The moving and shaking of a Law Society high-flyer … The Armidale connection … The University of New England and living in the shadow of Dickie Torbay
Kim Cull: connections
What news of Kim Cull, the dazzlingly successful Armidale lawyer who went on to take-up the orb and sceptre as monarch of the Law Soc in 2002?
Much has been made of fellow Armidalean, Richard Torbay, the former state MP, struck-off National Party candidate for the House of Reps, ex-Chancellor of the University of New England and mate of all-round grasper Eddie Obeid.
Cull seems to have been on the fringes of Torbay's charmed circle in the New England parish.
After her term at the helm of the Law Soc she had a job at the Legal Aid Commission.
Before you could say "maaate" she was chief to staff to Col Gellatly, the head of the Premier's Department.
She was there till 2006, the year her admirer, Mark Richardson, left his position as CEO of the Law Society.
Some people remember her briefly doing a stint as COS at poor old (Fireman) Phil Koperberg's ministerial office.
The Law Society got word that Cull might transfer to head-up the office of the attorney general, (Happy) John Hatzistergos.
Unfortunately, that idea was blocked by the departmental gatekeeper, Lorenzo Glanfield. She also spent time as a director of the NSW government's property developer, Landcom.
In 2008 Torbay landed the gig as chancellor of the University of New England. The former university kitchen hand could now kit-up in academic gowns and floppy hats.
Torbay was nominally an Independent member of the NSW Legislative Assembly, but in practical terms he supported the Labor government and was in the Obeid-Tripodi orbit.
Two years after his appointment Cull landed a job at UNE as the chief governance and planning officer and legal counsel, on a package of $250,000 to $300,000 - the highest pay at the uni, apart from the vice-chancellor.
Mark Richardson had been appointed a magistrate in 2007, one of the last appointments made by Labor AG Bob Debus.
With Cull's appointment to UNE, her recently acquired hubby, Richardson, was awarded in 2010 the geographically convenient post as a magistrate in Armidale.
This was slightly unusual because the magistrates' circuit for the New England was usually headquartered at Inverell.
Anyway, Cull was a triumph at UNE. It was during her tenure that the federal government stumped-up with $37 million for "structural changes" at the 'varsity.
Cull: centre rear, on the board of Landcom
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In 2007 a significant donor to Torbay MP's campaigns, Armidale property developer Phillip Hanna, was involved in a shocking fight over money with his former business partner, Doug Jackson.
Hanna is a cousin-by-marriage of Eddie Obeid. Eddie married one of the Hanna girls and he too had been close with Torbay, running his first tilt at parliament in 2009.
It was the Obeid association that forced the Nats to drop Torbay as the endorsed candidate to take on Tony Windsor for the federal seat.
Kate McClymont in the SMH reported that in 2007, Phillip Hanna fired two gun shots at Jackson.
The first missed his head by a hair. They wrested with the gun for several minutes, with Hanna allegedly trying to fire another shot at Jackson's face.
Jackson told McClymont:
"He decided he would shoot me, make out that I committed suicide, and that I took the money."
When Hanna was arrested, the local police chief in Armidale, David Cushway, went and collected Torbay and took him to the cells for a "comfort visit" to his campaign supporter.
By the time of the trial, two years later, the charges had been downgraded to loading of a firearm with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Torbay and wife Rosemary: he provided comfort in the cells
Dizzo judge Greg Hosking gave Hanna a suspended sentence for his plea of guilty.
It has since emerged that Cushway, the copper, is a business partner of Torbay's. They jointly own properties that rake in lucrative rents from Centrelink.
They are also tied-up in a tech company, ISU Solutions, which in turn has a hand in Armidale's NBN House.
It wasn't long before Cushway also landed in 2010 a job at UNE, as chief operating officer for on $200,000 a year.
Apparently, he thinks some of the reporting about these developments is defamatory of him, and that includes the student newspaper on his own campus.
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So where are we? Where is Kimbo now?
She bailed out of the university in 2012, before the merde hit the fan with Torbay.
She has wound-up in Canberra as CEO of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia.
The association's main job is to make sure lots of taxpayer dollars keep flowing to private schools, or as they like to call them "independent" schools.
And Madge Mark Richo was fortunate enough to be able to maintain his conjugals by getting a transfer to Queanbeyan.
In all this moving and shaking are there dots to be joined?