Squiz Today – Wednesday, 29 August

THREE MINUTE SQUIZ

“Tell the truth. Go for full disclosure. Keep perspective.”

Are the three things crisis management expert Greg Baxter tells his clients to do when they find themselves in a spot of bother. Without a doubt, he’s the guy we’d want in our corner if we ever found ourselves in trouble. Knock on wood… Please welcome Baxter to the Three Minute Squiz.

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TRADING POLITICS FOR… TRADE

THE SQUIZ
"Enough about the collapse of the Turnbull Government – what I want to know about what's happening with the escalating US trade wars,” is a comment no one has made to us in the last few days. But when it comes to re-establishing our BAU, the escalating trade wars are important because they could affect anyone who wants to buy stuff, get a job, and have a nice standard of living. And we don’t want to scare you, but the words ‘global recession’ have been uttered…

WHAT’S GOING ON?
Three quick things to note:

• Negotiations between America and China aren't going well. Not only did talks last week fail to break the impasse, but both countries have also imposed a new round of tariffs on each others’ goods.

• The European Union is stepping up to help with reforms to the World Trade Organisation. The WTO has been under pressure with Team Trump declaring it incapable of dealing with the rise of China.

• But US President Donald Trump had some progress to point to yesterday. A preliminary trade deal with Mexico was announced via a bumpy teleconference with President Enrique Peña Nieto. The question now is whether Canada joins in.

BRING IT ON HOME…
Accounting giant KPMG yesterday said America's trade troubles could be seriously bad for the Australian economy. Because they're the type of people who like putting numbers against things, they say Aussies’ purchasing power could be cut in half, 60,000 jobs could be lost, economic growth could be cut by 2.4%, and the US could go into recession pulling us down with it. They're glass-half-empty kinda folks…

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SQUIZ THE REST

THREE SCOTTISH DESCENDANTS WALK INTO A VISA SAGA…
Some stories have a nice symmetry to them. Take the latest on Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s granting of a tourist visa to a French woman who had been detained by Border Force officials in 2015 because they believed she was entering Australia to work. The enquiry was passed onto Dutton by his chief of staff Craig Maclaughlan (spelling 1) after hearing from AFL boss Gil McLachlan (spelling 2) on behalf of his relative Callum MacLachlan (spelling 3) for whom the young mademoiselle had once toiled as an au pair. Got it? Good. Because dead set, you couldn’t make it up. Dutton says nothing to see here, move along. A Senate inquiry is investigating and will reveal its findings in a couple of weeks.

GREAT BIG TRAIN LOOP
The Victorian Government yesterday outlined plans for a massive underground suburban rail system that would link every major train station in Melbourne with the airport. While building would not start until 2022 and would take decades to complete, Premier Daniel Andrews said it would remove thousands of cars from the road. The cost? He’s not saying yet, but estimates say it's a cool $50 billion making it “the biggest public transport project in Australian history”. The Liberals want the independent government infrastructure body to have a look at it. That sound you can hear is a Victorian election coming on…

HOUSEKEEPING!
Keeping you updated on some new developments:

ASYLUM SEEKERS MOVED - With the final two Daintree River runaways in custody last night, the government yesterday confirmed that 17 people had been transferred to Christmas Island where they will be questioned while in detention.

BISHOP’S STINGER - Former Foreign Affairs minister and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop yesterday said she would contest the next election. Asked if she could see a time when the Libs would elect a popular female as leader, she had this cracking good response… And as Bishop departed the front bench, reports say former PM Tony Abbott has accepted PM Scott Morrison’s job offer to become a special envoy on Indigenous affairs.

HUSAR SPEAKS OUT - Outgoing Labor MP Emma Husar spoke to ABC’s 7.30 host Leigh Sales about the accusations of improper behaviour and misused entitlements that saw her decide to exit politics. Worth a look to hear her side of things.

AFL TICKET FIASCO INFURIATES FANS
AFL fans cling onto their finals tickets as firmly as a lost koala to a traffic pole. It was no wonder then that there was a total meltdown yesterday when Ticketek’s sale of the first round of finals tickets was suspended for technical reasons. Ticketek was in the AFL's and venues' bad books and fans said they were fed up. The company took a leaf from Greg Baxter’s book by apologising and said it was investigating the problem.

IDOLS TAKE ON THE WORLD
K-Pop band BTS hasn’t just beaten Taylor Swift’s record for YouTube video clip views in its first 24 hours, they’ve smashed it. Swift held the title for 43.2 million views of Look What You Made Me Do. BTS’s new single Idol (sans Theresa May-style dance moves) had more than 45 million views after it was released on Friday. But it has a way to go – Swift’s song now has a total of 955 million views to BTS’s +90 million.

SQUIZ THE DAY

12.30pm (AEST) - Fiona Simson, President of the National Farmers' Federation, to address the National Press Club on 'Disrupting the status quo: Agriculture’s road to $100 billion' - Canberra

ABS Data Release - Census Data - Counts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2016

HIA New Home Sales data, July

Company Earnings Announcements - Bellamy's; Boral; Retail Food Group; Virgin Australia

UN International Day against Nuclear Tests

Anniversary of Michael Jackson's 60th birthday (1958)