Julie Bishop stepped into a packed crowd and faced the media throng. But this time there would be no press conference or taking of questions from the underdressed media about banning asylum seekers in offshore detention from coming to Australia. There was sugar-free cake to be baked.
The foreign minister launched a sugar-free cookbook written by her friend Carolyn Hartz on Monday night, describing it as a “timely reminder of the need to commit to healthy lifestyle” given the obesity epidemic in Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
After a day spent in Melbourne fielding questions about the government’s new asylum seeker laws, Bishop ended it with a high tea at the Grand Hyatt hotel to launch Hartz’s cookbook and to hear about people’s sugar-free journeys.
Also attending was Bishop’s partner, David Panton, stars from the reality television show The Real Housewives of Melbourne, and the promoter for Arnold Schwarzenegger in Australia, Tony Doherty. Guests were promised Robert De Niro’s “favourite VDKA 6100 cocktails”, which were handed around on silver platters, though the actor himself was not in attendance.
The epitome of "everything in moderation". pic.twitter.com/1IREhWdS83
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) October 31, 2016
Julie Bishop is learning that the secret of sugar-free dessert is strawberries, air, and leaves. pic.twitter.com/wY0vIw0Jhx
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) October 31, 2016
The celebration of the book of sugar-free recipes began with an operatic performance of the song Hallelujah, before Bishop took the podium.
There was a link between the book, titled Sugar Free Baking, and a very serious issue, Bishop told attendees. “The fact that our health budget and our health policies focus very much on the increasing burden of chronic diseases means that we must commit anew to healthy lifestyles,” she said.
“This is a focus of the government’s preventative health policies. It’s also a focus of our foreign aid polices in the Pacific, in our region. We see the shocking paradox of under nutrition caused by poor diet, which has an adverse impact on the development of children, and which also contributes to chronic disease, particularly obesity and diabetes.
“And so I think this book is a timely reminder of the need to commit to healthy lifestyle.”
The book also epitomised the mantra “everything in moderation”, Bishop added. To polite applause and delighted chuckles from the Melbourne elite, she closed by saying that with this particular cookbook, “You can have your cake and eat it.”
She was immediately whisked away to film a cooking demonstration for the Channel Seven program Sunrise, an intimidating pile of radishes and hundreds of fresh strawberries laid out in preparation.
