CBD

Folau earns his daily bread

Having stepped out in three different codes, footballer Israel Folau is anything but a bread-and-butter player - but bread and butter is exactly where the canny operator has struck his latest deal.

Well, Wonder White and MeadowLea margarine, anyway. Folau, who these days thunders up and down the field with rugby union's NSW Waratahs, has signed a sponsorship deal with the company that owns the spongy loaf and the vegetable oil spread, Goodman Fielder.

Folau's move from rugby league to the AFL's new GWS side earned him a motza but saw him slammed for greed as he struggled with the transition from the rectangular field to the oval.

At the end of last year he quit Australian rules and subsequently signed with the Waratahs. The "brand ambassador" deal marks a new push into sports sponsorship for Goodman Fielder, which has previously concentrated on swimming with its Uncle Toby's oats brand. According to data from website Sponsorship News, Goodman Fielder's other notable deal was hooking its Helga's bread up with the arty circus types at Cirque Du Soleil.

Fiji land threats

It owns slices of a uranium project in Tanzania, a gold project in the Philippines and a magnetite project in Iran, but none of those ventures have yet paid off for veteran businessman Boris Ganke's Southern Cross Exploration, which recorded revenue of just $414 for the 2012-13 financial year.

Then there's the company's show-stopper asset, a $7 million mortgage over 17 hectares of beachfront property at Nadi Bay in Fiji, right next to the airport runway.

A company associated with Ganke has owned the land for 34 years, during which it has repeatedly threatened to develop the plot and repay the mortgage.

According to the company's annual financial report, filed on Friday, Fiji's habit of staging occasional coups has apparently slowed progress in the past, now "some development and/or sales are under consideration at this time".

You wouldn't want to rush things, though.

Google cops flack

It turns out Google does employ some people in Australia after all. The nebulously taxed tech giant is famous for both its motto, "Don't be evil", and its habit of insisting that its sales to Australian businesses happen in either tax haven Singapore or tax haven Ireland.

And yet most lunchtimes hordes of Google employees can be seen in the park outside the company's Sydney HQ, engaging in relentlessly cheerful team-building exercises while dressed in colour-coded T-shirts.

The search engine business is looking for a flack to sit aside communications manager Johnny Luu - who confirmed the gig was based in Sydney, not Singapore, and asked: "Who needs a job ad when you've got a CBD item?"

Apparently you'll need to be able to "work cross-functionally to help communicate with journalists and other thought leaders". Whatever that means.

Wizard of Oz

With his elevation to the hallowed halls of Canberra still in the balance, CBD these days mostly leaves coverage of dinosaur-loving mining magnate Clive Palmer to Canberra's legion of political hacks.

But his effort on Tuesday brought flooding back memories of Professor Palmer's more corporate mischief. Taking aim at News Corporation, with which he has been locked in battle, Palmer tweeted: "Thanks for your ongoing support on Twitter. My follower numbers now almost the same as circulation of @australian @rupertmurdoch #media".

Not quite. Circulation figures out last month show the Oz sells about 116,000 copies on weekdays, while Clive of Spindia has about 26,000 followers.

BusinessDay dwarfs 'em both, reaching 280,000-odd buyers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

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bbutler@fairfaxmedia.com.au