Baillieu family battle over sister’s farewell

November 11, 2026 — 5:00am

A sad conflict is unfolding amid Victoria’s well-heeled and prominent Baillieu family following the death of 86-year-old Fiona Baillieu, who died on October 9.

A nasty schism has developed in the wealthy family over how Fiona (also known as Posy) will be memorialised and laid to rest.

Fiona, the ABC’s first female newsreader, was one of seven Baillieu siblings, of which former Victorian Liberal premier Ted Baillieu is the youngest. Along with Ted, only two other siblings, Kate and Will, are still alive.

The trio organised a memorial for Fiona that was held last Wednesday at St John’s Anglican Church in Toorak. A first listing of the service in this newspaper on October 22 noted a private cremation would be held. On November 2, a second notice of the service was published, with no mention of a cremation.

Two sources with knowledge of the dispute, but who asked to speak anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the disagreement, said the change happened because, behind the scenes, other members of the extended family were mobilising to have Fiona buried, not cremated, alongside other deceased clan members at the Queenscliff Cemetery.

In the midst of that conflict, Fiona’s older 88-year-old brother, Ian Baillieu, the father of activist investor and writer James Baillieu, died on October 26.

A plan was then formed, and a notice published on October 31, for the pair to be memorialised in back-to-back graveside services and burials in the seaside town, which will unfold today.

The Baillieu family has a deeply rooted history in Queenscliff. The founder of the dynasty, James Baillieu, an English seaman who famously jumped ship in 1853 and swam ashore to the town, was buried there. The prominent entrance to the cemetery features the Baillieu Memorial Gates.

The sources said both sides of the conflict believed they were acting in accordance with the wishes expressed by Fiona before she died, but with Ted, Kate and Will ultimately agreeing that their sister would be buried.

That meant that vicar Peter French had to shift last week’s Toorak proceedings to a “thanksgiving” service for Fiona’s life rather than a funeral. The farewell double-up meant the Clendon Road church was half full.

CBD approached Ted and James Baillieu, but both declined to comment.

Aussie connection to alleged global spy scandal

Aussie gents, beware. If you’re a four, and a lady – who’s clearly a 10 – comes at you hot and heavy, perhaps consider running the other way.

It might be that you’re the target of an Alice Huang-style MegaSpeed honey trap.

Chinese tech company MegaSpeed is front and centre of the news cycle, with executive Huang alleged by US intelligence agencies to be a spy who lured married Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang into her espionage web.

Now, an Australian link has emerged. The company has an outpost in the heart of Sydney.

MegaSpeed established its Australian operation at the end of 2024, according to documents filed with the corporate regulator.

Its sole director is 29-year-old Kai Kang, who was born in Shanghai, is not caught up in Alice’s spying high jinks and, bizarrely, lists his address at a newsagency and lotto shop in the Victorian country town of Seymour.

Alas, there was no answer to our call there on Tuesday.

A visit by CBD to MegaSpeed Australia’s office on level 10 of a high-rise building in Martin Place was similarly perplexing. A receptionist said that nobody from MegaSpeed was in when we went to the company’s empty Sydney offices on Tuesday morning.

What’s more, the company didn’t have a physical space at the premises, we were told, and only used the address for administrative purposes.

To make matters more curious, MegaSpeed Australia’s corporate record reveals that correspondence from ASIC to the company’s Sydney office has been returned to sender since January.

Records show that the local outpost is owned by Singapore-based Megaspeed International, which rents out high-performance data centres that are powered by Nvidia chips.

Aussies can rest assured, though, because as far as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is concerned, we aren’t “directly” a party to the Nvidia saga. Or at least that was his response when asked if he had concerns about Huang’s admitted affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

We checked in with our nation’s own spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, to see how it felt about MegaSpeed’s footprint in Sydney and whether it was looking into its operations in light of the revelations coming out of the US.

“ASIO does not comment on intelligence or investigations,” a spokesperson for the spook agency told us. “This should not be taken as confirmation of an investigation.”

Luke Sayers spotted back in Melbourne

Look who’s back in town.

It’s been two months since former PwC boss and ex-Carlton chairman Luke Sayers settled the defamation action taken against him by his now ex-wife Cate Sayers over his handling of his dick pic scandal and the accompanying fallout that also engulfed the Andrew Dillon-led AFL and the Blues.

In the days before Cate’s headline-grabbing court action was set to return to the Supreme Court of Victoria on September 11, and as negotiations towards a settlement and Luke’s ultimate full apology to Cate were getting pointy, the man in question jetted off to Europe.

Contemporaneously, his new girlfriend Alex Elms, and his daughter Bronte were posting holiday happy snaps together from Italy, while Luke kept the lowest of profiles.

But now the disgraced businessman is back, spotted twice in recent days by CBD’s spies near his bachelor pad apartment in East Melbourne, which he’s trying to sell for about $12 million.

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