The years of turning up to climate events such as COP, Davos and the International Energy Agency has paid benefits for mining billionaire Dr Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.
Sorry, that should read “technology, energy and metals” billionaire Dr Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, who is “accelerating commercial decarbonisation of industry, rapidly, profitably and globally”.
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and Caroline Kennedy attend the Time 100 Gala.Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Alas, not because the executive chairman of Fortescue has achieved his dream of green hydrogen, but because it allowed him late last week to step out in style at the Time 100 Most Influential People Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Centre in New York as the list’s sole Australian entry.
His plus one for the red carpet was former US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, although some media outlets including Yahoo News saw fit to make her the main event.
CBD hears that Twiggy, who was afforded a Time cover story in February pictured in R. M. Williams clobber (owned by his investment company Tattarang), got on the magazine’s radar through his connections with US climate influentials John Kerry and Al Gore.
The mag listed Forrest as a “transformative titan” in an appreciation penned by Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.
“Not content with building one of the world’s biggest mining companies, he’s now in the process of turning it from a major emitter into a clean-energy powerhouse,” Birol wrote.
Emphasis on the process here folks.
Birol made glowing reference to Forrest’s “trademark Aussie charm”,“foresight and grit”, amateur boxing career, and his record as one of the world’s most generous philanthropists.
Sadly, no room to make mention of all Fortescue’s green hydrogen troubles, leading some to ask if the clean energy dream is over or merely delayed.
Forrest made the Time list with other significant creatures including Ed Sheeran, Snoop Dogg, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, J. D. Vance, and Joe Rogan, so the magazine is either having a bet each way or capturing a culture in transition.
Festival organisers piste off
Controversy alert at the Sorrento Writers Festival, south of Melbourne, where a private invite-only “sunset garden talk” hosted by Josephine and James Baillieu, of the prominent Melbourne family, was the talk of the town, if we can drop a cliche.
The literary salon, hosted in a garden marquee overlooking the million-dollar views, was not part of the official program and was seen by some as a sort of conservative antidote to a lefty literary event.
Former minister Josh Frydenberg, journalist Joe Aston, and artist Lisa Roet attended the invite-only event.
About 70 guests including media Melebrity Russel Howcroft sat inside the fairy light-lit marquee and listened to former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is writing a book on antisemitism, and Qantas tormentor Joe Aston, founder of the Rampart website, fresh from official SWF events, as well as sculptor Lisa Roet and local writer, yoga teacher and storytelling facilitator Jane Hone.
“We wanted to have a special event with an eclectic mix of writers and storytellers. The talks were all apolitical, fresh and in good spirit,” James Baillieu told CBD. “We wanted to build on and be a counterpoint to SWF. We called it ‘SWF off-piste’.”
Federal Liberal MP for Flinders Zoe McKenzie wrapped the evening by saying she supported SWF but also that great festivals had fringe events with a different mix of speakers.
That seems to have gone down badly with some. SWF director Corrie Perkin told CBD: “I don’t care who’s at satellite events at the festival so long as they don’t use that gathering to diminish our festival because I feel that’s sad.
“I wonder why there are people in our community having a crack at our festival.”
At last count the festival had sold 22,701 tickets out of a possible 24,000 and programmed a vast array of speakers including Greg Sheridan, Geraldine Brooks, George Megalogenis, Thomas Mayo, Steve Vizard, Princeton University Professor of English Sophie Gee and The Age’s John Silvester.
Bonjour Paris
Journalist Rick Morton is off to Paris to write his first novel – French visa application permitting.
“It’s about a shit journo called Oscar Pringle – it’s not based on me – are you writing this down?”
Rick Morton brings together perspectives on growing up in regional and rural Australia.
Morton admitted the plot was “hard to explain”.
From what we could glean, it involved love and marriage and parallel universes. We think.
The Saturday Paper journalist, who spoke at the writers’ festival, is hopeful of a three-month stint overseas, maybe more. It’s unclear how he’ll juggle his role with the weekly paper while he’s over there.
Morton has written four non-fiction books, the most recent Mean Streak on robo-debt, which has just resulted in the author issuing a correction to South Australian senator Alex Antic, after he mistakenly wrote that the Liberal Party MP had once worked as a data analyst at PwC which had advised the federal government on the robo-debt scheme. A different Alex Antic, as it turns out.
Dodging pitfalls of celebrity
When Gina Chick, 55, won SBS survival program Alone Australia, she instantly became a celebrity. Since her bestseller We Are the Stars was published on October 1, she has attended more than 40 festivals and events – including the Sorrento festival on the weekend – and says she is glad she became famous in her 50s and not her 30s.
“There are a whole lot of pitfalls in sudden celebrity,” she told CBD.
“Being post-menopausal I have been able to avoid some of those pitfalls which as a young woman I would have fallen into … Every single thing that I say can bite me.”
Chick, who is the granddaughter of esteemed writer and journalist Charmian Clift, and who has 143,000 Instagram followers, remains highly wary of the social media influencer culture.
“It is seductive … I catch myself getting sucked into the validation machine. But at last I catch it, then I go bush and sleep in the dust.”
Gillard and Jones’ double act
Former Labor science minister and lifelong polymath Barry Jones got emotional when former prime minister Julia Gillard gave the oration named in his honour at the festival last week.
Julia Gillard and Barry Jones as the former PM delivers the Barry Jones Oration at the Sorrento Writers Festival.Credit: Leigh Henningham/Sorrento Writers Festival
Gillard, who succeeded Jones in the seat of Lalor, avoided politics and spoke about the importance of books, however also teared up as the former politicians acknowledged each other.
Jones had a busy event calendar, including inspiring local kids from the local nearby Dromana College about Shakespeare and speaking at the Bach versus Mozart event, proving that even at 92 you can have enough energy to be the Eddie Everywhere of a literary festival.
Stephen Brook was a guest of the Sorrento Writers Festival
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