Latest news with #Hutchison
Sydney Morning Herald
6 hours ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
This old bloke's guide to happiness has one golden rule
Geoff Hutchison has officially entered the harrumph zone. Change is everywhere. His waning status. His ageing body. This whole shot-to-hell world. Whether on ubiquitous screens or the drive to the supermarket, stupidity and inconvenience conspire to exasperate him. His mission now: How Not to Become a Grumpy Old Bugger. 'I genuinely think I'm a better person for having written it,' the former ABC radio presenter says of his first book, subtitled A bLoke's Guide To Living a Better Life. 'I've had cause at times to remind myself, if I'm going to tell other people how they should live their lives, I've got to respond to that. I've got to take this stuff seriously.' After 40 years as a journalist, not least with Foreign Correspondent and 7.30, he knows serious. But it was his last 16 in talkback on ABC Perth that gave him the necessary tone for a book addressing the minefield of male discontent: rigorous inquiry, sure, but with a lightness of touch that invites leaning in. 'I wanted to hit blokes between the eyes on a couple of things, but I also know they will put the book down and never read another paragraph if I can't win them over to the conversation,' he says. 'Although I still think their partners might read bits of it out loud to them in bed. That would make me happy too.' In terms of inspiration, he recalls one beacon of grump from early in his talkback career: February 13, 2008, the day new PM Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations. 'I reckon the first six callers were blokes, and they were all saying, 'I don't see that I should have to apologise for anything'. I didn't say it on air but I thought, 'Oh my god, how can these blokes be such bastards?' 'Back then I took it personally. I don't now. I would now want to say to those blokes: 'This isn't about you. Not everything that happens in the world is about you.' That whole 'Harrumph, well I don't like it' – I want to convince them to just let some things go.' Hutchison's book is not interested in culture wars. He isn't out to debate pronouns or cancel culture. What he's describing is something quieter and more insidious: a kind of emotional shrinkage, a stubborn stand-off with acceptance. 'You raise the kids, the job ends, and you become a little less interesting to everyone. That's the bit no one tells you,' he says, with the fresh insight of the recent retiree. 'And if you were defined by that role' – the job, the dad, the problem-solver – 'I think you're very vulnerable to sadness. And loneliness.' The grim end of male sadness is devastating. In Australia, Hutchison discovered, 86 men call an ambulance every day with thoughts of suicide. In 2023 alone, 64 women were killed in acts of male violence. But he doesn't have to consult experts and statistics to see the darkness festering in blokes' heads. He recalls stumbling on a social media chat sharing the praises of Italian restaurants. 'Every positive comment came from a woman. Every negative and unnecessary one came from a bloke. And I'm just thinking, who are you? What are you doing, sitting at a keyboard, hating everything? Is there any pleasure in that?' Then there was a bloke named Ian, compelled to comment under an exultant photo of three young footy players with hands casually resting on each other's knees. 'Back when I played footy,' Ian said, 'we would get the shit kicked out of us for posing like that.' TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GEOFF HUTCHISON Worst habit? It used to be celebrating cynicism. But after hearing Billy Bragg declare that 'cynicism is the enemy of hope', I am now determinedly of the same opinion. Greatest fear? I don't like them Fascists very much. Indeed, anyone who seeks political advantage by using fear to target and blame 'others'. And I'm wary of anyone who thinks the concept of Prosperity Theology is endorsed by a greater power. The line that stayed with you? ' Love this life, don't wait 'til the next one comes' – Neil Finn. Biggest regret? A kitchen accident that left my young son only partially sighted. I had my back turned as he tried to open a bag of apples with scissors. And yes, it was as awful as it sounds. I've written about it for the first time in my book in the chapter titled Regret. Favourite book? Richard Ford's The Sportswriter (1986). I was a young version of one at the time. The artwork/song you wish was your s? The Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden by the German painter Otto Dix. If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? London in the mid '60s please, with plenty of money in my pocket. And if you could get me into the Marquee Club to see … oh I dunno, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix that would be splendid. 'That bloke is just curating a museum of dickheadedness,' Hutchison says. 'It's awful, and I bet it's making him sick. I bet his wife doesn't like him much. And I bet his son doesn't come home to watch footy on Friday nights because he can't bear to hear Dad talk about their haircuts.' That author doesn't exempt himself. He recounts one episode of fuming at an umpire's call that his daughter, gently, had to tell him was pathetic. He talks about making his mates laugh by impersonating 'some dickhead' at the pub. 'I find that kind of cynicism less funny now. When blokes shrink into that tight, narrow worldview, they must be awful to live with.' He owns that too. Post-ABC, he assumed more time with his wife, Philippa. But her career as a documentary maker is firing. 'She's about to fly to the UK for three weeks of interviews. So I had to remind myself: you don't need to be at the centre of everything. You can swan around on the edges. Pick and choose how you want to engage. Just make sure you do.' The active pursuit of engagement is a theme of Hutchison's book. 'If you've got male friends, place some value on that friendship. Whatever the next five, 10, 20 years look like – and they might be terrific, or they might be absolutely shithouse – you want to have people to talk to about it.' That refusal to disappear, to keep showing up, runs through the people he interviews. There's social researcher and psychologist Hugh Mackay, still sharp and empathetic at 86. Alex Pearce, the Fremantle Dockers' captain is emotionally open in a way Hutchison finds quietly radical. Through his son he meets a trans woman named Gemma, whose calm presence contrasts powerfully with the rage of anonymous detractors. Two GPs talk bluntly about ageing bodies behind pseudonyms designed to tickle sci-fi-nerds: Peter Venkman and Leonard McCoy. At both ends, it's Hutchison's late father who anchors the book. The man who blithely proclaimed his unhappiness as a fact of life when Geoff was a boy 'used to come home from the Italian Club in Pickering Brook and say, 'God, people are stupid'. I used to think, 'Is it just the gang you're hangin' out with Dad?' I've got to believe not everyone is quite so venal or miserable. 'Dad came back from the precipice a bit,' he adds. 'In his last few years he'd listen to me on the wireless, and he liked it well enough. And two of his grandkids were here. So that made him quite a lot chirpier than he'd been.' Loading The common root of men's discontent? From this survey, it's nothing more radical or newfangled than change itself: the slow, inevitable erosion of lifelong comforts we've been privileged to take for granted. Asked to boil the grumpiness solution down to a golden rule, Hutchison answers without hesitation. 'Curiosity. Try and prise your world open. Curiosity provides beautiful opportunity to be appreciative of things and not so judgmental. 'Even if the world is going to hell, I want blokes to realise that there is really good opportunity to provide hope and comfort to those you love. And when that's reciprocated, when your granddaughter says you're terrific, you can just think, actually it is worth being around. And participating.'
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
This old bugger's guide to happiness has one golden rule
Geoff Hutchison has officially entered the harrumph zone. Change is everywhere. His waning status. His ageing body. This whole shot-to-hell world. Whether on ubiquitous screens or the drive to the supermarket, stupidity and inconvenience conspire to exasperate him. His mission now: How Not to Become a Grumpy Old Bugger. 'I genuinely think I'm a better person for having written it,' the former ABC radio presenter says of his first book, subtitled A bloke's guide to living a better life. 'I've had cause at times to remind myself, if I'm going to tell other people how they should live their lives, I've got to respond to that. I've got to take this stuff seriously.' After 40 years as a journalist, not least with Foreign Correspondent and 7.30, he knows serious. But it was his last 16 in talkback on ABC Perth that gave him the necessary tone for a book addressing the minefield of male discontent: rigorous enquiry, sure, but with a lightness of touch that invites leaning in. 'I wanted to hit blokes between the eyes on a couple of things, but I also know they will put the book down and never read another paragraph if I can't win them over to the conversation,' he says. 'Although I still think their partners might read bits of it out loud to them in bed. That would make me happy too.' In terms of inspiration, he recalls one beacon of grump from early in his talkback career: February 13, 2008, the day new PM Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations. 'I reckon the first six callers were blokes, and they were all saying, 'I don't see that I should have to apologise for anything'. I didn't say it on air but I thought, 'Oh my god, how can these blokes be such bastards?' 'Back then I took it personally. I don't now. I would now want to say to those blokes: 'This isn't about you. Not everything that happens in the world is about you.' That whole 'Harrumph, well I don't like it' – I want to convince them to just let some things go.' Hutchison's book is not interested in culture wars. He isn't out to debate pronouns or cancel culture. What he's describing is something quieter and more insidious: a kind of emotional shrinkage, a stubborn stand-off with acceptance. 'You raise the kids, the job ends, and you become a little less interesting to everyone. That's the bit no one tells you,' he says, with the fresh insight of the recent retiree. 'And if you were defined by that role' – the job, the dad, the problem-solver – 'I think you're very vulnerable to sadness. And loneliness.' The grim end of male sadness is devastating. In Australia, Hutchison discovered, 86 men call an ambulance every day with thoughts of suicide. In 2023 alone, 64 women were killed in acts of male violence. But he doesn't have to consult experts and statistics to see the darkness festering in blokes' heads. He recalls stumbling on a social media chat sharing the praises of Italian restaurants. 'Every positive comment came from a woman. Every negative and unnecessary one came from a bloke. And I'm just thinking, who are you? What are you doing, sitting at a keyboard, hating everything? Is there any pleasure in that?' Then there was a bloke named Ian, compelled to comment under an exultant photo of three young footy players with hands casually resting on each other's knees. 'Back when I played footy,' Ian said, 'we would get the shit kicked out of us for posing like that.' TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GEOFF HUTCHISON Worst habit? It used to be celebrating cynicism. But after hearing Billy Bragg declare that 'cynicism is the enemy of hope', I am now determinedly of the same opinion. Greatest fear? I don't like them Fascists very much. Indeed, anyone who seeks political advantage by using fear to target and blame 'others'. And I'm wary of anyone who thinks the concept of Prosperity Theology is endorsed by a greater power. The line that stayed with you? ' Love this life, don't wait 'til the next one comes' – Neil Finn. Biggest regret? A kitchen accident that left my young son only partially sighted. I had my back turned as he tried to open a bag of apples with scissors. And yes, it was as awful as it sounds. I've written about it for the first time in my book in the chapter titled Regret. Favourite book? Richard Ford's The Sportswriter (1986). I was a young version of one at the time. The artwork/song you wish was your s? The Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden by the German painter Otto Dix. If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? London in the mid '60s please, with plenty of money in my pocket. And if you could get me into the Marquee Club to see … oh I dunno, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix that would be splendid. 'That bloke is just curating a museum of dickheadedness,' Hutchison says. 'It's awful, and I bet it's making him sick. I bet his wife doesn't like him much. And I bet his son doesn't come home to watch footy on Friday nights because he can't bear to hear Dad talk about their haircuts.' That author doesn't exempt himself. He recounts one episode of fuming at an umpire's call that his daughter, gently, had to tell him was pathetic. He talks about making his mates laugh by impersonating 'some dickhead' at the pub. 'I find that kind of cynicism less funny now. When blokes shrink into that tight, narrow worldview, they must be awful to live with.' He owns that too. Post-ABC, he assumed more time with his wife, Philippa. But her career as a documentary maker is firing. 'She's about to fly to the UK for three weeks of interviews. So I had to remind myself: you don't need to be at the centre of everything. You can swan around on the edges. Pick and choose how you want to engage. Just make sure you do.' The active pursuit of engagement is a theme of Hutchison's book. 'If you've got male friends, place some value on that friendship. Whatever the next five, 10, 20 years look like – and they might be terrific, or they might be absolutely shithouse – you want to have people to talk to about it.' That refusal to disappear, to keep showing up, runs through the people he interviews. There's social researcher and psychologist Hugh Mackay, still sharp and empathetic at 86. Alex Pearce, the Fremantle Dockers' captain is emotionally open in a way Hutchison finds quietly radical. Through his son he meets a trans woman named Gemma, whose calm presence contrasts powerfully with the rage of anonymous detractors. Two GPs talk bluntly about ageing bodies behind pseudonyms designed to tickle sci-fi-nerds: Peter Venkman and Leonard McCoy. At both ends, it's Hutchison's late father who anchors the book. The man who blithely proclaimed his unhappiness as a fact of life when Geoff was a boy 'used to come home from the Italian Club in Pickering Brook and say, 'God, people are stupid'. I used to think, 'Is it just the gang you're hangin' out with Dad?' I've got to believe not everyone is quite so venal or miserable. 'Dad came back from the precipice a bit,' he adds. 'In his last few years he'd listen to me on the wireless, and he liked it well enough. And two of his grandkids were here. So that made him quite a lot chirpier than he'd been.' Loading The common root of men's discontent? From this survey, it's nothing more radical or newfangled than change itself: the slow, inevitable erosion of lifelong comforts we've been privileged to take for granted. Asked to boil the grumpiness solution down to a golden rule, Hutchison answers without hesitation. 'Curiosity. Try and prise your world open. Curiosity provides beautiful opportunity to be appreciative of things and not so judgmental. 'Even if the world is going to hell, I want blokes to realise that there is really good opportunity to provide hope and comfort to those you love. And when that's reciprocated, when your granddaughter says you're terrific, you can just think, actually it is worth being around. And participating.'
The Age
3 days ago
- General
- The Age
This old bugger's guide to happiness has one golden rule
Geoff Hutchison has officially entered the harrumph zone. Change is everywhere. His waning status. His ageing body. This whole shot-to-hell world. Whether on ubiquitous screens or the drive to the supermarket, stupidity and inconvenience conspire to exasperate him. His mission now: How Not to Become a Grumpy Old Bugger. 'I genuinely think I'm a better person for having written it,' the former ABC radio presenter says of his first book, subtitled A bloke's guide to living a better life. 'I've had cause at times to remind myself, if I'm going to tell other people how they should live their lives, I've got to respond to that. I've got to take this stuff seriously.' After 40 years as a journalist, not least with Foreign Correspondent and 7.30, he knows serious. But it was his last 16 in talkback on ABC Perth that gave him the necessary tone for a book addressing the minefield of male discontent: rigorous enquiry, sure, but with a lightness of touch that invites leaning in. 'I wanted to hit blokes between the eyes on a couple of things, but I also know they will put the book down and never read another paragraph if I can't win them over to the conversation,' he says. 'Although I still think their partners might read bits of it out loud to them in bed. That would make me happy too.' In terms of inspiration, he recalls one beacon of grump from early in his talkback career: February 13, 2008, the day new PM Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations. 'I reckon the first six callers were blokes, and they were all saying, 'I don't see that I should have to apologise for anything'. I didn't say it on air but I thought, 'Oh my god, how can these blokes be such bastards?' 'Back then I took it personally. I don't now. I would now want to say to those blokes: 'This isn't about you. Not everything that happens in the world is about you.' That whole 'Harrumph, well I don't like it' – I want to convince them to just let some things go.' Hutchison's book is not interested in culture wars. He isn't out to debate pronouns or cancel culture. What he's describing is something quieter and more insidious: a kind of emotional shrinkage, a stubborn stand-off with acceptance. 'You raise the kids, the job ends, and you become a little less interesting to everyone. That's the bit no one tells you,' he says, with the fresh insight of the recent retiree. 'And if you were defined by that role' – the job, the dad, the problem-solver – 'I think you're very vulnerable to sadness. And loneliness.' The grim end of male sadness is devastating. In Australia, Hutchison discovered, 86 men call an ambulance every day with thoughts of suicide. In 2023 alone, 64 women were killed in acts of male violence. But he doesn't have to consult experts and statistics to see the darkness festering in blokes' heads. He recalls stumbling on a social media chat sharing the praises of Italian restaurants. 'Every positive comment came from a woman. Every negative and unnecessary one came from a bloke. And I'm just thinking, who are you? What are you doing, sitting at a keyboard, hating everything? Is there any pleasure in that?' Then there was a bloke named Ian, compelled to comment under an exultant photo of three young footy players with hands casually resting on each other's knees. 'Back when I played footy,' Ian said, 'we would get the shit kicked out of us for posing like that.' TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GEOFF HUTCHISON Worst habit? It used to be celebrating cynicism. But after hearing Billy Bragg declare that 'cynicism is the enemy of hope', I am now determinedly of the same opinion. Greatest fear? I don't like them Fascists very much. Indeed, anyone who seeks political advantage by using fear to target and blame 'others'. And I'm wary of anyone who thinks the concept of Prosperity Theology is endorsed by a greater power. The line that stayed with you? ' Love this life, don't wait 'til the next one comes' – Neil Finn. Biggest regret? A kitchen accident that left my young son only partially sighted. I had my back turned as he tried to open a bag of apples with scissors. And yes, it was as awful as it sounds. I've written about it for the first time in my book in the chapter titled Regret. Favourite book? Richard Ford's The Sportswriter (1986). I was a young version of one at the time. The artwork/song you wish was your s? The Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden by the German painter Otto Dix. If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? London in the mid '60s please, with plenty of money in my pocket. And if you could get me into the Marquee Club to see … oh I dunno, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix that would be splendid. 'That bloke is just curating a museum of dickheadedness,' Hutchison says. 'It's awful, and I bet it's making him sick. I bet his wife doesn't like him much. And I bet his son doesn't come home to watch footy on Friday nights because he can't bear to hear Dad talk about their haircuts.' That author doesn't exempt himself. He recounts one episode of fuming at an umpire's call that his daughter, gently, had to tell him was pathetic. He talks about making his mates laugh by impersonating 'some dickhead' at the pub. 'I find that kind of cynicism less funny now. When blokes shrink into that tight, narrow worldview, they must be awful to live with.' He owns that too. Post-ABC, he assumed more time with his wife, Philippa. But her career as a documentary maker is firing. 'She's about to fly to the UK for three weeks of interviews. So I had to remind myself: you don't need to be at the centre of everything. You can swan around on the edges. Pick and choose how you want to engage. Just make sure you do.' The active pursuit of engagement is a theme of Hutchison's book. 'If you've got male friends, place some value on that friendship. Whatever the next five, 10, 20 years look like – and they might be terrific, or they might be absolutely shithouse – you want to have people to talk to about it.' That refusal to disappear, to keep showing up, runs through the people he interviews. There's social researcher and psychologist Hugh Mackay, still sharp and empathetic at 86. Alex Pearce, the Fremantle Dockers' captain is emotionally open in a way Hutchison finds quietly radical. Through his son he meets a trans woman named Gemma, whose calm presence contrasts powerfully with the rage of anonymous detractors. Two GPs talk bluntly about ageing bodies behind pseudonyms designed to tickle sci-fi-nerds: Peter Venkman and Leonard McCoy. At both ends, it's Hutchison's late father who anchors the book. The man who blithely proclaimed his unhappiness as a fact of life when Geoff was a boy 'used to come home from the Italian Club in Pickering Brook and say, 'God, people are stupid'. I used to think, 'Is it just the gang you're hangin' out with Dad?' I've got to believe not everyone is quite so venal or miserable. 'Dad came back from the precipice a bit,' he adds. 'In his last few years he'd listen to me on the wireless, and he liked it well enough. And two of his grandkids were here. So that made him quite a lot chirpier than he'd been.' Loading The common root of men's discontent? From this survey, it's nothing more radical or newfangled than change itself: the slow, inevitable erosion of lifelong comforts we've been privileged to take for granted. Asked to boil the grumpiness solution down to a golden rule, Hutchison answers without hesitation. 'Curiosity. Try and prise your world open. Curiosity provides beautiful opportunity to be appreciative of things and not so judgmental. 'Even if the world is going to hell, I want blokes to realise that there is really good opportunity to provide hope and comfort to those you love. And when that's reciprocated, when your granddaughter says you're terrific, you can just think, actually it is worth being around. And participating.'
Herald Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Herald Sun
AFL Caroline Wilson tells Craig Hutchy Hutchison to ‘grow up' in shock spray live on-air, Channel 7, The Agenda Setters
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News. Caroline Wilson bluntly told Craig Hutchison to 'grow up' during a feisty spat live on Channel 7. Hutchison, Wilson, Kane Cornes and Nick Riewoldt front The Agenda Setters on the network and the two footy greats sat silently while the media identities got into a squabble over one of Hutchy's recent business moves. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1. The pre-planned segment, which Hutchison clearly did not know was going to happen, related to the media mogul's awkward appearance on radio network RSN last week after he announced a raft of sackings at the station. Earlier this month, the TV host's SEN group purchased RSN in a $3.25 million deal and immediately set about cutting costs, including giving popular hosts Daniel Harford and Michael Felgate the flick. Watch the Hutchy-Caro exchange in the video player above SEN owner Craig Hutchison didn't appreciate the line of questioning. Photo: Supplied Many long-time listeners of the station only learned the news when Hutchison fronted Felgate's Racing Pulse show last Thursday. So Wilson took the opportunity to make a cheeky plea over her own future on the Channel 7 show. Set up by Riewoldt in a section called The Spill, the former St Kilda captain put the vague question to Wilson: 'The hour on air of the Agenda Setters is the highest risk of all.' The long-time Age reporter replied: 'Well, certainly if you're on air with Craig Hutchison. 'This is no respect, disrespect I should say, to Michael Felgate or Daniel Harford for that matter. 'But if you're going to remove me from the show, can you please not do it with me on-air?' Daniel Harford (left) and Michael Felgate have been dumped from RSN. Wilson delivered the jab with a straight face and Hutchison did not take it well. 'This is not something to joke about,' he shot back. When Wilson said 'I'm not joking about it', Hutchy said: 'No, that's incredibly disrespectful and disappointing. That story is incorrect. It didn't happen.' Wilson, clearly surprised by Hutchison's reaction, stuck to her guns. 'Oh, don't. Craig, you walked into the studio, I know Michael Felgate already knew that his show would no longer be continuing,' she said. 'But if you're going to do it to me, I would rather it happen behind the scenes and not on air.' With Hutchison's production company directly involved in The Agenda Setters, perhaps Wilson just signed her own papers? Watch this space. But Hutchy wasn't taking the shot lying down. 'There was a press release the day before and there was a mature, two-way conversation on-air and you're making light of it, which is disappointing,' a seemingly hurt Hutchy replied. Wilson then had the last word, scoffing as she said: 'Oh, grow up.' Cornes and Riewoldt then did their best to keep the show moving, moving onto a story about Travis Boak and his habits in the bedroom the night before a game. Somehow, that topic was nowhere near as awkward as the exchange between the old journalists. In a bizarre segment last week, Felgate had the opportunity to grill Hutchison about why he was losing his job, with the latter doing his best to stress it wasn't a personal decision. Caroline Wilson, Craig Hutchison and Kane Cornes left Nine to join Channel 7. Picture: Channel 9 Felgate began the interview asking: 'I've got to start with the elephant in the room. An announcement yesterday which came out that there will be programming changes. 'Breakfast with Harf and this show, Racing Pulse, will no longer exist in the new regime. 'Just talk us through the reasoning. Why you don't want Breakfast with Harf and Racing Pulse on the new station?' Hutchison responded: 'First of all they're magnificent shows, so no disrespect at all to the quality of the programs and the identities involved, you in particular Michael and Daniel, who have been incredible servants of RSN. 'There's nothing personal about (cancelling) either of those programs … we need to invest, over time, into the racing product, it's a racing station. 'It's a different audience to the one that we have developed over on SEN Track, very different audience, very different experience, they don't really resemble each other after midday.' He went on to say: 'I know that won't be everyone's cup of tea on day one. 'You (Felgate) have got an enormous following, so does Daniel. The default position from many will be to have empathy for those programs and I respect that hugely. Hugely, because it's not about the quality of the shows.' Harford, who has been an icon of the network, said on his show last Thursday it had been 'a period of uncertainty' for those involved. 'So at the end of August this program will cease to exist,' he said. 'We'll be no longer required and there will be different programming on RSN which is very sad. Harford with David King. Photo: Supplied 'We've been doing this for a long time, which is very sad. We've had a lot of conversations about this internally for a little while. 'Certainly in the last couple of days when we found out what was going to be happening. 'So that's the reality of our situation.' The Hutchison-led group announced RSN will double dip from the Hutchison-backed SEN network and will broadcast SEN Breakfast. SEN's flagship breakfast slot, whish is shared between Cornes, David King, Tim Watson and Garry Lyon, will now be broadcast on two frequencies. Felgate's Racing Pulse will be replaced by Gareth Hall's Giddy Up. Those changes will be made from August 29. Originally published as Caroline Wilson tells Hutchy to 'grow up' in shock spray live on-air
Mint
5 days ago
- Business
- Mint
How China built a global port network
Chinese shipping giant Cosco has majority ownership of Spain's Port of Valencia. When a Hong Kong conglomerate set plans this year to sell its global network of shipping ports to an American-led investment group, two facilities in Panama got most of the attention. But the real action is in Europe, where Chinese business interests have spent decades accumulating port holdings. Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison agreed in March to sell more than 40 ports in 23 nations to an investor group led by American financial firm BlackRock, and the parties had aimed to reach a definitive agreement on the $23 billion deal at month-end. Now, Beijing is trying to muscle into the deal and carve out a stake for its giant shipping group Cosco, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Politics have hung over Hutchison's container-handling facilities at either end of the Panama Canal since it first began operating them in the 1990s. The sales plan came together after President Trump's vow to bring the canal under U.S. control. The most substantial impact on China's ambitions from the port deal might be in Europe, a continent crucial to Beijing's trade and diplomatic ambitions. Nearly half of the facilities on the block are in Europe or North Africa. Trump's trade tariffs, meanwhile, have Europe bracing for a deluge of Chinese goods that have been rerouted away from the U.S. Shipping volumes of items including electric vehicles are already up in places such as Spain. If the Hutchison deal goes through, the American-led investors would gain significant market share in a continent where the Chinese presence has grown large in recent years. Under the announced plan, BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners unit is buying the Hutchison ports with an investment partner, Italy's Aponte family, which runs giant MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company and its Terminal Investment Ltd. unit. Whether the deal goes through as planned or with Cosco's participation, China's port foothold in Europe would be concentrated under government-run companies similar to Cosco, which U.S. authorities consider a military-aligned enterprise. Exiting the region would be Hutchison, a private company controlled by the family of the 96-year-old Hong Kong billionaire capitalist Li Ka-shing, who hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with Beijing. China accelerated port investments after outlining the Belt and Road Initiative to modernize land and sea trade routes and reprise the Silk Road, which for centuries linked China with Europe through cities such as Valencia, Spain. The change in control of a port can alter trade routes and indicate economic power, not least of all because fewer than 10 shipping groups including Cosco, Swiss-based MSC, France's CMA CGM Group and Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk move nearly all of the world's containers. Ports with Chinese investment now dot the globe, according to a database produced by Zongyuan Zoe Liu at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Spain illustrates how Chinese business interests expanded port holdings in Europe, and what happens now. The southern European country was booming in 2006, when the government awarded Hutchison a contract to build and operate a new container terminal for the Port of Barcelona. Hutchison—which traces its origins to Hong Kong's own docks from the first days of 19th-century British colonialism—began investing in European ports in the 1990s. Its European holdings span the U.K., the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Poland, plus Spain. The British managing director of Hutchison ports, John Meredith, called Barcelona 'our key port in southern Europe." The story was different with Spain's Port of Valencia in 2017, when a Chinese group took control. Cosco got 51% as a result of a Spanish debt crisis and U.S. private-equity investors looking for a profit. China's port expansion strategy in Europe has primarily featured opportunistic acquisitions—a possible reason the Hutchison sale looks inviting to Cosco. 'The European ports are the best in terms of asset and infrastructure, of international importance for trade," said Liu of the Council on Foreign Relations, making them appealing investments. Government-run China Merchants took one of the boldest steps in 2013, buying 49% of a port business called Terminal Link from CMA CGM for 400 million euros. The deal gave China Merchants a minority share in a range of facilities, especially in Europe, and slivers in Miami and Houston. In developing countries throughout Africa and Asia, and more recently in South American nations such as Peru and Brazil, China's government-run companies have established wholly new shipping ports. Some of the construction deals have saddled host countries with large amounts of debt and were designed as gateways to haul away mineral commodities. Liu said China has adopted a build-it-and-they-will-come strategy in many developing nations based on its domestic infrastructure model of integrating new ports into new networks of expressways and railroads. Cosco first entered Europe as a ports investor in bought a concession to run operations in Piraeus, Greece, and turned it into a world-class facility. Cosco itself first entered Europe as a ports investor in 2004 with a minority stake in a container facility in Antwerp, Belgium. Cosco then made inroads starting in 2008 buying a concession to run facilities south of the Greek capital Athens at Piraeus, which it transformed into a world-class port. Pertinent to today's situation, Valencia in the 1980s was quick to adopt containerized shipping, which has been crucial to spurring world trade—and helped make China the world's top exporter for 16 years. Beijing gained control of the Port of Valencia in a European financial crisis. Wall Street's 2008-09 financial crisis had sparked major debt problems for corporate Europe, including for Spanish construction giant ACS Group. In 2010, ACS sold its interests in the Spanish ports of Valencia and Bilbao, plus various logistics operations, to a group led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management for 720 million euros, around $950 million at the time. As a private-equity investor with little interest in owning ports over the long-term, J.P. Morgan approached Cosco about buying, in part because of Cosco's success in Greece, a former executive involved said. Cosco agreed in 2017 to pay 200 million euros for 51% of the Valencia and Bilbao ports venture. Cosco called Valencia the natural port for Madrid and a 'perfect strategic fit" for its plans at 'developing a global terminals portfolio." A spokeswoman for J.P. Morgan declined to comment. As if to underscore Beijing's designs on Spain, a year after the deal Xi Jinping flew to Madrid to meet Spain's King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the first visit to the country for a Chinese leader in 13 years. He discussed the Mediterranean's role in his Belt and Road Initiative and pledged China would import goods worth $70 billion over the next five years. In fact, China's imports were closer to $45 billion in that period, nearly as much as it exports per year to Spain. Today, Valencia sits in the middle of a European network of Cosco ports that includes some of the region's biggest, including Greece's Piraeus, Italy's Genoa, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Belgium's Zeebrugge and Germany's Hamburg. As Cosco's own ships began calling at Valencia, the port emerged as a busier container facility than its vaunted Piraeus operation, last year handling 5.47 million TEUs, or shipping container equivalents, versus the Greek port's 4.22 million. Also huge on the Mediterranean are Spain's Algeciras and Morocco's Tanger Med ports, though they are still smaller than northern European ports. Valencia now also ranks as the most connected port in the Mediterranean, based on its integration with container lines, according to a United Nations index. 'China is the largest trading economy in the world," said Liu of the Council on Foreign Relations and, 'if you want to export more, you need the infrastructure." Write to James T. Areddy at Daniel Kiss at and Ming Li at
