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It turns out that federal Labor MP Jerome Laxale wasn’t the only member of the party who got near Robert F. Kennedy Jr at the World Cup over the weekend.
Imagine our surprise to see NSW Finance Minister Courtney Houssos was also there, caught in the background of a photo of Australia’s ambassador to the United States Greg Moriarty alongside none other than RFK Jr himself. Just days before the NSW budget, no less.
Not only was Houssos in the room with the guy who once said he thought a parasite ate part of his brain, but CBD hears she even got to meet him. No word on what they discussed.
RFK Jr, the Trump administration’s anti-vax secretary of health and human services, wasn’t the only US official Houssos got a bit of face time with.
Also at the game, CBD hears, was US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, the man who shot to prominence after a March social media post saying the US Navy had successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, only to be contradicted by the White House and delete the thing minutes later. But not before triggering a collapse in oil prices!
We can only guess Wright, sporting brown loafers emblazoned with the stars and stripes of the American flag, had other things on his mind on Saturday. Word is Houssos got a bit of time to pump up the tyres of her home state with the energy secretary, and talked critical minerals and mining.
Moriarty, who Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced in January would succeed Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to the US, also seemed to be having fun working the room. He got pictures with both Wright and RFK Jr, as well as Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA World Cup Task Force, and son of Trump’s former lawyer and consigliere Rudy Giuliani.
Laxale, meanwhile, was busy chatting with Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, as CBD reported on Monday, and also got a bit of time with Giuliani Jr.
Rounding out the federal political contingent who made the trip stateside were four of Laxale’s Liberal Party counterparts, including senators Anne Ruston and Richard Colbeck, along with the baby-faced South Australian Liberal MP Tom Venning. Also expected to go was Simon Kennedy, who was once Laxale’s opponent in Bennelong.
We just hope everybody in the room had their shots up to date.
Miners turn on Twiggy
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest may have been left looking a little needy when he was unable to get the ear of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese before the release of last month’s federal budget.
But the nation’s peak mining lobby is beginning to look worried about the ongoing campaign to wind back the diesel fuel rebate, as the Australian Labor Party prepares to descend on Adelaide for its national conference next month amid mounting internal party support for the reform.
The Minerals Council of Australia let off a whiff of its own desperation on Monday when the lobby group’s chief, Tania Constable, and National Farmers Federation CEO Michael Guerin appeared for the launch of their own “Hands Off Our Fuel” campaign. Or “Hands Off Out [sic] Fuel campaign”, as reporters were told ahead of time.
Twiggy’s Fortescue isn’t a listed member of the peak mining body. Which is probably why Constable’s mining lobby felt emboldened to give Twiggy a drive-by in a media alert on Monday. Or at least we can only guess the mining magnate was front of mind when the lobby group came out to refute “misinformed activist campaigns” designed to cap or cut the fuel tax credit. Without naming the billionaire, of course.
In an April 14 letter revealed by CBD, Forrest urged Albanese to consider introducing a $50 million cap on the diesel fuel rebate before the budget. The rebate, he wrote, refunds $11 billion a year to businesses, much of it flowing to large miners. Of course, it never came. (At least not this financial year, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said last month.)
“I appreciate this is a busy period,” Twiggy wrote in the letter. “I tried to reach you last week and also offered to meet Treasurer Chalmers in Washington this week to discuss the proposal directly. I urge you to consider this reform in the May budget.”
Monday’s campaign launch wasn’t the first bit of friendly fire we’ve seen over Twiggy’s proposal. The West Australian mining lobby came out in May to criticise Fortescue’s multimillion-dollar campaign, despite the company being one of its members. Something tells us it won’t be the last, either.
John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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