Track good 4 and rail true so fairly even early before gradually trend away from the fence.

RACE 1 – 11.40AM: McDONALDS DUBBO & WELLINGTON MAIDEN PLATE (1100m)

Debutant gelding 2. Cyclone Clyde (Rockface x Tembissa by Johannesburg) is bred for speed and bolted in his only trial under a hold all the way. Looks ready to rip for smart local stable, although will need to jump cleanly from a wide barrier.
Dangers: Gulgong colt 1. Chevron Prince came from well back on debut this track when easy out in the market. Draws to tuck away well back on the inside and be produced late. Liked the recent trial work of 6. Slatey Bay – stablemate to Chevron Prince – but will need plenty of luck drawn well off the track while Scone filly 10. Kohinhoor Road has had three fair runs back from a spell, and gets a lovely run just off the speed but up in weight.
How to play it: Cyclone Clyde to win and quinella 1 and 2.

RACE 2 – 12.15PM: KINGS HALL JEWELLERS MAIDEN HANDICAP (1300m)

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Another wide open charge, although short on depth, and quite a few will be waiting a long time to win. Liked the effort second run back from Nyngan-trained gelding 6. Tapanui who closed from a long way out at Parkes. Former Victorian campaigner which ran well up to 2000m late last year, and gets in nicely at the weights.
Dangers: Four-year-old Scone gelding 1. Agent King was well backed resuming at Tamworth when just even to the line, but much better over this longer trip, although drawn very wide. Mudgee gelding 4. Leica Benz hasn't run on in two starts so far, although company was a bit stronger than this. Draws OK, and with that experience expect a much improved run.
How to play it: Tapanui each-way.

RACE 3 – 12.50PM: LANDMARK HARCOURT OPEN HANDICAP (1300m)

Really competitive race, with nearly 400 starts across the field. Banking on six-year-old Mudgee gelding 5. Go The Gantry being ridden quiet from the off the speed. Was run over late in stronger Cup field at Scone after leading, but before that flashed home in the Town Plate at Wellington before finishing hard to win a weaker BM75 at Narromine. Any sort of cover back around midfield, and he can charge over the top.
Dangers: Seven-year-old Muswellbrook gelding 6. Star Shaft looms as a threat after finishing off nicely in consecutive metro runs. Will appreciate the wide stretch here, and look for him late. Local seven-year-old gelding 8. Any Blinkin' Day rarely puts in a bad one, and fought on OK from the front in the Parkes Cup. Back in trip but draws well and should be in the finish. Five-year-old Gulgong gelding 4. Sugar Dance is on the cusp after three solid runs back from a spell, holding his ground OK in and around the speed. Will need some luck under a big weight and wide draw, but is capable.
How to play it: Go The Gantry to win and box first four 5-6-8/4-5-6-8.

RACE 4 – 1.25PM: SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND BALL CLASS 1 & MAIDEN PLATE (1600m)

Yet another big and even field at set weights, and will be a long time between drinks for most of them. But one runner still in his first prep and showing enough promise can make it two wins in three starts. Local three-year-old gelding 5. Mayaman was specked in from an enormous price before charging late to win his maiden at Narromine, and then got home hard again in a better race at Mudgee. Stays at the mile, and as long as he gets some cover early, will be flying home again.
Dangers: Three-year-old Goulburn gelding 6. Pauldron won his maiden three runs back at Wellington, and last couple have been solid around this grade. Draws a nice trailing gate, and should be in the finish again. Local five-year-old gelding 1. Comzig has been up for a while but really attacked the line at big odds in his last two. Will go back from a wide gate, but suited down this wide straight. Gulgong mare 8. Tropicana Lass having her third straight run at the mile is best of the rest.
How to play it: Mayaman to win and quinella 5 and 6.

RACE 5 – 2.05PM: AFA INSURANCE CLASS 1 & MAIDEN PLATE (1600m)

Same conditions, but even tougher, although more depth and quality to work with. Going with maiden three-year-old Scone gelding 10. Greenskeeper which is still improving. Rattled home to just miss at Tamworth after a solid closing effort as a well-backed favourite at Taree. Drawn the fence, and will again run the mile out strongly. Earmuffs go on pre-race.
Dangers: If Scone mare 8. The Cyprian reproduces her winning maiden effort from two runs back, she's in the mix. Found the step up to Class 1 a little tough, and appears a mile is as far as she wants, but has ability. Local six-year-old gelding 4. Traffic Cop was disappointing at Mudgee when a little easy in betting, but rock solid in the market in previous few when right around the placings. Draws OK and gets a useful claim. Four-year-old Muswellbrook gelding 3. Litt Up didn't finish off either in that same Mudgee race behind Redazzity after being friendless in betting, but previous form was solid, and draws a nice trailing gate. Parkes three-year-old gelding 6. On A Promise broke through to win his maiden last start, but this is naturally tougher.
How to play it: Greenskeeper to win and box trifecta 3-4-8-10.

RACE 6 – 2.40PM: WAYNE MALLISON PAINTER & DECORATOR CONSOLATION BENCHMARK 58 HANDICAP (1300m)

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It doesn't get any easier with several chances, but the standout value is three-year-old Muswellbrook gelding 3. Asudem who just needs even luck from the wide gate, with blinkers and lugging bit coming off for the first time. Has had two fair runs back from a spell closing off OK, and will appreciate the spacious track. Was right on the heels of some decent horses in late spring.
Dangers: Lightly raced local three-year-old gelding 6. Gorn Hoff was brave scoring an upset maiden win on this track at only third career start, and second horse has since run well again. Will park right on the speed from a good draw. Talented four-year-old Mudgee gelding 11. Thunderzone went straight to a metro Highway after screaming home to win his maiden at Orange earlier in the year, but will be forced to go right back from the extreme outside gate in first run for more than four months. Another locally-trained four-year-old 12. Sipharderson is ready for this longer trip after getting the line nicely in two runs back, but also draws wide. Front-running local five-year-old gelding and last-start winner 8. Phenomenal Spirit will again stick on hard, Scone four-year-old gelding 4. Axis has had two reasonable runs back from a spell and Cessnock-trained 5. Ghetto Boy, which mixes his form but draws an ideal barrier, head the rest.
How to play it: Asudem each way and first four 3-6-11/3-4-5-6-8-11-12.

RACE 7 – 3.20PM: REGIONAL AUSTRALIA INSURANCE SOLUTIONS WINTER COUNTRY CLASSIC QUALIFIER F&M BENCHMARK 58 HANDICAP (1300m)

Promising Muswellbrook filly 7. Little Miss Nic can go on with the job up in trip after sweeping home to win her maiden this track in first run for eight months.
Dangers: Scone mare 10. Ecstatically won a good quality maiden two runs back before giving plenty of cheek from the front at Muswellbrook. Draws to control the race again, and will take plenty of running down. Canberra mare 3. Fraternater was disappointing on speed this grade at Parkes after sweeping home to win at Wagga, and gets no favours up in weight and drawn wide. Cowra mare 5. Dictation finished nicely to win a Class 1 at Wagga two back before easy in betting when doing her best work late at Narromine. Draws the fence and will get a nice stalking run. Scone mare 8. Rosesay hasn't lived up to the early promise, but often tackled stronger fields. Better suited over this longer trip, especially drawn out.
How to play it: Little Miss Nic to win and quinella 7 and 10.

RACE 8 – 3.55PM: REGIONAL AUSTRALIA INSURANCES SOLUTIONS WINTER COUNTRY CLASSIC QUALIFIER CG&E BENCHMARK 58 HANDICAP (1300m)

Now the boys' turn, and very keen on four-year-old Mudgee gelding 4. Regal Cannon resuming for smart stable. Probably a peak second-up runner, but still produces fresh and trial was sharp. Took a while to break his maiden late last year, but consistent galloper who can stalk the speed from the inside draw.
Dangers: Rival Mudgee six-year-old gelding 8. Skin Deep hasn't won for a long time, but after a long lay-off has hit the line impressively in two runs this prep, although up sharply in weight. Five-year-old Scone gelding 6. Marokawa comes back from a solid effort in a stronger class 2 over the Scone carnival, and had previously held his own in a Saturday Highway at Hawkesbury. Will just need some luck from the wide barrier to be in the finish. Mudgee four-year-old gelding 7. Petain has been hitting the line hard in similar company, but also has to overcome a wide gate.
How to play it: Regal Cannon each-way.

RACE 9 – 4.35PM: THE GIFT CLOSET BENCHMARK 66 HANDICAP (1000m)

No loafing in the last, which suits local five-year-old gelding 3. Larlabrook who resumes for leading stable with a strong fresh record, and draws an ideal gate.
Dangers: Six-year-old Gulgong gelding 1. Attalea has been very consistent this prep around this grade, and draws to park off the speed and swoop late. Eight-year-old Mudgee gelding 7. Escebee is another which will drift back and finish hard, so too local mare 8. Go Beau Jangles which flew home to win this track at big odds last start, and draws to get plenty of cover back in the field.
How to play it: Larlabrook to win and first four 1-3/1-2-3-7-8.

BEST BETS:

R5 10. GREENSKEEPER
R7 7. LITTLE MIS NIC
BEST VALUE:
R6 3. AUSDEM

Supplied by Racing NSW.
Full form and race replays at www.racingnsw.com.au

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The son of former federal politician Bob Baldwin has been reported missing to police.

Robert Baldwin, 28, lives in Adelaide with his wife.

Bob Baldwin told the Newcastle Herald on Friday morning that his son had not been seen by his wife, and that he had not contacted her or his family, since leaving home at 7am on Thursday.

Mr Baldwin said the behaviour was out of character and the matter had been reported to South Australian Police.

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Robert Baldwin's family have shared posts on Facebook seeking information about his whereabouts.

"Have you seen my son Rob, he went missing in Adelaide yesterday," the former politician posted on Facebook on Friday.

Mr Baldwin served as the federal member for Paterson, based in the Hunter, until 2016, representing the Liberal Party.

He served in the ministry of both the Howard and Abbott governments, including roles as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Minister for Industry and Minister for the Environment.

In opposition he held positions in the shadow ministry, including spokesman for defence, science and personnel, regional development and tourism.

Newcastle Herald

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Eileen Ormsby commissioned a hit on her husband.

Ormsby, the author of The Darkest Web, contacted a range of murder-for-hire services on the dark web asking someone to kill her ex. Price negotiable.

It was a safe bet that nothing would come of it.

First, the address she gave for her husband was a vacant lot.

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Second, as an investigative journalist trying to sort fact from fiction about what was really available on the dark web she believed that sites claiming to offer online hitmen were scams because there was little repeat business.

"People aren't exactly going to say, 'Oh gee Eileen, I found a great hitman the other day'," she says over lunch.

And last, the target of the hit, her much loved husband Paul Desira, was "already well and truly dead". Desira, 27, died in a 2002 skydiving accident in Fort Wales, Florida. It was a last "fun jump" before the couple returned to Australia after a year skydiving full-time.

"The two of us jumped out. After we deployed our parachutes, he was down below me falling a lot faster, and he was spinning and he hit someone else. Their parachutes wrapped up, they dropped and both were killed by the impact. I landed next to them," she says.

"It was one of those things [where] you always know that death is a possibility, and you always talk about it. I didn't stop skydiving, but I didn't have another partner for a very long time either."

Welcome to the dark world of Eileen Ormsby. Over lunch at 12-Micron in Barangaroo, Sydney, we start with cheese toasties with a difference; pressed truffles on pecorino. Everything in the restaurant is shiny and affluent. The waiters lavish us with attention – a big change for Ormsby, who admits fine dining is rare for her as a struggling author.

For nearly eight years, Ormsby has spent most of her time in the shadows, researching The Darkest Web, investigative journalism that gallops along at a cracking pace, and The Silk Road, published in 2013, about online drug markets. Along the way, she has become a commentator on the dark web, publishing a range of articles in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Vice and other publications.

On Sunday, she will talk about the dark web at #VIVIDIdeas.

The dark web is the online world that "exists deep beneath the one we know". It is only accessible by a special browser that protects the anonymity of both website and visitor.

"It is the internet's evil twin, and few people are willing to venture inside," writes Ormsby.

She is one of them.

"There was a saying on Silk Road, 'I came for the drugs, I stayed for the revolution'," she says, explaining how she first got interested.

An anonymous marketplace for illegal drugs on the dark web, Silk Road launched in 2011, was closed down in 2013 by the FBI, only to reopen for a year before being closed again.

"I really believed in everything about it. [Silk Road] had a really enigmatic leader. They were really intelligent people. There was robust discussion about prohibition. It was a pleasure to be in there every day, and writing about it," she says.

Silk Road's founder, Dread Pirate Roberts, had wanted to create a place where "peaceful people could buy and sell drugs free from violence."

"When I first got commissioned to write the book, the online market was still running strong. I thought well, this is actually revolutionary. Because there are drug dealers that have ratings on all their drugs, the purity [is verified], they're independently tested so at least people know what they are getting, whereas when you buy them on the street, or in a nightclub, you have no idea. "

"[I thought] this is a new frontier of drug dealing, the end of prohibition, this is what a post-prohibition world might look like."

"Silk Road had a doctor on staff, and they gave advice to drug users on how [different drugs] interacted. They wanted to keep people alive more than other drug dealers I have seen."

Because she didn't ever hide that she was a journalist, her research and real life collided in many ways.

The owner of online hitmen business Besa Mafia claimed to have ordered a hit on her. "I knew he didn't have operatives in Australia so they were pretty empty threats," she says.

Her research also took her to a Bangkok jail to interview an alleged dark web drug warlord, Roger Thomas Clark, aka the Plural of Mongoose. He is now in the United States, waiting for his case to go to trial.

She has been sent a fake ID and a driver's licence (which used her SMH byline photo next to the Game of Thrones character's name, Daenerys Targaryen) by a dark web vendor touting for business. She has gained access to files of online drug sellers and would-be online assassins, and watched scammers extort others out of millions in bitcoin. A price list, included by an online applicant for a job on Besa Mafia, promised to "cut, break bones" for $1500 and "hand kill, sharp object" someone for $7500.

Despite the hype, Ormsby says to her knowledge nobody has been killed as a direct result of a hit commissioned online. But Amy Allwine, a bubbly and devout Christian, was murdered in St Paul, Minnesota, in November 2016, after a failed attempt by her husband to find an online killer. Using the pseudonym dogdaygod, Stephen Allwine had contacted Besa Mafia looking for someone who'd make his wife's death look like "an accident".

Frustrated by delays, Allwine did the job himself, killing his wife with a drug he'd bought online. With the smell of Thanksgiving pumpkins baking in the kitchen, Amy's body was found by their young son.

"I blame Stephen Allwine more than than I blame the site, but I do think it fuelled him on," says Ormsby.

Her role as a commentator means she still checks dark web message boards daily, but she is not as involved. When we talk, the two biggest dark web drug markets are in disarray, and one has shut down mysteriously. Her cracked iPhone's screen is full of messaging apps, many encrypted.

By the time we start the entrees, including spanner crab with potato chips and a bresaola of kangaroo, it's clear that Ormsby has lived much of her life in a parallel universe from the average Australian.

As a child,she lived in two independent bookshops in Melbourne owned by her parents who

weren't very commercial, and refused to stock Mills and Boon romances because they were "crap", she says. But they gave her the gift of reading.

Today her parents are proud of her, but she suspects they would have preferred something that they could tell the great aunts about, rather than, "She talking to drug dealers and hitmen on the dark net".

A "bit of a rebel as a high school student", Ormsby left school at 13 to work in Angus and Robertson and then in a range of office jobs.

After her husband died, she studied law and ended up working for the UK's Slaughter and May, "the most conservative law firm in the history of the world".

"It was, don't get me wrong, in many ways, a great experience. It gave me two amazing years in London. But then the Global Financial Crisis hit, and all of a sudden, it hit me that I was working for the bad guys. We're supporting the banks, we're supporting the fund managers, and there are literally people becoming homeless overnight. It was horrendous."Ormsby returned to Australia, and decided to study journalism at RMIT.

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On Sunday, she will discuss the history of the dark web, and where it's going. Will it survive?

"Who knows?" she responds. "The technologies that underpin the dark web are only going to get more and more robust. But the dark web in its current state, perhaps not."

She says the point and click drug markets have been infiltrated so many times by law enforcement that buyers may become too scared to return.

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"What's happening now is those markets are really being used as introduction service. You'll find a vendor who you trust, and then it goes offline."

For Ormsby, the most valuable aspect of the dark web is the privacy it offers, but the flipside of that privacy is that it enables crimes to happen.

"Privacy has been taken away from us. We're giving it away. We've got this whole generation that's grown up without any privacy whatsoever and I think that's frightening. I think people really want to start taking that back. And the technologies behind the dark web enable that."

On that note, we stop for desserts that would illuminate the darkest web. They include a macaroon, nearly hi-vis yellow, and a vibrant red ice-cream cone that was designed for a special meal during Vivid where patrons will eat in the dark.

Eileen Ormsby will speak at the Vivid Ideas event New Horizons: The Darkest Web at the MCA on Sunday at 1.30pm.

12-Micron

Tower 1, Level 2, 100 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo (enter by Shipwright Walk).

8322 2075

Monday, 5pm until late; Tuesday to Sunday, noon until late.

President Donald Trump's trade war against China has so far focused on attacking imports. His new front: Weaponising American exports.

The Trump administration is seeking to choke off Beijing's access to key technologies by limiting the sale of vital US components to China's Huawei Technologies. The US is considering putting at least five Chinese surveillance companies on the same blacklist.

The moves are part of a bigger effort by the US to expand and toughen the export control regime that for decades has curbed the sale of defense-related technologies to rogue regimes and strategic rivals.

It's a process that has prompted fears from business that as Trump's trade war grows into a broader technology-driven conflict with China, the US could end up damaging its own economic future.

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In closed-door deliberations the administration since last year has been discussing with companies and industry groups how to update and redefine the products on the Commerce Department's export control list, a process that is expected to gel in the coming weeks.

Administration hawks are pushing for broad definitions to restrict exports related to technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing that they call essential to competitiveness.

The new regulations could also limit the ability of companies to hire foreign engineers and scientists to work in affected areas as the knowledge they gain is considered a sensitive "deemed" export.

Economic tools

That fits with the Trump administration's mantra that economic security is national security. So far the administration has used that to justify tariffs on steel and aluminium and to threaten more import duties on cars and parts from the EU and Japan.

More broadly it has used economic tools like stricter national-security screening on Chinese investments in the US and financial sanctions to pursue other policy goals such as protecting Pentagon supply chains and isolating governments in places like Iran and Venezuela.

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On Thursday, Trump described Huawei as "very dangerous," even as he said it could be included in some kind of trade deal with China. And in a move that may broaden Trump’s trade salvos, his administration proposed tariffs on goods from countries found to have undervalued currencies.

Some US businesses fear the export controls more than tariffs.

Companies like General Electric, Google and Microsoft are worried it could bar them from competing in lucrative markets while reducing America's capacity to innovate.

In a written submission to the US Commerce Department, Microsoft warned that the proposed restrictions risked isolating the US from international research collaborations behind the development of many technologies, and that done wrongly, a new regime "could thwart US interests."

Talking teddy bears

"Artificial intelligence is a very broad concept," GE cautioned in its own submission. Defined too broadly export controls could sweep up things like medical imaging where algorithms are being used to scan for diseases and toys like talking teddy bears, it said.

Behind the fear expressed by American companies is a concern that a normally balanced debate to update the list of restricted exports could be dragged into a trade war between the world's two biggest economies increasingly being guided by hawks in the administration.

Congress last year passed a law pushed by the White House ordering Commerce to update its export-control regime to include "emerging" and "foundational" technologies.

The discussions over the changes are ongoing and the administration will likely publish new regulations on emerging technologies in the summer. It'll define "foundational" technologies later this year.

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The debate over how sweeping export restrictions should be has always been a tug of war between a Commerce Department in charge of promoting exports and the more hawkish Defense Department.

But people familiar with internal deliberations said that balance has shifted with control of the process increasingly in the hands of hardline Trump administration officials pushing for stringent controls.

A Commerce spokeswoman declined to address specific questions about the export control review but said the department was working with US businesses, academia and other agencies.

Smart dust

The US's export control system has for years targeted things like fissile material, communications and cybersecurity equipment, lasers, and even space vehicles. The 14 categories of emerging technologies listed in a proposed Commerce Department rule last November included areas like biotechnology, advanced surveillance systems, and robotics including specific things like "smart dust," speck-sized networked sensors.

According to a person briefed on the discussions, the administration has since narrowed its focus to three emerging technologies: artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and sensing advances and technologies like 3D printing.

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But the process has also led to fractures within the Commerce Department and battles between career staff and political appointees, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Several officials considered more moderate have either recently left the agency or been accused of foot-dragging and sidelined in the discussions. The political appointees who have seized control of the process are pushing for the new restrictions to be implemented quickly.

Bill Reinsch, who oversaw the US export-control regime in the Clinton administration, said striking the right balance to protect national security while not stifling innovation is a hard task.

"It's always tricky to get export controls right. Too lax and critical technologies end up in the hands of our adversaries. Too strict and we limit our high tech companies' ability to grow and further innovate, and we encourage others to develop their own capabilities in critical sectors," he said.

The actions against Huawei illustrate the power of the US export-control regime. They also illustrate the dilemma facing policymakers, Reinsch said. Huawei has long been the target of concerns from the US intelligence community and was placed on the so-called "entity list'' for allegedly violating US export controls by selling restricted components to Iran.

Already the moves have had a significant impact on the shares and business models of Huawei suppliers in the US like Qualcomm and other chipmakers. And that could be just the start.

In a report published this month, researchers at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation warned that a crackdown on US tech exports would put as much as $US56 billion ($81 billion) in exports and 74,000 jobs at risk over five years.

They also warned that in trying to force a repatriation of supply chains the Trump administration risked undermining the very economic dynamism it's trying to promote.

"A more effective strategy is to say what is the next generation of advanced technologies and what is required for them to be produced in the United States," said Stephen Ezell, one of the report's authors.

The administration "has got to recognise that policies like export controls are not an unalloyed good."

Bloomberg

Australian of the Year organisers have severed a 38-year partnership with the Commonwealth Bank over fears the scandal-plagued finance industry was damaging the reputation of the national awards.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age understand the National Australia Day Council and the bank reached the decision before Saturday's election.

Labor last November seized on damaging revelations at the banking royal commission to call for CBA to be stripped of its association with the awards as punishment for poor behaviour.

Frontbencher Matt Thistlethwaite suggested the bank should be "benched" as major sponsor of the nationally televised awards for at least two years.

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"Having sat down with many, many bank victims and seen and heard the pain and suffering inflicted on them by the Commonwealth Bank and others, if I were one of those victims I would feel pretty hurt seeing Australia Day plastered with Commonwealth Bank logos and bank executives participating in our national day," Mr Thistlethwaite said at the time.

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Mr Thistlethwaite's intervention triggered a broad debate inside the National Australia Day Council, leading to discussions with CBA over whether to continue their association.

In a statement, Commonwealth Bank chief marketing officer Monique Macleod said: "Decisions such as these are not easy and we greatly appreciate the opportunity we have had to work with the NADC and to support the Australian of the Year Awards.

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"Having been a proud and long standing partner of the National Australia Day Council for 38 years, we believe it is the
right time for us to review this sponsorship."

The National Australia Day Council relies on corporate donations to co-ordinate the January 26 ceremony and will now seek a new sponsor. Cash and in-kind sponsorship from CBA and other contributors accounted for more than 35 per cent of the organisation's revenue last year.

"I'm sure if they were benched there would be other organisations and corporates more than willing to step in to the CBA's shoes and sponsor our national day," Mr Thistlethwaite said last November.

Labor was preparing to take a tough line on Australia's major banks had it won the May 18 election but shares surged on Monday after the Coalition's shock victory.

National Australia Day Council chair Danielle Roche thanked the Commonwealth Bank for its support.

"The National Australia Day Council has a wonderful group of partners and looks forward to celebrating extraordinary Australians through the Australian of the Year Awards in 2020 and beyond."

Michael Maguire not only won an historic premiership at South Sydney, he handed NRL debuts to no fewer than six Rabbitohs who will start against his side on Saturday night.

Maguire was in no mood to reflect on his time at Souths this week – "I'm all about the Wests Tigers now'' – as he tries to stop his old club making it ten wins from 11 starts.

But the coach's legacy has not been forgotten at Redfern, especially by the half-dozen players who were granted their first-grade wish by Maguire.

When Maguire started at Souths in 2012, so did baby-faced rookie halfback Adam Reynolds, as well as young English prop George Burgess. The following season twin Tom Burgess made his Souths debut.

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Maguire placed plenty of faith in mature-aged playmaker Cody Walker to get the job done for the suspended Luke Keary in round one of 2016 against the Sydney Roosters, while young guns Cameron Murray and Campbell Graham were the future of Souths; players Maguire would loved to have worked with further had he not been sacked at the end of 2017.

Graham was still a schoolboy at Marcellin College when Maguire let him know he would make his debut at the SCG on a Friday night against St George Illawarra.

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"I'll always be thankful for Madge showing faith in me and giving me my start,'' Graham told the Herald.

"I remember I was studying for a geography exam or something, and once I got the call from Madge the study went out the window.

"I was coming in once or twice a week to train, sometimes during school hours, and the school were good with it.

"Rob Jennings went down with a knee problem, I was fortunate enough to get the call, and he basically said, 'You're in, the boys are psyched you're playing, and I'm excited to see what you can do'. I was blown away. I'll forever have respect for him. He's a great coach and a great bloke. He created a good culture here, there was a lot of discipline, and he left his imprint here at Souths.''

Walker came close to having his first NRL start when he was at the Melbourne Storm, but it was Maguire who handed him his debut at 26.

"He said to me at the start of the pre-season there could be an opportunity there with Luke being suspended for round one, I don't want you to get too far ahead of yourself, and just train hard.

"Then the week leading up to the first game, he gave me the call, but I didn't want to get over-excited. The last time I got the call to debut [in Melbourne], I did my hammy the next day. It would have been round 10, 2014.

"He's been a great help to me and I still class him as one of my mates. I messaged him when he got the job at the Tigers and congratulated him, hoped him and [wife] Joelle and the kids were doing great. He messaged me back and said thanks. He also messaged me after the Indigenous game and said, 'Congratulations on being captain'.

"He's intense but it's who he is. He's successful everywhere he has been.''

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The Reserve Bank will go further than previously thought by cutting the cash rate not two, but three times before 2019 is over, according to a leading economist.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans , who in February became the first top economist from the big four banks to predict two rate cuts this year, said on Friday he now believes the central bank will go further into uncharted territory as it cuts from the long-standing record low of 1.5 per cent.

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Mr Evans on Tuesday brought forward his prediction for cuts from August and November to June and August. He says this week's comments by RBA Governor Philip Lowe that a June cut was on the cards led him to believe there will also be a 0.25 percentage point reduction in November.

Following the three cuts, the high-profile economist – whose revised prediction was followed by a 0.3 per cent fall in the Australian dollar – then expects the cash rate to stay at 0.75 per cent throughout 2020.

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"Our central forecast for the terminal cash rate in this cycle is 0.75 per cent with risks to the downside," Mr Evans said.

"We would certainly see 0.5 per cent as the floor for the cash rate, with QE (quantitative easing) a more effective policy tool thereafter."

Quantitative easing is a monetary tool where central banks buy government bonds and other assets to inject cash into the economy and increase the money supply.

For the cash rate to stay at 0.75 per cent, Mr Evans said the housing market would have to stabilise and there would need to be a sustained confidence boost from a stable federal government in a position to embrace genuine reform.

He said the terms of trade would also have to hold up much better than assumed in budget estimates, and for global trade tensions to ease.

The Australian dollar traded at 68.85 US cents in early afternoon in Sydney, from 69.05 US cents just before Mr Evans' note was released.

The futures market had already fully priced in two rate cuts by December, a conviction that hardened with Mr Evans' note.

AAP

At one point in his sneaker collecting "career", DJ Jerome Salele’a owned 400 pairs.

These days, the 34-year-old has considerably fewer – he keeps about 50 at his home in Sydney's south-west, with the remainder in storage – but his passion for "kickz" is as strong as ever.

New Zealand-born Salele'a is part of the global community of "sneaker enthusiasts" (he hates the term "sneaker freaker" but loves the magazine of the same name started by Melburnian Simon Wood) that congregate through online forums, meet-ups and events, such as this weekend's SneakerCon in Sydney.

Rarity is the sneaker-lovers' drug, although unlike collectors of, say, wine or art, sneaker heads will often purchase things they don't even like. Salele'a explains: "[I may] buy a pair [I don't like] to trade a pair I am chasing."

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Salele'a has spent "well into six figures" on his collection, with some pairs worth several thousands. But his all-time favourite shoe is a Puma Clyde, which was first launched in the 1970s and retails for less than $100, excluding rare colourways and limited editions.

Although the sneaker community has been dominated, publicly at least, by young men, Salele'a says women are becoming more active, thanks mainly to social media and celebrity culture.

"My partner collects, she loves them as well," he says. "I have been jealous of the women's releases for years. I'm a size 14 men's and I could never fit them. They have had some crazy colourways that guys never get, like an all purple [Nike Air] Jordan."

Speaking of Jordans, named after the famous Chicago Bulls champion Michael Jordan, they are something of a holy grail for collectors, especially after the NBA banned the original 1984 version for breaching uniform rules.

To this day, almost weekly, brands manipulate the market through "drops" of hard-to-get styles that can trade immediately for 10 times their face value. This week, Nike went one step further by releasing its first "virtual" sneaker in partnership with the online game Fortnite that players can purchase for their avatars for about $18.

Brooklyn native Alan Vinogradov, 33, co-founded SneakerCon after he and his brother found trading shoes on eBay a frustrating experience. Since 2009, they have staged events as far away as China for up to 20,000 fans.

Vinogradov, who is in Australia for the Sydney expo, said sneakers inspire an emotional connection for collectors.

"A lot of these shoes are very rare and you can't go into any sneaker store and get them," he says.

Jay Mijares, who runs The Kickz Stand community and events, adds nostalgia to the emotive pull of sneaker collecting. "It's about being part of historic moments or just getting that pair you never could get when you were younger," he says.

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Salele'a agrees the thrill of the chase is part of the appeal, although he acknowledges the internet has completely reshaped the sneaker landscape.

"If they have a limited drop in Paris, Japan or New York, you can buy it [from home]. In the early 2000s, you would see the same guys in the line [at stores], waiting, camping overnight … you started seeing trends – you made a little community."

Salele'a estimates he wears about 25 per cent of his collection, although that ratio was once as high as 80 per cent. He says the casualisation of dress standards, including CEOs wearing sneakers, has meant old stereotypes about sneaker wearers have also dissipated.

"My old CEO, who was worth $400 million, used to walk around the office wearing Air Max 90s. [Apple founder] Steve Jobs wore a pair of $10 sneakers. [It's great] seeing sneakers not just looked at as 'less than' because you aren't wearing a suit and tie. The stigma has lifted."

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The artistic director of the Australian Ballet, David McAllister, has announced he is stepping down after two decades in the role.

Australian Ballet chairman Craig Dunn announced the news at the company's annual general meeting in Melbourne today.

McAllister will finish up at the end of next year, which will be his 20th year at the helm of Australia's national ballet company.

“David has taken The Australian Ballet to new heights during his two decades as artistic director,” Dunn said.

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“His leadership of the company has been extraordinarily successful and he will leave an enduring legacy."

Dunn said there was a "succession-planning process" under way.

McAllister began his career at the Australian Ballet in 1983. He was promoted to principal artist six years later and, in 2001, made the transition from dancer to artistic director of the Australian Ballet.

Queensland Ballet artistic director, Li Cunxin, who danced with Mr McAllister at the Australian Ballet, said the company would always bear the mark of its longest serving artistic director.

"I think there will be two areas in partciular where you will see his mark," Li said. "Obviously as a dancer he left his mark, because he really was a wonderful dancer and he had a very successul career dancing. The other area is as an artistic director … he has really grown that company and steered the company to a wonderful success.

"Not many artists have that kind of privilege to be incredibly successful as a dancer and incredibly successful as an artistic director. To do both at the same company is even rarer."

Celebrated Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy, who has created a number of ballets for the Australian Ballet, said McAllister could retire with a clear conscience knowing he leaves the company in a better state than he found it.

"He has been a great champion of choreographers, which makes me very fond of him, he has produced beautiful dances and he has moved the company on in many, many ways, from financial to creative," Murphy said.

"This is a company that had international success, has produced beautiful principles, increased audiences and has kept pushing boundries. He has balanced blockbuster ballets with new works and there has been growth, and that is possibly the most important, because in the arts the worst thing you can do is to stay static."

The Sydney Morning Herald's veteran dance critic Jill Sykes said McAllister's greatest legacy would be the quality of the dancers under his leadership.

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"David McAllister's legacy of two decades is an outstandingly talented and skilful group of dancers, for which he is to be congratulated. Their technical ability has gone far beyond that of the company he inherited," she said.

McAllister will program the 2020 season, to be announced in September this year, and the search will now begin for a replacement.

Many in the industry feel Li would be an ideal replacement for McAllister, to the detriment of Queensalnd Ballet, however Li said he was not interested in the role.

Murphy has also ruled himself out of throwing his hat in the ring.

"I don't have a hat and if I did I wouldn't be throwing it anywhere," he said.

Sykes said the search should focus on talent who can bring excitement to the company.

"I would hope the company's new director might offer more excitement of choice in works and choreographers," she said.

Justin Hemmes' construction boss has agreed to pay the Sydney hospitality tsar's Merivale group almost $230,000 in the wake of allegations he authorised false invoices to be paid into his bank account.

In civil proceedings on Thursday, NSW Supreme Court Justice Michael Pembroke finalised the settlement deal by making consent orders that Joel Cheeseman, 30, pay $229,811 – the same amount police claim he fleeced from the bar and restaurant empire by authorising false invoices.

The judge did not make any findings as to whether Mr Cheeseman was liable, and Mr Cheeseman made no admissions. It is understood Mr Cheeseman's legal costs to defend the case would have exceeded the amount claimed.

Merivale obtained a freezing order against Mr Cheeseman earlier this month, requiring him not to remove from Australia, transfer or diminish the value of any of his assets up to the value of $300,000.

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He was also subpoenaed to provide statements and other documentation relating to three bank accounts, and any other accounts held in his name or where he is a signatory, and all documentation showing the transfer of money in and out of those accounts, over a period between August 2015 and May 2019.

But the freezing order was lifted on Thursday after Mr Cheeseman agreed to the pay the sum, as well as interest of more than $15,000 and legal costs.

Meanwhile, Mr Cheeseman is due to face the Downing Centre Local Court next week on a charge of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage or causing disadvantage by deception.

Police allege that, between August 2017 and October 2018, he authorised fake invoices to be paid by Merivale into his bank account on five separate occasions. He has not yet entered a plea.

The criminal charges require intention and other elements to be proven, and the standard of proof is higher than for a civil claim.

According to Mr Cheeseman's LinkedIn profile – which appears to have been recently removed – he has worked for the sprawling pub group since May 2015, initially as a group facilities manager before moving into the construction project manager role, in which he claims to "currently oversee and manage all construction for Merivale".

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