By Sherryn Groch and Kishor Napier-Raman
Less than a week after some 74 million Americans decided, in their infinite wisdom, to return Donald Trump to the White House, billionaire cardboard box baron Anthony Pratt announced on LinkedIn that he had secured a US green card.
Anthony Pratt (centre) at this year’s Met Gala.Credit: Getty Images
The formality means that Pratt, who has been spending a lot of time tending to his business (and political) interests in the United States, can stay on in the country. But what intrigued us most about the LinkedIn announcement was the name on the social media account: Colonel Anthony Pratt. How did Pratt land that stripe?
Turns out he was made an honorary Kentucky colonel by the state’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, a token of gratitude for Pratt’s $700 million investment in a local paper mill. Which makes Pratt the second most influential Kentucky colonel after one Harland David Sanders.
“Colonel Anthony Pratt” announces his move to the US on LinkedIn.
But despite the success of KFC, Colonel Sanders probably never had the rapport with a commander-in-chief that Pratt enjoys. Last year, this masthead revealed secret recordings of Pratt bragging about his access to Trump, which followed reports in the American media alleging that the former president had revealed confidential secrets about the US submarine fleet to his Antipodean friend.
Trump responded to the submarine stories by calling Pratt “a red-haired weirdo from Australia”. This will likely be no barrier to the two resuming pleasantries once Trump returns to the Oval Office.
Who’s who in the Melbourne Qantas zoo
While our federal politicians might draw more attention jetsetting around the country, CBD would be remiss not to offer a roll call of the illustrious state MPs in the hottest club in town: the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Opposition Leader John Pesutto are both Qantas Chairman’s Lounge members.
In Victoria, more than half of the Labor government’s cabinet have been behind the velvet rope to this oasis of free steaks and hand-poured champagne – 15 of the state’s 22 cabinet members declared they’d made it to the lounge this year, or about the double the number who claimed the invite-only perk last year. Premier Jacinta Allan and her top lieutenants, Ben Carroll and Tim Pallas, are all in the club as is Victoria’s transport tsar, Danny Pearson.
Unfortunately, if they have come seeking solace from the shouty and poorly catered parliamentary chamber, they might find themselves once again sitting opposite opposition leader and lounge member John Pesutto – and perhaps even his lesser-known shadow minister for energy, David Davis.
While a spokeswoman for the premier wouldn’t be drawn on the quality of the banter in the lounge, she pointed out that “states have no regulatory power over airlines” as the federal government does – and so can soar above the perceived conflicts of interest now bringing many of those in Canberra crashing back down to earth.
What’s a few cheeky canapés among friends?
‘A1’ is coming for your job
Meanwhile, the crowd were much more in touch with real Australia over at the National Tech Summit in Melbourne this week. Famously tech-savvy MPs like Bill Shorten have been rubbing shoulders with tech billionaires like Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and Canva’s Cliff Obrecht – all in their element (and sneakers).
Day two Tuesday began with a stirring opening address by Bronwyn Halfpenny, Victoria’s parliamentary secretary for jobs, whose speech repeatedly referred to the sweeping changes “A1” was now wreaking on society.
Bronwyn Halfpenny speaking at the tech summit in Melbourne on Tuesday.Credit: Tech Council of Australia
Of course, more than a few puzzled guests listening to how “A1” was transforming the economy, and how “A1” would underpin our future society, wondered if AI – as in artificial intelligence – was really the driving force deserving of the credit.
We asked Halfpenny’s office to clarify the exact transformative power we should prepare for, but didn’t hear back.
Speaking of claiming credit, welcome drinks at the summit must have been a roaring good time – put on by the bitcoin bros of the Stand With Crypto lobby group, who just declared that cryptocurrency won the US election. And here we were thinking it was Donald Trump.
All that buzz didn’t quite distract from the elephant in the room though – or, in this case, the disgraced billionaire who almost certainly was not invited into the room.
The host of the summit, the Tech Council of Australia, has fended off pesky questions for weeks about why it took so long for Richard White, the former CEO of WiseTech, to resign from its own board, after a salacious court case over a soured affair and a series of icky scandals revealed by this masthead.
Addressing the gathered tech heads, the council’s chair, Robyn Denholm, kinda sort of addressed the White issue. “In the face of challenges, and we’ve had a few of those lately – whether they involve governance changes or public scrutiny – we’ve sought to navigate these moments with care, fairness, and accountability,” she said.
If you think that was bit vague, wait ′til you hear what Tesla chair Denholm has to say about her chief executive Elon Musk’s increasingly deranged online ramblings. Spoiler alert: not much. Although Denholm did recently tell the Financial Times that the Tesla board has “tough conversations” about tweets.
If they’re anything as tough as her speech, Musk is in trouble.
With Carla Jaeger