TV about 9.30pm, with even the Liberal party leader’s harshest critics acknowledging it was a masterclass in grace.

‘There was no booing, everyone stopped and listened to his speech, and thought that he was really respectful and applauded his comments,’ one guest tells us.

‘Then we all sort of looked at each other and our attention turned to Albo – and how much he was going to win by.

‘It was a very warm night with like-minded (mostly) lefties.’

Aboriginal activist Thomas Mayo, one of the architects of the failed Voice to Parliament, was also present – and took time out from the festivities to claim Labor’s thumping win was a victory for Indigenous recognition on social media.

‘Tonight, Australia voted No to ignorance & Yes to Acknowledgement; No to xenophobia & Yes to Welcomes; No to regression & Yes to progress,’ he wrote on X from FitzSimons and Wilkinson’s home.

Seven’s axed Friday night funnyman Mark Humphries was also there… having hosted Fitzy on his new ABC weekend radio show Weekend Evenings just last month.

Of course, as the night wore on, we hear there were plenty of media war stories being traded at increasingly loud volumes and with increasingly amusing details.

Word is the two Peters – former Sydney Morning Herald editor-in-chief Peter Fray and television news god Peter Meakin – were rivalling the Two Ronnies by proving themselves to be among the most popular raconteurs, which is hardly surprising.

With so many yarns floating about, it’s little wonder the party was still pumping into the wee hours of the morning.

Killing season at Labor

Even though it’s all celebrations publicly over at Labor HQ, a brouhaha is breaking out within the new-look parliamentary party as the factional left and right go to war divvying up the spoils of victory.

The left faction surged, picking up more seats than the right, allowing it to impose its power over the traditionally dominant right wing. The left faction is now coming after senior figures in the right as cabinet positions are being determined.

The PM doesn’t get to pick his frontbenchers – the factions do. But the fact Anthony Albanese is also the biggest left-wing factional gorilla in the room means the power of the left is even greater.

Senior right-wing ministers such as Ed Husic, Jason Clare and Chris Bowen are at risk of demotion if the left gets its way.

It’s already been decided that outgoing senior right-wing figure Bill Shorten‘s cabinet position will be filled by someone from the left and there may be more.

Former head of the trade union movement Ged Kearney will rise into the ministry alongside other left-wing operatives such as the PM’s assistant minister Patrick Gorman.

Former right wing Labor PMs, such as Paul Keating, are aghast at the expected shift to the left Labor is now likely to make as it takes control of the Senate in conjunction with a Greens balance of power.

‘It’s over, the Labor Party won’t be what it used to be’, one senior factional figure in the Labor right tells Inside Mail.

‘The economic reforming legacy of Bob [Hawke] and Paul [Keating] will become a more distant memory than it already is.’

‘Name one serious economic reform we did in Albo’s first term?’ adds the disgruntled Labor figure.

Even within the right, divisions are starting to surface as ministers manoeuvre to survive. Deputy PM Richard Marles is reportedly pushing to take cabinet positions off the NSW factional right to shore up his Victorian power base as the left starts to run over the top of the once-dominant right.

‘We’re eating our own rather than banding together to hold off the left that always got more than it should have when it was just a pimple on the party and we ran the show,’ another right-wing MP tells me.

‘They don’t care; it’s classic hard left bullying’, the MP adds.

While it will be all smiles when Albo finally announces his new-look ministry, behind the scenes those likely to miss out or get demoted are seething, vowing to fight back ‘however we have to’.

It’s not just the right at risk of being shut out by the PM and his senate sidekick Penny Wong. The left’s own Tanya Plibersek is set to cop another demotion after Albo dumped her from her beloved education portfolio to environment after the 2022 election win.

Plibersek, the PM’s ‘frenemy number one’, is at risk of losing her cabinet spot, although Labor sources tell me she’ll hang on for pure optics, ‘and just get pushed into the worst and most irrelevant portfolio Anthony can find’.

They do say that what happens behind the scenes in politics is like watching sausages get made. And the chaos within the ranks of Labor is nothing compared to the shenanigans going on as the hapless Liberals try to work out who gets the poisoned chalice of being the next leader of what’s left of the parliamentary party.

Still, the anger and resentment inside Labor will reverberate for months, if not years.

Meanwhile, expect shockwaves as policy changes are announced by an emboldened ALP dominated by MPs and senators who, back in their uni days, believed Australia had to become a socialist panacea modelled on the sort of excesses Gough Whitlam never got the chance to enact because he only survived as PM for three years.

With friends like these… 

Anthony Albanese took the opportunity at his first media conference after his thumping election win to thank the many world leaders who had reached out to him since his victory.

One of those was the Singaporean PM, whom he also congratulated for his election win on the very same night.

As resounding as Labor’s win was, it was nothing compared to the one Singapore’s People’s Action Party had, securing 83 out of the 93 seats on offer.

While that’s nothing compared to the way WA Labor likes to win in the one-party state the west has become in recent times, it’s actually a closer result than you usually see in Singapore.

That’s because it’s not actually a true democracy. The opposition has limits placed on its ability to campaign, and the ruling party has never lost!

Perhaps Albo doesn’t realise Singapore isn’t a democracy like we are. Or maybe he has plans to use his newfound power to emulate the success of the PAP in Singapore.

Either way, it’s a little unusual for a democratic western leader to congratulate a non-democratic leader on an election win, just because they pretend to be a true democracy and hold stacked elections.

Putin doesn’t head to the polls again until five years from now. He won last year’s fraudulent Russian election with 88.5 per cent of the vote. After the size of Albo’s win he may well still be around then to congratulate the Kremlin on another historic victory.

Easy ride at first presser 

Speaking of Albo’s first presser since his victory, can you guess what the first word uttered by the assembled media was when the PM waved through his first question?

‘Congratulations.’

Not exactly a swift return to holding the newly elected government to account!

We won’t go too hard on the gesture, since it was delivered by the Australian Financial Review’s Phil Coorey, one of the best in the business in Canberra.

Let’s just hope the role of the Fourth Estate is a little more robust going forward, because with the opposition crippled by the election outcome, it’s capacity to hold Labor to account in its second term could be severely limited.

Jessica blasts ‘codswallop’ rumour about her husband

Now, as everyone knows, Inside Mail has a nasty habit of spoiling the party… which is surprising because we don’t tend to get invited to all that many.

Indeed, just last week we spoiled former 7News reporter Joel Dry‘s homecoming party after revealing Nine was about to announce the network had signed him to co-host its 6pm Brisbane bulletin alongside Melissa Downes. 

We also revealed not everyone (or, in fact, hardly anyone) was pleased with the ‘captain’s call’ made by Nine News Queensland boss Brendan Hockings to parachute Dry in to replace veteran newsman Andrew Lofthouse, who retired due to ill health in January.

Many thought it was rough that network stalwart Josh Bavas had been overlooked for the gig – and that’s putting it politely.

Now, if the newsroom insiders we spoke to were unimpressed by the appointment… they were even less impressed by the time Brisbane’s sleepy hometown newssheet the Courier-Mail belatedly got onto the story later in the day.

‘Brendan Hockings has lost the plot,’ one source told the Courier-Mail after the paper finally stumbled across the development.

‘For him to do this to a newsroom that’s already divided is absolutely crazy. People are enraged. 

‘Texts started flying at 6am’ – presumably when people read about the appointment in Inside Mail – ‘and haven’t stopped.’

The Courier-Mail then dialled up the drama by boldly claiming Bavas and Gold Coast anchor Paul Taylor would be ‘looking for a new job in the next few days’ and that ‘four or five reporters would go to Seven tomorrow if the call came’.

Talk about going from zero to a hundred and ten… 

That all seems a bit too melodramatic for us – but there is genuine drama brewing over at 4BC.

Now, we would tell you there are a few presenters at the Nine Radio station’s Cannon Hill studios who are more than a little concerned Dry’s wife, Nine News Europe correspondent and former Brisbane reporter Jess Millward, could be tapped to take over one of the outlet’s shows when she returns to the River City in August. 

But we won’t – because apparently we’re not allowed to refer to Millward as being Dry’s wife – and neither is anyone else!

The one-time Today show reporter took to social media to criticise the Courier-Mail for calling her just that after news broke about the internal backlash to her husband’s appoint.

‘”Joel Dry’s wife” or otherwise known as Jess Millward and a reporter in her own right,’ she fumed on Facebook while blasting the paper’s coverage.

‘Stop it. You’re giving journalists who value truth a bad name.’

And she wasn’t done yet. 

When a Facebook user by the name of Barry Codswallop accused Millward of ‘badgering’ Hockings to appoint her hubby as Nine’s Brisbane anchorman in a separate post, Millward went on to dismiss that rumour as, well, codswallop. 

‘Don’t believe everything you read Barry – that would be my advice,’ she snapped.

Heck, even her dad, Tim Millward, got stuck in, adding: ‘Barry, that’s really just an ill-informed and dumb thing to say. Try to be smart than that. If possible, just try.’

No Idea about contempt of court? 

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there’s a big news story going on at the moment involving a controversial dish. And no, we’re not talking about Nagi vs Brooki.

The trial of Leongatha mushroom chef Erin Patterson is ongoing at Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court.

Patterson is accused of murdering her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson by feeding them a beef wellington poisoned with death cap mushrooms. She has pleaded not guilty.

With high-profile cases like this in Victoria, it’s common knowledge you limit your reporting to what’s being heard in court, lest you prejudice proceedings.

Which is why the brains trust in at cash-strapped magazine publisher Are Media found themselves scrambling after realising last week’s edition of New Idea had gone to the printers featuring a story about Patterson that really shouldn’t have been there.

We won’t repeat their clanger by detailing what was in the magazine’s ‘special report’.

But we can confirm the legal snafu saw all copies of the troublesome edition stripped from supermarket shelves in the garden state – quite the costly error.

We suppose that’s what happens when you sack all your experienced editors, eh?

Are Media’s top brass were typically tight-lipped when asked about the New Idea issue, saying only that ‘the 5 May 2025 edition of New Idea (on sale from 28 April) was unavailable in Victoria due to legal restrictions’.

Aunty’s drunk again

There was a clear winner in Saturday night’s election coverage – at least if you’re looking at the ratings.

The ABC drew an amazing 2,364,000 viewers, trouncing the competition. However, not everything about the broadcast was, er, amazing.

Or should that be Amazon?

As millions tune in to watch the live vote count, the ABC suffered embarrassing tech glitches as tallier-in-chief Antony Green was left to analyse data from the Australian Electoral Commission’s website while standing in front of a blank screen.

With no data and no updates to the numbers – always the strongest part of the public broadcaster’s coverage – the panel of experts was left to pick up the commentary.

Viewers were quick to share their sympathies with Antony the numbers man on what was his swansong as an election-night analyst.

‘Stop making Antony Green stand in front of a busted screen! He deserves better than that,’ one viewer pleaded on X, suggesting the glitch was sabotage.

One theory doing the rounds at Ultimo was was that ABC’s bean counters hadn’t paid for enough storage space on Amazon’s servers, hence the ‘f***-up’.

That’s a certainly a new one, we thought. So we got in touch with Aunty to check it out. 

‘Confirming that is complete nonsense,’ we were told. Glad to clear it up.

Never forget your shorthand 

Of course, it wasn’t just the public broadcaster’s election night panel bemoaning an inconvenient tech glitch as the votes flowed in on Saturday night.

Countless journalists covering the federal election in newsrooms across the country endured a heart-stopping moment after the digital reporter’s greatest ally, television captioning website TVeeder, went down.

The online service, which provides a live feed of captions for all of the major TV channels, was overwhelmed slightly after 8pm, about an hour after all the networks started their dedicated election coverage.

Cue reporters dusting off their notebooks and trying to remember their Teeline shorthand lessons.

Fortunately, it was back up and running about 20 minutes later – to the relief of all hacks rostered on for the night shift.

The obligatory self high-five 

Now… speaking of the election coverage, every media outlet in the country loves boasting about who was first to call the election.

And we are no exception. For the record, it was us.

Postal votes cut short teals’ victory lap

Two teals couldn’t help themselves on election night, claiming victory before the full-time siren was sounded on votes being counted.

The only problem was that with postal votes favouring their Liberal challengers, Zoe Daniel and Monique Ryan looked a bit like George W. Bush declaring victory during the war in Iraq.

Daniel was eventually bested by Tim Wilson in the inner-Melbourne seat of Goldstein. Kooyong isn’t finalised yet but Ryan will no doubt still be sweating.

Whoever wins, it’s been funny to watch the sanctimonious teals claim victory too soon and thus be forced to reflect on their own hubris. 

Election schadenfreude

‘Will Greens leader Adam Bandt lose his seat?’ That was the question we were asking all week. Yesterday afternoon, we finally got an answer: Yes.

Before his loss to Labor candidate Sarah Witty was called by several media outlets on Wednesday, one senior Liberal MP, no doubt shattered by the loss on Saturday night, did ring to tell us: ‘As bad as what happened to us is, I can live with it a little better if that pair [Bandt and Ryan] also loses.’

It’s not quite a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend – a saying believed to have originated in ancient Indian political philosophy, specifically from the Sanskrit text Arthashastra – but it’s close enough.

Liberals the Coalition weak link 

The Nationals must be looking at their Coalition partners wondering why they can’t do better given how well the country-based minor party has performed at consecutive losing elections.

In 2022, when the Coalition lost 19 seats, the Nats didn’t lose a single one of them. This time around they’ve only lost one, and might actually offset it by winning another one off Labor, despite a bloodbath for the Liberals who look set to lose at least 13 more and are behind in another of others still too close to call.

That’s only going to give the Nats greater say in the combined party room and around the shadow cabinet table, which might promote policies more favourable to people living in the bush than in the cities.

This could be a major problem for the Coalition’s chances of returning to power anytime soon, because while the Nats have done well hanging onto their seats, there really aren’t many more they can target to grow much further.

The opposition need to win seats in the cities, and that’s the job of Liberals, who are a dying breed in the parliament.

Aunty’s advice: ‘Just dress better’ 

Now we all know the ABC likes to cry poor – and who can really blame them? They only get given a paltry $1.2billion from taxpayers each year.

And the public broadcaster has huge editorial obligations. Per the ABC Charter, the channel has to ‘[air] programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community.’

We’re a massive country, and that’s a massive job.

Which is why we were left scratching our heads when the ABC dedicated no less than four reporters – Maddy Morwood, Dannielle Maguire, Mawunyo Gbogbo and Jared Richards – to covering the Met Gala in New York City this week. 

For the uninitiated, the Met Gala is apparently a big fashion show in the Big Apple. 

Now we’re not saying they didn’t provide decent coverage. After all, they were ‘hard at work chronicling every look this year at the Met Gala’, cataloguing ‘the Australian stars on the red carpet’ and, critically, revealing ‘who played it safe’ (we won’t spoil the surprise).

There was also plenty of sassy advice on offer, including this gem: ‘In the words of Anna Wintour: “If you can’t be better than your competition, just dress better.”‘

Words to live by, we’re sure. 

We’re just not quite certain which part of this ‘contributes to a sense of national identity and informs and entertains, and reflects the cultural diversity of, the Australian community.’

But hey, at least we’re not paying for this news service… oh wait, we are.

• Additional reporting by Jo Scrimshire