Two approvals Adani needs to build its contentious coal mine in the Galilee Basin should be resolved by June 13, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says.

Adani and state environment department officials had met on Thursday to agree on the deadline to finalise the environmental approvals needed for the mine to proceed, or not.

Ms Palaszczuk ordered the meeting after federal Labor's bruising defeat in regional Queensland electorates that want the jobs the mine promises.

Speaking from Cairns on Friday morning, Ms Palaszczuk said she had given the Coordinator-General responsibility for developing the timeline on the approvals.

AdvertisementLoading

"The Coordinator-General has been working his guts out, frankly, and I'm very pleased that all parties have come to the table and have been working with the Coordinator-General," she said.

"So I can advise the following: in relation to the two plans, decisions are due on the following time frames.

"I know initially people thought this was months and what I'm announcing today is it's in a matter of weeks."

Adani confident

Adani Australia chief executive officer Lucas Dow said Adani was not contemplating the project being rejected.

“At this point, we are not expecting any significant surprises,” he said.

He said the company was confident it could have extra information requested by the Department of Environment and Science in place by June 13.

“We have been working at this for the better part of 18 months with the department, hand in hand, so we now look forward to finalise these and get on with it,” Mr Dow said.

“Importantly, the Coordinator-General is going to be publishing a list of other key activities and milestones for the project with dates. So that will provide us with certainty as we move ahead with the project."

Loading

Groundwater debate

Ms Palaszczuk said the news was a "breakthrough" and she thanked everyone for sitting down "in good faith" to resolve the issues.

She said the groundwater plan was dependent on CSIRO and the Coordinator-General having detailed discussions with the CSIRO to meet the time frames laid out.

"We have approved other projects in this state, creating tens of thousands of jobs," she said.

Mr Dow on Friday said Adani had "revisited" the artesian bore trigger levels that alert the mining company to any potential impact of the mine to the threatened Doongmabulla Springs nearby.

"We have now revisited a number of trigger levels to ensure that we have an early warning on any potential impact."

Call for clarity on jobs

The Premier said it was up to Adani to communicate with the people of Queensland on the number of jobs predicted to be created by the proposed mega-mine in the Galilee Basin.

"Mining communities, resource communities want to know that local employment is front and centre," she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said she had spoken with the CFMMEU to work with them on disagreements around the Adani Carmichael mine processes.

Loading

“I had actually a good conversation last night to the national president of the CFMMEU and I talk to people regularly from all different groups and, you know, at the end of the day, they want jobs,” she said.

“They want good, decent jobs for their members but they also want projects that meet the laws of the land.

“Now we’ve got some firm time frames for decision-making to happen in relation to this project, and our laws – the Commonwealth and state – are strict.

“We need to make sure that projects do stack up and the projects that are getting the approvals are meeting the requirements under our laws.”

Rail line and black-throated finch

Mr Dow said Queensland’s Coordinator-General would clarify issues to allow Adani to move ahead with the 200-kilometre rail line it needed to build from its mine site north of Clermont out to Aurizon’s rail corridor to the Abbot Point port.

Ms Palaszczuk said the black-throated finch plan was due by May 31, and the groundwater management plan was due by June 13.

Mr Dow said Adani had provided seven updates to its black-throated finch management study and 11 versions of the important groundwater study to protect the artesian springs near the large mine.

“I must reiterate [the Department of Environment and Science is] the most independent regulator and they will have to make up their own decision.”

On Thursday, Adani said it would take two years after approvals were granted before coal would be dug from the Carmichael mine.

Ms Palaszczuk said the deadlines were set by the Coordinator-General and she would not be drawn on whether she would make a final decision personally if the deadlines were not met.

'Stop Adani' campaign to continue

Stop Adani, the campaign against the major mine, announced it was redoubling its campaign efforts in response to the announcement.

Mackay Conservation Group co-ordinator Peter McCallum said Stop Adani was "not going away".

“The election result is not a mandate for Premier Palaszczuk to ignore science and environmental laws and fast-track plans that put at risk Queensland’s water," he said.

“The delay in Adani’s plans being approved is because they’ve been grossly inadequate."

Trad adamant Adani decision 'needs to stack up'

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, who nearly lost her South Brisbane seat to the Greens at the last election, still would not definitively say she supported the coal mine.

“This [Adani] is a decision that has been made by the government, I am a member of the government,” she said.

“I think taking action on climate change is incredibly important, but it needs for people of Queensland, people of Australia, to be unified behind what that action is.

“We have always said it needs to stack up economically and it needs to stack up environmentally, and as soon as it does that, then it can proceed.”

– with Tony Moore and Lydia Lynch

Click Here:

Is the world's most bitterly contested coal mine finally getting the go-ahead?

Click Here:

After Labor suffered heavy losses in coal-mining regions in Saturday’s Australian federal elections, the Carmichael project looks to be getting closer than ever to approval. In the view of the government's resources minister Matt Canavan, the pit being developed by Adani, a unit of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s business empire, is all systems go.

There's a rarely discussed problem with this, though: The numbers on Carmichael don't stack up – and haven't for most of the past decade, despite the mine becoming a high-profile proxy for broader fights over fossil fuels among politicians, lobbyists and environmentalists. (An Adani spokeswoman said our assumptions were incorrect, but didn't dispute any specific figures or provide alternative ones. 'The Carmichael Project economics are strong and are projected to remain strong,' she wrote.)

The most important factor in determining coal pricing is its energy content. In the case of Carmichael, we've known since Adani's initial regulatory applications in 2010 that this is around 20.7 gigajoules or 4,950 kilocalories per kilogram.

AdvertisementLoading

That's roughly in line with the stuff sold by Indonesia's PT Adaro Energy. At present, Adaro makes about $US66 of revenue per metric tonne of coal sold, a number pretty consistent with charts published in its investor materials. Put that together with the 10 million tons a year (mtpa) output from the first stage at Carmichael(4) and you have something like $US660 million of annual revenue.

Next, subtract the costs of blasting, shovelling, washing, blending and loading the coal. At BHP's lean Mount Arthur mine north of Sydney, cash costs have averaged about $US48 over the past 18 months, toward the bottom end for Australian coal mines:

Adjusting that for the cost of transporting the coal to port on third-party networks comes to about $US50 a tonne of operating costs, or $US500 million for the whole project, enough to leave $US160 million of gross profit. (Adani in January estimated a figure of $US39 a tonne at port, which seems implausibly low.)

Then consider the cost of building the mine and a separate 200 kilometre railway line from Queensland's Galilee Basin, where it's situated. Comparable projects suggest about $US1.8 billion for the mine, pretty much in line with figures of $2 billion cited in news reports. The railway would likely be another $US1 billion, for a total $US1.9 billion capital project.

To get an idea of what that would cost to fund with debt, look at bonds for Adani's Abbot Point terminal, a coal export port in northern Queensland. They're currently yielding 6.88 per cent, which would mean $US131 million a year of interest costs. On top of that you have to depreciate the asset and amortize the debt itself; let's assume you depreciate over 30 years and amortise over 10 and the result is $US250 million.

Add all that together and Adani is losing $US220 million a year: It would cost about $US88 to produce a tonne of coal that would sell for $US66 on the open market. Those challenging numbers (rather than pressure from environmentalists) look like the best explanation for why banks have refused to lend to Carmichael. Adani has promised to fund the project from its own balance sheet.

All this raises the question of why everyone is so adamant that this project is going ahead.

For the Morrison government, the attractions are obvious: Carmichael is a potent wedge issue that may have just helped swing last weekend's federal election in its favor. For environmentalists, too, the prospect of an operating Adani mine represents a totemic fundraising and rallying opportunity. The Labor party, meanwhile, can't risk alienating the coal industry by declaring that this emperor has no clothes.

Loading

What of Adani itself? We've speculated in the past that keeping the project on life support helps avoid a painful billion-dollar writedown; perhaps a sufficient level of taxpayer subsidy might be enough to salvage something from the wreckage.

The company has argued that coal market prices don't matter because it intends to burn the product in its own generators. But that doesn't sidestep basic economics: Adani has lost an aggregate 107 billion rupees ($2.23 billion) over the past decade, and would likely be doing even worse if it were buying overpriced coal from Carmichael.

And yet the belief that only environmentalists and obstructionist politicians are holding Carmichael back continues to shamble on. Comparable projects like Glencore's Wandoan have been mothballed for years.

As we've argued, investors seem to be fleeing coal finance as the economics get increasingly challenging. Yet away from the spotlight, Carmichael-scale mines with higher-quality coal and access to existing infrastructure such as MACH Energy Australia's Mount Pleasant and Whitehaven Coal's Vickery are quietly coming online to replace production declines elsewhere.

That's not why Carmichael is a lightning rod, though. Opening up a whole new coal basin like the Galilee represents a very different image for the future of coal than adding niche projects – suggesting coal power isn't being "phased out, potentially sooner than expected" (as BHP suggested this week) but on the brink of a bright new future. Letting go of that pipe dream is proving remarkably painful.

Bloomberg

Whisky is considered a gentleman's drink – reserved for times of congratulations and clever conversations with life-long friends.

So it is jarring that this drink should be at the centre of a brutal ASX-boardroom brawl that came to a head this week.

The business, Tasmanian-based Australian Whisky Holdings, produces some of the world's best whisky leveraging the Apple Isle's carefully cultivated image of bucolic colonial-era craftsmanship that has worked well for other food and liquor products. There is even a Tasmanian Whisky Trail.

The rewards can be large. International demand for Tasmania's healthy and unique foods has turned a small company like infant formula producer Bellamy's into a $1 billion business.

Advertisement

But AWH has been roiled in the past few months amid a shareholder civil war that has seen the board cleared out, a chief executive depart and the company's second largest investor seize effective control of the business.

The key players are colourful and no strangers to corporate cut and thrust.

The man painted as the agitator behind the change is rich-lister turned activist investor Bruce Neill. On 14 March his company Quality Life requested a shareholder meeting to remove four of five directors. By May 20 he marshalled the 75 per cent support he needed to roll the $64 million company's board. And so the night before the May 21 meeting chairman Terry Cuthbertson, ex-Coca Cola executive, Peter Herd, and former Rene Rivkin sidekick, Gary Mares, all resigned as directors.

That left only two directors – Bill Lark, a man whose surname adorns one of the company's best known products and who is known as the "godfather of Australian whisky", and American and thoroughbred enthusiast Stuart Grant, whose horses are trained by his friend Gai Waterhouse.

Grant faced the music at the shareholder meeting at the Royal Automobile Club of Australia in Sydney on Tuesday. He was comprehensively voted off the board. Lark then carried through with a promise to quit in protest.

For good measure the company's acting chief executive and chief financial officer Brendan Waights also resigned. The entire board and top management gone in one malty gulp.

As the smoke cleared it became clear that Neill had leveraged his 9 per cent holding to get a firm grip on the company's direction. The three new directors have some impressive pedigree. David Dearie is a former senior executive at Treasury Wines while Geoff Bainbridge was co-founder of hamburger chain Grill'd.

Warren Randall has the unofficial title as the "King of Australian Wine" as the man behind the Seppeltsfield wine business in the Barossa Valley.

So what was the dispute all about? That depends on who you ask. The business itself bears all the hallmarks of a maturing enterprise.

It has been loss-making but acquisitive and over the past twelve months has increased its revenue from $179,000 in second half of 2017 to $2.82 million in the corresponding period last year as it swallowed the Lark and Nant brands and paid down debt.

"It was a contest to see who had a bigger dick between Bruce and Terry," says Grant.

"This is not two factions having different visions – this was all ego-driven."

Grant is a Delaware-based lawyer who owns about a dozen horses with Waterhouse and remains the company's sixth-largest shareholder with 3.5 per cent.

Grant says animosity had been simmering away for years, but a key turning point occurred last November, when the Cuthbertson-led board raised $5 million through a share placement to Hong Kong-based ACE COSMO Developments.

The strategy was designed to inject cash into the company for future expansion and draw on the Hong Kong shareholders' connections to push into Asian markets.

"Bruce felt the expansion diluted the 'Tasmanianness' of the business," says Grant.

"My view is that the Tasmanianness was key to the whisky itself but not the origin of the stockholder base … Bill Lark agreed, and you can't get more Tasmanian than Bill Lark."

Loading

Lark is certainly something of a legend. He is the only southern hemisphere distiller inducted into the World Whisky Hall of Fame, and was until recently an AWH board member. Its other brands include Overeem, Old Kempton, and Nant, which was purchased out of its own whisky barrel scandal.

Grant and Neill knew each other for years before their whisky connection as Neill is a part-owner of the Cressfield horse stud in New South Wales. The media-shy Neill entered his horse for the $13 million Everest race in 2017 along with high-flying Sydney racing identity Damion Flower.

Click Here: online rugby store malaysia

Mr Flower was this week charged with cocaine trafficking. His lawyer has indicated he will contest the charges. The horse's name – Clearly Innocent. Neill has no connection to the cocaine charges.

Neill did not respond to requests for comment but announcements to the ASX may reveal some of his thinking.

In March, Neill demanded the resignation of four of the five incumbent directors in a bid to install directors nominted by him. At that point, AWH was already dealing with the recent departure of its chief executive Christopher Malcolm.

In November, 2018, Malcolm gave a presentation to board members at the company's George Street offices in Sydney titled "All Things Wonderful in Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky".

But then in February he abruptly departed the company effective immediately.

In Grant's telling Neill "went shareholder-to-shareholder for several months" including trips overseas, garnering support for his move.

In mid-May as Neill's manouvering became apparent the AWH board asked the Takeovers Panel – which regulates corporate activity – to intervene in what it believed may have been an "inappropriate" campaign by Neill.

"I don't know what promises were made to people for their vote," says Grant.

The board proposed a compromise where two directors would step down and two directors from Neill's camp would replace them. Lark would keep his spot.

The offer was rejected.

"It had got personal by that point," says Grant.

The incumbent leadership appealed to shareholders and defended its record.

The board had "reduced debt to strengthen the group's balance sheet" while "respecting the company's Tasmanian connection", according to company documents lodged with the ASX.

All of it culminated in Tuesday's showdown. Dearie chaired the dramatic meeting, which he describes as "odd".

"It was very official and straight to the point … the former directors were there and I spoke to each of them."

He says he was approached by Neill a couple of months ago about taking a board seat but claims some support from both sides.

Dearie says AWH needs clarity and direction, a cohesive capital structure, better branding and to move into key markets of Asia and America.

"I have got vast experience in the wine and spirits sector. I spoke with Bruce Neill and with Terry Cuthbertson and both were keen on me joining the board in some capacity."

Grant points out the new directors did not join without their own baggage.

Bainbridge went through an public acrimonious courtroom battle with his Grill'd co-founder, while Dearie resigned after three years as boss of Treasury Wines boss after the company struggled to turn around its American operations.

The new look board will be put to an immediate test finding a new CEO, presumably a gentleman.

Notorious Russell Street bomb-accused Craig Minogue has refused to give a DNA sample to police after being charged with abducting and raping two women in the 1980s, while his alleged accomplice has failed to front court.

Police will apply to the court to force Mr Minogue to provide a sample after charging him and Peter Komiazyk, who was acquitted of the 1986 Russell Street bombing, over the rapes in 1985 and 1986.

The two men are accused of committing a brutal assault on a 19-year-old woman in Nunawading the night before the bombing, which killed Constable Angela Taylor, 21, and injured 22.

The alleged victim was inside the Russell Street police complex giving a statement when a bomb, concealed in a Holden Commodore parked outside the building, exploded around lunchtime on March 27, 1986.

Advertisement

Mr Komiazyk, who used to go by the name Peter Reed, refused to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday where prosecutor Stephen Devlin said police were assessing information from phone taps.

He and Mr Minogue are also accused of forcing a young woman into a car on Chapel Street, South Yarra, and raping her on November 22, 1985.

Police allege both women were showered after they attacked, and then dumped in streets near where they were abducted.

Both men face 38 charges including abduction by force and aggravated rape.

Loading

Mr Komiazyk faced court on Thursday night and was refused bail.

He was due to return to court on Friday, but his lawyer told the court he had asked to remain in his cell.

The 61-year-old appeared bloodied and bruised when he fronted court in a ripped T-shirt on Thursday night.

He was arrested by Special Operations Group officers on Thursday outside his psychologist’s office in Kalorama, in the Dandenong Ranges.

Police told the court on Thursday night the rape cases were reopened in 2017 following a breakthrough with DNA evidence.

They also allege Stanley Brian Taylor, who was jailed over Russell Street bombing, was also involved in the 1986 rape. Taylor died in jail in 2016.

Mr Komiazyk's lawyer, Steven Pica, raised concerns on Thursday night over the way his client was arrested, and told the hearing his client's car windows were broken and his vehicle was rammed before he was taken into custody.

Mr Komiazyk lives on a disability pension and cares for his 13-year-old son, his lawyer said.

Police last month made a fresh call for information over the attacks and offered a $350,000 reward for information.

The victim of the Nunawading attack, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was walking on Ashwood Drive about 9.30pm on March 26, 1986.

She was heading to her boyfriend's parents' house when she was dragged into a car containing four men.

She was threatened with a knife, blindfolded and gagged, before being driven a short distance to an unknown property and sexually assaulted.

The teenager was dumped under a parked car on Mariana Avenue in Ringwood East around midnight.

The victim in the South Yarra attack was an 18-year-old schoolgirl who selling flowers on Chapel Street.

About 10pm, she was allegedly dragged into a car on Bray Street, blindfolded and gagged before being taken to an unknown property and sexually assaulted.

She was dumped on Yarra Boulevard in Richmond about 1am the next day.

The incident had a profound impact on the victim's life. She died aged 41 in 2008.

Mr Minogue will return to Melbourne Magistrates Court on June 14.

Click Here: kanken mini cheap

The Morrison government wasted little time putting the heat back on the energy sector after its election victory, committing to hardline interventionist action designed to reform and punish the power industry.

Analysts have already called the Coalition's win "a negative” for energy companies, and warned it could make power prices more volatile.

The energy stoush began in 2017, when AGL reaffirmed its intention to close its Hunter Valley-based Liddell coal-fired power station in 2022, raising fears it could create an energy shortage similar to the experience after the closure of Victoria's Hazelwood power station earlier that year.

This drove energy prices to record highs and ignited a battle between AGL and the government to extend the life of the Liddell power plant to keep the lights on.

Advertisement

As part of this battle, the Morrison government set out a raft of new policies before the election to lower historically high power bills and prevent energy shortages.

Click Here: cheap kanken backpacks for saleLoading

The proposed measures included giving the government power to break up energy companies found to be behaving poorly in the market and force them to sell off assets to reduce their footprint; the creation of a new, fixed basic electricity price for households not already on a discount offer; new safety nets to remove energy companies' ability to charge consumers excessive late fees, and a new reference price to compare discounts offers.

They were introduced after the government dumped its own energy and emissions policy aimed at driving down both power prices and greenhouse gas levels, the National Energy Guarantee (NEG).

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor also made an ambitious pledge to slash wholesale prices – what generators charge retailers for electricity – by up to a quarter.

Energy providers called many of these rules market-wrecking actions, particularly the forced divestment power, known as the government’s ‘big stick’.

'Big stick' prevails

The government had managed to get most of these new rules underway ahead of the election, apart from the ‘big stick’. Most should come into force on 1 July.

With pre-election polls predicting a Labor victory, the energy industry had begun planning for a Bill Shorten government, expecting many of the Coalition's harshest policies to be dropped.

Instead, it found itself blindsided by the Coalition victory and the realisation its harsh interventions would be implemented.

The big power companies swiftly urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison to drop these policies, hoping to reset the relationship with the government and move beyond the antagonism that had plagued the energy debate over the last three years.

To no avail: The government renewed its hardline approach to the industry on Wednesday, focusing on energy giant AGL, and threatening tough action against power retailers.

Jack de Belin's co-accused faces being stood down from a bush competition as soon as next week after the Country Rugby League agreed in principle to adopt a policy similar to the NRL's no-fault stand-down rule.

The CRL board met on Friday and agreed to draft a new edict which will give them the discretion to stand down players accused of serious crimes until the judicial process has run its course. The policy will be used on a case-by-case basis.

It will pour over the wording of the NRL's no-fault stand-down rule – which withstood a Federal Court challenge from Dragons forward de Belin – before formalising its own policy.

It's likely to mean Callan Sinclair, who has also been charged with aggravated sexual assault, is likely to be the first bush player to be subject to the rule. Sinclair and de Belin have both pleaded not guilty to their charges.

Advertisement

"We're going to check what the wording is with the NRL as we've agreed to adopt the policy," CRL chief executive Terry Quinn said. "It will likely happen next week and we want it to happen as quickly as we can."

Loading

While de Belin trained for months in the hope of returning to the NRL before his Federal Court verdict, Sinclair made a low-key return earlier this season for the Shellharbour Sharks in the group 7 competition on the NSW south coast.

He was chosen in the Norway squad for a World Cup qualifier in London earlier this month. He was one of only two Australian-based players included in the Norwegian squad.

But under Sinclair's bail conditions he was forced to surrender his passport and unable to apply for a new one, meaning he was denied the chance to represent the tiny rugby league nation, which is bidding for inclusion in the 2021 tournament.

Sinclair is eligible for Norway because of his grandfather's heritage.

De Belin faces the prospect of being sidelined from the NRL until well into next year after his expensive legal bid to quash the no-fault stand-down policy was rejected by Justice Melissa Perry.

St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor was hopeful de Belin was going to be cleared in time for the Dragons' clash against the Knights in Mudgee last week.

Sinclair's own court case will again appear before Wollongong Local Court next week.

Both he and de Belin were granted bail when charged after a complaint over an alleged incident inside a Wollongong apartment in December last year.

Click Here: cheap kanken backpacks for sale

Arts leaders are demanding a long-term vision from Canberra in the wake of the Morrison government's shock re-election.

Those who work in the visual and performing arts say the recent election campaign was dominated by tax reform, leaving little air-time for the specific issues plaguing their industries. A key concern was that the Liberal Party's campaign website did not contain a comprehensive arts policy.

Loading

Replay

Replay video

Instead, the Coalition courted votes off the back of grants to live music venues. There was also a promise to help fund an Adelaide-based Aboriginal Art and Cultures Gallery, as part of a string of measures aimed at boosting tourism.

Click Here: cheap kanken backpacks for sale

In contrast, the Labor party pitched several arts policies to the Australian public. Its suite of commitments included a $37.5 million boost to grants provider Australia Council and $8 million to help establish a new First Nations theatre company. During the campaign, former opposition leader Bill Shorten claimed arts policy was "not an add-on" for his side of politics.

Advertisement

Now that the Coalition has remained in power, arts leaders say the government has an opportunity to show it has a long-term plan for arts and culture. When the Abbott government came to power in 2013, it scrapped Labor's Creative Australia policy, and a big-picture strategy for making Australia's cultural industries more sustainable hasn't existed – at least publicly – since.

Esther Anatolitis, the executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, said a public roadmap was vital if the Morrison government was serious about jobs and growth.

"Now is the time for the next arts minister to have a really good think about what they'd like their legacy to be," she said. "There are a lot of very serious issues for an industry that contributes $111.7 billion to the economy. We need the government to take us seriously."

Helen Marcou, from Save Live Australia's Music, said the arts sector has been calling for a long-term cultural plan for years in order to get away from "policy driven by election cycles".

"The Prime Minister himself quotes Australian music and is a big fan of [John] Farnham and Tina Arena," she said. "But in order to propel these Australian stories nationally and internationally, we need not just a vision but a long-term investment.

Loading

"If they're good economic managers, as the Coalition professes to be, the sheer economics of investing in the arts makes sense. In Victoria alone, around 16,000 people work in the music industry. This is a growth area we can really invest in."

Near the top of the arts industry's wish-list is to see some funding restored to the Australia Council now that the government is predicting a budget surplus. The council is the government's largest investment vehicle for the arts.

Bethwyn Serow, the executive director of the Australian Major Performing Arts Group, said an Australia Council funding boost will greatly benefit individual artists as well as small to medium-sized arts organisations.

"Now is the opportunity to be on the front foot," she said. "In history past, the Coalition has supported the arts with the formation of the Australia Council. We want some strong, definitive choices moving forward. All of us are saying there needs to be more investment."

Ms Anatolitis said it was dispiriting to see millions of dollars in taxpayer money funnelled towards projects such as the Australian War Memorial expansion while other cultural institutions have seen "funding cuts for years and years".

"The data shows us that more Australians engage in the arts – go to galleries, read a book – than go to sports events," she said. "The reason we need excellent policy is to inspire great work. How is local content on Netflix, for example, protected [with quotas]? How can artists form galleries that sustain themselves? How do kids get great arts education?"

Live Performance Australia's Evelyn Richardson said the government should be looking at ways the arts can help boost areas such as tourism and regional development.

"It's about not just looking at us as a silo industry in our own right, but looking at the relationships with other parts of our society like health and education," she said. "There's a lot more that could be done in terms of joining the dots."

One of the Coalition's perceived strengths from the arts industry's perspective is its apparent willingness to reform visas. After all, the federal government's own inquiry into the local music industry recommended new visa arrangements for touring artists.

"Our arts contribute to tourism," Ms Marcou said. "Being able to export our music and our artists internationally and also work with other countries to tell the Australian story is really important for us. It's time Australia was on the world stage."

Andre Reyes (formerly of Gipsy Kings)
Darling Harbour Theatre, May 19
★★★

Had we come to the right place?

Click Here: cheap kanken backpacks

Dressed for dancing, many of the people milling in the foyer had bought tickets to this show on the promise of “GIPSY KINGS by Andre Reyes”, with the last three words in very small print on the ads.

But the video screens here were displaying the rather less catchy “Andre Reyes (formerly of Gipsy Kings)”.

Advertisement

It turns out the 51-year-old, who in 2014 left the flamenco fusionists famous for Bamboleo, hadn’t got around to clearing his use of the brand name with his elder brother. Nicolas Reyes remains lead singer of the act spawned by two families of France-based Spanish gypsies in the late 1970s.

The forced change in promotional material meant this 2500-capacity theatre was only two-thirds full. But in the end neither that, nor the fact the voice of the hits was absent, stopped the crowd from moving and hollering their appreciation throughout the two-hour set.

Andre has put together a pretty mean family band of his own, featuring three young relatives on Spanish guitar, backed with keyboard, drums, electric bass and virtuosic percussion from Brazilian Guilherme Dos Santos.

Their music sat somewhere between rumba, salsa and pop, with most of the flamenco element confined to the singing. From opener A tu Vera on, the anguished, earthy ululations of Reyes and sons never stopped packing an emotional punch.

The entire first half was strong, the likes of Gipsy Kings hits Djobi Djoba, Bem Bem Maria and Bailame intoxicating with their multiple layers of rhythm, lightning fretwork from David “Mario” Reyes, and impassioned vocals. It was also a delight to hear Andre channel Julio Iglesias on ballad Un Amor, which got the smartphone torch sway-along that seems to have become obligatory at pop concerts.

The second hour flagged somewhat, the danceable numbers suffering from a saminess in their syncopated bass lines, and guitar strumming patterns that rarely deviated from the rumba style with an open palm slap on the second and fourth beat.

The covers of My Way and Hotel California were inessential, and the same could be said of Jose “Chico” Castillo, a minor Latin pop star of the 1990s who on this night was a portly hype-man and occasional singer.

Charming at first, his cries of "Gipsy Kings!" (he mustn't have seen the legal letter) and insistence that we applaud or clap along to nearly everything became grating.

Not that this audience seemed to mind, especially once the set reached the two songs that make "Gipsy Kings" a name worth fighting for – that explosive earworm Bamboleo, and Volare, the Italian pop staple that is the one cover the Reyes make their own.

Damion Flower may lose his slot in the $14 million Everest as he faces a show cause notice from Racing NSW as to why he should be allowed to continue in the industry while facing drug importation charges.

Flower paid for his slot in full for 2019 and it remains unclear whether he will be refunded that money if he loses the slot. Racing NSW will wait until the outcome of the show cause notice to decide if he can continue as a slot holder from 2020 in its flagship race.

“No matter what the circumstances, Racing NSW will provide due process and natural justice to its participants,” Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys said.

“Accordingly, I stress that we are not pre-judging Mr Flower’s case who is entitled to the presumption of innocence and will be given every opportunity to respond to the show cause notice issued by Racing NSW when he is able to do so.

AdvertisementLoading

“However, in the interim, it is critical that the integrity, image and interests of thoroughbred racing in New South Wales be protected which is why Racing NSW has imposed interim conditions on Mr Flower’s participation in the thoroughbred racing industry.

“It is also important that other racing participants that race horses with Mr Flower are not unfairly prejudiced as a result of the charges against Mr Flower.

“The interim conditions have been framed so that those persons, who are not involved and need to be treated accordingly so as they are not disadvantaged due to circumstance beyond their control, can continue to train and race horses."

Flower has been charged with six counts of importing a border controlled substance, cocaine, and Racing NSW moved swiftly on Friday.

"Racing NSW acted immediately to protect the integrity, image and interests of thoroughbred racing by issuing a show cause notice to Mr Flower on that day, which has been served on his representative, requiring him to show cause as to why the provisions of AR23 should not be imposed against him in respect of his ongoing participation in the thoroughbred racing industry," a statement said.

"In this respect, it is important to note that the stand-down conditions under AR23 (which were introduced into the Rules of Racing in October 2013) are intended to protect the integrity, image and interests of thoroughbred racing while charges are being determined against a person and Racing NSW is in no way prejudging the charges against Mr Flower nor interfering with his entitlement to the presumption of innocence."

Until a hearing is held Flower’s horses will be allowed to continue to race but any prizemoney will be frozen and held by Racing NSW or provided to any third party subject to legal requirements, until all charges issued against Flower have been determined.

Click Here: cheap kanken backpacks

Flower’s colours of red with white spots will not be used in races or barrier trials.

Further if Flower is granted bail on the charges he will not be allowed to enter any racecourse or training centre or participate in the preparation for racing or training of any horse.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Jodi McKay has promised to unite the NSW Labor Party and “put people first” if elected to the top job next month.

Announcing her bid for the Labor leadership in her inner Sydney Strathfield electorate, Ms McKay styled herself as someone with “country values” who could broaden Labor’s base across the state.

“I despair that in rural areas across NSW there is a view that if you are unhappy with the National Party, you still can’t vote for the Labor Party,” Ms McKay said.

“I say to rural NSW, if a country kid from Gloucester can stand for the leadership of the Labor Party, then you can vote Labor.”

AdvertisementLoading

Ms McKay grew up in Gloucester on the Mid North Coast of NSW, but left when she was 18 and settled in Newcastle. She was the member for Newcastle between 2007-2011, and held several ministerial roles during the last Labor government, including as the minister for tourism and minister for the Hunter.

After a hiatus, she returned to politics as the Member for Strathfield in 2015, and has served in shadow cabinet since then.

Ms McKay’s nomination sets up a two-horse race for the leadership, after Kogarah MP Chris Minns announced his bid on Thursday.

The successful candidate will be chosen through a month-long ballot process, with the parliamentary caucus and rank-and-file members each having a 50 per cent say.

In a bid to demonstrate her support in the local branches, Ms McKay assembled dozens of grassroots members, many decked out in her red state election campaign t-shirts, to serve as the backdrop as she announced her nomination in Homebush West.

“I’ve always stood up for what is right,” Ms McKay said. “I can also unite our caucus. We have to have a stable and united team if we are to win the election in 2023.”

Ms McKay did not go into detail about her key policies, and said she would consult branch members about “their vision” for their communities.

“I want the party members to tell me what they want to do with the environment and renewable energy, and what they expect us to do around climate change,” she said.

“I want to know what their vision is for education and hospitals. We have to put people first.”

Loading

However, she listed education as her “key” priority, and was critical of the party’s focus on the issue through the prism of infrastructure at the March election.

“We failed to put meat around our argument on schools and hospitals,” Ms McKay said.

“We spoke about demountables, we spoke about air conditioning, we spoke about schools maintenance. We need to do better than that.”

Both Ms McKay and Mr Minns are from the party’s Right, and will spend the next month canvassing support from colleagues, branch members, and unions.

While some Left wing unions have made clear their disdain for Mr Minns, they have stopped short of endorsing Ms McKay.

Other unions, including the Right wing Electrical Trade Unions, Health Services Union, and Transport Workers Union, were struggling to find consensus support for either candidate.

Click Here: Sports Water Bottle Accessories