By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
The Australian national rugby team and venerable home builder AV Jennings have more in common these days than either party might wish.
Just like the Wallabies – newly coach-less after the abrupt departure of Eddie Jones on Sunday night – who were distant spectators in recent weeks as the world’s top teams contested the thrilling last stages of the World Cup in France, AV Jennings’ glory days seem a distant memory.
The share price languishes below its COVID-19 nadir and the outlook for this financial year looks underwhelming at best, although in fairness, allowances could be made for any house-building outfit keeping itself afloat these days.
And on the bright side, there’s Phil Kearns, the former Wallabies skipper and two-time World Cup winner who’s been leading the AV Jennings team for just under two years now.
Kearns is going to need all of that never-say-die attitude to get this team winning again: company chairman Simon Cheong had to use his majority stake to save AV Jennings’ board from an investor revolt in January, and shares have since lost nearly a third of their value.
So we were intrigued to see Kearns’ (who’s on the board of the company that organised the helped bring the 2027 Rugby World Cup to these shores) long-term performance incentives have been doubled – by an impressive sounding 1.5 million shares.
We won’t get too carried away, they were worth 24¢ apiece on Monday, but still.
Surely Kearns – Mr Competitive on the rugby field – doesn’t need extra motivation to get his team back in the game? That’s probably a question that will be kicked around at the company’s AGM next month, when executive remuneration looks set to be a bit of a topic. Again.
We were desperate for a chat about all of this, but a company spokesperson told us that comments or interviews could not be organised until Kearns got back from overseas on Tuesday.
FOREIGN AFFAIR
Many column inches have been expended on the tussle among the nation’s security and foreign affairs establishment for the ear of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Australia’s policies toward China.
Michael Fullilove has Anthony Albanese’s ear.Credit: John Shakespeare
But we can’t help but notice that a bloke who doesn’t even work for the government keeps turning up in the right places to have his voice heard; Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute, the pointy-headed foreign policy think-tank founded by shopping centre billionaire Frank Lowy 20 years ago.
Fullilove – who is firmly in the “engagement” camp of thinkers about our China relationship – was one of the lucky few Australians to score an invite to the prime minister’s White House state dinner with US President Joe Biden in Washington last week.
(Rugby League and Racing honcho Peter V’Landys was there too, but we’re pretty sure that doesn’t have geopolitical significance.)
And guess who’s coming to dinner with Michael and friends in December? Why it’s Albanese, who will deliver the lecture at the Institute’s annual dinner at Town Hall in December.
We’re a long way off anointing Fullilove as Albanese’s China guru, but that nation’s diplomats might want to brush up on the Lowy man’s extensive back catalogue, just to be safe.
BUGGY BLOW UP
We’re not risk-takers here at CBD, so we’re heartened to see the posh Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club in Victoria taking a belt-and-braces approach to fire safety.
Members were told last week that they would no longer be allowed to store and charge their golf buggy batteries at the club’s upmarket Frankston clubhouse, after a faulty power pack sparked a blaze that destroyed the clubhouse at the Greg Norman-designed Eastern Golf Course in Yering this month.
Peninsula Club CEO Heath Wilson broke the news to members by email last week, saying that after a chat with the club’s insurers he was pulling the plug on the in-house charging service for buggy batteries.
“We understand that this will cause some inconvenience to Members, however the risk is now too real to ignore following the Eastern Golf Club incident which destroyed their Clubhouse,” Wilson wrote.
Thankfully, Peninsula’s golfers will not be expected to get themselves and their gear around the links under their own steam; the club’s own electric buggies will continue to roll, powered by new batteries that are subject to a stringent maintenance regime, Heath reckons.
So how is everybody down there feeling about all this, we wondered? Sadly, the club didn’t respond to our request for a chat.
But someone close to the club confided that “golfers who have a backyard or garage are OK”.
“The ones who live in high-rise apartments are a little nervous. As are their neighbours.”
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