How far tech entrepreneur Steve Baxter will go for a burger

A local entrepreneur likes hamburgers so much he is going to take two helicopters and six tech investors on a flight to regional Queensland just to eat lunch.

BURGER ON THE FLY

TECH entrepreneur Steve Baxter likes hamburgers so much he’s flying all the way to Warwick on Wednesday to eat one. Baxter is taking two helicopters and six tech investors out to Cherrabah Resort near Warwick for a burger, partaking in an aviation tradition that has its origins in the US. “It began when a group of rich guys with aircraft decided to fly somewhere for a burger,” Baxter tells your diarist. “Hence the name $100 hamburger.”

Tech entrepreneur Steve Baxter is flying to Warwick for a hamburger.

Given inflation and other costs, it will no doubt cost Baxter and his mates considerably more to undertake the 45 minute journey to Cherrabah, which is located in the picturesque Elbow Valley. Last year, Baxter, the former Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, did something similar by flying up to Agnes Water for a squid burger. He says the flight will allow him to encourage the investors to put more of their money into the state’s tech sector.

LOCKED AND LOADED

HERITAGE Bank boss Peter Lock says it’s hard to shift customers from the big lenders despite their misdeeds being spectacularly uncovered in the recent royal commission.

Lock told your diarist over a nice steak at the upmarket nosh house Alchemy in Eagle St yesterday that people change their partners more than they do their banks.

Heritage Bank chief executive Peter Lock.

Lock says Heritage has experienced customer growth of about 2 per cent since the royal commission but that far fell short of the exodus he expected.

“There is a lack of impetus when it comes to people changing their banks even though it is quite simple,” he says. “People should be voting with their feet, but you still see them lining up inside the big bank branches to complain about the service they are getting.”

SAFE BET

LOCK says one negative impact of the royal commission is that banks have been pressured into not offering consumer credit insurance with loans. Lock says the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) believed banks were putting the hard word on customers into taking out the policies with little benefit. But Lock says the insurance policies had a place and it is unfortunate Heritage is no longer offering them.

Heritage Bank no longer offering consumer credit insurance.

He says recently a distraught customer walked into the Bundaberg branch of Heritage worried about losing the family home after her husband lost his job. When the branch manager checked, she realised the woman had taken out insurance credit insurance that would give the family the required breathing space until her husband found work again. Thankfully soon after he landed a job.

CHINA TOWN

THE Chinese will lay on the culture in Brisbane next month with the country’s National Tourist Office organizing a soiree at the Stamford Plaza promoting various regions of the mainland. The “Visit China Where Culture Shines” event on August 26 will feature than 50 representatives from Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Anhui and Inner Mongolia.