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Making news: Boris Johnson owes Farnham royalties, and Ricciardo flirts with his ex

All the news that's fit to mint.

Jenna ClarkeEditorial Director
9 min read
5:30PMOctober 23, 2022.
Updated 9:26AMOctober 24, 2022
The Oz

All the news that's fit to mint.

What's happening in (The) Oz:

🐨 The Japanese PM popped in for a cuddle

🇨🇳 The Chinese President has been "elected" for a third term

🌙 Taylor broke the internet at 3am

💸 Gina Rinehart cancelled a $15 million direct debit

🇬🇧 Boris may be back

🇺🇸 Trump also back but in court

⚽️ Sam Kerr scores more brownie points

👗 #auspol fashion watch is back

🏡 ⬇️ House prices are tipped to fall

🏎 Danial Ricciardo back on the Red Bulls?

Welcome back!

Happy Monday. Welcome to Budget Week. Nerd Christmas is here again.

Hang on a hot minute, I hear you ask, didn't we just have one of these?

Correct. We did. Back in March when it was handed down by the other team. But both that team and the bloke who authored the national books lost their jobs in May. So the new team in charge want to make their own financial mark now with their Budget papers. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will table his budgetary measures on Tuesday night. 

Till then, if you'd like some light reading about the financial future of the economy (while Midnightsgently plays in the background for the 13467th time), here you go:

Why we should care about the Budget

Government realises women are good workers

If Budget 2022 was a greasy fry up

Safe as houses?

The Eeyore of the finance sector - The Reserve Bank of Australia - is worried house prices could fall about 20% in two years.

According to an "internal assessment" by the RBA, prices could slide if "pessimism takes hold in the property market".

As reported by The Australian, this fallout from this “downside housing price scenario” would hit nearly everyone - broader consumer consumption and the battling building industry. Real estate agents reckon they are "already seeing big shifts on the ground."

The RBA documents - released under Freedom of Information - showed its concerns about recent weakness in housing prices, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, and the effect it's having on dwelling investment.

They also highlighted there could be a decline by about 11% in house prices around the country "by late 2023".

Not to capitalise on capitalism, but now might be a good idea to start saving for that deposit first home buyers.

Our BFF came over for a visit 

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Prime Minster Anthony Albanese on Saturday.

The pair cuddled koalas and took in the sites of Perth.

But this wasn't a cute photo opp. This was more strategic than anything Taylor Swift could even orchestra.

Japan, is considered one of our most important mates in the Indo-Pacific. Over the weekend we upgraded and renewed a document that was originally penned by John Howard and Shinzo Abe in 2007. The Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation was, and remains, a landmark security pact that'll further scale our military and economic ties for the next decade.

"The relationship is much deeper than an economic one. Because its foundation is on our values of democracy, of human rights and a free and open Indo-Pacific. And that is reflected in the work that we have done through the Quad, which I will be very proud to host in Australia next year," Albanese said.

Kishida agreed and was a little more pointed.

“Under the increasingly severe strategic environment, we have been working together to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific. Through this experience, the bonds that tie Japan and Australia together have become much stronger. And our two countries have become the central pillar of cooperation among like-minded countries.”

Kishida knows what's up. He previously served as Japan's Foreign Minister and has visits Australian before. The two, newish leaders, have already met three previous occasions since being sworn in this year - at The Quad in Tokyo in May, at NATO in Madrid in July and in September at Abe's funeral.

After cuddled koalas, signing documents, exchanging gifts - Sony wireless, noise cancelling headphones for Albanese and whisky glasses by artist Emma Klau for Kishida, Australia and Japan also agreed to build supply chains for critical minerals that'll help get us both to net zero in a couple of years. However right now, Japan needs our gas and coal for its energy and their domestic supply is patchy which has given its economy the hiccups.

China logged on

China's President Xi Jinping has been returned to power for a third term.

As The Australian's North Asia Correspondent Will Glasgow reported:

"Xi Jinping has begun his second decade as China’s leader by stacking the Communist Party’s top decision making body with personal aides and loyalists, demonstrating his total dominance of Chinese politics."

Following his "re-election" for another five-year term Xi held a rare press conference, saying the CCP will now work to make China the most powerful country in the world by 2049. 

“We will not be daunted by high winds, choppy waters or even dangerous storms,” he said. “The people will always have our backs and give us confidence.”

He did not take any questions.

None of the other MPs said a word.

It capped off an astonishing weekend due to the fact Xi's mentor was expelled - publicly - from the Communist party meeting.

Hu Jintao, who was Xi’s predecessor as China’s leader, was escorted out apparently as he was feeling "unwell".

Speaking of almighty power

Midnights has done it.

Not even 24-hours passed and Taylor Swift's new bops broke records.

"Before the clock could even strike midnight on October 22nd, Taylor Swift broke the record for most-streamed album in a single day in Spotify history," a Spotify spokesperson said.

@theoz.com.au

Shout out to all the #swifties today, tonight and at #midnights ⏰ #swiftok #tsmidnights

♬ original sound - The Oz

It was the gift that kept on giving on Friday as she dropped more songs at 3am. 

"I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour. However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13," Swift said.

"I’m calling them 3am tracks. Lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now."

One of the songs called Bigger Than The Whole Sky has made headlines for its heartbreaking lyrics and assumptions it is the story of a miscarriage or some other enormous loss.

You were more than just a short time.

And I've got a lot to pine about.

I've got a lot to live without.

I'm never gonna meet.

What could've been, would've been

What should've been you.

Netballers now have 15 million reasons to yell 'If you need!'

After a week of headlines regarding "sportswashing", Hancock Prospecting cancelled its $15 million sponsorship deal with Netball Australia due to some issues with our national team. 

Well, one really.

The Diamonds didn't want to wear the mining company's logo on their dresses due to it making team mate Donnell Wallam uncomfortable. Wallam is set to become the third Indigenous netballer to represent Australia when she lines up against England next week and raised concerns over historic comments about Aboriginal people made by Lang Hancock, the father of Hancock Prospecting executive chair Gina Rinehart. 

Wallam was prepared to conduct a solo boycott but the team decided it would stand with the player and announced a group boycott.

It is a major blow to the cash strapped side, that is also sponsored by Origin, and an organisation is about $11 million in debt.

In two lengthy statements posted on the Hancock Prospecting website on Saturday, the company said Rinehart considered it unnecessary for sports organisations to be used for social and political causes.

Rinehart’s companies also pulled sponsorship from Netball WA.

“Hancock and Roy Hill do not wish to add to Netball’s disunity problems, and accordingly Hancock has advised Netball Australia (the governing body of netball in Australia) that it has withdrawn from its proposed partnership effective immediately. Roy Hill, majority-owned by Hancock, will also be discontinuing its sponsorship arrangement with Netball WA (a member organisation of Netball Australia) to be the principal partner of the West Coast Fever,” the statement read.

He's back 

Boris Johnson may run to be to the Prime Minster of the (partially) United Kingdom.

Again.

The ex PM is reportedly trying to shore up support for another tilt at the Tory leadership. He rushed home from his third overseas holiday in about six weeks at the weekend when Liz Truss quit her No. 10 post after 44-days. 

Johnson appears just shy of the 100 backers he needs to launch his comeback and is yet to declare anything publicly. 

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak - who lost to Truss - has locked in more than 100, with more than 138 publicly backing his candidature. He declared he'll be running late Sunday night. 

Johnson, who has around 58 MP’s who have expressed their support, is banking on some “shy” MP’s who are happy to quietly give him their signatures.

Penny Mourdant signalled early she is keen for the top job. She ran third to Truss and Sunak last time but, at the time of publishing, she only has 24 supporters.

But she does have a pretty catchy hashtag - #PM4PM.

"Under hastily drawn up rules to avoid another long drawn out leadership battle, the Tory party has decided candidates must get 100 confirmed MP's backing them. If only one achieves the 100 target then that person will be made prime minster in a coronation on Monday night, London time," The Australian's (bemused) European Correspondent Jacquelin Magnay told us.

Trump trump(ed)

Donald Trump has a few dates to add to his diary. 

The former US President's family company - the Trump Organisation - is set to face criminal tax fraud charges in New York this week.

Meanwhile he may have to head back to his old stomping ground of Washington after the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot issued a subpoena to Trump demanding documents and testimony.

It sets a stage for a tense standoff between politicians and the former POTUS as the US heads into the hotly contested Midterm elections - a result that'll determine which party controls the House of Representatives and Senate.

The subpoena demands Trump produce his phone records, text messages and other documents by November 4 and appear on November 14 for deposition testimony under oath in Washington or by videoconference.

Election Day is November 8.

Trump denies any wrongdoing.

"As with any similar matter, we will review and analyse it, and will respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action,” lawyer David A. Warrington said.

Sam Kerr doesn't see 'i'

The adage "there's no 'i' in 'team'" is something Matilda's captain Sam Kerr lives and plays by. 

Kerr placed third in the Ballon d'Or for the second year in a row.

However she wasn't fussed about missing out on being recognised as the best player in the comp.

"I'm just a kid from Perth so I'm really proud to be in the top 10, let alone the top three," Kerr said.

Kerr's snub comes as the draw for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was released at the weekend.

Australia will face off against Ireland, Nigeria and Canada in the qualifying matches to be held here and New Zealand next year.

The draw was marked by our Sports Minister Anika Wells and NZ PM Jacinda Ardern.

Wells repped the green and gold and rocked colour on the world stage like the true Queenslander she is.

Her frock was by Red Ridge. The prints are created by female Indigenous artists and then whipped into wearable art by designers based in regional Queensland.

It was a big weekend in #auspol fashion watch.

The PM was spotted out in his pyjamas in Perth.

The threads were the official uniform of WA's Telethon. An annual televised fundraiser that raised more than $71 million in 24-hours that'll go toward hospitals, hospices and programs that care for WA's sick kids.

Daniel Ricciardo back on the devil's juice

Speaking of kids from Perth, the Formula 1 star may be heading back to where is all began. Not the Dianella Go Kart track in Perth's northern suburbs - Red Bull - the team his ditched back in 2018.

It's a hot rumour that is now swirling around the F1 circles as his future in the sport remains unknown. 

At the weekend he endured a disastrous qualifying session at the USA Grand Prix - finishing 17th.

However he had fun at least...

Ricciardo’s future has been a hot topic of debate and speculation for months since McLaren terminated his contract 12-months early opting to replace him with Australian rookie Oscar Piastri.

Earlier this race weekend Ricciardo had alluded to what 2023 would bring.

“You will see me around,” Ricciardo said.

“It’s going to look different for me, but there is still very much still a plan in place.

“So, it’s not that I am checking out and saying ‘see you later’, it’s far from that.

“I’m just putting in a plan to honestly try to get me back to the front of the grid and win races and do all the stuff I know I can do.”

Team Red Bull were a little pre-occupied to comment at the weekend as they are mourning the death of the energy drink company’s Austrian co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who died at the age of 78.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/the-oz/news/making-news-boris-johnson-owes-john-farnham-royalties-while-daniel-ricciardo-is-flirting-with-his-f1-ex/news-story/725ffdf8bf4b494e6b4f2b4c0e73452b