Malcolm Turnbull and Sandy Grant.Credit:Illustration:Matt Golding
Malcolm Turnbull's newly-released memoirThe Bigger Picture gained some further publicity on Sunday courtesy of revelations that Prime MinisterScott Morrison's senior advisorNico Louw had leaked a copy of the book to almost 60 of his mates.
Between Thursday and Monday afternoon,Turnbull had more mentions in press clippings (1717) than any other politician except Morrison (4790),according to the monitors at Streem.
While an apology to Turnbull and publisher Grant Hardie came from Louw late on Sunday,one question still remains:how did they find out their intellectual property was quickly spreading across the Canberra bubble ahead of its release on Monday?
It was a tip-off,this column understands,fromDaisy Turnbull Brown. She is,of course,the ex-PM's daughter. And who can blame her? She confirmed the e-book's circulation with one Liberal MP — who received it five times — before reporting it to Hardie Grant.
The publishing house's boss,Sandy Grant,is understandably livid."The Liberal Party jumped on it with delight and a lot of people have become'superspreaders',"Grant told this column on Monday."And it's not easy to tell yet[the original source of the leak] but we certainly know that it did come from an individual in the PM's office."
And he has also not ruled out legal action against a number of people,not just the original leak."If Barnaby[Joyce] is crowing that he's got a copy and doesn't need to buy it then they should be reporting it,"he said.
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Those clever creative types employed at online punting giant SportsBet have certainly had a busy month.
Bereft of actual sporting fixtures to offer bets on,theBarni Evans-led outfit began offering more exotic products to its customers,including the chance to bet on whether the ASX would end up or down for the day. This,we first wrote on April 1,had caught the attention of the corporate regulator who considered it a financial product.