It’s hard to look at people who spend the exciting, demanding parts of their sporting career lying down and think of them as super athletes.

Because we can all drive a car, Formula One can tend to look like a bunch of over-paid, carefully coiffed, slim-hipped fellows turning a wheel with their wrists and occasionally flexing their ankles. And then poncing around somewhere like Monte Carlo, where this weekend’s Grand Prix is being held, being feted by the fabulously rich.

On a rare and recent visit behind the firewall curtain, at the top-secret Mercedes-AMG Formula One facility in the UK, we were asked to consider the weight of the average human head; five kilograms. It was then pointed out that this year’s F1 cars are, at the same time as regularly exceeding 330km/h, subjecting their drivers to 5G of crushing forces.

This means that, as he takes a long, sweeping corner, Lewis Hamilton’s head effectively weighs 25kg (roughly an eight-year-old child) and would thus attempt to roll right off his shoulders if he didn’t have the neck strength of an All Black prop forward.

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“When he first came to F1 racing, back in 2007, Lewis had a 14-inch collar size, today he’s got an 18-inch collar. And that’s typical of all drivers these days, their necks just go straight down from their jaw lines, and they really have to train those muscles to do the job,” our guide, whose role is so top secret he can’t tell us his name, explains.

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“The G forces are so extreme that their organs are constantly being squished, and in Melbourne this year, at the end of the straight, Lewis was telling me that it was was pulling the tears out of his tear ducts and he could see them splashing on to his visor under braking.”

You may know that racing drivers often “flat spot” their tyres by locking up their brakes, which leaves a visible burn mark on the rubber, thus reducing its effectiveness, in any form of racing.

In F1, however, it’s more of a problem, because it causes so much vibration at the car’s higher speeds that “the muscle that holds your eyeball still in its socket can’t cope and that means the drivers can no longer see the apexes of the corners properly, so they slow down”.

Another problem that can slow a driver is the fact that, by the final stages of a race, he might have lost as much as 40 per cent of his brain function.

It can get so hot inside an F1 car’s inhumane, carbon-fibre sarcophagi – up to 55 degrees Celsius – that drivers lose 4kg in fluids during the race, and according to Mercedes-AMG, each kilogram you sweat out costs you, temporarily of course, about 10 per cent of your brain power.

The drivers are so weak when they get out at the end of a race, in fact, that Formula One has strict maximum-weight rules for its trophies, to make sure they can lift them.

Unfortunately, the human brain has quite a lot to think about inside an F1 car, outside of constantly calculating braking distances, overtaking widths and, in the case of the legendarily dangerous Monaco circuit, just how close you can get to the barriers without destroying your car and banging yourself up quite badly.

During the 90-minute race this weekend, drivers will make more than 3600 gear changes, each, and will manage a steering wheel that looked to us, as we were fortunate enough to hold one briefly, like an IQ test for super-smart babies.

It features 25 buttons, offering some 500 different settings, some of which – like brake balance – the drivers adjust on every single lap.

We were also allowed to look inside one of Hamilton’s recent cars and it is truly astonishing how uncomfortable it is. Apparently the world champion likes to go without seat padding, so that he can “feel” the car around him. Honestly, it must feel like riding a skateboard, flat out, down one of Egypt’s bigger pyramids.

Then there’s the driving position, which is just cruel. Because weight is everything in F1, the goal is to keep the heavy part of the human – the lumbar region – as low as possible, so the driver is basically positioned as if they were lying in a bath, while the pedals are where the taps would be.

To top it off, there’s a giant battery positioned right under his backside – picture a mobile-phone battery the size of a barbecue, and giving off a proportional amount of heat. This battery gives the car’s performance an electric boost, but apparently it toasts the hell out of Hamilton’s buns, and he’s constantly complaining about it.

All of his suffering would be for nought, of course, without the stupidly large team of 1600 people who work at the headquarters in Brackley, many of them sharing four shifts, so the factory can run 24 hours, every day.

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New and very expensive carbon-fibre parts are constantly being invented, built and tested, and most of them never even make it onto the actual racing car.

In 2018, some part of the car was updated, or redesigned, on average, every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day.

“The car that starts the first race is not the same as the car that finishes the last one and if you’re not constantly improving, you fall behind. Last season we’d gained two seconds over the course of the season. If we hadn’t done that, we’d be two seconds behind everyone else, and that would mean finishing last,” our secretive guide explains.

It might look like a series of fast-moving advertising billboards, grandiosely burning fossil fuels, but there’s a lot more for Formula One than a bloke lying down to put his life on the line.

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The Opera House burst into life this evening in a display of Australian flora to celebrate the opening of Vivid 2019.

Los Angeles artist Andrew Thomas Huang created the artwork, which combines floral imagery with motion-captured movement from a dancer.

"I knew I needed to make a piece that was unique to Sydney and Australia and something that was in conversation with a place I had never been to before," said Huang, who had never seen the Opera House before accepting the commission to create the work.

The Opera House display is one marquee work in an event that spans nine precincts across Sydney: the Botanical Gardens, the Rocks, Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbour, Luna Park, the Harbour, Circular Quay, Chatswood and Barangaroo.

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At Tumbalong Lights in the centre of Darling Harbour, visitors will see a set of interactive works that celebrate the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing.

The Harbour itself will be lit up by cruise ships and ferries in different colours as they pass through the tiles of an invisible grid mapped by satellite.

In the Royal Botanical Gardens there are 15 different works with "KA3323" among them. The alphabet soup-named work is a retro-futuristic contraption resembling a satellite dish.

Attendees can control the dish with a joystick to hunt for "alien" sounds across the radio spectrum.

But the event is not just about lights. There are musical and intellectual events scheduled across the festival period.

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Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said Vivid – which runs from 6pm each night between 24 May and 15 June – would contribute millions to the state's economy.

"Vivid Sydney is incredibly popular and last year 2.25 million people attended across the 23 days and nights of the festival," Stuart Ayres said.

"With guests of all demographics, nationalities and abilities visiting Sydney for this event, it's important that everyone is considerate and enjoys the sense of community throughout the CBD and nearby precincts," Mr Ayres said.

Track a good 4 with the rail true so should play even early with gradual trend away from the fence.

Race 1 2YO HCP (1200m) 

Smart Murwillumbah gelding 1. Badoosh can get punters off to a flying start. Was strong late first-up in a 2YO Hcp at home despite doing plenty of work wide from the 500m, and this looks a lovely progression for leading country stable. Drawn out but will naturally drift back.

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Dangers: Sunshine Coast filly 2. Underwood held off Badoosh resuming to claim her maiden as a clear favourite but doubt she can do the same again, while Eagle Farm gelding 3. Shanahan will improve off his first-up run at the Sunshine Coast and looks clear best of the rest.
How to play it: Badoosh to win and trifecta 1-2-3

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Race 2 MAIDEN PLATE (1000m)

More even and trickier affair here and not often you can be with a 6YO mare still searching for her first win after 25 starts, but Grafton-based 11. Valley Crossing has been right around the placings all prep in generally stronger maidens and is drawn to get a lovely trail just off the speed.

Dangers: Murwillumbah 3YO filly 6. Exploding Star was disappointing as favourite at home last start when up in trip but much better suited back to the 1000m, although likes to go forward so wide barrier some concern. Local 4YO debutant gelding 3. Montana Mist (Bradbury's Luck x Stop And Stare by Royal Academy) draws the fence for his debut and looks ready. Ballina filly 10. Runamuk is hard fit after three runs but will settle back and needs plenty of speed on up front dropping back in trip. Include 2YO Grafton filly 12. Delta Eagle in wider exotics after a solid debut this trip, although was unwanted in betting, while 4YO Lismore gelding and first starter 4. Your Spin (Myboycharlie x Helen's Fortune by Nine Carat) has also been forward enough at the trials to run well.
How to play it: Valley Crossing each way and first four 3-6-11/3-4-6-10-11-12

Race 3 MAIDEN PLATE (1000m)

Play it again Sam over the five furlongs, and with any sort of decent run in transit, hard to see Ballina 3YO filly 5. Annie Ethyl being beaten. Has only been run over late in both runs back when rock solid in the market and peaks now third-up in what is a thinner race.

Dangers: Liked the open trial of Beaudesert filly 6. Belle Jess (Falvelon x La Flash by Frisco View) who is bred for speed, and hops the border with an inside draw.
How to play it: Annie Ethyl to win and quinella 5 and 6

Race 4 MAIDEN HCP (1300m)

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Murwillumbah 3YO gelding 2. Malawi Gold had threatened to win his maiden all prep in Victoria, before letting punters down resuming at new home as a heavily backed odds-on favourite. Looks a near good thing in this field after the stablemate was scratched.

Dangers: Ballina filly 4. Be Watchful has had two fair runs back from a spell and should peak over longer trip; while Grafton mare 5. No Doubt A Lady has continually found the line from off the speed this prep, and also suited up in distance.
How to play it: Malowi Gold to win and trifecta 2/4-5

Race 5 CL2 HCP (1000m)

Good deep sprint. Murwillumbah filly 2. Dram Of Delago returned with a dominant and well-backed win at BM 58 level and normally holds form early in the prep. Draws out and this is a little tougher.

Dangers: Consistent Grafton filly 4. Oyashio Drift has improved to win her last two in smart fashion but tougher opposition here and a tricky draw so must leave the barriers clean. Versatile Gold Coast 6YO 1. Old Trieste finished hard in the heavy at the Sunshine Coast to rack up another placing, and while form is solid around this grade, almost looks weighted out of it up to 60.5kg. Really liked the progression of 4YO Ballina gelding 5. Deubank who finished hard to win his maiden before again surging late in a decent C1. Needs the pace on, but in well at the weights. Ballina 4YO gelding 7. Dukatti has early speed and will try to take advantage of the inside gate. Creeping down in the weights but doubt he can hold them all out.
How to play it: Dram Of Delago to win and trifecta 1-2-4/1-2-4-5-7
 

Race 6 BM 58 HCP (1200m)

Improving 4YO gelding and another from the Matthew Dunn yard 3. Doctor On Ice maps beautifully second-up despite the sharp rise in weight. Was competitive up to BM 66 level in the spring and flew home late resuming in a good quality C2. Leading country rider goes on.

Dangers: Gold Coast 5YO mare 2. La Renarde mixed her form in similar grade last spring but did have problems. Given a lengthy break before a brilliant recent open trial win, and if she jumps clean will be right there. Gets a blindfold assist for the first time. Local 5YO gelding 1. Crooked Gent continues to close off his races okay but will be forced a long way back from a wide barrier and will need plenty of tempo on to chase.  Toowoomba 3YO gelding 3. Le Beau Renard, who has fair metro form in Brisbane, and Grafton filly 12. Julianne's Wish, who charged home to win her maiden second-up, are value in the exotics.
How to play it: Doctor On Ice to win and quinella 2 and 3

Race 7 CASINO FLYING (1000m)

Feature sprint of the day, and smart 4YO Port Macquarie gelding 4. Patriot can go back-to-back after zooming home late to win the feature Lighting at Gunnedah over this trip. Won a BM 66 and just missed in a strong BM 80 earlier this prep. On the quick back-up and draws to get plenty of cover midfield.

Dangers: Grafton 6YO gelding 2. Cool Prince was bulletproof along the north coast last prep winning four straight at BM 66 level over longer trips, each time from right on the pace. First-up form, though, isn't flash and will be giving some speedsters a decent start. Not easy to assess 7YO Toowoomba gelding 1. Boomwa who did win in heavy ground at the Sunshine Coast two runs back before failing in stronger grade at the Gold Coast. On strong metro form earlier this prep would be right there, but weight is a real query over this trip. Consistent and well travelled 6YO gelding 7. High Cost hasn't miss a place in four runs this prep, while Inverell 7YO gelding 3. Puzzling Wonder resumes with solid fresh form. Went close in a BM 83 two runs back, and will take up a forward position from a suitable barrier.
How to play it: Patriot to win

Race 8 CASINO CUP (1400m)

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The big one of the day is an open affair. Not entirely sure the inside draw will suit smart Toowoomba 5YO gelding 5. Fomo, but he looks well placed second-up over this trip after working home nicely behind Ef Troop at Doomben two Saturdays back. Good strike rate, and should park a few lengths off the speed and launch late. Over the odds!

Dangers: High class 5YO Lismore mare 7. Queen Of Kingston rarely runs a bad race, and after a terrific effort behind Noble Boy in the Country C'ship Final at Randwick, flew home to just miss in a BM 84 at Grafton. Just needs some cover to be charging into the finish. They'll be cheering for 6YO gelding and local hope 4. Landmarks who resumed with an average run at BM 84 level, but always improves after a run, and won an open BM 80 second-up last prep. The Listed Weetwood run of Toowoomba 6YO gelding 2. Apoloboom was better than it looked and confirmed that in a comfortable win against weaker at Dalby. Good strike rate from a smart stable but has to overcome a wide barrier. Murwillumbah 6YO gelding 1. Perfect Dare took on much stronger last year, and undoubtedly has the class, but did it tough under a big weight behind Ef Troop in stronger grade, and draws a wide gate. Eagle Farm-based gelding 11. Constantine continues to hit the line hard in good quality races, and again is drawn to settle back with cover and finish strong.
How to play it: Fomo each way and first four 2-5-7/1-2-4-5-7-11

Race 9 CL3 HCP (1400m)

Murwillumbah 3YO filly 2. Axella has ability winning a thin BM 65 at Ipswich two back before way out of her depth in the Group 3 Gunsynd at Doomben. Obvious big drop back in class, and draws to get a lovely trail just off the speed.

Dangers: Nicely bred Lismore 4YO gelding 4. Pierino took on metro Highway company a few weeks back after a consistent campaign around Canberra, and should be in the finish from the good gate and with 2kg claim; while Grafton 4YO gelding 5. Tesarc won a BM 66 at home two back before another nice closing run under more weight at the Gold Coast, but draws very wide.
How to play it: Axella to win and quinella 2 and 4

BEST BETS

Race 6 3. DOCTOR ON ICE
Race 7 4. PATRIOT

BEST VALUE 

R8 5. FOMO

Tips supplied by Racing NSW.

Full form and race replays available at racingnsw.com.au.

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.

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"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."

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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.

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“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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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"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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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"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."