Borghetti looks to the future ... bonus

Borghetti and his "good friend" from Singapore Airlines, Goh Choon Phong, had just announced an alliance that will cause endless headaches at Qantas.

But the keen car racer and Porsche owner also had other reasons to smile. Asked whether the alliance could help snare even more corporate customers from Qantas, Borghetti said: "We are happy with 20 per cent of the corporate share. Could it lead to more? Well, gee, I hope so - my bonus will look good if it does." Realising what he had just said, he quickly added: "Don't write that."

The former senior Qantas executive was also asked whether he had any advice for Qantas's boss, Alan Joyce. "I am sure that his board gives him advice. I don't need to do that," he said with a straight face. "It's the role of boards - so don't read anything into that."

NO MO FOR SIR ROD

This column has long had a fascination with powerful business identities who indulge in facial hair.

So you can imagine CBD's shock when Sir Rod Eddington was spotted yesterday minus his trademark soup-strainer.

"I shaved it off for Movember," he explained to surprised reporters yesterday after speaking at an Australian British Chamber of Commerce lunch in Melbourne.

The admission shows he has either kept a very low profile for the past six months or has successfully passed among us incognito without his mo.

"I was rather hoping I could grow it back but my wife had other ideas," said the not-so-brave knight.

Sir Rod's fresh-faced appearance put him in the mood for reminiscing about his younger days with "she-who-must-be-obeyed", Young Sook Park.

"When I went to Hong Kong in the late 1970s, I was a bachelor and everything I owned fitted in two small steel trunks - one of them had sports gear in them and the other my meagre clothes," he said.

"I left after 18 years with a wife, two kids, and everything I owned wouldn't fit in a 40-foot container."

Back to more contemporary matters, Sir Rod said he was dared to shave off his moustache for "a significant donation to charity".

So significant was the donation, apparently, that Sir Rod says he will "grow it back for Movember this year and take it off again".

Pity he couldn't pull this trick off while on the board of the corporate fiasco Allco Finance.

CHANGE OF MIND

Support appears to be running low for Shawn "Shawny Cash" Richard, the Trio Capital stooge awaiting sentencing on charges related to his role at the fraudulent hedge fund manager. No trace has been found of the $125 million that went missing from Australian superannuation accounts.

So it was no surprise yesterday when the head of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Planners, Peter Johnston, told InvestorDaily it was a comfort that Trio and Astarra Asset Management were deemed "a blatant fraud".

"The advisers are tired of being blamed for product failure. These products should not have been

in the market in the first place," Johnston said.

But it was not always thus, says the Bronte Capital blogger John Hempton, who was instrumental in uncovering the fraud.

Hempton recalls that most of the Astarra victims were clients of AIOFP members.

"Astarra and its principals were regular attendees at AIOFP conferences and AIOFP members received kickbacks from Astarra - some disclosed, some not disclosed," Hempton blogged.

"It is funny how Peter conveniently forgets that he vouched for Shawn Richard. He did so repeatedly (although not publicly since Shawn admitted guilt)."

Hempton reported previously how Johnston agreed to a $100,000 bet with him on the innocence of Shawny Cash and whether the money would be found where Johnston thought it was. Alas, Hempton never saw the cash as Johnston later backed out.

BANK BOOSTER

Steven Munchenberg, the head of the banking industry mouthpiece, the Australian Bankers Association, came clean to a business audience in Sydney yesterday on just how much flack our big four are taking to protect ordinary Australians from the Reserve Bank.

He made the point that "you are paying just what the Reserve Bank wants you to pay, to fight inflation" and if the banks cut their rates by 1 per cent tomorrow the Reserve Bank would presumably be "horrified" and would be likely to raise the cash rate "dramatically" to the level needed to fight inflation.

Who knew the Reserve Bank has been holding our big four to ransom like this and let them cop the blame for raising rates well above the Reserve Bank increases?

Not only is it useless for the banks to cut their rates in the face of such intimidation from the Reserve Bank, even competition is useless, Munchenberg argues, since any significant cut in mortgage rates from competition will only lead the Reserve Bank to drive rates back up once again.

This argument fitted in with his other theme, which was how the growing frenzy around bank regulation was making a mountain out of a molehill. "Whether it is price signalling, credit card debt or interest rate rises, the problems do not seem to be anywhere near as big as they are presented," Munchenberg told those attending the Banking Regulations Forum.

He even resorted to verse to make his point.

"After a bit, you feel that some of these problems are like the man in the children's rhyme:

Yesterday upon the stair

I met a man who wasn't there

He wasn't there again today

Oh, how I wish he'd go away."

IN MEMORIAM

On a more respectful note, one of the property industry's stalwarts, Peter Hartigan, has passed away at 60. He was a long-time friend and colleague of Andrew Parsons and the team at Resolution Capital. He had worked for Resolution Capital and its predecessor company for more than 15 years. Before that he worked in project management roles at Lend Lease in Sydney and Singapore from 1976 to 1994.

Andrew Parsons at Resolution Capital said Peter "made an amazing contribution to the firm and lived his life with great dignity through adversity".

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