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There was a moment at the opening of Western Sydney International Airport on Sunday when guests of the formal proceedings got a rare glimpse of political stage management come undone.
Enter NSW Premier Chris Minns , who we’re told was initially on the run sheet to deliver remarks following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese , but was forced to insert himself into the official line-up after the event’s emcee skipped over him.
Was it a snub, we wondered, or a genuine malfunction? Either way, we can’t imagine Minns would’ve been particularly bothered by the opportunity to put more space between himself and Albanese, given the flagging popularity of federal Labor and his colleagues south of the border.
After all, the NSW premier has a looming state election to think about.
“I think they might’ve forgotten about me, and I thought maybe I was Western Sydney International’s first cancelled take-off,” Minns quipped in his opening remarks, in a video seen by CBD. “But I should’ve known better – this place is built for extra capacity.”
Albanese was, of course, among headline speakers at the event, along with Minns and NSW Governor Margaret Beazley , fresh on the heels of a tour of South Korea and Japan. Also there, former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison , the first of whom gave the greenlight for the Badgerys Creek airport site in 2014. The former PMs were seated next to Opposition Leader Angus Taylor .
The Albanese government contingent also included Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen , Trade Minister Don Farrell and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland .
The traditionally dull affair that is the media industry’s “upfront” season – annual showcases staged by broadcasters to seduce advertisers with sugary content announcements – delivered a rare talking point last week.
And at the ABC, no less. The talking point in question was the inclusion of former Chaser host Julian Morrow on the broadcaster’s 2027 content slate with a new ABC Listen show called The People Versus . The show, according to the ABC, will help consumers “get a better deal”.
The announcement sparked chatter in media circles because it was only in January that Morrow had launched headline-grabbing legal action against the ABC over the national broadcaster’s use of fixed-term contracts.
But it looks like Morrow and his bosses have since made up. The Federal Court dismissed the matter by consent in late April, which appears to have gone unreported, after the ABC and Morrow reached a settlement agreement.
When contacted on Wednesday, the ABC wouldn’t be drawn on what terms the agreement was reached, or at what cost, other than to confirm Morrow’s proceedings in the Fair Work Commission had been settled and dismissed.
Asked what Morrow’s employment status was, an ABC spokeswoman had this to say: “Julian Morrow is an ABC employee and the ABC has an agreement with Giant Dwarf for the podcast The People Versus .”
Morrow declined to comment when reached on Wednesday. But our guess is he must’ve got what he wanted from the ABC, because when he spoke to The Australian Financial Review about the proceedings in March, he described the broadcaster’s reliance on fixed-term contracts as “flagrant illegality”.
It’s been a big week for Anthropic. The AI behemoth finally filed paperwork to go public in the United States, which puts the company on track to become the first major frontier lab to list.
There was a lot to chew on in the document known as an “S-1” filing, including but not limited to the company booking a yawning $US80.7 billion ($114.7 billion) net loss in the first half of this year. It also warned investors in the “risk factors” section of the filing that its technology could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity”.
But the filing interestingly – well, to us, at least – named Australia as one of two key markets outside the US where the company has gained ground in its efforts to increase data centre capacity. Thanks in no small part, we’d guess, to the Albanese government’s bromance with Anthropic chief Dario Amodei .
Perhaps that is one of the reasons a gaggle of the company’s Australian leadership team has been on an excursion to the San Francisco headquarters this week?
The word in local tech circles is the communications team and others from the Australian satellite office made the trip stateside. But no word, sadly, on whether the visit has anything to do with the company’s plans to go public. Anthropic didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline.
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