Scott Morrison’s new role revealed
Scott Morrison’s next job has been announced: the former Australian prime minister is joining international advisory and consulting firm American Global Strategies.
AGS was founded and is chaired by Robert O’Brien, who was national security adviser to Donald Trump while he was in the White House. O’Brien’s name has been floated as a possible vice president option, or secretary of state in a potential second Trump term. He is considered an anti-China hawk.
In a press release overnight, AGS announced that Morrison was joining the firm as a “non-executive vice chairman”.
O’Brien said:
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is widely regarded as one of the most consequential world leaders of the last decade, presiding over unprecedented changes to Australia’s foreign and defense policies.
As American Global Strategies’ non-Executive Vice Chairman, Prime Minister Morrison will bring high-level relationships and unique geopolitical insights to our clients.
Morrison was quoted saying:
I’m looking forward to working once again with Ambassador O’Brien and the whole AGS team, especially here in the Indo-Pacific. Robert and I enjoyed a great working relationship when I was Prime Minister. Together we can draw on our combined networks and experience in the region to help clients navigate a highly dynamic geopolitical landscape that presents risks and opportunities.
And it’s not just in the defense and security space. Supply chains, technological change, resource security, energy transition and new types of partnerships between the private and public sectors are all impacted by the world becoming an ever more complicated place. There’s a lot to unpack here and I’m pleased to be teaming up with people at AGS who know what they’re talking about and know what to do about it.
Key events
Tropical low over Pilbara, Western Australia, to bring more heavy rain
Angus Hines also spoke about the other wet weather system impacting the country – the tropical low over the Pilbara in Western Australia.
This system has been bringing heavy rain for around ten days now, first starting in the top end of the Northern Territory. This led to flooding over major highways, that caused (now addressed) supermarket shortages in Darwin when trucks couldn’t get through.
There was also an emergency warning for the remote town of Kalkarindji due to the flooding, with defence on standby to evacuate 450 people at its peak.
Hines said there is still more rain to come over the next few days associated with the tropical low:
We’re forecasting over the next few days for this tropical low to slowly slip southwards and bring some heavy rainfall totals to interior parts of Western Australia.
At the moment, though, the forecast is that the low and all of the associated rain will stay inland and it won’t really affect that more populated part of the state down towards the west coast and particularly down towards … Perth.
Cyclone Kirrily developing slowly but could still ‘bring persistent heavy rain and storms’
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Angus Hines has provided more details on Tropical Cyclone Kirrily whilst speaking to ABC TV this morning.
As QFES noted earlier, the weather system is developing slower than was forecasted, meaning the impact of the coastal crossing may be less intense than expected.
Hines said the BoM is forecasting the tropical low to officially become Tropical Cyclone Kirrily tonight, or early tomorrow morning, and reach the Queensland coast tomorrow.
The cyclone is likely to cross somewhere near Townsville, he said. The official BoM warning lists a potential crossing between Cardwell and Airlie Beach.
Hines:
We are expecting it to be a category two storm as it crosses the coast late on Thursday and that does mean it can still bring persistent heavy rain and storms. It can bring damaging to destructive wind in that area to likely cause significant damage to property, and it can also bring some really dangerous conditions on and near the coast, both in terms of large waves, big swell, but also the possibility of a bit of coastal inundation or storm surge when that storm can push the sea water up over coastal roads and coastal properties.
Greens senator doubts tax cut tweaks will ‘make very much difference’ to cost-of-living crisis
Circling back to the stage-three tax cuts: Greens senator Nick McKim has noted that the economic circumstances the country is facing now are “very different” to when Anthony Albanese first came into power.
Speaking to ABC TV earlier this morning, he said low and middle-income earners are “really, really struggling” at the moment with rent and mortgage increases, and food bills, in particular.
McKim doubts that “whatever tweaks” Albanese makes to stage-three are “going to make very much difference”, and said:
There’s things like dental into Medicare, giving relief on child care, raising income support that he could do that would be far better targeted spend and not as inflationary as massive tax cuts for the top end.
On the stage-three cuts, McKim said:
[The tax cuts] overwhelmingly favour the top end, 80% of the benefit goes to the top 20% of income earners. We know that means that politicians, CEOs, will get a $9,000 a year tax cut when if you’re on the minimum wage you’ll get nothing at all. We also know that they’ll be inflationary, they’ll add a lot of cash into the economy, which will make it more likely that the RBA will engage in more interest rate rises, which will flow through to impact on mortgage holders and, ultimately, renters.
House prices recover 2022 losses, data shows
Australia’s housing market has reached record heights, completely rebounding from its losses during the 2022 downturn, AAP reports.
The housing market in all state capital cities rose over the December quarter while capital city unit prices and Canberra rose in the same period, according to Domain’s latest house price report.
Prices have steadily rebounded after the downturn when prices fell for three consecutive quarters following house price peaks in March 2022 and unit prices in December 2021.
A pullback in sellers coming to market in early 2023 sparked the recovery once competition between buyers reached fever pitch by mid-year and that has continued, Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell said.
She said:
New listings have risen but demand is still there. We’re still seeing prices rise and they haven’t risen enough to actually stabilise price.
The threat of affordability, undersupply, higher costs to build and population growth on property prices has been offset by a growing population, migration and tight rental market.
Sydney’s housing market is again leading the surge, posting its fourth consecutive quarter of house and unit growth, a feat not achieved since 2021.
Cyclone Kirrily could impact ‘large swathe’ of Queensland as specialists arrive
Queensland fire and emergency services acting commissioner, Stephen Smith, provided an update on Tropical Cyclone Kirrily just earlier.
The latest update from the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts the cyclone will reach the coast on Thursday evening between Cardwell and Airlie Beach.
Speaking to the ABC, Smith said the crossing won’t be as intense as initially expected, but there are concerns about the rainfall attached to the cyclone, and the rainfall that will follow in its wake.
There’s the wind event and the crossing and the potential storm surge depending on the timing, and then the significant rainfall that the system will bring in and that has the potential to impact a large swathe of the state.
He said QFES has already moved equipment and specialist resources into the areas expected to be hit by Kirrily, and more personnel will arrive today and over the coming days.
60 people have already arrived in Townsville, with around 100 still to come.
Assistance has been deployed from NSW and Victoria, he added.
Morrison to take up separate position at Dyne Asset Management
As we brought you just earlier, Scott Morrison will be taking up a role with international advisory and consulting firm American Global Strategies after his resignation from politics late February.
You can read all the details a bit further down in the blog.
As Sky News reports, Morrison will also be taking up a position with Dyne Asset Management – a new Australian-founded US-based military venture capital firm.
He will join Trump administration secretary of state Mike Pompeo in this role.
Dyne was launched last October by Australian investment banker Matthew Kibble and former US Navy officer Tom Hennessy with an AUD$157 million capital base to invest in AUKUS related technologies.
Woolworths CEO blames ‘demand and supply’ for hurting farmers
Q: How do you explain the big gap between what farmers receive for their produce and what customers pay at the checkout?
Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci:
Well, firstly, I think we should be quite thoughtful of which category we’re talking about for farmers. If you’re talking about fruits and vegetables, we are in material deflation and have been for about four months … That is because of demand and supply in Australia. It’s a domestic product, it’s subject to demand and supply. It is causing pain for many of those farmers. But hopefully that situation will change with regard to the new year.
Turning to meat, Banducci said:
… We buy directly [where we can] from farmers, and we try and smooth out the price that they get so that they can plan and manage their business effectively.
He said there has been some “material price reductions” over the past few months which is “a concern to us”.
But when you look at the red meat index, it does look like it’s trending up based on what’s happening offshore. So these things do flow through …
Banducci said he was prepared to share this information with the Senate, Queensland and ACT governments, and the federal government.
Woolworths CEO admits they could have ‘done a better job’ on Australia Day message
Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci is speaking to ABC RN following the company’s decision not to stock Australia Day merchandise this year.
Following this announcement, opposition leader Peter Dutton called for a boycott of the supermarket giant.
Banducci said that the company could have “done a better job” in getting its message across about Australia Day. He said he has received thousands of emails with feedback over the decision, and that on-the-ground staff members in stores across the country are facing rudeness and “even aggression” from customers.
It’s critically important that any frustrations are expressed towards me [and not to staff members in the stores].
Banducci said there has been a 50% rise in the number of incidents of rudeness and aggression towards staff.
Asked if there has been any signs of a genuine boycott to the company, Banducci said “not really”.
Our real focus is how our team feel, how our customers feel.
Heatwave to persist until the end of the week
Heatwave conditions are set to persist for large swathes of the country with a cool change not expected until later in the week, AAP reports.
A wave of hot weather had some regions swelter through temperatures that peaked in their mid-40s yesterday.
But the wave is not over yet with the weather bureau forecasting both maximum and minimum temperatures to be 5C to 12C above average throughout the rest of the week.
For NSW, temperatures are set to reach the mid-30s to low-40s during the day and low to high 20s overnight with the mercury at its highest on Thursday and Friday.
Severe heatwave conditions will develop across the central and northern inland parts of the state, spreading east towards Sydney, the Hunter and Mid North Coast today and tomorrow.
Armidale, Camden, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Liverpool, Moree, Nowra, Orange, Richmond and Wollongong are all set to bear the brunt of the heat.
Some regions in the north-west slopes and plains such as Walgett are expected to reach 42C while parts of upper western NSW including Wilcannia could peak at 46C.
Changes to stage-three tax cuts is breaking election promise, Birmingham says
Turning to the stage-three tax cuts (with the government set to announce changes today to help low-income earners with the cost of living) Simon Birmingham, just like his Liberal colleagues yesterday, touted this as a broken promise.
Speculating about the possible changes the government may announce today, after the snap Labor caucus meeting in Canberra, Birmingham suggested the government won’t be eliminating the 37 cents bracket on income earned between $120,000 and $180,000.
(Although bear in mind, there has been no announcement yet as to what changes the government may make).
Birmingham:
Now if that’s the case, it will see bracket creep remain in place as a tool of government budget policy in Australia.
Isn’t this a way to support middle-income earners right now?
I think Australians who are middle income earners deserve the type of support that indeed these tax breaks are calibrated to deliver, and that is to ensure that they can get it over time.
Birmingham took the issue back to bracket creep at the end of his interview, arguing that Albanese may give some people “a little bit more today”, who will then “be pushed up into those higher tax brackets tomorrow”.
There will be a lot of talk around the stage-three tax cuts today, so for a breakdown on what they actually are and how they work, have a read of this handy explainer below:
Morrison’s legacy seen as a ‘growing positive’ over time, Birmingham says
Leader of the opposition in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, just spoke to the ABC about Scott Morrison’s resignation from politics.
Speaking to RN, Birmingham was asked whether this move will allow a “reset” for the Liberal party, with all former prime ministers having left the parliament?
He said this would allow the Liberals to see a “regeneration”.
I’m proud to have been a part of that government as I was with his predecessors.
Asked how people would remember him, Birmingham said his legacy would be seen as a “growing positive” one over time, pointing to Morrison’s leadership during the “unprecedented” Covid-19 era.
And asked whether he would want to see a woman run for preselection in the Cook byelection, Birmingham said he always wants to see more women in the party but the Liberals have a “deeply embedded … grassroots pre-selection system” that will be followed.
Emily Wind
Good morning, and happy Wednesday. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be with you on our liveblog today, in what is gearing up to be a busy day (as always!)
If you see something that needs attention on the blog, you can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites or send me an email: [email protected].
With that, let’s get started.
BoM forecasts Cyclone Kirrily to hit Townsville as category two on Thursday night
The intense tropical low off the coast of Queensland is forecast to develop into a cyclone tonight and will hit Townsville as a category two storm tomorrow night, according to the latest updated forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology.
In advice issued at 5am, the Bom tracking map has the soon-to-be-cyclone Kirrily directly over Townsville at 10pm on Thursday.
The impacts of the storm are likely to begin for coastal and island communities tonight, with a warning zone stretching from Ayr to Mackay, including the Whitsunday Islands.
At 4am the tropical low had winds up to 75km/h at the centre and was sitting 590km northeast of Mackay.
Bom was forecasting gales with damaging wind gusts up to 120km/h about the Whitsundays as early as this evening, extending to the mainland early Thursday.
Destructive wind gusts to 155km/h may develop about coastal and island communities between Cardwell and Proserpine, including Townsville and the Whitsundays, during Thursday.
Heavy rainfall which may lead to flash flooding was likely in coastal areas early Thursday, spreading inland as the storm moved on.
Scott Morrison’s new role revealed
Scott Morrison’s next job has been announced: the former Australian prime minister is joining international advisory and consulting firm American Global Strategies.
AGS was founded and is chaired by Robert O’Brien, who was national security adviser to Donald Trump while he was in the White House. O’Brien’s name has been floated as a possible vice president option, or secretary of state in a potential second Trump term. He is considered an anti-China hawk.
In a press release overnight, AGS announced that Morrison was joining the firm as a “non-executive vice chairman”.
O’Brien said:
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is widely regarded as one of the most consequential world leaders of the last decade, presiding over unprecedented changes to Australia’s foreign and defense policies.
As American Global Strategies’ non-Executive Vice Chairman, Prime Minister Morrison will bring high-level relationships and unique geopolitical insights to our clients.
Morrison was quoted saying:
I’m looking forward to working once again with Ambassador O’Brien and the whole AGS team, especially here in the Indo-Pacific. Robert and I enjoyed a great working relationship when I was Prime Minister. Together we can draw on our combined networks and experience in the region to help clients navigate a highly dynamic geopolitical landscape that presents risks and opportunities.
And it’s not just in the defense and security space. Supply chains, technological change, resource security, energy transition and new types of partnerships between the private and public sectors are all impacted by the world becoming an ever more complicated place. There’s a lot to unpack here and I’m pleased to be teaming up with people at AGS who know what they’re talking about and know what to do about it.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be bringing you the best overnight stories before my colleague Emily Wind steps up to the plate.
A crucial 12 months for Anthony Albanese looks like starting with a big stoush with the prime minister expected to reveal at a Labor caucus meeting later today how he plans to amend the Coalition’s stage-three tax cuts in an effort to ease the cost-of-living crisis for lower-income households. Any changes to the package sets the stage for a bitter political brawl with the opposition already hammering a broken election promise.
Speaking of prime ministers, the company that’s given Scott Morrison his first job post-politics has been revealed – more soon.
The collapsed Australian cryptocurrency scheme HyperVerse targeted investors in developing countries across Asia, Africa and the Pacific before its eventual collapse left many people unable to access funds. Our investigation sheds new light on the scandal and our reporter explains in a podcast how a chance conversation at the hairdresser pulled her into the HyperVerse.
Queensland is braced for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Kirrily which is now forecast to hit the coast tomorrow night as a category 2 storm. For the rest of the country, heatwave conditions are set to persist for large areas with a cool change not expected until later in the week. More coming up.
