Herd on the Terrace: Roger Cook is the minister for sound and Chris Ellison loses a key lieutenant

Premier Roger Cook has revealed he holds a secret cabinet portfolio — the Ministry of Sound. A breakfast audience got a glimpse of the “real” Premier at a CCI event on Thursday, including the surprise insight that he’s a passionate fan of electronic dance music. He backed that up by name-dropping the work of famed London-based clubbing outfit Ministry of Sound, a legend of the genre with more than 50 million compilation albums sold over three decades. “There’s nothing like anthem trance to make your heart soar,” Mr Cook declared. Chamber chief economist Aaron Morey then instructed — and we’re not making this up — the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre’s audiovisual team to play a few bars of electronic dance, giving business elites a taste of Mr Cook’s musical preferences. The 59-year-old representative of Kwinana confidently identified the song as the work of French artists Jakarta, which The Bull was unable to verify. The Premier picked the late 90s and early 2000s as his favourite era of electronic music, a period which included the early work of big names David Guetta and Bob Sinclar. All a set-up by the Government’s spin team? Or is it DJ Cook-d spinning the decks at community cabinet meetings? There’s an outside chance the Premier is seeking a post-politics posting as trade ambassador to Ibiza. MinRes less Bruced and more battered It’s not just the biscuits and lowly paper-pushers out the door at Mineral Resources — word has reached The Bull that a member of Chris Ellison’s Praetorian Guard has departed. The executive general manager of corporate development James Bruce bid adieu to MinRes’ jewel of the swamp Osborne Park HQ late last week. Our spies tell us the decision to part ways was mutual and without animosity. The man with two first names featured prominently in many MinRes media missives and had the unenviable duty of fronting up to analysts in place of his billionaire (former) boss. After Ellison in February labelled analysts that dared question his balance sheet management as “cowboys” and vaguely implied they were akin to criminals, it was poor old Jimmy who had to face the music two months later on the next conference call with the spreadsheet aficionados. It’s a shame our man isn’t a member of the fairer sex or else he’d have Twiggy blowing up his phone to rub more salt into the MinRes gender equity wounds. In the rough Emeritus Dear Leader Mark McGowan was due to step onto the board of renewable hopeful Frontier Energy this week, adding to his full dance card since departing the royal palace last year. Readers may remember Frontier Energy as the business pursuing an ambitious $300m solar project south of Perth, featuring Matador Capital founder and golfing enthusiast Grant Davey as executive director. “State Daddy” was granted a delicious 2 million share options expiring 2027, all of which were in the money just after the announcement when Frontier shares traded at about 50 cents each. But Frontier’s stock has headed south since after a heavily discounted and diluting capital raising. The scrip was changing hands at 24¢ at stumps on Friday. At that value, about half the package is currently worthless. Luckily McGowan and Davey have a couple more years to get that share price out of the bunker. An iron curtain across the Wheatbelt The Bull was stunned by revelations that colleagues at the Countryman — published by Seven West Media — were banned from using photos or recordings made at the recent Dowerin Machinery Field Days. The famed Field Days are among the top events on the calendar for West Australian farmers. But journalists were given the finger. A Soviet-style change to ticketing conditions meant all content gathered at the event needed to be signed off by The Ministry of Truth — aka event management — who told journos to take a hike in the grain fields. Our farmers have enough on their plates with droughts, flooding rains, and now a live export ban. What a shame they’ve been denied a voice.