Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers listened attentively from the front row, with Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake at his side, as his US contemporary clarified an important point.

“Tariff” was not Donald Trump’s favourite word, said the newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – it was Trump’s fourth. “God, family and love are the first three,” Bessent told a room full of Australia’s largest asset managers and superannuation chiefs.