It was hardly a surprise to learn that Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, executive chairman of the mining giant Fortescue, was making personal overtures to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over the billionaire’s campaign to wind back the diesel fuel rebate.
What did amuse us, however, was the whiff of desperation with which Twiggy was forced to write to Albo asking to discuss the proposed reforms, in a letter sent before the May 12 federal budget.
In his April 14 letter, 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.)
But the missive and accompanying correspondence between the Prime Minister’s Office and Fortescue obtained by CBD under freedom of information laws show Twiggy couldn’t get Albanese’s ear.
“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.”
It’s not often we see the billionaire reveal a little neediness. After all, the Prime Minister’s Office and Fortescue are known to have a decent working relationship.
It wasn’t that long ago Albanese’s media boss (and friend of the column) Fiona Sugden was performing the same services for Twiggy, before joining the prime minister in 2024. And, best we can tell, Sugden could well have been working for Forrest when he made some of his earliest comments on phasing out the diesel fuel rebate back in 2021.
Beyond the staffing connection, though, it’s not uncommon for the prime minister to meet with business bosses. So why was it so difficult for Twiggy to get his ear?
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on whether Albanese met with Forrest in the weeks since, and whether the prime minister responded to Forrest’s letter. But the treasurer’s office was a little more forthcoming. A spokeswoman for Chalmers said he spoke “directly” with Twiggy following the letter “and before the budget”.
“[Chalmers] has also personally met with the CEO, Mr [Dino] Otranto, on at least three occasions in the past 12 months in both Canberra and at Fortescue HQ in Perth,” the spokeswoman said.
Fortescue, meanwhile, noted it isn’t alone in calling for the reform and said everything the company has to say about the proposal has been said publicly.
“As with any policy reform, there have been ongoing discussions with government, industry and other stakeholders over an extended period, and those discussions continue,” a Fortescue spokeswoman told CBD.
To think all this happened before a Federal Court stink began to waft from the billionaire after Fortescue was ordered to pay $150 million in compensation to the Yindjibarndi people for mining on their lands without consent. Our best guess is Albo just didn’t want to share the budget spotlight.
Peter Dutton to surface at property talkfest
Former opposition leader Peter Dutton has managed to keep a relatively low profile following his defeat at last year’s federal election, where he lost his seat to Labor MP Ali France.
In the days after his election loss, Dutton told reporters at Canberra Airport that he planned to “make a graceful exit from politics” and maintain a “graceful silence”.
But our guess is it will be difficult for the former Liberal Party leader to bypass talk of politics altogether come October, when he’s set to appear at The Star in Brisbane alongside former Queensland premier Anna Bligh for the Property Council’s “property congress”.
The pair are the headline act of the three-day event, where they’re scheduled to discuss “the realities of political decision-making”, policy, and “the future of the property sector” in front of some “800 senior property leaders”.
“From the realities of political decision-making to the role of industry in driving growth, this session will unpack the intersection of policy and place, and what it means for the future of the property sector,” reads the invitation.
The event was organised before Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the budget on May 12, with invitations going out the following week. But we’d imagine Labor’s budget, which has since been hammered by the business community over its proposed capital gains tax reform, will give Dutton and Bligh plenty to chew on.
In a sense, both have been lying low over the last year. Bligh, of course, stepped down as chief executive of the Australian Banking Association last June and, as CBD reported Wednesday, has been named the new chair of children’s charity UNICEF Australia. But no doubt the views of the nation’s biggest lenders will still be fresh on her mind.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.