Politics Federal Income tax Tax and interest on loans to drain 25pc of Australians’ earnings Michael Read and Tom McIlroy Sep 8, 2023 https://www.afr.com/politics/federa...-to-drain-one-in-four-dollars-20230907-p5e2y5 Australians will devote almost one in every four dollars of their earnings to paying income tax and loan interest by the middle of next year, as hundreds of billions of dollars of fixed-rate mortgages roll off and workers lose wage gains to bracket creep. Households spent a record 21 per cent of their gross income on home loan interest and income tax in the three months to June, and economists predict the drain on their budgets will increase even further without action. This includes reform to address the growing reliance of the federal government’s revenue base on income tax, which former Treasury secretary Ken Henry last month labelled an “intergenerational tragedy”. Households spent a record 21 per cent of their gross income on home loan interest and income tax in the three months to June. AFR A near-record 16.2 per cent of household incomes were lost to income tax in June, according to AFR Weekend analysis of the latest national accounts. That figure has risen sharply over the past year, and is well above the income tax burden faced by workers a decade ago, when income tax consumed about 12 per cent of household income. Jarden chief economist Carlos Cacho said the recent increase in the tax burden came down to bracket creep. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving for the government budget,” Mr Cacho said. “We’ve had compensation for employees, which is the broadest measure of earnings, growing at almost 10 per cent … and that means that people are moving into higher tax brackets and paying more tax.” Because tax brackets are not indexed to inflation, increases in nominal wages lead to increases in average taxes, since a greater proportion of a worker’s pay is pushed into the highest bracket applicable to them. Economists call this bracket creep. The stage three tax cuts, which come into effect on July 1, 2024, will slice off about 1 percentage point of the income tax burden, Mr Cacho said, but the effect will only be temporary. The tax cuts will consolidate the 32.5 cent and 37 cent tax brackets into a single 30 cent bracket applying to incomes between $45,000 and $200,000. UNSW Business School professor of economics Richard Holden said the increased share of income going to tax and loan repayments highlighted the strength of calls for tax reform in federal parliament. “Given that roughly two-thirds of GDP comes from household consumption, and that tax and interest are the two largest and most obvious first claims on income, it means it is going to put obvious downward pressure on consumption and therefore GDP growth,” he said. “Against that backdrop, it’s not too surprising that per capita GDP is going backwards. “We’re taxing incomes more and more, and we’re out of step with other advanced economies in terms of the amount we tax income, relative to the amount we tax consumption,” he said. Compounding pressure on household budgets is the rapid rise in interest rates over the past year, which has resulted in the share of gross income consumed by mortgage interest increasing to 4.8 per cent from 2.5 per cent over the past year. Mr Cacho said this figure was poised to lift even further, since only two-thirds of the RBA’s interest rate rises have flowed through to borrowers, due to the ongoing roll-off of pandemic-era fixed-rate loans. “That’s going to rise to about 80 to 90 per cent by late this year,” Mr Cacho said. “We’re currently at the peak pace of fixed rates rolling off onto variable [rates] at about $30 billion a month. As we move through this year, even if there are no further RBA hikes, we’re going to continue to see those interest payments increase.” Combined with interest on consumer debt such as credit cards and the cost of owner-operator business debt, Mr Cacho said almost one-quarter of gross household income nationally will be lost to income tax and interest. Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, who is leading a tax review process, said fixing the reliance on income tax remained “one of the most neglected but important issues facing the country”. “It’s an issue that we find very hard to talk about, but it’s an issue too important to ignore,” she said. “I don’t believe these are tomorrow’s problems. I believe these are very much today’s problems. While our population is ageing, we are also shifting some of the tax burden onto younger generations. And younger people are falling behind their compatriots in other generations. “In the last 15 years, the households of older generations increased [their] wealth significantly, in some cases up to 50 per cent, while those 35 and younger pretty much didn’t move, in terms of their wealth.”
Opinion Game’s up for Qantas’ Canberra crony capitalism When an airline’s most important stakeholders are politicians, not its passengers, there’s a problem. John Roskam Columnist Sep 7, 2023 https://www.afr.com/companies/trans...tas-canberra-crony-capitalism-20230904-p5e1q6 As a Coalition MP quipped a few days ago – “the federal government once owned Qantas. Now it’s Qantas that owns the federal government.” Which isn’t bad for a company barely among the country’s biggest 40 corporations and one that’s less than a 20th the size of BHP. The political power and cultural influence of Qantas is a tribute to Alan Joyce and his predecessors. Alan Joyce dealt with extremely challenging forces over more than two decades at the airline. Eamon Gallagher Cachet and prestige are terms derived from French and until recently Qantas had both. Qantas succeeded in being Australian and also a little bit European. But all brands have a shelf life and maybe what’s happened to Qantas is simply proof of that. No matter how strong it might appear to be, ultimately a brand lives and dies on the product it’s selling. All the politicians now complaining about Qantas could very easily put their money (or more precisely, their comfort) where their mouth is. Politicians now complaining could put their money where their mouth is. But giving up the Chairman’s Lounge might be too big a sacrifice. The disgust of MPs at allegations the airline sold tickets to flights it had already cancelled could be manifest by those MPs publicly declaring they’ll no longer pass through the opaque black sliding doors labelled “Private”. But giving up the Chairman’s Lounge might be too big a sacrifice. The end of Alan Joyce’s tenure as Qantas boss has been capped by him achieving a rare feat. He succeeded in uniting a sizeable number of Labor MPs and nearly every Coalition MP against the company. Many Labor MPs didn’t trust Joyce anyway after he grounded the entire fleet in 2011. Meanwhile, Coalition MPs are angry at the financial and moral backing Qantas has given to one side in the Voice referendum. More than one Coalition MP has remarked, not without a hint of bitterness, that $2.7 billion in taxpayer-funded support to Qantas during COVID didn’t produce much gratitude – but it did help the company make a $2.5 billion underlying profit and earn for Joyce a potential “golden handshake” of more than $20 million. It’s not often the secretary of the Transport Workers Union puts into words how Liberal and National Party MPs feel. In May, Michael Kaine, the union’s national secretary, said of Qantas’ projected profit: “This obscene profit forecast is the result of Qantas management bleeding dry workers, passengers and the taxpaying public. The right thing to do would be to pay back every dollar of no-strings government handouts Qantas received from Scott Morrison before it trashed every essential section of the airline to prop up executives and shareholders.” It looks like the union has had the last laugh. In 2011 Joyce said: “We are locking out until the unions withdraw their extreme claim and reach an agreement with us ... they are trashing our strategy and our brand.” Qantas didn’t invent the game of Canberra crony capitalism, but it played it better than its competition. The federal government blocking a rival from increasing its flights into the country on the vague grounds of the “national interest” is proof of that – a decision that Qantas has left it up to the transport minister to try to explain. The views of big business in Australia are increasingly an echo of the government of the day, and that’s certainly the case with Qantas. Nine of the country’s 10 largest public companies are in sectors tightly regulated and heavily policed by the government. In Australia, once a business reaches a certain size, success is as much a product of political preferment as it is of expertise or innovation. Big business has always had to get along with government but as the reach of government grows chief executives have no alternative but to spend their time dealing not with the people who buy their goods and services but with politicians. Which helps explain what occurred at Qantas. When an airline’s most important stakeholders are politicians, not its passengers, there’s a problem. For many Australians the lasting image of Alan Joyce will not be of him at a baggage carousel talking to a customer. (Indeed, photos of him with passengers, or with staff, are rare.) Rather, what will be remembered about Joyce is him standing next to the prime minister in front of a Qantas plane with “Yes” written on it.
The Chairman’s Lounge: Inside the secretive and controversial Qantas lounge you can’t buy your way into By Maani Truu Posted 4 hours ago https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-10/inside-the-secretive-qantas-chairmans-lounge/102820726 Recently the Qantas Chairman's Lounge has come under unfamiliar public scrutiny(ABC News: John Gunn) For three and a half decades, Qantas' invite-only lounge has existed only for the already initiated. Even finding the unmarked entrances requires knowing exactly what you are looking for — and unless you're a politician, judge, business heavyweight or an A-lister, you probably don't. Recently, however, the secretive and exclusive Chairman's Lounge has come under unfamiliar public scrutiny. It all began when it was revealed that Anthony Albanese's adult son had been granted access, a decision that requires the sign-off from senior Qantas leadership. That sparked a rumbling debate about political conflict of interests, against the backdrop of a controversial couple of weeks for the national carrier. Outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been tight-lipped about Chairman's Lounge membership. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi) Questioned on the events that led to Nathan Albanese's membership during a Senate hearing, outgoing Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce remained predictably tight-lipped. "I'm not going to comment on Chairman's Club membership," he said. "I've got privacy issues where we will not comment on who's in, who's been offered it, or why they're there." (Five of seven senators involved in the committee hearing have declared their own Chairman's Lounge membership.) Even when ABC News asked Qantas for details of the eligibility process — without identifying any individual member — and the facilities within the lounges, the response was a hard no. "We don't have anything to say as we don't comment on the Chairman's Lounge," a spokesperson said. Behind the wood-panelled doors Alan Joyce has reportedly described the Chairman's Lounge as "probably the most exclusive club in the country". There are six of them in total, located in the domestic airports of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth. It's possible you've walked right past them, as there's no sign marking the entrance. "It's very secret, to find it you have to go through what looks like a wall," a previous visitor to the Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra lounges told ABC News. "I would have never found it if I wasn't shown where it was." Inside, they have all the trimmings you would expect from a first-class lounge. The Sydney, Melbourne and Perth locations were created by Sébastien Segers and famed Australian designer Marc Newson, who was also behind the Qantas first-class lounges in Sydney and Melbourne. The Shrek-green counters inside the Sydney Chairman's Lounge.(Supplied) In Sydney and Canberra, black marble is contrasted against Shrek-green chairs, counters and basins. In Melbourne, a divider made up of rainbow cubes is the focal point. The Brisbane lounge is the newest and most modern of the six, and features a more neutral palette — think wood panelling, beige lounges and grey wool carpet. But the real difference between the Chairman's Lounge and those available to the general public is in the service. "The Qantas Club resembles a bit of a zoo, whereas the Chairman's Lounge is very quiet and very discreet," another guest of the Sydney and Canberra lounges says. Once inside, there's no need to keep an eye on the departure board — if there are any changes to your flight, staff will let you know. If you need to change your seat for any reason, where possible, the staff will happily oblige. When it's time to board, you'll receive a tap on the shoulder, timed to ensure there's no waiting around at the gate. "In the normal Qantas Club, of which I am a member, we've been reduced to do-it-yourself toasties. There's none of that in the Chairman's Lounge," a former guest said. What is on offer is an a la carte menu, along with the more standard buffet. "You can get anything you want, at any time of day. You can get an amazing, medium-rare steak at 3pm, or you can get it at 11pm, " says a Chairman's Lounge regular, who's visited the lounges hundreds of times. "The oysters were genuinely life-changing. "If you walk up to the bar, there would have to be 30 upmarket wines and every spirit you can think of," he says. "You're not getting Smirnoff, you're getting Grey Goose or better." Beyond the dining, there are private meeting rooms, complete with video conferencing set-ups. The ample private bathrooms resemble those you would find in a classy hotel, according to past visitors, and come stocked with towels, shampoo, and appropriately fancy soap. "The thing that always struck me the most is that you were always waited on hand and foot by really attentive hospitality staff," the regular says. "Basically, it's a bunch of elite people getting exactly what they want." Who's in the club? The first thing people who have been inside the Chairman's Lounge typically remark on is how hushed and quiet it is. It's spacious by airport standards, with plenty of places to sit and discuss sensitive matters out of the earshot of fellow travellers. "I am quite sure that it's exactly the point of it," says ABC presenter Virginia Trioli, who has also visited the Chairman's Lounge as a guest. "It's got exactly what C-suite people would be after — exclusivity, privacy, and quiet." Unlike Qantas' other clubs, you can't buy your way into the Chairman's Lounge — no amount of money or frequent flyer miles will get you in. Typically, however, those hand-picked to join have a lot of both. Stephanie Tully, the former head of airline loyalty at Qantas, has previously told Executive Traveller that members typically fall into three categories: "decision-makers, CEOs, and celebrities". All federal politicians are invited to join, as well as the top executives of Qantas' biggest corporate customers. Members are permitted to bring their partners, or another guest, with them. "You would walk past John Howard, and you wouldn't even acknowledge it," says the regular, who has also spotted elite sporting stars making use of the facilities. Ultimately "it's a very easy way for really rich people to network," he says. "It felt to me like it was a bit of an 'in' club." While Qantas is famously coy about its member list, the register of parliamentary interests provides a guide to which MPs and senators have accepted the invitation. Albanese is a member, as is opposition leader Peter Dutton and Greens' leader Adam Bandt. So too are Labor ministers Jim Chalmers, Richard Marles, Penny Wong and Linda Burney, just to name a few. In fact, politicians from all the major parties, as well as independents, are on the list. Senator Lidia Thorpe in the Chairman's Lounge in 2021.(Facebook: Lidia Thorpe) In 2021, Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe posted a selfie from inside the Melbourne Chairman's Lounge, with the distinctive rainbow wall visible in the background. According to her most recent parliamentary interests declaration, she remains a member. Many politicians have also declared membership to Virgin's equivalent of the Chairman's Lounge, the by-invitation and equally secret group known as The Club. Membership lasts for two years, at the end of which it is either renewed or revoked at the discretion of the airline. For example, earlier this year it was reported that former shock jock Alan Jones had been bumped from the club, before Joyce personally intervened to ensure his membership was reinstated. Shortly after it was revealed that Albanese's son had access, the Daily Telegraph reported that it appeared Qantas was cracking down on membership, citing emails between a member and Qantas manager that referenced a "new criteria". Why so secretive? You may wonder why Qantas is so opposed to spruiking its top lounge. Aside from avoiding potentially uncomfortable questions about political influence, marketing expert Professor Chris Baumann from Macquarie University suspects the secrecy might also be a calculated marketing strategy. Airlines typically reward loyalty with their memberships, and this case is no different, only with an added layer of exclusivity. "If you feel rewarded, because you get access to a business-class lounge, first-class lounge or Chairman's Lounge, of course, you feel a bit special — and that's really the incentive," Professor Baumann says. "It seems to me it has nearly the notion of these old British clubs, where you had to be introduced by somebody else ... that gives you an exclusive, noble feel. "In the UK you go to Buckingham Palace and King Charles knights you. In Australia, once you're invited by Qantas to join the Chairman's Lounge, maybe that's our knighthood." For Qantas, there's also another benefit from a marketing perspective: the more secretive something is, the more people want to talk about it. Professor Baumann says it's a very effective marketing tool. "Why are we talking about a lounge? Because it's kind of like a dark room — you don't really know what goes on in there, because very few people have actually been and the ones that have don't want to talk about it."
American and other airlines have similar specialty VIP lounges pretty much strictly reserved for politicians at Reagan Airport in D.C. I am not talking about the standard American Airlines Admiral clubs but an exclusive lounge for the politicians and associates. The U.S. is pretty much the same as Australia in this regard.
OPINION Australia’s still dangerously secretive, and it’s our democracy that’s at risk Peter Greste Author, journalist and academic September 12, 2023 https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...democracy-that-s-at-risk-20230911-p5e3o2.html Jeff Morris, the Commonwealth Bank insider who revealed corrupt practices at its financial planning arm and triggered the banking royal commission; Alan Parkinson, who went to the ABC in 1997 to expose the failures in the clean-up of nuclear waste at Maralinga; and nurse Toni Hoffman, who revealed the gross medical malpractice of a surgeon in Bundaberg. But in Australia, the laws that protect both whistleblowing and media freedom – two of the mechanisms essential to a working democracy – are manifestly failing. They reflect a troubling lack of transparency that once prompted The New York Times to declare something most journalists already knew: “Australia may well be the world’s most secretive democracy.” TheTimesmade its remark in 2019 after the Australian Federal Police infamously raided two news organisations, hunting down the whistleblowers for two stories based on leaked classified information. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus hosted a media freedom round table in February but since then, he has failed to act on key reforms. CREDIT: ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN TheTimes listed several reasons for its bold statement, starting with the lack of any explicit constitutional protection for freedom of speech including media freedom. It then pointed to our draconian secrecy laws, which provide heavy jail terms for public officials who go public with official information – even when in the public interest. Then there is a web of legal restrictions designed to protect privacy but also help corrupt officials hide their misdeeds, defamation law weighted heavily in favour of anyone exposed by the media, a hopelessly ineffective Freedom of Information system, and a slew of more than 90 national security laws passed since 9/11 related to secrecy, espionage and terrorism. One University of Queensland study of espionage laws found, “a significant risk of criminalising legitimate journalism and that this, in combination with their staggering complexity and uncertain scope, is contributing to the ‘chilling’ of public interest journalism in Australia”. For the public, that means fewer whistleblowers, fewer investigative stories, and less transparency. “No other developed democracy holds as tight to its secrets,” declared theTimes. In response to the 2019 raids, the powerful Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security held an inquiry that acknowledged the problem and made 16 recommendations designed to free up the media. Attorney General Mark Dreyfus (then the shadow attorney-general) sat on the inquiry and signed a statement that said the recommendations should be, “a bare minimum – a starting point – for reform”. After three years of inaction by the Coalition government, the attorney-general finally hosted a media freedom round table in February where he promised to implement the reforms. To date, none of the recommendations have been acted upon. The situation for whistleblowers is just as bad. Those who have had the courage to expose wrongdoing frequently report losing their jobs, losing money, suffering mental health problems including PTSD and, in several prominent cases, are even facing trial. There are more laws of course. Australia has a Public Interest Disclosure Act (2013) designed to protect public servants blowing the whistle, and the Corporations Act (2001) for those in the private sector. In a recent campaign, the Human Rights Law Centre compiled a list of every whistleblowing case to go to a court judgment over the past 30 years and found only one that led to a whistleblower receiving compensation for the retribution they experienced after taking action. Even then, the compensation was a measly $5000. Again, the attorney-general has acknowledged the problem and promised to fix the law, but it is hard to take him seriously while the two most prominent whistleblowers of recent times are still facing trial and prison time for what most of us would consider acts of heroism. The first is David McBride, the source of the stories that triggered the AFP raid on the ABC. McBride, a former Defence Department lawyer, revealed evidence that exposed alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan. In two months, he will become the first person to face court in relation to the alleged war crimes, ironically not someone accused of those crimes, but the man who exposed them. The other is Richard Boyle, the Tax Office official who revealed in a joint media investigation by this masthead and the ABC’s Four Corners unconscionable debt collection practices by the ATO in South Australia. His disclosures triggered more inquiries, apologies and overdue reforms. Yet he is still facing 24 charges including taping private conversations without consent and taking photos of taxpayer information, actions he says were necessary to gather evidence. The attorney-general has the power to drop the charges, reform whistleblower laws, and protect journalists and their sources, including introducing a media freedom act. Unless he does so, Australia will remain dangerously secretive, to the detriment of all but the most powerful. Peter Greste is a professor of journalism at Macquarie University and executive director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.
Spreading the word: Scott Morrison eyes booming Christian book market By James Massola and Hamish Hastie Updated September 18, 2023 Plans for Your Good– A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness, is being published by Thomas Nelson, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Morrison confirmed the book would be marketed in the booming US religious publishing market, where sales of religious books reached $US757 million ($1.175 billion) in 2022, after a 15 per cent sales surge between 2019 and 2021 thatPublishers’ Weeklycredited to the pandemic. “It has been written with a broader audience in mind,” Morrison said. “It hasn’t been written to be available only in bookshops in Canberra. Particularly in the US, but beyond that too.” The former prime minister, the first Pentecostal Christian to serve in the nation’s highest political office, has said the manuscript was “basically done” and was with his editors at Thomas Nelson. “Most [former prime ministers] do write books about their lives, there is nothing wrong with that, there have been some excellent works, John Howard’s most notably. But this is me telling about how my faith has sustained me through my life,” he said. “It has applications for people who share my faith and not just for people who go to churches such as mine; it’s for anyone with a Christian faith or broader spiritual interests. People may have been aware of how important faith was in my life, and this is a much longer version of that.” Morrison’s faith has long been a defining feature of his life, as he made clear in his first speech to parliament, and while prime minister he continued to participate in and lead a parliamentary prayer group. During the 2019 election campaign he visited his church on Easter Sunday and, after securing a come-from-behind victory, famously declared the win was a “miracle”. Prime Minister Scott Morrison during an Easter Sunday service at his Horizon Church at Sutherland in Sydney in 2019.CREDIT:AAP Thomas Nelson’s website promises the book will offer a unique insider’s account from a Christian prime minister who was open about his faith and who led Australia during one of the toughest periods since the Second World War, covering drought, wildfires, a global pandemic and recession. It is billed as “less political memoir and more pastoral encouragement”, and the former Liberal leader sets out a series of questions such as “Who am I?” and “How should I live?” and seeks to answer them. According to Nielsen Bookscan figures from 2020, the year Malcolm Turnbull’s memoirA Bigger Picturewas published, the best-selling prime ministerial autobiography in recent years remains Gough Whitlam’s 1979 bookThe Truth of the Matter, which has sold more than 150,000 copies, while Kevin Rudd’s two volumes,Not for the Faint-Hearted(2017) andThe PM Years(2018), managed only 8260 and 5750 sales respectively. Since losing the prime ministership, Morrison has signed on with the US-based Worldwide Speakers Group, delivered speeches in Britain about the AUKUS defence partnership he helped to create and delivered sermons at a number of churches. While his imminent departure from office has been widely tipped several times since his election defeat on May 21, 2022, he insists he still gets satisfaction from his role as the backbencher member for Cook. On Sunday, Morrison delivered a 20-minute sermon at the Pentecostal Encounter City Church in Perth, saying that “after I stepped down as prime minister, [I was asked] to come and say a few words”. He told the congregation that “the Christian journey is not linear. Ever. I know. It’s up, it’s down, it’s around.” He urged them to be resolute: “especially in the world today, which is increasingly hostile and more overt about it. For us, as believers, I think it’s important for us to stand and to hold fast.” Morrison also backed the Liberal Party’s 2022 Pearce candidate, Linda Aitken, who is seeking re-election as the mayor of the City of Wanneroo, arguing she would give favour to church building approvals. “This isn’t a political message, but new church buildings need building and development approvals,” Morrison joked. “You want to see the favour on that approval? Vote one, Linda Aitken.” He later clarified it was said in jest. with AAP
Lmao, more never ending snakeoil from our politicians. At least Morrison is smart enough to know marketing his snakeoil book in USA is a good idea since that is where it is easiest to sell to religous sucker types who'll believe any church sop you feed them. All it takes is to wear a white shirt and mention the word "God" and you'll be accepted and handed money. Beats me wtf I don't do it.
Booted out of office smartly by Australian voters with a huge vote count against him. But in christianity, anything can be either God's work or alternatively just blame the devil.
‘Being rich is my superpower’: Tapes reveal Pratt’s pursuit of the powerful By Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie and Hannah Bowers OCTOBER 22, 2023 https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-...-pursuit-of-the-powerful-20231017-p5ecwv.html CREDIT:MARIJA ERCEGOVAC Secret tapes have revealed Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt’s extraordinary private dealings with Donald Trump, a $1 million promised payment to Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and financial dealings with then-Prince Charles in the hope he would become king. After recent allegations Trump had leaked classified US submarine fleet details to Pratt, the covert recordings reveal the billionaire claimed the former president also disclosed non-public details about US military action in Iraq and a private conversation with Iraq’s leader. The tapes, along with internal documents from Pratt’s company, Visy, and briefings from over a dozen sources in the United States and Australia, reveal how the packaging titan uses relationships with powerful figures to obtain an advantage in global business and politics. Australia’s richest man, Anthony Pratt (right), with Donald Trump.CREDIT:MICHELLE MCMINN Pratt gained access to Trump by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on membership and event fees at the ex-president’s private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago. Pratt is heard on the tapes simultaneously admiring and besmirching Trump and comparing him to a mafia figure “with balls” who uses henchmen to do his dirty work. In claiming he had paid a fee of “about a million bucks” to Giuliani in return for the Trump lawyer attending Pratt’s birthday party, the Visy boss explained that “Rudy is someone I hope will be useful one day”. This year, Trump and Giuliani were both charged withcriminally subverting the 2020 presidential election. King Charles is another powerful figure Pratt has cultivated – while he was a prince – with documents listing a “final payment” to “HRH” [His Royal Highness] of $182,000 in 2021. “My superpower is that I am rich. So I am useful to him [Prince Charles], right?” Pratt said of Charles on the tape. Pratt at Mar-a-Lago.CREDIT:MICHELLE MCMINN Leaked documents show how Pratt has also pursued local political influence, revealing consulting payments to two former prime ministers, Tony Abbott and Paul Keating. Abbott was hired, the files show, weeks after losing his parliamentary seat in 2019, on a retainer of $8000 a month, while Keating’s monthly retainer is $25,000. In 2022, Pratt budgeted $1.2 million to pay his in-house government affairs and political adviser, Richard Dowdy, who is a former Abbott staffer. Pratt has also privately claimed on covert recordings that he had donated $1 million to the Voice referendum’s Yes campaign because he had fielded a request to do so from a senior adviser to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The recordings, which have been obtained by this masthead and60 Minutes, will reignite the scandal involving allegations Trump had disclosed potentially secret information on the American submarine fleet to Pratt that the Australian businessman later gossiped about. Pratt did not respond to requests for comment via his media relations manager and hung up when called directly. Secrets and power The alleged submarine disclosures by Trump, revealed by a US media outlet, are under investigation and could result in Pratt being called to testify against the former president. They have also made Trump and Pratt’s relationship the focus of intense media scrutiny. Trump is the Republican Party’s frontrunner presidential candidate for 2024. On the covertly made recordings obtained by60 Minutesand this masthead of Pratt talking to several people, there is no mention of submarines, but Pratt does claim Trump’s disclosures at Mar-a-Lago were frequently shocking. “He’s got this ability to say outrageous things non-stop. He’s outrageous,” Pratt said in one recording. “He just says whatever the f--- he wants. And he loves to shock people.” On the same tape, Pratt describes how in 2019, Trump told him he had just ordered the US military to conduct an airstrike on Iranian-linked militants in Iraq. He then disclosed a private phone call he’d had with the leader of Iraq. “It hadn’t even been on the news yet and he [Trump] said: ‘I just bombed Iraq today and the president of Iraq called me up and said, “You just levelled my city”.’” Pratt says Trump then boasted about his response: “I [Trump] said to him [Iraq’s leader], ‘OK, what are you going to do about it?’ ” According to Pratt, Trump then spoke of the infamous conversation he had withPresident Volodymyr Zelensky in which he pressured the Ukraine leader to investigate then Democrat presidential contender Joe Biden’s son. A covert recording captures Pratt stating: “Trump said, ‘You know that Ukraine phone call, that was nothing compared to what I usually do.’ He said: ‘That Ukraine phone call, that’s nothing compared to what we usually talk about’.” Pratt also claimed that Trump described how his phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin were tapped by authorities. Getting close to the president The tape recordings of Pratt depict a businessman who relishes proximity to power, exposing a hunt for beneficial connections. Trump and Pratt both praised each other publicly during the Trump presidency. The businessman ran advertisements in theWall Street Journalbacking Trump after Pratt made a $2 billion commitment to create US manufacturing jobs. In 2019, Trump opened a Visy mill in Ohio where he lauded Pratt’s business prowess. Privately, Pratt savaged Trump’s ethics, claiming he used proxies to push the boundaries of the criminal law, while simultaneously appearing to admire Trump’s ruthless bravado. “Who would dream of the minute he becomes president, he starts dealing with other countries, sending his kids to do deals, real estate deals with other countries just to see if he can get away with it?” Pratt states on one recording. “He knows exactly what to say and what not to say so that he avoids jail … but gets so close to it … that it looks like to everyone that he’s breaking the law. He won’t go up to someone and say: ‘I want you to kill someone’. What he’ll say is he’ll send someone to tell someone to kill someone. “Trump says, ‘Would you go and tell that guy over there to steal for me?’ And so he can say, ‘I never told the guy to steal’. And things like that is how Trump gets away with it. Most people don’t have the legal background and the sneakiness.” On another recording, Pratt describes the ex-president as a ruthless operator prepared to poke out the eyes of a rival. “Can you imagine how yuck it would be to poke someone’s eyes out in a fight? So he does that but in life … He’s shameless and fearless. He’s got incredible balls,” he says. Pratt also recounts how Trump demeaned his own wife at Mar-a-Lago. “Melania who was sitting next to him at dinner. He said, ‘I asked Melania to walk around the pool in her bikini so all the other guys could get a look at what they were missing’.” Trump says, on Pratt’s telling, that Melania had replied: “I’ll do that when you walk around with me in your bikini.” Pratt appears to have worked assiduously to get close to Trump by purchasing a $200,000 membership at his Mar-a-Lago club in spring 2017 and then spending additional amounts to attend special functions there, sources say. In a draft copy of a speech Pratt delivered to a Jewish group in late 2019, Pratt describes how he “became a member of the Mar-a- Lago resort” as a “strategic” play to secure access to Trump. “My membership has given me a seat at the table where the president relaxes socially, and mingles with his guests … The key thing being a member at Mar-a-Lago has done has been that I see the president a few times a year.” A line that appears crossed out in the draft speech states: “It’s definitely turned out to be a strategic decision – and a very good investment.” It is unclear if Pratt authored the speech or approved the redacted lines. In another crossed-out sentence, the draft Pratt speech states: “President Trump is a very reciprocal man.” The draft speech also describes how Trump’s business-friendly policies had not only paid huge commercial dividends for Pratt’s company but how Visy’s investment in jobs and manufacturing in “Ohio, a key battleground state in the 2020 election, ticked lots of political boxes” for Trump. Pratt’s draft speech also states: “I also support Trump because he’s been the most pro-Israel American president in our time.” Pratt, Giuliani and an expensive party Other recordings capture Pratt claiming he paid almost $1 million to Giuliani in the lead-up to his 60th birthday in April 2020. The party was cancelled due to Victoria’s COVID-19 lockdowns, but Pratt describes how the payment led to regular contact with the controversial lawyer. “I paid about a million bucks to [Rudy to] come out as a celebrity guest [but] it didn’t happen so now he calls me once a week,” Pratt says on a recording in which he also marvels at the ruthlessness of the Trump lawyer, the former president and media baron Rupert Murdoch. Rudy Giuliani speaks outside the Fulton County jail in Atlanta.CREDIT:AP “All these guys are like the mafia. Trump, Rupert, Rudy. You want to be a customer, not a competitor. And I am very aware of that.” Pratt also explains on the tapes why he cultivated connections with influential figures. “What I’m trying to do is network with people who can be useful. Prince Charles said when he introduced me to Camilla, ‘He’s [Pratt] been very useful.’ And I thought, that’s an insult. And then I thought, it is better than being irrelevant. “Friend is the best. Useful is a silver medal. So I am looking for people like Rudy [Giuliani].” In the recordings, Pratt says his relationship with Giuliani solidified over lunches and phone calls during the Trump administration, and after he lost power. “It’s not all just seat-of-the-pants shit, I think that him [Trump] and Rudy are like that, and they are plotting all this out,” Pratt said of the pair’s efforts to stop Biden becoming president in early 2021. Pratt described how his relationship with King Charles was carefully cultivated before his coronation. “I see him as an undervalued political stock. It is just that he is a laughing stock now. But when he is king, [they] won’t be laughing.” The tapes capture a hawkish Pratt claiming to have warned Trump that: “I think China is going to take over Australia.” In a recent speech praising Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Pratt struck a softer tone on Beijing, stating: “It’s to your great credit that we’ve been able to break the ice between the Australian and Chinese government.” The tape recordings also provide insights into Pratt’s ability to shift with the political wind as he described more recent efforts to ingratiate himself with the Biden administration. Australian influence In Australia, Pratt has cultivated both the Coalition and Labor, making generous donations to both parties. The leaked documents detail an apparent $1 million donation he made to Labor in January which is yet to be publicly disclosed and which comes after reported donations in the 2021-22 financial year of $1.96 million to the ALP and $1.7 million to the Coalition. Anthony Pratt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Parliament House in August.CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN After it was reported earlier this year that Pratt had donated $1 million to the Voice Yes campaign, he was asked by a journalist why he’d done so. Pratt referred the question to an adviser, who said: “It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.” But in private, this masthead has confirmed via confidential sources that Pratt claimed he made the donation only after his government relations adviser had held a private meeting with one of Albanese’s senior staffers and had asked if there was anything Pratt could do to help the Labor administration. Pratt claims that the PM’s staffer responded by asking Pratt to support the Voice, prompting the donation. The documents list “consultant” payments to Paul Keating of $25,000 a month and to Tony Abbott of $8000 a month after his hiring in June 2019. Paul Keating and Anthony Pratt at an Australian Financial Review event.CREDITETER BRAIG Abbott did not respond to questions, while Keating said his decade-long stint as a consultant for Pratt was well-known. “I do not advise Mr Pratt on commercial matters in Australia or abroad [or]... on government matters in Australia that may be relevant to him or his company. My advice is limited to big picture issues of the international kind,” Keating said. Pratt’s cultivation of the media is also canvassed in the tape recordings, with the billionaire describing how he had pulled his $730,000 sponsorship package of Sky News programs hosted by Sharri Markson and Alan Jones after Albanese and Biden had been elected. “I’m a big sponsor of Sky, we are the wallpaper of Canberra,” he states. “I was Sharri’s big sponsor. I’m not any more because as soon as Biden and Albanese got in, I told Sky I only want to sponsor Sky in the afternoon, none of the talk shows, because it’s too right-wing.” Pratt has advertised in, or run conferences on superannuation, recycling and his Global Food Forum withThe Age,Sydney Morning HeraldandAustralian Financial Review,which are owned by Nine Entertainment. He has also run advertisements and events with News Corp publications The Australian and TheWall Street Journal for his Global Food Forum. Watch the 60 Minutes episode here.