By Liam Mannix and Kishor Napier-Raman
Deep down, we’ve always suspected what Australia’s richest people really want is to be loved.
The “anxious billionaire” thesis explains much of Gina Rinehart’s recent behaviour, from fostering a cult of personality among our swimmers that would make the Kim family blush, to waging a proxy war with fellow mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest for control of the True Blue Aussie apparel market.
Andrew Forrest and former wife Nicola acquired Akubra for an undisclosed sum.
In some countries, billionaires buy football clubs. For our resource moguls, tapping into the public’s misty-eyed love of nostalgic Australiana is a far cheaper form of image enhancement.
The bushwear arms race kicked off when Twiggy picked up R.M. Williams in 2020 before adding Akubra to his stable last year. Rinehart, meanwhile, acquired Driza-Bone coats and the more budget friendly bootmaker Rossi in late 2023.
The trouble for Australia’s richest person is that Forrest’s R.M.s already have a lock on the feet of the country’s ruling class from the cabinet table to the High Court bench.
But what Rinehart does have is far better traction with the federal opposition than Forrest, long suspected by conservatives (and some of his rival big miners) of having “gone woke” when he started talking about renewables all the time.
Peter Dutton with federal member for Kennedy Bob Katter and Katter’s son, Queensland state member for Traeger Robbie Katter, at the Mount Isa Mines Rodeo.Credit: Getty Images
Barnaby Joyce has ditched his R.M.s, perhaps in protest at Twiggy’s latest windfarm, and was spotted in a $500 Rinehart-sponsored hat recently. While traditionally an R.M.s man, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who this year flew to Perth and back just to spend an hour at Rinehart’s 70th birthday party, has gone full Rossi bootfluencer of late.
He donned a pair at Beef Week in Rockhampton in May, and wore them during a recent trip to Israel. And earlier this month, while at the Mount Isa Rodeo with Bob Katter and Akubra chief executive Natalie Culina, Dutton flexed his Rossis even while wearing a Twiggy-owned headpiece.
What Rinehart doesn’t have that Twiggy does is a boot made in Australia. Since Forrest’s acquisition, R.M.s have been reshoring manufacturing.
Credit: John Shakespeare
Despite Rossi’s website proclaiming the boots are “made in Australia since 1910”, they’re actually made in Indonesia.
That even goes for those infamous lurid gold Rossis that Rinehart gifted to Olympic medallists during an exclusive cruise on the Seine in Paris during this month’s Games.
Local manufacturing of Rossis was already winding down before Rinehart bought the brand, with the final pair being made in the Adelaide factory last year. Luckily for those remaining employees, their CFMEU reps were able to find them new jobs ... at R.M. Williams.
The effrontery of economy
CBD is always grateful to the Victorian Liberal Party for helping to fill this column.
The content machine known as Deeming v Pesutto was back in the Federal Court on Monday to hear whether former Liberal MP Dr Matt Bach will have to fly from his new home in the United Kingdom to give evidence in person for Opposition Leader John Pesutto.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto (second from left) and Matt Bach (right) at a press conference regarding Moira Deeming in 2023.Credit: Simon Schluter
For the uninitiated, Pesutto is being sued for defamation by MP Moira Deeming, who was expelled from the Liberal parliamentary party last year in the fallout from her role in the Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
Bach, who was once deputy Liberal leader in the upper house, has taken up a new role as deputy headmaster at Brighton College, where he teaches students in years 9, 11 and 12. CBD imagines the classes must be about as disciplined as a Liberal party room meeting.
Matt Collins, KC, acting for Pesutto, says forcing Bach to fly to Melbourne to give evidence for one or two hours would be an unnecessary cost and an unnecessary disruption to his family and students.
Justice David O’Callaghan questioned whether Bach was really “that indispensable” to the students, given he’s already headed to China for work for 10 days around the same time. And couldn’t he tack on a trip to Melbourne from there anyway?
This could have “poor Dr Bach travelling economy on some estimates for 18 hours from Shanghai”, Collins said.
If required, the court heard, Bach would be travelling from London, and business class flights would cost $10,000 or more with accommodation and incidentals. O’Callaghan reserved his decision on whether to allow Bach to give evidence by video, which is generally not the done thing.
“They [witnesses] don’t have to face the courtroom and the solemnity of the occasion in cross-examination and that’s a big disadvantage to a cross-examiner,” Sue Chrysanthou, SC, argued for Deeming.
O’Callaghan recalled a case in which someone gave evidence from their car as they went through a McDonald’s drive-through. About as bad as it gets. Well, certainly worse than Collins’ joke in reply: “Did you want fries with your application?”
When the music stops?
It’s hard to know quite how to sum up the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s current debacle. There must be a musical metaphor … like listening to a symphony orchestra crash into a wall?
To recap: at a recital on Sunday of last week a pianist dedicated a piece of music to journalists killed in Gaza.
The MSO then removed him from a Thursday night gig. Then it called that an error and cancelled the entire performance.
That prompted its own musicians to pass a vote of no confidence and call for managing director Sophie Galaise and chief operating officer Guy Ross to resign.
The board is now doing an “independent external review”. Oh, and the Cat Empire is refusing to play their big headline orchestra shows.
Good to see the MSO is on top of one aspect of crisis management, though: the website with the MSO’s board of directors appears to have been taken offline, replaced with a “page not found” message. Deliberate? Accidental? CBD isn’t sure, and the MSO declined to answer our questions. Nor would it say when or why it locked its account on X.
CBD is relieved to see the press release advertising the Cat Empire’s now cancelled MSO gigs remains live though!
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.