By Liam Mannix and Kishor Napier-Raman
It all started with a seemingly innocuous joke.
During a dinner to celebrate the Rural Women’s Awards in Parliament House on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dropped in an off-script remark about a discussion with Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto about beef exports.
The opposition swooped on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s comments.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“When we had dinner, beautiful Australian beef – not the live export – we made sure it was dead.”
It’s fair to say that the rather limp gag failed to land.
Despite the joke not making it into the version of the speech distributed to media, it was quickly swooped on by the federal opposition, and some farmers’ groups, who are very upset about the Albanese government’s decision to ban live sheep exports.
The Coalition did not see the funny side of Anthony Albanese’s beef joke.Credit: John Shakespeare
In a press release hammered out on Wednesday morning, Nationals leader David Littleproud said 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-general Michaelia Cash thundered.
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 partisan noise.
The band plays on – minus the conductor
Nothing sets tongues wagging around the top end of town like a high art scandal. Like, say, the venerable Melbourne Symphony Orchestra being caught betwixt and between over Middle Eastern politics.
Quick recap: the MSO pulled a performer from a gig after a pianist dedicated a piece to journalists killed in Gaza. Then the MSO called that removal an error and cancelled the whole performance. Then Cat Empire cancelled their MSO performance. Then the MSO cancelled the board of directors’ web presence. Now they are offering a strict “no comment” on all media inquiries. You get the sense they are feeling a little … besieged.
But good news on that front. CBD has learnt that MSO boss Sophie Galaise and deputy board chair Di Jameson have left the Hamer Hall bunker for … Singapore! The MSO has a pair of concerts with their Singapore counterparts this week.
Some unfortunate timing for them to be heading overseas while their organisation sinks deeper into the mire, CBD says. The MSO says … “no comment”!
‘Massive Dominoids’
It’s reporting season! Which is sort of like corporate Christmas – where you get to find out who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.
Kerri Hayman has been appointed Domino’s head of Australian and NZ operations.
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 an error to make – like ordering pineapple on your pizza.
Meanwhile, the appointment of Kerri Hayman as head of Australian and New Zealand operations has raised eyebrows, as Hayman is of course the sister of group chief executive Don Meij. Hayman is amply qualified as a 36-year Dominos 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 is 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 founder Richard White into a billionaire, managed to put out their financial results at 9.30am – and then immediately recall them. And then send 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.
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