RBA blowout throws shade on Trump’s spat Powell; Council counsels Ibrahim
A central bank boss under pressure over interest rates, and dealing with a massive blowout on construction costs at their headquarters? Which country are we talking about here?
Donald Trump’s swipe at Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell over blowouts at the US central bank’s $US2.5bn ($3.8bn) headquarter refurbishment made headlines across the world.
Imagine if Anthony Albanese shirtfronted Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock in the same way?
Plenty of parallels here.
Bullock, too, is facing political pressure over recent decisions to keep interest rates on hold.
And she, like Powell, is presiding over a costly refurbishment of the central bank’s headquarters.
Some clear differences, too. Powell presides over an economy 17 times the size of Australia’s. The Federal Reserve is facing only a 32 per cent cost increase at its HQ, whereas the RBA is managing a budget-busting 325 per cent blowout in the refurbishment of its historic Martin Place offices in Sydney.
Originally slated to cost about $260m, the last public figure on the cost put the total at about $1.1bn. And that figure is more than a year old, so you can bet the total has gone up since.
Built in 1964, the building was in such shoddy condition by 2020 (when federal parliament finally ticked off on a renovation) that rain was leaking through window seals and a crack had appeared in the governor’s office wall. One so large, it is said, that it gave the RBA’s chief boffin a fresh view of Sydney Harbour.
Under the original plans, Bullock would have been moving into a new office at 65 Martin Place sometime next week. Now she probably won’t get the chance until 2029, assuming she’s still in the role.
And even that date should be viewed with suspicion, given the RBA only submitted the first development approval applications to City of Sydney Council in May.
Like so many Covid-era renovations, the RBA has fallen victim to soaring construction costs and rampant inflation. Also unhelpful was the discovery of a bucketload of asbestos; it’s slated to cost up to $84m to strip it all, move the heritage-listed facade to storage and prepare the building for the actual renovation.
Amusingly, the only objections to the DAs lodged are from the nearby NSW Land and Environment Court, which is worried about the noise and vibration from the construction work. Clearly the court’s support for NIMBYism doesn’t just apply to other people’s back yards.
Westfield-on-sea
We didn’t know Scentre Group was working on a new Westfield shopping centre in the middle of suburban Dover Heights, in Sydney’s east, right at the end of a cul-de-sac surrounded by million-dollar houses on a cliff jutting out into the Pacific Ocean.
Well, actually it turns out its not – it’s just an overgrown four-storey development that looks like a Westfield and sticks out like the proverbial and is apparently owned by Fadi Ibrahim, the brother of conviction-less John Ibrahim, who owns a pad a few streets away and has survived a few assassination attempts and is definitely a guy who’ll tell you a couple or three things.
Fadi’s been spotted on this gargantuan site plenty of times, and we know because he keeps getting pinged by Waverley Council for storing construction materials and hoarding on the neighbouring reserve. The dog walkers snitched on him, big time.
“Council staff have attended the site … (and) confirmed the presence of the material in the park and issued three fines,” a Waverley spokesman said.
“The builder was requested to remove the building materials and make an application to council for placement of hoarding on council’s land.”
Yes, Fadi, always one to follow the rules, will be sure to file that paperwork instead of just paying the fines and doing whatever he likes, which is what he’s already doing (allegedly!)
Although he’s got respect for some rules, to be sure.
He told a court this week that he would definitely abide by the conditions of an AVO taken out against him by his former business partner, Benjamin Scott.
Extra insurance
Insurance Australia Group CEO Nick Hawkins has been spotted around town shadowed by an ominous figure in his midst. Turns out the chief executive has taken up the services of a bodyguard … and one that doubles as a carrier of Hawkins’ dry cleaning.
As to why Hawkins would need beefed-up security, the company wasn’t forthcoming on that point. But we do know insurers are lightning rods for customer rage whenever claims aren’t fully covered. IAG’s brands include NRMA Insurance and CGU, among others, and the firm definitely felt a bit of heat after those 2022 floods in southwest Queensland and northwest NSW.
A spokeswoman would say only this: “Safety is a key priority for IAG and as is common for many large companies, we have measures in place to ensure the safety of our people and premises.” But isn’t it comforting just knowing that the boss’s dry cleaning is in a safe pair of hands?
Kick-to-kicked out
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performed a marvellous concert at the SCG in April, although the event wound up rendering the turf nearly useless for playing football afterwards. You’re thinking sodden ground, right? All the tears shed during Con Te Partiro must have flooded the place to a point “beyond unacceptable”, as Sydney Swans coach Dean Cox termed it later.
But no, it wasn’t the spilt tears. It was the big stage infrastructure that sat there and crushed the grass beneath it.
Similar problem next door at Allianz Stadium, except there the issue was a drainage problem, the rain swamping the earth and reducing the ground to sludge, leaving everyone incredibly unhappy, of course, with much of the anger directed at the agency that runs all the stadiums, Venues NSW, chaired by David Gallop. Apparently this is all its fault. Gallop’s there on the board with bureaucrat Melanie Hawyes, from Crown Lands, and she reports to NSW Lands Minister Steven Kamper – and he’s the one who’ll be explaining to the public why the government spent a billion dollars gussying up this thing call Allianz Stadium only to now rip it up again – as it’s planning to do – to fix this drainage snafu.
But, actually, forget about all that. For we’ve now learned of the biggest, sickest, meanest kick of them all that’s about to land because of this mess. It is an age-old pastime that football fans, particularly kids, crowd the field after an AFL match for a bit of kick-to-kick once the actual players decamp for the locker rooms. It’s happened for generations, and this season it’ll take place at every important venue around the country – the Gabba and Adelaide Oval and Marvel Stadium. But, ridiculously, not at the SCG, according to a schedule posted to the AFL’s website, meaning of all the AFL clubs it will be only Swans fans heartlessly denied this tradition.
You might think poor old Bocelli is to blame for this madness, but the man is blind and a bloody icon and it’s obviously not his fault. Instead, look to blame the NSW government and Venues NSW, for they are clearly the custodians of this abomination.
Won’t somebody think of the children?!
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