Ex-Lib needs salary alms to survive; Stench over contractor’s ongoing business with Gupta

Ex-Lib Tim Smith and Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel.

Once a promising Victorian Liberal MP, Tim Smith – famous for boozily crashing his Jaguar into the front fence of a home in Melbourne, thereby blowing up his political career – has found it tough surviving in Israel.

Yes, you read that correctly. Smith relocated to Jerusalem earlier this year after a two-year stint in London working for GB News, the British broadcaster helmed by former Sky News Australia boss Angelos Frangopoulos. Not much point staying in Melbourne after Smith clocked a BAC of 0.131 on that hazy night in Hawthorn.

Now established in the Holy Land (drink-driving isn’t legal there, either), Smith has taken up work as a senior media and political adviser with Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, who he’s known for at least a decade and with whom he became better acquainted during her six years living and working in Australia.

But it’s not the Houthi missiles terrorising the population in the middle of the night and sending everyone trudging bleary-eyed to their rocket shelters, or even the resurgence of rocket fire coming from Gaza that’s troubling the mind of Smith, a political fish out of water in the Knesset.

It’s his salary.

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sharren Haskel. Picture: Miriam Alster

Be damned with the Iranian proxies. In Jerusalem it’s the cost of living that’ll actually kill you. Maybe the heat, as well.

Already bad before the war – cost of living in Israel rated 38 per cent higher than the average OECD country – the problem’s only been made worse by a recent government decision to bump up the value-added tax to 18 per cent. That took effect in January, just as Smith touched down with his bags at Ben Gurion. Between the VAT lift and the routine security inquisition at the airport, it can’t have been much of a welcome.

But Smith wasn’t considered the great hope of the Victorian Liberal Party for nothing. He’s got a plan.

We’re reliably informed that to beef up his pay packet, someone in Melbourne (acting on Smith’s behalf) has been tapping high-net-worth individuals in the Jewish community to help make up the difference. This person, we hear, has been seeking funds – donations, you might say – putting it out there that Smith’s salary is abysmal and he should be assisted.

More than a few deep-pocketed machers were asked if they’d cough up a bit of dough, but we don’t believe this tin-rattling was very successful. We figured Smith might embrace the revelations, maybe tell us more, but he declined repeated requests for comment when we asked him about it. YB

Debt pile stinks

We hope incoming NRW Holdings CFO Peter Bryant owns a big shovel to bring into his new office, because NRW’s disastrous decision to keep doing business with Sanjeev Gupta just keeps stinking up the joint.

We’re talking about the $113m debt built up by South Australia’s Whyalla steelworks while under the control of Gupta’s GFG ­Alliance.

The size of the debt has been public for months, but Whyalla administrator KordaMentha has just challenged NRW’s last excuse for letting the debt get so big in the first place.

Last November NRW briefly stopped work at the iron ore mine that feeds Whyalla steelworks after Gupta’s unpaid bills climbed to about $82m. But the contractor went back on the job within weeks after being promised a $70m lump-sum payment and security over some of Whyalla’s assets.

By the time the South Australian government lost patience and appointed KordaMentha as administrator of Whyalla in February, the mining contractor was owed about $113m.

But all was OK, NRW told shareholders a few days later, because its return-to-work deal with Gupta included “first ranking security over certain Whyalla Ports assets and a first ranking security over the ordinary shares held by LPMA in Whyalla Ports Pty Ltd”.

“NRW believes that the security represents sufficient value to recover the carrying value of the trade receivables and contract ­assets related to OneSteel,” the company said.

NRW hasn’t written off any of that debt yet because, in theory, it should be able to step in and take control of the 15 million-tonne-a-year bulk port if it isn’t paid.

Except … maybe it can’t.

You see, Whyalla Port’s major asset is supposed to be a 99-year lease over the operation, theoretically signed in 2018 between Gupta’s Whyalla Ports Pty Ltd and Gupta’s OneSteel Manufacturing Pty Ltd.

The problem is, as Michael Korda told the Federal Court this week, that Whyalla’s administrators can’t find any lease assigning the port to another part of Gupta’s group; doesn’t believe South Australian law would allow Whyalla to lease out the operation without permission from the state government, which was never granted.

And if they’re wrong about all of that, they’ve still got no record of Whyalla Ports actually making any lease payments. Plus Whyalla Ports has no employees of its own and it was OneSteel workers running the place anyway.

In short, the administrators don’t believe any valid lease exists. KordaMentha also says it can’t find any evidence that Whyalla Ports owns any of the buildings or equipment at the port.

Which leaves NRW holding ­security over shares in a company that may not control any real ­assets.

Not a great place to be.

Court documents published by KordaMentha show NRW was advised of the action almost a week ago, but is yet to respond to the administrators or the court.

All of KordaMentha’s claims, of course, are yet to be proven in court. But it’s all still more than enough to give any new CFO his first headache. NE

$90m watches buyer

Even if Trump’s tariff crash does tank the global economy, someone still believes rich people will keep buying expensive status symbols. At least, that’s the only assumption Margin Call can make from the fact that luxury watch dealer James Kennedy has found a buyer prepared to stump up $90m for parts of the family’s jewellery empire.

Kennedy confirmed on Tuesday that he’s done a deal with Singaporean luxury retailer The Hour Glass, but is keeping tight-lipped on the details, declining to outline which of his watch and jewellery businesses he is selling until the deal is done.

But a spokesman said there would be no changes to the Kennedy group’s “core business”.

Kennedy’s high-profile stores include boutique outlets at Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping centre, as well as servicing high-rollers (and any ordinary punters that get very lucky, we guess) at Crown precincts in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.

Ben Scott and James Kennedy back in 2018 when they were still friends.

Whatever he’s selling, The Hour Glass is happy to pay for it. The Singaporean company will shell out $90m for “certain dealership rights, leases in prime locations”. It reckons the deal would have added about $10.5m to its ­annual earnings if completed last financial year.

In other good news for Kennedy, an end may finally be in sight in the nasty little legal brawl between the luxury watch dealer and former Cranbrook school chum Ben Scott.

Margin Call brought news of the blue in January, as the pair battled in the courts over grievances linked to entertainment company Kentel Australasia – the production company behind Luxe Listings, a “real estate lifestyle ­reality show” that briefly showed off the worst of Australia on Amazon’s streaming services.

Scott used their joint company to bring the suit, but Kennedy succeeded in getting Roderick Sutton and Mel Ashton appointed as independent directors to the board – who promptly dropped the legal action in late March before calling in administrators to wind the whole company up.

Scott, of course, challenged that decision in the NSW Supreme Court. Those hearings have now finished, with a decision due ­shortly. NE