The Coalition did not see the funny side of Anthony Albanese’s beef jokeJohn ShakespeareIn a press release hammered out on Wednesday morning,Nationals leaderDavid Littleproudsaid farmers were “disgusted to the core” by Albo’s comments.
Campaigners from an agriculture group called “Keep the Sheep” were extremely upset,Littleproud said.
“A joke in extremely poor taste by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shows he holds Western Australia and our live export trade in complete contempt,” shadow attorney-generalMichaelia Cashthundered.
The good old days when Liberals and Nationals fought tooth and nail to give Australians the right to say far more offensive things seem forgotten. Farmers are no laughing matter.
The PM’s office,meanwhile,maintained that Albo was actually trying to talk up Aussie beef.
“The PM was reinforcing the importance of the Australian beef industry. Exports of beef to Indonesia hit a record high in 2022-23,” a government spokesperson told CBD.
“The government fulfilled an election promise on the live sheep export ban and has offered an adjustment package. We will continue to discuss this with the industry and the WA government.”
If that was the sentiment,it got lost in the predictable partisan noise.
MASSIVE DOMINOIDS
It’s company reporting season! Which is sort of like corporate Christmas,where you get to find out who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.
Let’s start with $3 billion listed pizza-pusher Domino’s. On Wednesday,the company dropped its full-year results with what looked like some bad news:their closely watched Same Store Sales comparison for the first seven weeks of this financial year – basically a measure of how much pepperoni they are slinging – was down 0.2 per cent compared to the same period last year. Yikes!
Soon after,the company issued a correction:actually it was good news,not bad news,as sales were up 2.8 per cent. Which,given you’re dealing with millions of dollars in revenue,is a hell of a rounding error to make.
Meanwhile,theappointmentofKerri Hayman as head of Australian and NZ operations has raised eyebrows,as Hayman is the sister of group CEODon Meij. Hayman is amply qualified as a 36-year Domino’s veteran who has worked as the operations director for the UK-listed Domino’s.
Despite both enjoying lengthy careers under the same brand,Hayman reckons she and her sibling have carved out their own spaces. “We’ve grown up in the business together,” she told this masthead on Wednesday. “I think we’re just both massive Dominoids.”
Now,sure,Domino’s are in the business of making pepperoni pies – not accounting. A tech company with a focus on,say,logistics,would surely do a much better job.
Or not. WiseTech,whose meteoric rise up the ASX since 2016 has turned founderRichard White into a billionaire,put out their financial results at 9.30am – and then immediately recalled them. And then sent them out again,seemingly unchanged.
Oh,and whoever put the recall out appears to have accidentally cc’d in dozens of journalists,exposing their email addresses. Not a good look for a tech company.
MARTIN MEMORIALISED
From a low-key childhood in Castlecrag,Martin Indykwound up working in the corridors of power in the White House.
The Australian-raised diplomat,appointed as the United States’ ambassador to Israel by then-presidentBill Clinton,was commemorated at a private event hosted by the Lowy Institute on Tuesday night,weeks after his death from oesophageal cancer.
A room packed with diplomatic,political and business figures heard tributes from Sydney business identityDavid Gonski,Lowy Institute bossMichael Fullilove,its deputy chairSteven Lowy,US Consul-GeneralChristine Elderand federal Labor MPPeter Khalil,who worked for Indyk at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC,and delivered tributes from Prime MinisterAnthony Albaneseand Foreign MinisterPenny Wong.
Former ABCQ&A hostTony Jonesgave his recollections of interviewing Indyk,a Middle East expert renowned for both his staunch advocacy for Israel and fierce criticism of that country’s settlements in the West Bank.
Other guests included the Albanese government’s new antisemitism envoyJillian Segaland former New Israel Fund Australia chief executive turned Labor stafferLiam Getreu.
As someone with a front-row seat to American foreign policy in the Middle East under both the Clinton and Obama administrations,Indyk had his fair share of stories. Pub baronBruce Solomonrecounted a dinner being interrupted so Indyk could take a call from Syrian dictatorBashar al-Assad.
Even in the final days of his battle with cancer,Indyk was fielding calls from the likes of the Clintons,US Secretary of StateAntony Blinkenand National Security AdvisorJake Sullivan.
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