If there is one area of NSW Liberal politics that may be glad that the kerfuffle over the appointment of a trade envoy to New York is drawing so much media attention and political heat, it will be anyone associated with Fair Trading.

When we sat down to record this week’s podcast and discuss – among other things – the departure of Property Services Commissioner John Minns, we had no idea how chaotic things had become there.

To misquote Oscar Wilde, to lose one commissioner is unfortunate, to lose two looks like carelessness.

The departure of Commissioner Minns occurred in the same week that Building Commissioner David Chandler announced he was cutting short his extended tenure, and Minister Eleni Petinos was summarily dismissed.

Now we can report that Mr Minns’ resignation seems to be closely related to a hastily concocted plan to replace him (eventually, if and when parliament gets round to it) with a statutorily appointed independent commissioner.

Ironically (or is it predictably?), his temporary replacement has been drawn from Small Business, the part of her portfolio that consumed most of former Minister Petinos' energy and attention during her short tenure.

And in another irony, MS Petinos first came to prominence in a sexting scandal involving former Fair Trading minister, Matthew Kean, who has been elevated to deputy premier following the resignation of Stuart Ayres, yet another former Fair Trading Minister.

Were our colleagues in the media not consumed with what John ‘Porky’ Barilaro did or didn't do and Stuart Ayres did or didn't know about the New York gig, surely they’d be all over this like a cheap suit. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.  

That’s just a small part of this week’s podcast.  We also discuss how the brutalist or modernist, or brutally modernist  high rise block looming over Tamarama beach has been given a reprieve following a major speed bump in its process of renewal.

We chat about the NCAT case which established that tenants can take legal action against owners corporations to force them to fix defective common property.

We have a look at the block where a majority of owners want to take one neighbour to NCAT for being a nuisance … by continually making successful complaints about their businesses to the local council.

And we ask, if the victims of flood damage can get their homes bought off them by the government, why can’t the poor benighted owners of flats in Mascot Towers be bailed out in the same way?

That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

TRANSCRIPT IN FULL

Jimmy  00:00

Well, the fallout from various ministries in New South Wales continues; we'll be hearing about the Property Services Commissioner and his sudden departure.

Sue  00:13

Gosh, where will it all end?

Jimmy  00:16

And, we've got a couple of things from the website, plus some news about that big building at Tamarama. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.

Sue  00:29

I'm Sue Williams and I write about property for Domain.

Jimmy  00:32

And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.

[MUSIC]

Jimmy

So it seems Property Commissioner, John Minns, has quit, as well as David Chandler.

Sue  00:53

Wow! It's a complete fallout, isn't it really?

Jimmy  00:56

Well, you know, we heard that David Chandler hasn't actually left, but he's cut short his extended appointment and then, apparently the same week, John Minns, the Property Commissioner, left the office.

Sue  01:12

Why was that, do you know?

Jimmy  01:14

Well, I think it might be something to do with the fact that they didn't even realise he was there, because you had trouble getting through to him, didn't you?

Sue  01:23

Yes, I was doing a story and someone suggested John Minns would be the perfect person to give me a comment, so I contacted his office... They said "I'm sorry, do you mean Chris Minns (who's the leader of the opposition)?...