Pope Francis: Andrew Forrest, Tony Galati, Basil Zempilas and Archbishop of Perth reflect on meetings
As the world comes to terms with the death of Pope Francis, some high-profile WA people lucky enough to meet the Pontiff recalled their encounters with the religious leader.
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest met the Pope in March 2014 and said he left behind a legacy as one of history's most powerful voices influencing the abolition of modern slavery.
'His unrelenting leadership in the fight against modern slavery will pave the way for those who come after him as we strive to stamp out this most wicked form of abuse of our fellow humans. For this, I am eternally grateful,' he said in a statement via the Mindaroo Foundation.
'Indeed, Pope Francis further broke the mould with his clear and unequivocal stance on the science of climate change, viewing it as a moral issue and repeatedly calling for urgent action from world leaders. It would have been far easier for His Holiness not to take up this fight – a fight that will prove to be humanity's greatest – but he was a man of courage and character.'
Spud king Tony Galati met the Pope during a visit to the Vatican in October last year, where he got to shake his hand and say hello.
The Spudshed boss wanted to meet the Catholic leader on behalf of his mother, who was 'really religious' and sadly passed away five years ago.
'It was quite an experience to see because he was very sick. I wasn't too sure he was going to come out, but he made the effort. And it was just amazing to see this man talk to everybody and acknowledge everybody,' he told ABC Radio.
'It was just amazing to be in his presence.
'I looked up and said, 'I did it for you, Mum'.'
Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas, who travelled to the Vatican in May last year for a global energy and climate summit, felt privileged to meet the Pope.
'I will always remember his soft hands, warm smile and his acknowledgement of Perth and the long distance I had travelled to be there,' Mr Zempilas said.
'He had an amazing aura. It's a brief meeting I will forever remember.'
And no stranger to the Pope's 'good sense of humour' is Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costello who has met him at least five times, most recently in October last year.
'When he speaks to you, you can see that he's interested in what you're saying,' he said.
'He's strong but gentle and has a great sense of humour, so there are some really, really good memories for me.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
18 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Shame on those who whip up hate against trans athletes for clicks and votes
'We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren's participation in the girls' track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.' Brava, brava, brava. What decency. And what a wonderful stand to take. Closer to home, last month we had our own major tabloid/talkback story about a transgender athlete at a South Australian Catholic school, who, it was breathlessly reported, had run riot at an athletics carnival. One father was quoted, saying the student 'broke a number of records competing against girls at a recent sports day ... breaking all the girls records'. It was great hate-bait, and the usual suspects on talkback and tabloid went hard. Got some hate you want to spread? Our lines are open! The former Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave certainly opened up on Sky News. Loading 'In the end,' he said, 'weak men want to compete against women and they put on the skirt and say, 'I'm a woman now, and I want to compete against you'. But even weaker men support those people in that kind of decision.' I repeat, great hate-bait! Manna from heaven. Did anyone pause, ever, to think what effect this has on the target of the hate-bait? This week, the ABC show Media Watch did, and made enquiries. And whaddya know? Most of it was nonsense. There was a school athletics meeting last year, creating precisely no controversy in the school at the time. Yes, the 13-year-old transgender athlete did indeed break a record, but it was another girl who actually swept the day breaking seven records. And the effect on the child in question from the pile-on? Devastating. 'No child or family should have to experience the trauma or fear that we have been through,' the mother of the child told the ABC. 'My child's privacy and innocence has been violated without consideration or empathy for the devastating lifelong harm this can cause. It's hard to express how horrific it is to read hateful articles about your child and have them used as clickbait for a political agenda created by adults and forced down the throats of kids who are just trying to be kids.' Read it and weep. Yes, yes, yes, occasionally the issue of an unfair advantage by transgender athletes in sport does arise – usually only at elite level – and is one to be discussed and sorted out by serious people. But that ain't this. The point is that we need to call this kind of stuff for what it is. It is not a genuine attempt to achieve fairness in sport put out by people who have a genuine track record of earnestly examining that very thing. It's just hate-bait, no more, no less, put out by people whose job in life is to stir up big trouble way above and beyond what the actual problem is. It's just hate-bait callously thrown out there to bring in swarms of bone-stupid groper fish who live off that very hate – to boost your ratings, clicks and votes – and to hell with the trauma it causes to their targets. For shame, you bastards. For shame, you bastards. What They Said Lachlan Galvin on the Wests Tigers fans: 'I understand where [Tigers fans] are coming from. I think they can have their opinion, and they can have their hatred and that against me. I understand that.' Joe Montemurro, new coach of the Matildas: 'I've followed their incredible journey closely and am energised by the passion, resilience, and identity they've built. The only promise I make is that we will play an exciting brand of football and that the integrity and the level and the respect of the Matildas will always be at the top of my thinking.' Tennis player Daria Kasatkina on her first major tournament after switching allegiances to Australia: 'To feel the support from the stands so many times. I don't know if everyone who was screaming, 'Aussie', were from Australia, but I felt this support . . . So this is the kind of support which I honestly didn't have before, it feels like it's something new to me — but it feels so nice.' Oi! Football manager Pep Guardiola doesn't think he's special: 'Do you think I feel special because I won a lot of titles? No! Forget about it! I feel that special is the doctor that saves lives. The people who invented penicillin. That is a genius. Me? Genius? Come on.' Kath McCann, the Tasmanian Devils' general manager of marketing, corporate affairs and social impact on alternative stadium options: 'This is Plan A and there is no Plan B.' Ticketek on the demand for Ashes tickets: 'We recognise that when we have high-demand events with limited inventory that some fans will miss out and will be disappointed. We encourage all customers not to use multiple browsers when trying to access tickets.' Tennis player Lois Boisson, ranked No.361 in the world, found herself in the headlines in April when an opponent, Harriet Dart, told the umpire, 'Can you tell her to put on some deodorant? She smells really bad.' This week she shocked No.3 seed Jessica Pegula to make the quarter-finals at the French Open, becoming the lowest-ranked quarter-finalist at Roland Garros in at least 40 years. 'I'm not sure what to say. Playing on this court, with this atmosphere, was amazing. I gave my all and in the end I won, which is just incredible. I hope I'm going to win it all!' Boisson was beaten by Coco Gauff in the semi-finals. Loading Aussie Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri on winning his Spain, his fifth win of the season: 'Hard to complain, it has been a great year and this weekend has been exactly the kind of weekend I was looking for . . . The team gave me a great car once again, it's a lot of fun winning races at the moment and I've been enjoying it and I hope the team are too.' New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on the 'run it straight' tackle challenge that has gone viral on social media after a teenager died from a serious head injury: 'All I can say to young adults who are participating is you've got some personal responsibility in this. You're hearing the advice from police, from the medical fraternity, from government, from principals saying don't do it. To the adults that are involved in more formal organisation of it and are influencing it and leading this out on social media, I think you need to stop and I can't be any clearer.' 75-year-old runner British runner Sarah Roberts, who took up running just eight years ago, and now holds the over 75 world records over every track distance from 800m to 10,000m indoors and outdoors, as well as 5km and 10km on the road: 'I'd like people to think that they should always try something. You never know what you can do until you try it. Never think you're too old. Give it a go. You will surprise yourself at what you can do if you really try to do something.' Australian 100m sprinter Lachlan Kennedy has broken the ten-second barrier: 'It's so good. I can finally say I run nine.' Here we were, thinking he was going for Best Supporting Actor. He thinks he's the star, and going for Best Actor – and he might be right! Loading Team of the Week Callan Ward. The career of this fellow, the heart and soul of GWS could be over after he tore his ACL – a badly buggered knee, to you and me. Alex Johnston. South Sydney speedster notched 200 NRL tries. Just 12 behind the all-time record held by Ken Irvine. Reds and Brumbies. Good luck to them in the Super Rugby Pacific finals. The Waratahs, meanwhile, have shown some improvement, but finished disappointingly. Australia/South Africa. Competing in next week's World Test Championship final at Lord's. Socceroos. Beat Japan for the first time in 16 years with a thrilling last-minute winner in Perth and as long as they don't lose to Saudi Arabia by five goals early Wednesday morning, they qualify directly for a sixth straight World Cup – an extraordinary turnaround from recent grim times.
The Age
18 hours ago
- The Age
Shame on those who whip up hate against trans athletes for clicks and votes
'We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren's participation in the girls' track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.' Brava, brava, brava. What decency. And what a wonderful stand to take. Closer to home, last month we had our own major tabloid/talkback story about a transgender athlete at a South Australian Catholic school, who, it was breathlessly reported, had run riot at an athletics carnival. One father was quoted, saying the student 'broke a number of records competing against girls at a recent sports day ... breaking all the girls records'. It was great hate-bait, and the usual suspects on talkback and tabloid went hard. Got some hate you want to spread? Our lines are open! The former Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave certainly opened up on Sky News. Loading 'In the end,' he said, 'weak men want to compete against women and they put on the skirt and say, 'I'm a woman now, and I want to compete against you'. But even weaker men support those people in that kind of decision.' I repeat, great hate-bait! Manna from heaven. Did anyone pause, ever, to think what effect this has on the target of the hate-bait? This week, the ABC show Media Watch did, and made enquiries. And whaddya know? Most of it was nonsense. There was a school athletics meeting last year, creating precisely no controversy in the school at the time. Yes, the 13-year-old transgender athlete did indeed break a record, but it was another girl who actually swept the day breaking seven records. And the effect on the child in question from the pile-on? Devastating. 'No child or family should have to experience the trauma or fear that we have been through,' the mother of the child told the ABC. 'My child's privacy and innocence has been violated without consideration or empathy for the devastating lifelong harm this can cause. It's hard to express how horrific it is to read hateful articles about your child and have them used as clickbait for a political agenda created by adults and forced down the throats of kids who are just trying to be kids.' Read it and weep. Yes, yes, yes, occasionally the issue of an unfair advantage by transgender athletes in sport does arise – usually only at elite level – and is one to be discussed and sorted out by serious people. But that ain't this. The point is that we need to call this kind of stuff for what it is. It is not a genuine attempt to achieve fairness in sport put out by people who have a genuine track record of earnestly examining that very thing. It's just hate-bait, no more, no less, put out by people whose job in life is to stir up big trouble way above and beyond what the actual problem is. It's just hate-bait callously thrown out there to bring in swarms of bone-stupid groper fish who live off that very hate – to boost your ratings, clicks and votes – and to hell with the trauma it causes to their targets. For shame, you bastards. For shame, you bastards. What They Said Lachlan Galvin on the Wests Tigers fans: 'I understand where [Tigers fans] are coming from. I think they can have their opinion, and they can have their hatred and that against me. I understand that.' Joe Montemurro, new coach of the Matildas: 'I've followed their incredible journey closely and am energised by the passion, resilience, and identity they've built. The only promise I make is that we will play an exciting brand of football and that the integrity and the level and the respect of the Matildas will always be at the top of my thinking.' Tennis player Daria Kasatkina on her first major tournament after switching allegiances to Australia: 'To feel the support from the stands so many times. I don't know if everyone who was screaming, 'Aussie', were from Australia, but I felt this support . . . So this is the kind of support which I honestly didn't have before, it feels like it's something new to me — but it feels so nice.' Oi! Football manager Pep Guardiola doesn't think he's special: 'Do you think I feel special because I won a lot of titles? No! Forget about it! I feel that special is the doctor that saves lives. The people who invented penicillin. That is a genius. Me? Genius? Come on.' Kath McCann, the Tasmanian Devils' general manager of marketing, corporate affairs and social impact on alternative stadium options: 'This is Plan A and there is no Plan B.' Ticketek on the demand for Ashes tickets: 'We recognise that when we have high-demand events with limited inventory that some fans will miss out and will be disappointed. We encourage all customers not to use multiple browsers when trying to access tickets.' Tennis player Lois Boisson, ranked No.361 in the world, found herself in the headlines in April when an opponent, Harriet Dart, told the umpire, 'Can you tell her to put on some deodorant? She smells really bad.' This week she shocked No.3 seed Jessica Pegula to make the quarter-finals at the French Open, becoming the lowest-ranked quarter-finalist at Roland Garros in at least 40 years. 'I'm not sure what to say. Playing on this court, with this atmosphere, was amazing. I gave my all and in the end I won, which is just incredible. I hope I'm going to win it all!' Boisson was beaten by Coco Gauff in the semi-finals. Loading Aussie Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri on winning his Spain, his fifth win of the season: 'Hard to complain, it has been a great year and this weekend has been exactly the kind of weekend I was looking for . . . The team gave me a great car once again, it's a lot of fun winning races at the moment and I've been enjoying it and I hope the team are too.' New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on the 'run it straight' tackle challenge that has gone viral on social media after a teenager died from a serious head injury: 'All I can say to young adults who are participating is you've got some personal responsibility in this. You're hearing the advice from police, from the medical fraternity, from government, from principals saying don't do it. To the adults that are involved in more formal organisation of it and are influencing it and leading this out on social media, I think you need to stop and I can't be any clearer.' 75-year-old runner British runner Sarah Roberts, who took up running just eight years ago, and now holds the over 75 world records over every track distance from 800m to 10,000m indoors and outdoors, as well as 5km and 10km on the road: 'I'd like people to think that they should always try something. You never know what you can do until you try it. Never think you're too old. Give it a go. You will surprise yourself at what you can do if you really try to do something.' Australian 100m sprinter Lachlan Kennedy has broken the ten-second barrier: 'It's so good. I can finally say I run nine.' Here we were, thinking he was going for Best Supporting Actor. He thinks he's the star, and going for Best Actor – and he might be right! Loading Team of the Week Callan Ward. The career of this fellow, the heart and soul of GWS could be over after he tore his ACL – a badly buggered knee, to you and me. Alex Johnston. South Sydney speedster notched 200 NRL tries. Just 12 behind the all-time record held by Ken Irvine. Reds and Brumbies. Good luck to them in the Super Rugby Pacific finals. The Waratahs, meanwhile, have shown some improvement, but finished disappointingly. Australia/South Africa. Competing in next week's World Test Championship final at Lord's. Socceroos. Beat Japan for the first time in 16 years with a thrilling last-minute winner in Perth and as long as they don't lose to Saudi Arabia by five goals early Wednesday morning, they qualify directly for a sixth straight World Cup – an extraordinary turnaround from recent grim times.
West Australian
a day ago
- West Australian
Superannuation wealth tax ‘a threat' to funding of new unicorns as Escalante moves to mop up VGW
The Federal Government's proposed wealth tax on superannuation has been described as a threat to the emergence of unicorns such as Laurence Escalante's WA-based gaming group Virtual Gaming Worlds. With many investors funding plays such as VGW from their self-managed super funds, the earnings hit on super balances over $3 million is seen potentially depriving start-ups of a key source of development capital. Mr Escalante used millions of dollars raised from hundreds of small and high-net worth backers to build VGW into one of Australia's fastest-growing and most profitable private companies. On Monday, the former financial planner announced a $960m bid to take full ownership of VGW by buying out the 30 per cent of the public, unlisted company he does not own at $5.05 a share from some 700 minority shareholders. One of his early supporters, an investor who is sitting on tens of millions of dollars of profit on VGW shares bought for less than 10 cents apiece, said the Government was 'off the mark' with its proposed move on wealthy superannuants. He and other big minority investors in VGW are mainly invested in the group via their self-managed super funds. 'This Government wants to tax quite heavily the people in the super funds, and that's where these small companies get started,' said the investor, who asked not to be identified. 'There won't be as much money available for start-ups.' Mr Escalante's proposed buyout, launched through his Lance East family office, comes as VGW confronts a major threat to its lucrative operating model from a US regulatory crackdown that is reining in its runaway profits. The group has raked in billions of dollars by using loopholes in US laws banning internet gambling to deliver online 'social' casinos and poker machine games such as Chumba Casino, LuckyLand slots and Global Poker. Under its sweepstakes model, customers buy virtual gold coins that allow them to play VGW's games but have no outside value. However, buyers of most gold coin packages also get bonus 'sweeps coins', which as well as being used to play the games are redeemable for cash in most of the US and Canada. US States are now moving against the group, claiming the games are illegal because they are generating cash winnings for players. Since December, VGW has quit Nevada and Delaware, and flagged its withdrawal from New York, in the face of the pushback. The regulatory crackdown is already hurting earnings, with VGW warning of a 15 per cent hit to its second-half profit. Mr Escalante's opulent lifestyle — he has translated his wealth into a private jet, super cars, luxury boats and swanky properties — and showy and sometimes angry social media posts had already raised doubts about whether he could win over the big institutional shareholders needed to support a stock market listing in the US or Australia. But it is the threat to what has been an enormously successful operating model that has most likely finished off lingering hopes of a float for investors who have been limited to selling stock via an illiquid over-the-counter trading platform. 'It's the model ... the likelihood of regulatory action, which are we starting to see,' a prominent Perth businessman said. While Mr Escalante's 'behaviour and lifestyle doesn't help', despite global stock markets being awash with such 'characters', a listing would have more chance with a 'safer and less vulnerable business model', the businessman said. There is no doubt that Mr Escalante, who founded VGW as a 28-year-old in 2010, has delivered in spades for his investors. The company paid its first dividend — a modest $2.8 million — in early 2019 off the back of a $19.8m profit and $179m of revenue for the December half-year in 2018. COVID-19 lit a fire under the business as uptake of its games in the US soared during lockdowns. Over the past four years, VGW has returned more than $1.3b to its shareholders, with Mr Escalante pocketing the lion's share due to his majority ownership. He will receive a further $200m from the $286m of interim and special dividends set to be paid for the 2025 financial year. VGW's two independent directors have determined that the offer price, which will be reduced by the dividends, recognises the company's value 'after taking into account its medium and longer-term potential and the ongoing risks relating to VGW's business and operating environment'. Mr Escalante's offer was endorsed after an earlier pitch of $3.50 of $4 a share was rejected as too low. However, it still may not be enough to get the buyout across the line, with some long-standing shareholders still reckoning VGW is worth more and disputing the inclusion of the proposed dividends in the offer price. 'A few of the shareholders who have got pretty good holdings feel as if it's an unreasonable offer, they feel as if it should be more,' the VGW shareholder said. The buyout documents are expected to be sent to shareholders by early July, with a vote to be called in August. Mr Escalante was not available for comment this week. Disclosing the buyout offer on Monday, he said it represented 'an efficient opportunity to allow those shareholders looking to monetise their investment for cash to do so'.
