Cherie Blair arrives today in Adelaide on the third leg of her Australasian book-and-lecture tour with the taunts of the tabloids ringing in her ears, still dogged by criticism of the fee she is taking for helping to raise funds for cancer charities.
The prime minister's wife, as she is billed in publicity for the five talks, got off to an unlucky start at the weekend in Auckland. She reportedly left the impression - twice - that she thought she was in Australia.
Even allowing for 11,000 miles worth of jetlag, that is a serious gaffe to commit among proud Kiwis. Some £100-a-head listeners were also disappointed that the QC spoke too much about her book, The Goldfish Bowl, and the tricky work-life balance of her hectic home life.
What they had expected from Mrs Blair, rated the world's 12th most influential woman by Forbes magazine, was more on other weighty issues within her expertise, such as human rights.
In Perth yesterday, Mrs Blair was at least among friends. Western Australia's Labor premier, Geoff Gallop, is an old friend of the Blairs. He met Tony Blair as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University in 1972. He was an usher at their wedding. Mr Blair is godfather to Tom Gallop.
Facing calls - in Australia as well as from the Daily Mail - to donate what is alleged to be her £102,600 fee to charity, Mrs Blair visited a children's hospital in Perth. She then met Mr Gallop and his wife, Beverley, at the gaudy Burswood International Resort Casino on the Swan river where she was staying.
Downing Street consistently refuses to discuss what fees and expenses Mrs Blair is being paid for her five-city tour. "It is a private matter," officials insist.
They suggest that the widely quoted figure is wrong. So does Max Markson, the Sydney PR guru behind the tour.
It has not stopped the Blair-baiting media, led by the Mail and its sister paper, the Mail on Sunday (which dubbed it the "Queen of Sheba" tour) from quoting a leaked draft schedule which claimed they would total £102,600 - £20,000 a talk.
On that basis she earned about £660 a minute, or £11 a second, for her 30-minute speech to £80-a-head diners at the casino in Perth last night, not far from where high rollers were spending their money. Yesterday Mr Gallop did not begrudge his "good friend" the fee.
"This is an arrangement that has been entered into to raise money for charity and I think it's a good thing ... We've previously had Rudy Giuliani here, we've had Bill Clinton here. Those arrangements are matters for the organisers, it's not something I have any comment on," he said.
In sharp contrast, Maurice Henderson, the executive director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Foundation in Adelaide, argued that people had made donations in good faith and Mrs Blair and Mr Markson, her promoter - known locally as "Mr 20 Per Cent" - should be held accountable.
Mr Henderson claims his foundation was short-changed two years ago when it signed on for a speaking tour by Mr Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.
Heavyweights
"We were shown a budget from Mr Markson, the promoter, that suggested we would receive A$197,000. In the end we actually ended up with A$20,000," said Mr Henderson, who plans to cut out the middleman next time.
Mr Markson's supporters say he has raised large sums for charity and underwrites costs to ensure charities face no liabilities from a flop. "If Cherie Blair wasn't coming to Australia there wouldn't be that money raised for the children so it [the controversy] is sad, but that is the way of the world, that's the media," Mr Markson said last night. "I have an impeccable reputation in this marketplace and the Fleet Street press have a go at me for political reasons - it's a way of dragging down Tony Blair by getting at me."
The Children's Cancer Institute of Australia, which is guaranteed only £99,800 or about one-fifth of the overall proceeds from Mrs Blair's tour, backed him up. "Nobody has done anything wrong. There are always going to be associated costs in a visit like this," it said.
At Burswood casino - a pulsing, money-guzzling pyramid - guests paid up to £3,000 a table for VIP seats at the first of Mrs Blair's Australian talks, which attracted almost 500 business, sporting and political heavyweights from around the country. They included Australia's "golden girl", the four-time Olympic gold medallist Betty Cuthbert, and an Australian fashion designer, Liz Davenport.
Mrs Blair was whisked through a side entrance to avoid waiting media when she arrived around 7.30pm. British security staff and Australian federal police patrolled the premises for the duration of the event, keeping reporters at bay.
Mrs Blair mingled briefly with VIP guests in a glass foyer with views of the golf course, the Swan river and the Perth skyline. Fortified by honey and rosemary rack of lamb, Mrs Blair spoke in the grand ballroom. This time her address covered some of her pet topics: rights for women and children, balancing family and career, charity and public service and legal issues, as well as being the wife of a world leader.
But she also showed family photos, including shots of baby Leo playing in the No 10 garden. That too enraged the circling London tabloids, who contrasted it with the Blairs' demands for privacy at home.
The same papers say Mrs Blair needs the money to pay the mortgage on her £3.6m post-Downing Street home because she cannot find anyone to rent it. Blair allies say would-be renters are discouraged by phone calls from the self-same papers.
Under attack: from fur in flight to freebies
