WA businessman Ted Powell donates $100 million to Perth's Murdoch University and animal hospital
Perth businessman Ted Powell gave the money to Murdoch University, which will enable it to rebuild its veterinary school and increase the number of vet students by almost 50 per cent.
Mr Powell, who made his money running a Hong Kong-based firm that specialised in the creation and sale of offshore shelf corporations in low tax jurisdictions, said he was motivated in part by his late wife's passion for cats.
He said the pair, who did not have children, wanted to contribute their assets to worthy organisations.
"My wife was in particular a great cat lover and ... she'd be immensely proud of what I'm doing in this project," he said.
Mr Powell said he did not want anyone else to deal with the burden of deciding what to do with the money if he died.
"I'm going to have to ask you to believe me but having too much money is a problem also," he said.
"You can't spend $100 million when you're 74.
"The motivation was, if I die that means somebody, whose wealth it is not, has to decide what to do with it and that's all wrong.
"The passing of my wife was the catalyst in making that decision."
Mr Powell has had a long association with the university through his Ragdoll Foundation, which provides scholarships to those unable to afford to study, and said Murdoch was "first in line" when it came to donating.
"I can't change the world, I can only do one thing and I've done it and Murdoch is first in the line," he said.
Mr Powell said the decision to donate such a significant sum had been nerve-wracking.
"Before I made it (the decision) I was scared, and once I'd given the money over, I was relaxed," Mr Powell said.
"It was like a weight off my mind, I've done it."
Mr Powell ran his business for 19 years before selling and semi-retiring in Perth.
After relocating to WA, he became involved in developing the Richardson Hotel in West Perth.
He hopes his actions would inspire others who have come into wealth to give back and invest in the community.
"I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage anyone who's been able to accumulate wealth to consider responsible ways to give back and I hope that my gift to Murdoch will inspire others," Mr Powell said.
"A good education is a gift to last a lifetime."
Murdoch University vice chancellor Andrew Decks said he was speechless when Mr Powell told him of his decision.
"Well I had to take my jaw off the floor and bring it back up," he said.
He said the donation would transform the university.
"It's bringing the facilities up to world class standards," he said.
The new build is expected to take about five years and will allow the university to boost the number students wanting to train as vets from 105 to 150 per year.
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ABC News
4 minutes ago
- ABC News
Can Trump sack his way to better jobs data?
Sam Hawley: Donald Trump didn't like the numbers, so he sacked the messenger. So what are the implications of the US President's decision to get rid of the nation's chief statistician who dared to release revised job figures? Today's staff writer at The Atlantic, Tom Nichols, on the sledgehammer Trump is taking to democracy. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Tom, we know that Donald Trump has trouble dealing with the facts, but wow, he really has gone a step further this time, hasn't he? Tom Nichols: Yeah, although I think that this is more of a warning to the next person rather than Trump really believing that the facts are wrong. I think he is lashing out because he's angry and by firing this person, he's trying to send up a flare that says, from now on, give me the numbers that I prefer. Sam Hawley: Oh, yes, all right. So last week, these new job figures came out and they weren't fantastic. Trump didn't obviously like them, so he sacks the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, because he says her numbers are wrong. Donald Trump, US President: I think her numbers were wrong, just like I thought her numbers were wrong before the election. Days before the election, she came out with these beautiful numbers for Kamala. Tom Nichols: Well, he was very happy with those numbers earlier in his term when they were reflecting job growth. What happened, of course, is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does a lot of this work by reporting, by self-reporting from American companies, has to do revisions as they get more information coming in from those companies over time. And ever since the pandemic, those companies have been a bit slower about reporting and kind of getting that data together to get it to the Labor Department. So, of course, every so often, BLS comes out and says, OK, now we're going to revise the jobs report that we put out. And Trump decided that revising the jobs numbers downward, that this was some kind of act of political sabotage. Donald Trump, US President: We're doing so well. I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election. And there were other times. So you know what I did? I fired her. And you know what? I did the right thing. Tom Nichols: Now, again, whether he really believes that after glorifying the good numbers that he got is, I think, questionable. And so he's doing the thing that he likes to do as a former business owner, which is firing people who annoy him. And the quickest way to annoy him is to give him bad news. Sam Hawley: And others in the White House are also now trying to explain this sacking, aren't they? Like Kevin Hassett, who's Trump's economic adviser. He was on Fox News echoing Trump's doubts about the job figures. Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council: If I were running the BLS and I had the biggest downward revision in 50 years, I would have a really, really detailed report explaining why it happened so that everybody really trusted the data. And so I think what we need is a fresh set of eyes at the BLS. Somebody who can clean this thing up. Sam Hawley: Alright, well, Trump's accusing her of being a Biden stooge. Tom Nichols: Yeah. Sam Hawley: I mean, she's not, obviously. Tom Nichols: Yeah. I mean, these are career, you know, civil servants in the American system. At a certain level of seniority, you have to be nominated by the president, who is the head of the executive branch, and then confirmed by the Senate. And this woman was confirmed overwhelmingly in the Senate, including by two US senators whose names happen to be Marco Rubio and JD Vance, who, of course, are now the secretary of state and the vice president. So there was no issue with her being some sort of political stooge. It's pretty hard to find lifelong statisticians who are also political stooges hiding in the American bureaucracy. Sam Hawley: Wow. OK. Because these revised figures, which showed that job growth wasn't what Donald Trump wanted it to be, it doesn't fit with his narrative, I assume, especially as he rolls out these global tariffs. Tom Nichols: Right. You know, Trump creates his own reality. When reality collides with his promises, he says that the reality is fake. The numbers are fake. The reports are fake. The news is fake. People are out to get me. Everything is rigged. And there's a real danger here, because it's not just the president, you know, being annoyed by these numbers. If you undermine the stability and trustworthiness of BLS, of the statistical organisation, businesses across America count on these numbers, as do foreign governments. So basically, Donald Trump is saying, I don't like bad news, so I'm going to basically blind us about what's actually going on at any given moment in the American economy, which suits him just fine, because he will tell his own story about it. But for the rest of us, it's quite dangerous. Sam Hawley: All right, so Tom, let's look further then into what else Donald Trump has been doing when it comes to the American bureaucracy and, of course, truth and facts. We always knew he wanted to get rid of anyone who was critical of his thinking, right? That was part of so-called Project 2025. Just remind me about that. Tom Nichols: Well, Project 2025, it never mentions Donald Trump. It was meant to be a handbook for the next Republican president. Now, of course, they knew that the next Republican president would be Donald Trump. And so this was a document produced at the Heritage Foundation that had an overarching scheme for essentially destroying entire pieces of the American government and its bureaucratic infrastructure. Of course, people always think that sounds good, because who likes the word bureaucracy, right? I mean, you think of bureaucracy and you think about the Department of Motor Vehicles or trying to get your license renewed or something. But here in the United States, as in every developed country, bureaucracy is how the mail gets delivered. It's how labour statistics get compiled and so on. What they really wanted to do, and this is at the heart of a lot of Project 2025, is to get rid of the apolitical servants in the bureaucracy and replace them with Republican conservative political loyalists. And specifically people, of course, by extension, who are going to be loyal to Donald Trump, which then makes the idea of an apolitical administration of a gigantic country of 350 million people impossible, because it's a return to cronyism and political hackery. But that's exactly what the project aims for in what they would call reforming the bureaucracy. Sam Hawley: So tell me, who else has the president deemed to be standing in his way? Who else has he been after? I know, Tom, the list is long, so you might just want to mention the highlights. Tom Nichols: The Department of Justice, which he is hollowing out and destroying piece by piece. The Department of Defense, which is now in the hands of a talk show host. Those are the two big ones that really could have been a problem. That along with, again, an apolitical civil service that says, well, we can't actually break the law. You know, we can't actually engage in politics in the office. But Trump is pushing to destroy all of those regulations. And he's mostly there. I mean, he has the Department of Justice. What he doesn't have are America's judges, who he's trying, of course, to replace through appointments. But even some of his own appointees are fighting him. And so now the Trump administration is really encouraging threats against American judges. I mean, we are really, you know, in the American judiciary is in the fight of its life here to maintain its independence. Unfortunately, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court has decided that Donald Trump is a king and can do whatever he wants. You know, we're in a pretty dicey situation here in the United States. Sam Hawley: And federal scientists too, right? That's really concerning. Tom Nichols: Oh, absolutely. I mean, climate scientists, you know, virologists, epidemiologists. If you had said to me five years ago that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be running the Department of Health and Human Services, I would have said that it's a comedy skit on Saturday Night Live. And I wouldn't have believed you. Authoritarian leaders don't like experts. Experts are the people who say, look, you can yell at me and threaten me all day long, but, you know, water is still wet and the sky is still blue. And, you know, people are going to die because of this. I mean, there is going to be real harm to the health and well-being of a lot of Americans because of this kookery that's infested the government now. And again, firing all those civil servants, firing all those government scientists and replacing them with people who want, you know, jobs and nice offices is an important step in that. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And not only sacking people, Tom, I also read that he's trying to change history, rewriting historical documents. Tom Nichols: Well, he was very upset that the Smithsonian Institution had an exhibit about impeachment that included him. And that was taken out. Now, apparently, because of the outcry around that, that he is going to be put back in there, whether he likes it or not, which tells you that if people get angry enough and they make enough noise that, you know, you can have some effect here. Yeah, Trump simply reorders reality whenever he speaks to his liking. And again, he may well know, I mean, at this point, it's so difficult to know what Trump believes and what he imagines or what he confabulates. But he knows that he's speaking to his loyal base. And that base right now is pretty angry with him about the whole Jeffrey Epstein business, which is a whole other drama here in America. So he's trying to throw them all kinds of red meat as fast as he can to try and get their minds off the fact that he didn't fulfill his promise to release all these files about one of his best friends. 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But I don't think he's looking quite as powerful as he was even, you know, two or three months ago. Which is not to underestimate him. Because he will do things that other presidents would not. Strangely enough, this Epstein business is the thing that's probably hurt him more than anything. I think he's really worried about his base turning on him. And the only time they've even threatened to turn on him has been over this Epstein business. Sam Hawley: Yeah, interesting. All right. Well, the concern for a long time, of course, has been that Trump will chip away at democracy and democratic norms over his four year term, which is rather long. How much damage could he actually do in that time? Tom Nichols: Oh, he's not chipping away at it. He's jackhammering away at it. The chipping away was in his first term, but that was held in check by people around him who would say things like, Mr. President, you can't do that. Or even more importantly, they would say, Mr. President, I'm not doing that. He learned from that. He has come into office with a bunch of careerists and opportunists and sycophants who are going to do whatever he tells them to do. He's calling for an investigation, for example, into Jack Smith, the special counsel who was looking into his various misdeeds in his first term. And the lawyer who will be the head of that office is a 30 year old guy who got his law degree last year. And he'll do whatever Trump wants him to do. Sam Hawley: Well, Tom, I don't want to be overdramatic, but could he actually succeed then in destroying or at least deeply wounding American democracy? Tom Nichols: Destroying, probably not. One of the strengths of the United States is that we are a sprawling, vast federal system. Donald Trump can say a lot of things, but, you know, New York and California and Illinois and Massachusetts all have their own governors and legislatures. What he can do is encourage the collapse of democracy in pockets. It's one thing to live in Boston. It's another thing to live in Alabama or Louisiana or Mississippi or Texas, where the governor and the legislature are straight up aligned with the president and have decided that if he doesn't like the way the Constitution is written, then they don't like it either. And so I've said in the past, I don't think American democracy collapses from coast to coast. I think it evaporates in pockets. That's where I think the real threats are going to come, is in this kind of cooperation with individual states and governors and legislatures. Sam Hawley: Tom Nichols is a staff writer at The Atlantic. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. ABC News Daily will be back again on Monday. Thanks for listening.
Perth Now
4 hours ago
- Perth Now
Perth businessman donates $100m to WA university
Perth businessman Ted Powell has made an unprecedented donation of $100m to Murdoch University's veterinary school. The gift is the largest donation ever received by a West Australian university and one of the largest received by any Australian uni. 'You can't spend $100m when you're 74 years old. It's just not possible,' Mr Powell, who made his fortune founding Offshore Incorporations Limited, said on Thursday. 'I've given almost as much as I can, but you know, I'm not going to go hungry. 'I know my late wife, Dee, an animal lover and a most generous person, would also be immensely proud of this project.' Mr and Mrs Powell, who did not have children, established The Ragdoll Foundation, which has provided financial support to more than 140 Murdoch students who completed their degrees through a scholarship program. The $100m donation will be used to redevelop Murdoch's veterinary school with a 9600 sqm facility that will be large enough to increase the number of vet students who can be trained in WA by 50 per cent. Mr Powell said there were many good causes in the medical and educational fields and encouraged anyone who was financially well-off to consider giving to worthy causes. Murdoch University's veterinary school will undergo a redevelopment thanks to an unprecedented $100m gift from Perth businessman Ted Powell. Credit: Supplied 'I am absolutely delighted that this gift will support the redevelopment of the Veterinary School,' he said. Vice Chancellor Andrew Deeks said Mr Powell's extraordinary act of generosity would help ensure WA continued its role as a leading hub for animal research, teaching and training. 'Veterinary Medicine was one of 10 foundation courses offered by Murdoch when we opened 50 years ago and a commitment to the environment and conservation are part of the University's DNA,' the vice chancellor said. 'The discipline has advanced significantly over that time, as have the safety requirements for biological laboratories and animal facilities.' The new facility will allow the university to build on its conservation, animal care and welfare programs, as well as provide more cutting edge research. It will also provide better service for the agricultural and scientific community and broader WA community. Murdoch University'Vice chancellor Andrew Deeks said the donation would help ensure WA continued its role as a leading hub for animal research, teaching and training. Credit: Supplied Professor Deeks said the development would strengthen research in animal health and the University's One Health agenda which recognised the links between human, animal and environmental health. 'On behalf of Murdoch University, I cannot thank Ted Powell enough for his generosity, support and foresight,' he said. 'He will leave a legacy for the Western Australian veterinary profession, animal research – and for animals great and small – which will resonate for generations to come.'
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
Productivity Commission calls for changes to road user charges to fund road upgrades
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