The 100 most powerful people in Sydney revealed

‘It’s the one thing that I get asked to do a lot and it becomes less ridiculous as I get older,” TV presenter and radio host Erin Molan says. The Daily Telegraph’s Power 100. See the full list.

John Rolfe

The Daily Telegraph

Who’s on the way up, and who’s taken a fall? The Power 100 rates the city’s key movers and shakers for 2024.

Power – and the contest for it – is the defining story of humanity. It’s also the story of modern Sydney.

Our Power 100, now in its sixth year, is a mirror to our city in all its bravado, brilliance and brutality.

No. 95: Erin Molan on what she finds “bats**t” crazy

No. 16: How Nathan Cleary is helping change the landscape in Penrith

No. 2: The crisis that cuts PM Anthony Albanese the deepest

It features dizzying rises and ignominious falls – in many cases right off the list.

That’s the brutality of Australia’s most dynamic and competitive city.

Witness the decline of NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb, passed on the way up by new(ish) Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock.

Bullock’s rise and Webb’s fall are in part due to their contrasting approaches to communicating. Neither is a natural orator but the Governor has prospered by focusing on the message. Webb, on the other hand, has suffered because of her reluctance to speak.

Power 100: why Chris Minns trumped Anthony Albanese

There's been a massive shake up at the very top of this year's Power 100 list.

In the same vein, Linda Burney plummeted 57 positions for her part in the disastrous Voice campaign.

On a more inspiring note, golden girl Jess Fox is at the vanguard of an emerging generation of female powerbrokers in the sporting world and beyond.

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All up, it’s a diverse crowd, but judging by the rapid changes in its composition, the incumbents would do well to take heed of one of the most powerful women of our time.

“Power is like being a lady,’’ Baroness Margaret Thatcher said. “If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”

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David Matthews.

GWS Giants CEO

New entry

The Giants continue to make waves in Western Sydney as one of the fastest-growing sporting clubs in the country, and at the heart of their success is their CEO, David Matthews. Adopting the mantra of ‘A club like no other’, the Giants have embraced the idea of breaking the typical mould of a sporting franchise with Matthews leading the drive.

Previously in the role of general manager of national and international development for the AFL, Matthews has been in charge of the Giants since their entry into the competition. Creating a team from scratch always required thinking outside of the box, but the challenges were always going to be greater in one of the most diverse sporting markets in the world.

Through more than 25 years working in the AFL industry, Matthews has proven to be one of the smartest minds in the footy world, both on and off the field.

He has helped mastermind the club’s elite mentality, qualifying for finals in six of the past eight years and winning at least one final on each occasion. They’re also slowly winning hearts and minds in Western Sydney, passing 35,000 members for the first time in 2024, the most of any sporting club in the region. That’s helped by their social media presence which is one of the best in the country thanks to the free reign Matthews gives them.

With more investment than ever set to be thrown into the area to help fast-track the growth of Aussie rules in NSW, Matthews’ close relationship with AFL CEO Andrew Dillon and his passion for innovation means he will continue to be one of the most important sporting figures in the state for the next decade.

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David Chandler.

NSW Building Commissioner

New entry

Debuting in this year’s Power 100 is the head of the NSW building watchdog, David Chandler.  

The bane of dodgy home builders across the state, Mr Chandler’s entrance comes after being granted a swath of new powers as the head of the NSW Building Commission over the last year.

Late last year the new commission was beefed up with more than 400 government staff from Fair Trading folded into it, in a bid to create a one-stop shop tackling defects in new homes being built around the state.

Alongside that, Mr Chandler’s office was also given the power to audit any new housing construction – including stand-alone homes – broadening its focus beyond the faulty apartment blocks that have dominated headlines in recent years.

The inaugural watchdog announced earlier this year he wouldn’t renew his contract when it expires in August, but the creation and strengthening of the building watchdog under his leadership merits his addition to the Power 100.

Mr Chandler told The Telegraph his department’s focus in the coming year would expand beyond just Sydney – with builders in regional NSW to come under the microscope too. 

“The Building Commission has a statewide outlook now – across the state there’s over 90,000 residential dwellings under construction and our focus now is to oversee the successful delivery of those dwellings via proactive presence in the market across the state,” he says.

His office will be kept busy in the coming years as the NSW Government waves through a swath of housing reforms it hopes will prompt a homebuilding boom.

The head of the building watchdog said he’s confident his office will be able to make sure thousands of new homes are up to standard.

“The government’s mandate is that they don’t want to compromise quality for quantity – that’s an absolute clear (direction) for what we’re doing,” Mr Chandler says.

   

Melissa McIntosh.

Federal Liberal MP

New entry

More than most politicians, Melissa McIntosh is switched on to the concerns of aspirational Australia.

And according to her, “people are really struggling”.

Since 2019, McIntosh has represented the outer western Sydney seat of Lindsay, which takes in Penrith and surrounding suburbs.

This gives her a front-row seat for the construction of the coming Western Sydney Airport and puts her on the front lines of the battle to accommodate Sydney’s growing population.

“We’re already under quite a lot of stress when it comes to infrastructure and health, our hospitals are at the breaking point.”

But she also worries that “really political decisions are being made, we’re going to have flight paths really concentrated over the seat of Lindsay” and that infrastructure spends have been slashed by Labor.

“We are fighting against being dumped on and being taken for granted … every day feels like a fight and when the government’s policy settings aren’t working you have to make noise to make a difference.

One of the only Liberals to increase her margin at the 2022 election that saw the Morrison government wiped out, McIntosh is adds that her constituents are being smashed by the of living crisis.

“When I go doorknocking, the message is consistent in every suburb: People say we are struggling like never before,” the 46 year old mother of three says.

“People move here and live here because they want to make a better life for their families.”

“This area has always been about aspiration, all the way back to Menzies and market gardens and people coming to Australia for a better life.”

“I feel like I’ve got the best job in the world but right now I feel like I am really fighting for our community.”

Phillip Heath

Head of Barker College

New entry

He’s the head of Sydney’s second richest private school but Phillip Heath’s humble beginnings in a housing commission block in the Illawarra have shaped the Barker College headmaster into an influential educator intent on pushing other independent school principals to use their riches to benefit others.

Heath, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours and was awarded Australian School Principal of the Year in 2023, believes wealthy private schools have a social responsibility to those with less educational access, particularly Indigenous families. 

“(The question) will be in people’s minds – to all these independent schools, what are you doing?” he says.

“Is the world better because you’re here? Or are you just serving the people who have the means to send their children there? 

“We need to make sure that we’re inviting people who can’t afford to be there, and making them feel safe and positive and that they belong too.”

Three Indigenous schools have been established under Heath’s leadership – first Gawura, within the walls of St Andrew’s Cathedral School when he was head of that school, then Darkinjung Barker on the NSW Central Coast, and most recently Dhupuma Barker in the Top End.

In May, Barker – which brings in more than $112 million per year and charges up to $78,000 for senior boarders – opened a special assistance school for refugee children on its grounds.

In his ten-year tenure overseeing the Hornsby school, Heath has also led Barker through a complete transition to coeducation with few of the controversies other prestigious boys’ schools have been beset by in recent months. 

“I like what (American orator and author) John Maxwell says, that leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less. If you’re leading, and you’re not influencing, then you’re just out to flatter yourself.”

Mark Scott

University of Sydney Vice Chancellor

New entry

Under-fire University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott has spent much of 2024 in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Scott, facing criticism from all sides for his handling of rambunctious pro-Palestine protesters, is at the same time desperately trying to steer the federal government towards a more moderate version of an immigration policy that could cost his institution millions.

As the newly appointed chair of the Group of Eight alliance of Australia’s leading universities, Scott has urged caution against “rapid cuts” to universities’ international student intakes as the government looks to adopt caps.

“Universities are vital social institutions where every single day people are dedicated to solving the great global challenges of our time and are applying their energy to the common good,” he says. 

His was the only one in NSW to have recorded a surplus - of more than $350 million - in 2023. Nearly $1.5 billion of the university’s income was gleaned from foreign students.

Scott’s previous public service appointments include heading up the NSW Department of Education, and he was the ABC’s Managing Director for a decade. In hazier days, Scott was a teacher, a journalist and a political adviser.

“I am very lucky to have worked across various sectors but one thing they’ve had in common is they’re large organisations facing complex issues in rapidly changing landscapes,” he says.

“For organisations to change to meet the demands of a fast-changing world, you need clarity about the kind of place you want to become and work closely with all who work there.” 

Erin Molan

TV presenter and radio host

Up 3

“The number of different hats I wear is quite bizarre,” Erin Molan says.

“It’s batshit to be honest.”

Breakfast FM radio host. Sky News presenter. Daily Telegraph columnist. Fashion designer. Online safety advocate. 

And future politician.

“The one thing that I get asked to do a lot and it becomes less ridiculous as I get older is politics, definitely. But certainlynot now. I’m a single mum with a six-year-old,” says Molan, whose father Jim served as a federal Liberal senator for NSW untilhis death last year.

Molan is passionate about national security – like her dad, who was a Major General in the Australian Army and served as chiefof operations in Iraq.

People aren’t being recruited into the defence forces at the required rate, she says. Australia isn’t participating in internationalmilitary exercises in the way we used to. Yet the world is becoming more dangerous and volatile.

Part of the appeal of Canberra is that it would give her an opportunity to finish things her father wanted to get done.

In July, Molan also took the brave step of speaking publicly about her harrowing experiences with domestic violence.

Molan describes her Friday show on Sky as her “second child”.

It’s proved to be a hit, often topping the day’s ratings even though it screens at 5pm.

She says she lands about one in 20 guests she goes after.

In one recent episode, she interviewed the leader of Russia’s opposition party and a former prime minister of Israel. Butshe’s still waiting on Tom Cruise to get back to her.

To switch off, Molan switches on 90-day Fiancé. 

“For some reason I derive immense joy from it,” she says.

Clover Moore

City of Sydney Lord Mayor

Up 2

While governments come and go, Lord Mayor Clover Moore has outlived dozens of state and Federal governments at the helm of the City of Sydney. Going into her 20th year in charge, Ms Moore has no intention of giving up the seat, looking instead to run for another four year term in this year’s local government elections. At the age of 78 she believes she’s not likely to slow down anytime soon, saying there’s still plenty of work for her to do. If she wins, expect the city’s longest serving Lord Mayor to push for completing the revitalisation of Oxford Street and the transformation of Green Square into a high-density urban hub. As part of this, she has indicated she will push the NSW government hard to extend the light rail line down Parramatta Road, past Broadway and onto Green Square. 

Ms Moore will be up against criticisms that 20 years is too long to be in the job and that it’s time to hand over the mantle.

“They are criticisms that people can make but I think we should judge people on their performance and in terms of my performance, I’ve shown I honour commitments, I’m competent, I carry through,” she says.

“We’ve got a really wonderful momentum and I want to keep that going.

“I haven’t given up on the light rail, I haven’t given up on the bike lanes, I haven’t given up on taking action on climate change.”

Steve Kamper

NSW Minister for Small Business, Lands and Property, Multiculturalism & Sport

New entry 

Holding the portfolios of Small Business, Sport, Lands and Property, and Multiculturalism, senior Minister Steve Kamper has a lot on his plate.

But his debut on the Power 100 list is also based on a role he performs which is not listed on his official CV.

Kamper is a key sounding board for the Premier, and is one of Chris Minns’ best mates in parliament. 

“He does put things by me regularly,” Kamper says.

“He ultimately makes his decisions on which path he wants to go, but I’m always available to him if for if he just wants to bounce something off me.”

Minns called Kamper multiple times, for example, on October 9 last year, when pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on the steps of the Opera House burning Israeli flags and yelling anti-Semitic chants.

Kamper describes Minns as a “personal friend,” and they regularly catch up outside work.

Perhaps helped by that close relationship, Kamper has some of the most important portfolio responsibilities in the Minns government.

One of his roles is to be a quasi “Infrastructure Tsar,” ensuring major government projects – like the Fish Markets rebuild and Powerhouse Museum revamp – are delivered “on time (and) on budget”.

But as Lands Minister, Kamper has copped criticism for dramatically hiking the rent on government land being leased by places like Bowls Clubs.

To stay as close to 100 per cent as possible, Kamper says he needs daily exercise, and to maintain close connections with his family including nine grandchildren.

“If I haven’t seen them for a few weeks, it’s something that can really affect my state of mind,” he says.

Kamper believes the biggest threat to Australia’s prosperity is a breakdown of social cohesion.

“We’re a nation of migrants, and we need to continue to focus on that make sure that we keep that harmony within our society.

“If that breaks down, I can I see that as the greatest single threat in our society.” 

John Vellis

NRL General Manager of US Expansion

New entry

The NRL showed its commitment to making its American dream a reality with the appointment of former Tabcorp executive Vellis.

Initially hired in a temporary capacity to oversee the NRL’s historic season-opening double header in Las Vegas, Vellis was quickly offered a permanent role to lead the game’s five-year strategic push into the U.S.

Vellis has been integral in doing what no domestic Australian code has been bold enough to even attempt, let alone achieve, attracting a strong match-day crowd to Allegiant Stadium, establish a solid television audience on which to build, driving digital engagement and brand awareness in the U.S. Part of the strategy Vellis overseas includes the creation of the NRL Combine to unearth American athletes and provide them with a development pathway, as well as the Las Vegas Nines tournament. 

And he’s got more in store next year, with a four-game extravaganza including a women’s Test and Super League fixture.

“Rugby league in Las Vegas 2025, it will be bigger, bolder and better, with more games, more teams, more nations and more opportunities for travelling supporters to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime festival,” says Vellis, who made a name for himself in the racingo industry before joining the NRL.

Nicho Hynes

Cronulla Sharks NRL player

New entry

Hynes has overcome more than most to not only realise his NRL dream, but become a face of the game and one of its leaders, on and off the field.

Hynes has gone from playing park football six years ago to becoming a 2022 Dally M Medal winner for Cronulla, NSW State of Origin star and $1 million-a-season player.

His focus away from football is equally impressive, and to the 27-year-old, far more important. A proud Wiradjuri man, he’s an advocate for both Indigenous and mental health issues, offering support to those in need during his down time. <p>

“There’s no better feeling than seeing a young kid or someone that messages me to tell me that I’ve changed their life,” he says.

“I don’t mean that to sound arrogant at all. But that’s better than scoring a try in any game of footy.”

In July, Hynes and two Sharks assistant coaches saved the life of a 57-year-old man who was on the wrong side of a bridge railing and repeatedly saying he’d “had enough.”

Linda Burney

Former Federal Indigenous Australians Minister

Down 57

The former Indigenous Australians minister had a major role to play in the government’s pursuit of the Voice referendum buthas kept a relatively low profile since its bruising failure.

In July, the Barton MP announced her retirement after more than two decades in politics. Until the next election, she willsit on the backbench after stepping down from her ministerial portfolio to allow a pre-election reshuffle.

It’s little wonder this year has proven more low-key for Burney than the last. Despite the Voice falling, she did win bigin the May budget where the government invested significant funds in remote Indigenous communities.

And after 21 years in politics, it’s likely Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will rely on his Labor left ally to support hersuccessor in the seat of Barton.

Anthony Bell

Bell Partners Founder

Up 4

Anthony Bell has had a big year, personally and professionally.

The “accountant to the stars” was at the heart of one of if not the biggest business deals in real estate – the privatisation of McGrath.

Bell declined to discuss the transaction due to confidentiality, but it was no doubt doubly satisfying to get it done, because he and John McGrath go back to the 1990s.

McGrath was one of Bell’s first big clients. 

McGrath moved to Bell because he couldn’t understand what his existing accountant was going on about. By comparison, Bell spoke in plain language that made sense.

Bell has also recently expanded his operation to seven offices after opening in Canberra.

On the personal front, he’s become engaged to Annika Martyn, who was previously married to cricketer Damien Martyn.

Both have children from their previous partnerships and are enjoying bringing their Brady Bunch together.

“The world has never made more sense to me,” Bell told The Daily Telegraph for the Power 100.

One of Bell’s other loves is sailing, and he hasn’t given up on winning another Sydney to Hobart, albeit not this year.

Margaret Cunneen

Barrister

Up 4

She’s one of Sydney’s most prominent lawyers, who is not backwards about coming forwards when she sees injustice at play.

Margaret Cunneen, one-time Crown prosecutor turned crack defence barrister, has long been a mover and shaker in legal circles, but her quest for fairness, justice and accountability has soared to greater heights and reached a wider audience in recent months after she publicly advocated for greater care around the prosecution of sexual assault charges.

Speaking to The Telegraph recently as she prepared to argue for costs in the case of high profile Wallabies star Kurtley Beale, who was acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman at a Sydney bar, Cunneen claimed innocent men were coming before the courts accused of rapes and sexual assaults in cases where evidence is so weak it should never have been prosecuted.

Cunneen is known for taking on the establishment and representing clients with a “winner-takes-all” attitude, no doubt further reinforced by her love of high-octane extra-curricular activities including taekwondo and boxing.

John Messara

Arrowfield Group boss

Up 4

John Messara is a regular in The Daily Telegraph’s Power 100 list as few racing participants can boast his experience and influence in the racing industry.

Messara is one of the world’s pre-eminent thoroughbred breeders and his Arrowfield Stud property in the Hunter Valley consistently produces champion racehorses, stallions and broodmares.

Messara has enjoyed a sustained level of success as a breeder and owner for more than 40 years but he has also been one of Australian racing’s most dynamic and respected administrators.

He has served in various high-profile and demanding positions over the years including as chairman of Racing NSW, Australian Racing Board, Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, Aushorse and the Australian Pattern Committee.

Like many of the other names in this year’s list, Messara was asked what he considers be the single biggest threat to Australia’s future prosperity.

“ I think the quality of modern school education in our country has receded and this will have long term impacts on our productivity and our competitiveness,” he says. “We need to get this fixed.”

Fitzy, Wippa & Kate Ritchie

Nova 96.9 breakfast hosts

Up 2

Nova breakfast team Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald, Michael “Wippa” Wipfli and Kate Ritchie are new as a trio but they’re already making their mark. And while they take their job very seriously, the veteran broadcasters are not afraid to make fun of themselves.

“This is the most power I’ve wielded in my life,” Fitzy says of making The Daily Telegraph’s Power 100 list.

Fitzy and Wippa have been a team since 2011 when they replaced Merrick Watts and Scott Dooley on air. The show is syndicated to dozens of FM stations nationally, meaning their powerbase isn’t just in Sydney.

Former Home and Away star Ritchie joined the pair earlier last year.

And while they believe their power stems from the listeners, they are big drawcards with advertisers thanks to their individual and combined star power. They also contribute greatly outside of radio to various charities.

“Being named in the Power 100 list is quite the honour,” Ritchie says. “And a testament to my brilliant comrades, Fitzy andWippa and to our wonderful listeners.”

Mark Speakman

NSW Liberal Party leader

Up 2

The thankless task of heading up the NSW Opposition in the immediate aftermath of an election loss has been shouldered by Cronulla MP Mark Speakman, who remains steady on the Power 100 list.

While his steadiness has been praised by some of his colleagues, his lack of cut-through with the public – something most early-term Opposition leaders struggle with – has been raised as an issue by others, who say they’d like to see him more aggressively target Labor.

His profile, or lack thereof, was highlighted in a Telegraph article last year – where a snap survey of 100 residents on the streets of key Western Sydney electorates revealed just nine could recognise the Opposition leader from a photo.

His leadership was also shaken by a messy rift with the Nationals, which almost resulted in the Coalition partners splitting after Nationals’ leader Dugald Saunders initially rejected Mr Speakman’s attempts to sack a Nationals MP from his assistant shadow ministry positions over Facebook comments critical of the Opposition leader.

Mr Speakman told The Telegraph he would continue to take aim at the NSW Government over housing in particular.

“My focus as Leader of the Opposition is ensuring that the Minns’ Labor Government prioritises and delivers for the people of NSW,” he says.

“It means working with communities to address the state’s housing crisis, including appropriate rezonings, reintroducing First Homebuyers Choice and providing incentives for local councils to meet and beat housing targets … And delivering the roads and rail, schools, hospitals, nurses, teachers and doctors people across our state rely upon.”

Steve Crawley

Fox Sports managing director

Up 10

Having been at Fox for almost a decade, Crawley has enhanced his status as the doyen of live sport in Australian television in 2024.

The NRL’s historic season-opening double header in Las Vegas forever changed the Australian sporting landscape, and doesn’t happen without Crawley’s support for rugby league’s vision.

Crawley oversaw a travelling party of 40 people who, when coupled with US staff on the ground in Las Vegas, ballooned out to around 100.

Under Crawley, Fox Sports kicked off its season launch in Vegas, where its extraordinary live coverage — in 4K — made both games the most watched rugby league event in Fox League history. It was the catalyst for the record ratings the NRL is enjoying this season.

Lauded by ARL Commission chair Peter V’landys as “brilliant and loyal partners to our game”, Fox continues to be leaders across all sports, with NRL, AFL and cricket staples of their live coverage.

Fox will soon start calling its own AFL matches, rather than taking the Channel 7 feed when covering games. It will provide the broadcaster with another point of difference and the ability to leave its mark on the sport.

Crawley has also been critical to driving the more than 1.5 million subscribers who have signed up to streaming service Kayo, a platform which has brought in a new, younger audience.

Joe Barr

John Holland CEO

Up 3

Sydney’s infrastructure transformation has changed the way we move, play and work and Joe Barr, as boss of engineering and construction giant John Holland, has driven most of them. This month’s opening of the $21B Sydney metro city and southwest is the latest completion in a string of projects underway.

“Sydney has been planning this, building this for almost a decade since it was first announced. It’s going to be great,” says Barr of the new metro – Australia’s first. “Unlike a stadium or a road job that people can see being constructed, a lot of people would have looked behind those big green (hoardings around the Metro construction sites) and wondered what was going on.”

The NSW government says in peak hour, the new Metro service can move 37,000 people – more than the Harbour Bridge and Harbour Tunnel combined.

Its opening comes after the successful rebuild of Allianz Stadium and alongside 30 other Sydney projects including the airport Gateway link between the St Peters interchange with Sydney Airport.

In addition, the company is heavily involved in the upgrade of Sydney’s water system.

“It’s the biggest pipeline of water projects we have seen in a number of years,” says Barr and includes pipeline upgrades, sewage and water treatment plants and the $700M Upper South Creek water treatment upgrade.

“You always have to renew what you’re doing and innovate to deliver and as well as the infrastructure projects that we that we do we’re also going to be a big part of the renewable energy push.”

Barney Glover

Jobs and Skills Commissioner

Down 15

Former vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University Barney Glover has taken up a new, yet not unrelated, challenge in 2024 – appointed head of the federal government’s workforce advisory body Jobs and Skills Australia.

The new Jobs and Skills Commissioner began his five-year term in April, and was almost immediately appointed to the ‘implementation advisory committee’ overseeing the government’s once-in-a-generation reforms under the Australian Universities Accord – the development of which Glover also sat on the panel for.

Glover’s new job description is to “be a trusted, independent source of expert advice on Australia’s current and future skills needs and lead JSA’s work on researching workforce trends, skills, and workforce needs”, work that Glover hopes will contribute to “harmonising” university pathways with vocational education.

Failing to get the “educational profile" of the workforce right is one of the biggest threats the nation faces over the next 20 years, he said.

“If we don’t get that balance right, a lot of our big challenges – whether it’s … climate change or whether it’s building 1.2 million houses … are going to be incredibly difficult to achieve.”

Asked whether he believes his role on the tertiary reform board is a powerful and influential one, the ex-university boss said the position is a “privileged” one.

“Influence is a slightly fragile concept, I think … it’s got to work in multiple directions, and be executed with a certain amount of finesse,” he said.

“I hope to be influential with colleagues in both the higher ed and vocational sectors … so that we can get the best and most collegial outcome.”

Michael Maguire

NSW Blues head coach

New entry

He taunted Billy, tormented Billy and then defeated Billy. NSW rugby league coach Michael Maguire etched his name into State of Origin history with a famous 2-1 series win over coach Billy Slater’s Queensland this year.

Down one-nil, Maguire’s Blues fought back to beat Queensland at a packed MCG before claiming a historic series win in Brisbane.

It was just the third time ever in State of Origin that NSW had won a decider at Suncorp Stadium.

Maguire took aim at Slater throughout the series, throwing several barbs across the border which unsettled the usually unflappable Maroons coach. In the month between games one and three, Maguire became NSW’s fearless lion heart. He refused to be intimidated or bullied by Queensland – and it proved an Origin masterstroke.

After a 12-man NSW was whacked in game one, Maguire stood in front of his side and goaded Slater, the one-time prince of Queensland. Maguire said Slater lived in a glass house and then called NSW the people’s team. It was a pivotal and brilliant move.

It became clear that his attack rattled Slater.

Ash Gardner

Australian cricketer

Up 4

Ash Gardner has emerged as an all-rounder in every sense of the term.

Her ability to play an array of attacking strokes and turn the Kookaburra had not been in doubt.

But across the past 12 months, she showcased her capacity across cricket’s three formats, spinning Australia to an Ashes Test victory in Nottingham while shining for the Aussies in places as disparate as Perth and Mirpur.

With Meg Lanning retired and Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy well into their 30s, Gardner looks like the national side’s rock on the road to the 2028 Olympics.

Having become women’s cricket’s most expensive overseas player at the Indian Women’s Premier League auction early last year, Gardner is also the face of the expanding female game, so in demand that she was among those to support a reduction in the Women’s Big Bash League season.

“It’s pretty overwhelming when you look at it, when you look at the whole thing and how many days are away but I guess the way that you got to look at it, is it’s such a short period of your life and you’ve got to try and make the most of it and really utilise what we can do as cricketers. It is overwhelming but it’s our job at the end of the day,” Gardner told this masthead.

But the reigning Belinda Clark Award winner is fearless off the field too.

Gardner was the second-ever Aboriginal female cricketer to represent Australia after Faith Thomas and the proud Muruwari woman has challenged Cricket Australia over its scheduling of national team matches on January 26.

She started the Ashleigh Gardner Foundation to help increase the percentage of Aboriginal children finishing high school.

In February this year, Gardner won Cricket Australia’s community impact award for the work being done by her foundation in regional NSW.

She is now seeking to expand the foundation’s programs and to get more sponsors on board.

In April she announced her engagement to partner Monica.

Peter King

Westpac CEO

Down 2

Two of Australia’s big four banks are based in Sydney – CBA and Westpac.

CommBank boss Matt Comyn has risen to no.5 in the Power 100 rankings this year.

Westpac’s Peter King is 74 places lower, and down three on his spot last year.

A key reason King can’t rise through the rankings is that Westpac’s performance has been nowhere near as good as CBA’s.

Another reason is that there’s persistent speculation that he’ll retire and go fishing up the coast.

And a third reason is he doesn’t have that much to say, limiting his influence.

Perhaps it’s the curse of having been a chief financial officer for so long.

King was meant to retire from Westpac in 2020. At the time he was CFO.

But that was before the then CEO Brian Hartzer got caught downplaying (in an internal meeting) the significance of Westpac’s having failed to stop transactions with the Philippines involving child exploitation.

King has successfully overseen the bank’s response to the scandal.

He’s also working on trying to improve its standing among customers.

Meanwhile the bank has a headhunting firm working on who will replace King so that he can finally call it quits.

John Ibrahim

Businessman

Up 5

A portrait of Kings Cross identity turned TV producer John Ibrahim hanging in the NSW Art Gallery as Archibald finalist symbolises the rise and rise of a boy from the streets of war-torn Tripoli to a mansion in Dover Heights.

For the past decade Ibrahim has been moving his image, his associates and business world away from a nightclub tsar with underworld brothers to one of successful landlord and emerging property developer.

He currently has plans for a $135 million redevelopment of Bayswater Road in Potts Point where he owns a string of terraces which will be converted into luxury apartments. Ibrahim is also been rumoured to be in the market for more properties to expand his property portfolio.

Having turned 50 and now with a three-year-old son to model Sarah Budge, the former party boy is no longer seen in clubs in the early hours of the morning, but at power lunches at Sydney’s best restaurants with some of the most influential people in the city.

“His range of contacts in this city is extraordinary,‘’ said a leading Sydney businessman.

“He often gets invited to the Roosters box where he mixes with people like Nick Politis and Mark Bouris to name a few. He has an autographed picture of himself and Bob Hawke where the former PM thanks him for his help.”

It’s also well known Ibrahim is set to expand his interests in drama productions after the success of Last King of the Cross and is already known to be a buying options on future projects.

James McDonald & Katelyn Mallyon

Racing identities

Up 5

James McDonald, Sydney’s reigning premier rider, and his wife, Katelyn, are racing’s quintessential power couple. They are proud parents of two little girls, Evie, 1, and baby Mia, who was born in May.

McDonald and his wife might have their hands full at home but both enjoy successful professional careers.

James is the nation’s best jockey and is widely regarded as among the top three riders in world racing.

In the just completed 2023-24 racing season, he claimed an eighth Sydney jockey premiership – and his sixth in succession. Only two jockeys have won at least six Sydney titles in a row – Hall of Famers Ron Quinton and George Moore.

McDonald also rode a remarkable 19 Group 1 winners during the season including four in Hong Kong and a single major in Japan.

He needs only two more Group 1 wins to become only the fifth jockey in Australian racing history to ride at least 100 Group 1 winners.

Incredibly, McDonald is still only 32 years old and over the next decade or so he is likely to break all the riding records.

As McDonald sets about rewriting racing’s history books, his wife, Katelyn, can comment on his success in her role as expert commentator for Channel 7’s racing coverage.

Yasmin Catley

NSW Police Minister

New entry

The Bondi massacre, Wakeley riots, Pro-Palestinian protests and a domestic violence scourge have shaped the year for NSW’s Police and Counter Terrorism Minister Yasmin Catley.

In her second year as minister, she has faced some of the most difficult challenges of any of her colleagues, while also attempting to boost dwindling police numbers across the state.

There have been dark days in 2024, with police responding to back-to-back incidents of the Bondi Westfield massacre in April, followed only days later by the stabbing of an Assyrian priest determined to be an act of terror. These were then followed by insidious crime epidemics of domestic violence and youth crime in the regions.

“Police officers work around the clock and put themselves at risk every day and night to serve and protect their community. I’m focused on doing the same to support them. I am their greatest admirer and strongest advocate,” Catley says.

“I want every officer to have a long, rich and rewarding career in the Force. I’m working hard to get more boots on the ground, we have 1500 vacancies to fill and, mark my words, I’ve made it my personal mission to get back to the days when there was a waitlist to join the NSWPF.”

Warren Mundine

Indigenous leader, businessman

Up 5

Warren Mundine might be one of the busiest men in Sydney, wearing multiple hats: mining entrepreneur, public intellectual, and advocate for Indigenous Australians. Never far from the public spotlight, Mundine was – along with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – one of the leading faces of the No campaign during last year’s Voice referendum.

When The Power 100 talks to Mundine he reveals he is now working on a project dealing with the “four pillars of education, economic opportunity, crime, and governance for Indigenous people”.

A prolific commentator, Mundine has lashed out at Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and has slammed the ALP for extending bans on uranium.

So what’s next? Well, politics perhaps.

The one-time Liberal candidate has not ruled out standing again, saying that “the more I look at it the more I am looking at standing and fighting for the Australian people, the same way I did giving voice to the voiceless in the referendum.”

Even if he doesn’t stand again, Mundine says he will be advocating for the Liberal Party to modernise and represent the people rather than factional interests.

“The Australian people have given us a worksheet, it is our job to drive it forward.”

Peter Johnstone

NSW Local Court Chief Magistrate

Up 4

Ensuring the smooth sailing of the state’s busiest courtrooms each day takes a team effort, but at the pinnacle of that team sits one of NSW’s most respected judicial officers, chief magistrate Peter Johnstone.

A seasoned District Court judge before his appointment, Judge Johnstone leads a vast and varied team of more than 130 magistrates who together oversee the bulk of court work in NSW.

Dealing with everything from parking fines and dangerous dogs to serious robberies and preliminary proceedings in complex murder cases, magistrates are regularly exposed to the pain and hardships experienced by some of the state’s most maligned and oft-forgotten citizens.

Many carry the burden of judicial life largely on their own, especially those in rural areas, where the nearest colleague might be several hours away.

Judge Johnstone has a track record of innovation in his previous appointments, which include as past president of the NSW Children’s Court, and he continues to work behind the scenes to bring reform in his current role.

Penny Sharpe

State Climate Change & Energy Minister

Up 8

Presiding over the state’s transition to renewable energy, is NSW Labor’s Penny Sharpe. The Energy and Environment Minister has arguably one of the most important jobs in the Minns government, overseeing the impending closure of multiple coal fired power stations and the role out of the renewable energy zones.

The MP tasked with keeping the lights on, was responsible for wrangling the deal with Origin Energy to keep the Eraring coal station open for two more years after it was set to close.

“What NSW has done is just a very sensible approach which says we will cover the reliability gap for the next two years as we make the space to build all of the renewables that are already getting put in right now,” she says.

wide image options power 100

Kyle Sandilands & Jackie ‘O’ Henderson

KISS 106.5 breakfast hosts

Up 4

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson are undeniably the king and queen of commercial radio in Australia.

Already boasting huge national profiles thanks to their television work on reality shows like The Masked Singer and Australian Idol, the pair are now taking on Melbourne.

That is part of a landmark 10-year deal Sandilands and Henderson signed last November with KIIS parent company, ARN, said to be worth $200 million.

Love them or loathe them, everyone has an opinion on the polarising duo.

“It’s great that after 25 years of doing the radio show, we’re still gaining new listeners who enjoy that there’s still a home for those that enjoy politically incorrect humour and discussions,” Sandilands says.

Melbourne hasn’t quite been the blockbuster start the pair would have been hoping for though with flat ratings to kick things off despite a huge publicity and marketing push.

Figures from the second survey period where the duo’s breakfast show has been broadcast in both Sydney and Melbourne show their Victorian show has an audience of 5.9 per cent.

That number remained the same from the previous survey. It accounted for eight of the 10 weeks in the survey period with KIIS declaring that they had made “their mark in Melbourne”.

The result was well down from market leader, talkback station 3AW, with its 18.8 per cent audience share, and other rivals Gold FM at 10.8 per cent and Nova at 9.6 per cent.

In Sydney, the pair have consistently gone back and forth with 2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham as the rivals fight it out for number one spot.

Most recently Fordham came in with an audience share of 17 per cent, compared to Kyle and Jackie O at 14.1 per cent.

Gai Waterhouse

Racehorse trainer

Up 4

Gai Waterhouse, the most famous figure in Australian racing, is seen as a trailblazer for women in all walks of life. Her opinions on a wide range of topics are noted in the corridors of political and sporting power.

The daughter of legendary racehorse trainer, Tommy Smith, she is regarded as the greatest female trainer in world racing. An Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Waterhouse has been training since 1992 and has prepared 160 Group winners to be fourth on the all-time list behind her father and Bart Cummings on 246 major wins each.

Waterhouse trains in partnership with Adrian Bott these days but her stable remains a powerhouse and has enjoyed another hugely successful 2023-24 season with more than 160 winners, six at Group 1 level, with her horses earning nearly $30 million in prizemoney.

Asked what she considers to be the single biggest threat to Australia’s future prosperity, Waterhouse is forthright.

“The lack of incentive for people to work,” she replies.

Allison Langdon

A Current Affair host

Up 2

Despite much speculation and pondering about her appointment, Allison Langdon didn’t just step into Tracy Grimshaw’s shoes as the new host of A Current Affair, she has well and truly made it her own.

A veteran broadcaster in her own right, Langdon, 45, came to the table in 2023 with the broadcasting chops that included stints in the hosting chair on Today and Weekend Today and time as a reporter on 60 Minutes.

Married to fellow journalist Michael Willesee Jr, Langdon prides herself in delivering meaningful stories and is as comfortable interviewing the Prime Minister as introducing a classic A Current Affair style segment on a neighbourhood dispute.

In the A Lot To Talk About podcast, Langdon said she would stay on with ACA for as long as she “still loves it”.

“While I still can’t wait to get up and go to work, and I legitimately mean that,” she says. “While I still feel like I can add something to it and look … hopefully that is, who knows, may it’s 10 years, maybe the audience will tell me (and) maybe in two years I am booted and we are done.”

More generally on her career, Langdon, who studied journalism at Charles Sturt University, says: “I feel so lucky that I genuinely do a job that I love. It is a pretty special job that has taken me all over the world that you get invited into people’s lounge rooms because they trust you to share their story.”

Kim Mckay

Australian Museum CEO

Up 2

Kim McKay celebrated 10 years at the helm of the Australian Museum in April by setting another record. The Egyptian blockbuster, Ramses and the gold of the pharaohs, was the revered institution’s most successful exhibition with half a million visitors.

“Ten years goes by quickly,” McKay says. “We’ve achieved a lot but at the same time, it took 10 years to get us there.”

In that period McKay and her team have overseen a $57.5m refurbishment of the College St building, during the Covid lockdown, removed entry fees and boosted annual visitation to one million.

And that is apart from the groundbreaking research the museum’s scientists undertake daily and the Frog ID app which has seen tens of thousands of Australians help build the world’s largest national database of frogs.

The museum’s own exhibitions continue to work hard, with Sharks travelling in North America and Europe, and Tyrannosaurus: Meet the Family and Spiders also touring internationally.

“We’ve got another one in the pipeline that we’re developing that will show here in a couple of years, a really fantastic exhibition that will also go on tour internationally,” McKay says. She has also worked hard on gender equality at the museum which now includes a number of women in senior management, the executive leadership team and on the board.

Mike Sneesby

Nine Entertainment CEO

Down 30

When he chatted to The Daily Telegraph for the Power 100, Mike Sneesby had just returned from a whirlwind trip to the Singapore and Hong Kong to present to fund managers.

These investors wanted to know when he thought the advertising cycle was going to improve.

Next year, he suggested.

“I am feeling good about 2025,” Sneesby told The Telegraph.

Well it would have to be better than 2024 is turning out.

Sneesby was speaking before Nine was engulfed in a scandal over allegedly drunken and lecherous behaviour by its head of TV news and current affairs Darren Wick.

Sneesby might not have held on to his job were it not for the fact that Nine’s chairman Peter Costello got the chop first after knocking over a journalist from The Australian who’d had the hide to ask him some questions, including whether the former federal Treasurer support Sneesby’s handling of the Wick saga.

Sneesby says he believes the biggest challenges facing Australia include getting policy settings right for housing, immigration and digital platforms.

The volume of immigration was important for delivering skilled workers who could help to drive growth.

He says the nation shouldn’t have to “throttle” that back because housing hasn’t been sorted out.

“Dominant” digital platforms such as Meta (Facebook) have the power to disrupt society, business and politics – and not in a good way, Sneesby observes.

Sneesby will be hoping that his immediate future is less disruptive than his recent past.

George Williams

Western Sydney University vice chancellor

New entry

Constitutional lawyer and commentator George Williams is one of the nation’s top legal academics and has appeared in the highest courts in the land, but having had his shoes under the desk of the Western Sydney University vice-chancellor’s office for a matter of moments, Williams knows he has big shoes to fill.

The scholarly silk says he has inherited a mandate from predecessor and fellow Power 100 entrant Barney Glover to “be bold” and “forward-looking”, and to “drive progress” for Sydney’s west by engaging with businesses to improve the pipeline from education into employment.

Williams also believes the university has a responsibility to take part in big public debates, and take the lead on “structural” issues in the sector including the price of degrees and establishing a national skills passport for “seamless” movement between TAFE and uni.

“In terms of power and influence, I think Western Sydney (University) should be at the forefront,” he says.

“It has the most potential in the nation, connected to the most dynamic and diverse region in the nation, and we should be speaking with a loud voice.”

Poached from his position as a deputy vice-chancellor at UNSW, Williams has worked as an academic and professional barrister since 1995, leading public inquiries and acting as counsel in multiple high-profile High Court cases covering issues like Aboriginal racial discrimination, refugee rights and freedom of speech.

In 2011 he was made an Officer of the order of Australia, but the achievements he’s proudest of, he says, are those of students who have gone on “to great careers and great lives”.

Tony Mestrov

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles CEO

Down 15

Mestrov has wasted little time making his presence felt on the northern beaches, exploring ways to finally fix Brookvale Oval after it has continually been overlooked for government funding.

He has held talks with major Sydney developers, government and local council in a bid to lock in a precinct redevelopment for Brookvale Oval that would increase the stadium capacity, provide essential services to the area and provide the club “income streams forever” that would ensure its future.

A former local junior, Mestrov played over 185 games across the NRL and Super League. He cut his teeth as a sports administrator running Hockey NSW and then becoming CEO at the Titans.

Before the Manly job Mestrov spent five years as CEO of Greyhound Racing New South Wales, taking on the job at a time when the industry had just been handed a lifeline after being on the brink of closure.

Under Mestrov’s tenure, the industry saw record rehoming numbers, strong wagering figures, record prize money and the advent of the Million Dollar Chase.

The transformation has been described by many in the industry as one of the most significant in Australian sport.

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Kim Williams

ABC chair

New entry

He was once described as a “terrifying pussy cat”, but media supremo Kimberley Lynton Williams might require something more like a cat o’nine tails to whip the ABC into shape.

The 72-year old new ABC chairman took the reins in January and while he’s avoided becoming mired in controversy, the organisation has been hit with bad press in recent times, including declining ratings, accusations of left-wing group think and star presenter Laura Tingle branding our nation racist.

The analytical media executive – married to former PM Gough Whitlam’s daughter Catherine Dovey, after an earlier marriage to writer Kathy Lette, certainly has his work cut out for him.

He told Power 100 he was “honoured to take on the role of ABC Chair at this critical moment in media history”.

He says he believes the ABC remains a “central organisation in the lives of many Australians”, and recently described its role as something akin to a “national campfire”.

As a result he says he relishes the opportunity to “create new ways for it to resonate with Australians everywhere”.

Plans are already afoot to beef-up “serious television documentaries”, and expand comedy, drama and arts coverage.

But in unhappy news for taxpayers, that might well extend to plumping up Aunty’s revenue, already sitting on $1.06 billion a year.

“Of course, achieving our goals will also take something else. Something you might have guessed … investment.” In other words, more dollars.

This long-time Sydneysider Kim Williams is one to watch.

Ellyse Perry

Australian cricketer

Up 1

Generational player, eight cricket World Cup wins and a FIFA World Cup goal make for an extraordinary resume, now Ellyse Perry has a chance to add ‘Olympian’ to her list of accomplishments.

“It’s definitely something I’d love to do, but it’s also not something I’m pitching my career to,” Perry says.

The announcement that cricket would be included in the 2028 Los Angeles Games was met with excitement as players hurriedly did the sums to work out how old they’d be when the chance for Olympic selection came around.

Perry and her teammates experienced the Commonwealth Games in 2022, winning gold no less, but she admits that the Olympics would be another level.

“That experience a couple of years ago, how much everyone loved playing in it and how much that medalling in those Games really meant … so the Olympics is probably ten-fold on that.”

Perry will be 37 at the LA Olympics, but the way she’s reinvented her T20 game over the past few years is a sign of her inner drive to continue for much longer.

Perry notes that staying in the moment has been crucial to the longevity of her career.

Yet her involvement in the Australian Cricket Women and Girls Action Plan launched in April is further evidence of what could be to come after playing, even if she can’t see “something formal” at this stage.

Perry sat on the steering committee and couldn’t have impressed its chair (and executive general manager of cricket and capability), James Allsopp, any more.

“She didn’t miss one meeting, she was even checking in from the IPL in India,” he says.

“To have a current player who is that engaged in the process is pretty incredible. She’s strategic and she understands the game at all levels.

“She could run cricket in Australia one day.”

Adam Casselden

Greyhound Racing NSW chairman

New entry

In the law profession, few come more qualified than top silk Adam Casselden, who during his career has presided over any number of high profile cases.

But it’s in his role as chairman of Greyhound Racing NSW which could ultimately prove to be his most defining, as he leads the industry out of what’s been a turbulent start to 2024.

Parachuted into the position in September last year, Casselden has had to navigate his way through a tsunami of issues during his brief tenure at the helm, including the parting of ways with the organisation’s CEO Rob Macaulay in July.

In a recent address to participants, Casselden declared he was in it for the long haul, committed to advancing the industry for its thousands of stakeholders.

“Coming off a successful past year, including record returns to participants and rehoming numbers, I’m committed to ensuring NSW greyhound racing leads the way across all key metrics,” Casselden says.

“Yet for all the successes, there is still a lot of work to be done and the GRNSW board is committed to seeing the job through.

“As chairman, I’m committed to that cause for all the hard working folk in the industry that work tireless hours, day in and day out.

“If we all work together, a great industry can become even greater.”

Jess Sepel & Dean Steingold

JSHealth founders

Down 7

Jess Sepel has entrepreneurship in her veins. Her grandmother Dolly, who turns 100 this year, was one, who ran a hat company until a few years ago.

“She was a proper entrepreneur,” Sepel recently told Mark Bouris’s The Mentor podcast.

Dolly would tell her to just keep on going.

Sepel’s vitamin business, JSHealth, is just six years old but already it’s a global empire.

That was never the plan.

She remembers specifically not wanting to end up like Blackmores or Pharmacare or even competing against them.

But today she is competing against them.

The worth of JSHealth has been put at as much as $600 million.

Sepel told Bouris she used to shy away from mistakes, challenges and failings.

“Now we welcome them in,” she says. “It presents the learning you need to strengthen and grow.”

Her grandmother, she says, “is in her head all day,” just telling her to keep going.

Sepel and her partner in life and business Dean Steingold did not respond to a request to be interviewed for the Power 100.

Sepel and Steingold recently moved to the US to grow the business.

They noticed US sales were increasing, without marketing spending.

They expanded the American team from one to 15 and spent up on marketing and grew 300 per cent in the US last year.

“Vitamins are just having a moment – all wellness products” are, she says.

JSHealth has reached adulthood in many ways, but it is back in start-up mode now with its US operation.

Cortnee Vine

Australian footballer

New entry

Cortnee Vine became a household name when she kicked the winning penalty against France at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Before the World Cup Vine couldn’t even get her car repaired — now she is sponsored by Adidas, has appeared in advertisements for Strandbags and was a VIP at the Melbourne Cup.

When not on national duty Vine plays for Sydney FC in the A-League’s Women’s — and is a fan favourite.

After a recent game, she spent an hour mixing with girls who idolise her.

When Sydney travelled to Wellington the Phoenix fans lined up for the chance to get a photo or autograph from the Aussie star — Vine happily obliged.

While Vine has a vital role to play for the Matildas, especially with the Olympics looming, her efforts off the pitch are just as important for women’s football.

Vine is never afraid to speak out — calling for full-time contracts for A-League’s Women’s players and increased professionalism across the league.

Her goal is to see the women’s game grow - it is why she opted to stay and play in the A-League’s, turning down huge overseas contracts.

“I really wanted to see the ripple effect of what we’ve done and I definitely felt it. I feel like I live this whole different life now,” Vine says.

“We want to make this league as professional as possible and compete with leagues like the WSL and NWSL.

“The professionalism needs to keep lifting, you can see it’s getting there, but it’s just it’s got a long way to go if you want to compete with those leagues.”

Russell Crowe

Actor

Down 2

No matter where in the world his work takes him, Russell Crowe always comes home to Sydney.

The Hollywood A-lister spends much of the year shooting various films around the world

But remains very much a Sydney identity.

Crowe celebrated his 60th birthday in April and at the time told Confidential it was to be a low-key milestone event as he was shooting a movie in Europe with fellow-Academy Award winning actor Rami Malek.

“I’m still shooting in Budapest so most likely I will be revising dialogue and getting ready for the scenes to come,” he said of his birthday plans.

Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1964 to parents Jocelyn and John Crowe.

The family moved to Australia when he was just four years of age.

He made his acting debut on the small screen in Spyforce ahead of his breakout role in indie cult hit Romper Stomper.

Crowe has already released multiple projects this year – The Exorcism, Sleeping Dogs and Ark: The Animated Series.

And according to industry bible imdb.com, the father of two has seven other projects in the works including the already completed Nuremberg in which he plays Hermann Goring.

On the personal front, Crowe is rumoured to be planning a wedding to long-time girlfriend, Britney Theriot.

“I’ve been unreasonably happy for most of my life,” he recently told GQ magazine. “I know that bothers some people, but that’s just not my problem. I pursue creatively and artistically what I want to do, and I have done that for probably about 35 years, you know? I do it unapologetically.”

Andrew Pridham

Sydney Swans chairman

New entry

Andrew Pridham is an astute businessman who has quickly become a household name in both the finance and sports industries. An acclaimed investment banker, Pridham is the Group Vice Chairman of MA Financial Group and previously held roles at J.P. Morgan Australia and UBS.

However, it’s in his role as chairman of the Sydney Swans, which he has held since 2013, where he has proven to be one of the best agenda-setters in the country.

His unashamed willingness to advocate for the Swans, and other non-Victorian clubs, has seen him recognised as one of the most important figures in the AFL. Whether it’s questioning the level playing field of the competition or championing the Swans’ status as the most supported club in the country, Pridham is never afraid of making his opinions known.

He is currently overseeing one of the most prosperous spells in the Swans’ history. Celebrating their 150th anniversary in 2024, the club has set new records for membership and average crowd numbers and is flying high with the outright lead on top of the AFL ladder.

“It’s a significant anniversary,” Pridham told this masthead.

‘When the club moved from Melbourne to Sydney (in 1982), I think there were 1500 members or something like that. This year we will get to 70,000 members shortly, and we’ve got two million fans. We are averaging 39,000 (fans) at our games, which is smashing the records.”

They’re the biggest sporting club in Sydney and as long as Pridham is in charge, they’ll continue to be on the up.

Scott Farquhar

Atlassian co-founder & co-CEO

Down 26

Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar surprised the tech world in April with his surprise announcement that he was stepping back from the company he started with Mike Cannon-Brookes.

The news was initially treated as the tech equivalent of the break up of Oasis or the Everly Brothers but Farquhar, 44, was quick to dismiss any suggestion of bad feeling.

“After 23 years, it’s time to pursue some other passions I have,” he told investors. “Specifically philanthropy, investing, and to help grow and build the global technology industry.”

Together with wife Kim Jackson his Skip Foundation promises “audacious philanthropy solving root cause problems” with big money poured into issues including health, the environment and equality of opportunity.

Skip has funded projects in recycling, wind and solar energy and pioneering innovations in health.

His talk of building the global technology industry is not idle either. He is already a mentor to several hugely successful companies started by former Atlassian employees and is a friend and guide to Canva’s Mel Perkins and Cliff Obrecht.

He is a mentor to SafetyCulture chief executive Luke Anear who told Fairfax that without the Atlassian pioneers “Australia’s technology industry would be a decade behind”.

Farquhar believes in investing in good businesses and the power they have to effect positive change in the world. Skip’s “Pledge 1%” campaign aims to empower companies to donate one per cent of their staff time, product or profit to a charity of their choice.

Farquhar may have left Atlassian but his power and influence in Australia and the world is only likely to grow.

Jane Lu

Showpo founder & CEO

Down 4

After Jane Lu joined Ten’s Shark Tank, she repeatedly asked the TV show’s producers what they wanted her to do differently.

The answer was: “Nothing. Just keep on being yourself.”

Lu, a fashion entrepreneur, is back again for season 2024. She says Shark Tank is “more than just a TV show.

“It’s a life-changing moment for so many businesses,” she says.

“Afterwards, you are involved in the lives and businesses of these entrepreneurs.”

Another benefit of being involved in Shark Tank has been the opportunity to further her work as a role model.

“There are not that many Asian women on TV – especially in the position of being a successful entrepreneur.”

Lu immigrated from China when she was eight and couldn’t speak a word of English.

She blitzed school and uni then got a great corporate job – which she quickly came to hate. So she quit and started her own business – without telling her parents. In fact she pretended she was still heading off to the big accounting firm each day.

That first business failed. But Lu tried again, establishing Showpo, which 13 years on has annual sales of $100 million-plus globally.

With Showpo, Lu says the best thing about the past 12 months has been achieving “continued growth after reaching the maturity phase of the business.”

The hardest part has been “keeping that small business start-up mentality while having a big business.”

Lisa Havilah

Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences CEO

Up 1

The Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo may have closed this year but its boss, Lisa Havilah, has never been so busy.

While overseeing the $915m construction of a huge new institution in Parramatta, Havilah has also opened its Castle Hill storage facility to the public so Sydneysiders can visit the more than half a million objects in the collection. And preparations have started on the $300 refurbishment of the Ultimo site.

“It’s a really significant change in terms of this museum, which is over 140 years old,” Havilah says.

“But the change in the investment is about reflecting the changing demographic of Sydney and the changing geography of Sydney, I think the community really believes that museums should be where people live.”

Parramatta will be unlike a traditional museum. It has been designed to reflect the community including Indian, Chinese, Indigenous, Pacific Islander and Arabic speaking populations and Havilah is expecting to attract two million visitors a year.

“Parramatta is going to be a very future-facing museum,” she says.

“Both museums (Parramatta and Ultimo) will be applied arts and applied sciences.

“But Parramatta will reflect the diversity and ambition of Western Sydney.”

This is already happening through with schools in the region including a partnership with NASA.

“Casula High School are kids working on a project for the space station. I love the level of ambition that we can give in terms of national and international connectivity,” Havilah says.

Harry Triguboff

Meriton Apartments managing director

Up 3

Australia doesn’t have enough people or enough properties, according to Harry Triguboff.

“You find me another country which is so empty,” he said earlier this year in an interview with The Australian.

Triguboff’s worth is estimated at $26.5 billion, making him Australia’s second-wealthiest person, after Gina Rinehart.

But he says “money is not the point.”

He says the Tax Office has asked “where is your aeroplane, where is your boat?

“I tell them I have no time for that.

“I love my business so much I have no time for aeroplanes and boats.”

“High-rise Harry” was born in China and came to Australia when he was 15. He went to university in England then worked in Israel and South Africa.

He returned to Australia in his late 20s, owning a taxi fleet and milk run before building his first apartment block.

He has since overseen the construction of more than 78,000 homes.

Triguboff is 91.

He says his age makes it important to focus on building up his team.

It has always been strong, he says, but it “has to be even more strong as I recede slowly.”

Ian Malouf

Ahoy Club owner

Steady

Ian Malouf loves rubbish – for good reason. The billionaire founder of Dial-a-dump first sold the business to Bingo Industries for $577m in 2018 but retains about 6.5 per cent. “I love that (business) still. I’ve sold it twice. One more to go,” says Malouf, recently valued by The Australian Rich List at $1.13bn.

Not one to take these profits and enjoy messing about in boats, Malouf and daughter Ellie have built an international charter business in Ahoy Club.

The fleet of 11 includes Sydney-based 54m yacht Mischief, which is undergoing a $15m refit, and the 73m, $100m superyacht Coral Ocean.

In June, Ahoy Club bought Sydney-based Floatspace, described as an “Airbnb for boat experiences” as a way to upscale the business.

“I must be driven by money, I suppose, but you have to do something,” he says.

“You have to work, then you meet people and you’re interesting.”

In true entrepreneurial style, he has also taken a leap of faith into the world of biotech investing $50m into US-based Arugula Sciences which is trialling injections of stem cells from umbilical cords to treat a range of conditions including osteoarthritis.

Property remains a passion and his portfolio includes a large swath of Eastern Creek, Double Bay and Palm Beach waterfronts and a $60m penthouse in the CBD.

Jess Fox

Australian canoeist

New entry

In an article in her local paper, the Penrith Press in 2009,

15-year-old Jess Fox said: “I want to see how far I can go in the sport.” How about, the best ever?

Not only is she the best paddler in history, she is a leader off the water, too.

Fox is a member of both the Australian Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee’s athletes’ commission, helpingensure that the view of athletes remains central to decisions made by those bodies.

One of Australia’s highest-profile Olympic athletes, Fox has an extensive suite of blue chip sponsors and is an engaging brandambassador, corporate speaker and media darling.

Her pre-eminence was confirmed when she was selected as flagbearer for Paris 2024. In announcing the choice, federal SportsMinister Anika Wells said: “To carry the flag is the highest recognition of achievement and leadership that can be conferredon any athlete in an Australian sport or multi-sport team.”

Fox described being flagbearer as “one of the greatest moments of my life.”

In her fourth Games, Fox went on to add to her gold haul, finally snaring the top prize in the women’s K1 canoe slalom afterwinning silver in London in 2012 and bronze in the two subsequent Olympics in Rio and Tokyo. “I’ve been chasing that goldmedal moment,” Fox said after her gritty win. She was already an Olympic gold medallist with her C1 victory in Tokyo.

Fox was dux of her Blaxland High School, first in the HSC for Personal Development, Health and Physical Education and achievedband 6 in all her subjects for an ATAR of 99.1.

John Coates

IOC vice president

Up 14

John Coates recently turned 74 and stepped down as president of the Australian Olympic Committee, but he still wields plenty of power in the corridors that matter.

He is the current first vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), though not for much longer, with his term due to finish during the Paris Olympics.

His IOC membership is also about to expire, at the end of 2024, because of the rule on age limits, though he will switch lanes to a non-voting life member.

When his IOC membership ends, Coates will automatically lose his place on the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), but will be made an honorary life member.

“That doesn’t give me a vote and I don’t attend executives or anything like that,” he says. “It’s just a nice thing that they’ve done, the IOC does the same.”

But importantly, Coates — who did more than anyone else to help Brisbane win the rights to host the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics — will remain on the Queensland organising committee right through to completion, when he’ll be in his 80s, declaring: “I want to make sure we deliver it properly.”

He’s been incredibly active in shaping preparations during the past 12 months, using his behind-the-scenes power and influence, using his weight to force the Queensland government to ditch plans to demolish the Gabba.

If the Games were not enough to keep the Sydney lawyer busy, he’s also president of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“I don’t hear any cases but it’s an administrative rule which I enjoy,” he says.

“It keeps me close to the law and we set the rules et cetera, et cetera. I’ll do more of that.”

Michael Barnes

NSW Crime Commissioner

Up 10

The feared NSW Crime Commission and its boss Michael Barnes has become more powerful in the past 12 months after being given extra clout when it comes to seizing goods and unexplained wealth from the cities ever expanding number of crooks.

Besides millions of dollars in cash, the commission has taken possession of three Lamborghinis taken from underworld figures who now have to prove they bought them with hard-earned taxable dollars. If they fail to, Barnes will send them off to be auctioned.

It’s well known that Barnes takes delight in relieving gangsters of flashy sports cars.

The crooks routinely lose it when their ‘status symbols’ are being loaded onto a flat back tow truck.

In years gone passed long court battles ensued resulting in the return of goods and cashed seized but not so anymore.

In the past 18 months, 21 of 22 seizures under the asset forfeiture laws have gone uncontested in a major victory for the good guys.

It’s made Barnes increasingly popular with Macquarie St as he boosts state government coffers.

The former Coroner and NSW Ombudsman has been at the helm of the crime commission for over three years and has been instrumental in raising the agency’s profile despite its love of secrecy.

Much of the commission’s power comes from its coercive powers to make witnesses testify or face the prospect of jail for refusing to answer.

Many of the city’s most dangerous criminals have taken flight overseas because they fear their associates have given information to Barnes and his team of lawyers about illegal activities.

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Sonia Kruger

Seven host

Steady

After appearing alongside television executive husband on 2023s Power 100 list, Sonia Kruger is solo this year.

Hubby Craig Macpherson earlier this year quit his post at Channel Seven, where he had run news and current affairs for several years.

Kruger however remains with the network as one of its biggest and brightest stars thanks to hosting gigs on shows including The Voice Australia and Dancing With The Stars.

The 58-year-old is the reigning Gold Logie winner heading into Australian television’s big night this year, and is again nominated.

This year she is up against the likes of Robert Irwin, Julia Morris, Tony Armstrong and Larry Emdur.

She recently spoke of undergoing therapy after her 2023 Logies speech, revealing she had “berated (herself) for a long time” afterwards.

“I was having trouble sleeping,” she said at a recent Sydney event. “I ended up talking to a therapist about it because I was not … I wasn’t letting up on myself at all about it.”

Outside of work, Kruger and Macpherson are parents to daughter Maggie and are avid horse racing fans, regularly seen at Sydney’s biggest event on that calendar, The Everest.

Steve McCann

Star Entertainment Group CEO

New entry

Some people love a challenge and clearly Steve McCann is one of them - taking the helm of beleaguered Star Entertainment in July.

The former Lendlease boss quit his role with Westfield owner Scentre Group to take on the $2.5 million a year role which came with a $5 million sign on fee.

He is the perfect man for the job having successfully steered rival Crown Resorts through its own regulatory issues arising from allegations of money laundering.

But it is a big job. Star’s former CEO Robbie Cooke and at least nine other executives left earlier this year with the regulator unsure about Star’s commitment to overhauling its culture that had been found to be unethical and had facilitated $900 million of banned gambling transactions.

The NSW Independent Casino Commission put Adam Bell SC onto the case for a second high profile and damaging inquiry. Things were looking very bad until Mr McCann was appointed.

He has already shown he can work with Commission boss Phil Crawford. A spokesman for the Commission said: “Mr McCann’s experience in navigating the complexities of remediation will serve The Star well as it prepares for the challenges ahead.”

In addition to cleaning up Star’s act, Mr McCann has to refinance the debt for the new property at Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane and introduce cashless gaming which has already seen all machines closed down because of “performance issues”.

Despite the challenges Mr McCann is quietly confident he can turn things around. Chairman Anne Ward said: “Given his time at Crown and previous longstanding leadership at Lendlease, he has the right credentials to lead The Star’s remediation program.”

Dai Le

Federal Independent MP

Up 1

Independent Fowler MP Dai Le has established herself as a force to be reckoned with.

Two years after her remarkable victory in western Sydney at the 2022 election, which saw her independent campaign knock out high profile blow-in Kristina Keneally’s effort to win the seat for Labor, Le is not resting on her laurels.

Instead, she is teaming up with close local political ally, Fairfield mayor Frank Carbone, to drive a push to elect local western Sydney candidates to parliament and break the stranglehold of a two party system that she says either ignores the region or takes it for granted.

Under the rubric of the Western Sydney Community Party, an idea which she admits is still “early days”, Le says “the intention is to build momentum for candidates to run in future elections to represent the region”.

“I think for decades, this region has been considered safe Labor,” she says.

“And as a result of that safe tag, the community has not been very looked after.”

“From my perspective, we have missed out on funding and resourcing and opportunities to grow and prosper.”

Securing that support is all the more important in the face of a booming population.

While Le understands the need to accommodate more people in Sydney and work to solve the housing crisis, she says her area “already is pretty dense … I don’t know how much more dense we can make it here.”

“We don’t’ want to cram everybody in here if there’s no investment in roads, in our local schools, in our hospitals.”

Andrew Abdo

National Rugby League CEO

Up 25

It has been an intense 12 months for chief executive Andrew Abdo as the NRL navigated delicate negotiations with the Rugby League Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement, drove its Las Vegas vision and continued the game’s growth.

The NRL announced a 2023 operating surplus of $58.2 million after generating more than $700 million in revenue on the back of record crowds, television ratings and revenue.

As a result, Abdo has helped put the NRL into the strongest bargaining position it has ever been, heading into crucial television rights negotiations.

With the existing broadcast deal set to expire in 2027, Abdo will be charged in securing the code a new bumper multibillion-dollar contract, as well as navigating the political minefield that is the game’s much-publicised expected expansion into Papua New Guinea.

Tony Shepherd

Sydney Entertainment Quarter chairman

Down 16

The guest list for Tony Shepherd’s 80th birthday in the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney this year included former Prime Ministers, NSW Premiers and titans of industry.

He may have stepped down from his role leading Venues NSW but the former Transfield chairman and infrastructure pioneer still has one of the best contact books in Sydney.

At the packed birthday celebration guests included former Prime Minister John Howard, former premiers Barry O’Farrell and Morris Iemma and News Corp Australasia Executive Chairman Michael Miller.

As the chairman of the Sydney Entertainment Quarter he is using those contacts to help him develop the area into the leisure and entertainment precinct he believes the city deserves.

“I have just been to Manchester to see the beautiful new 23,000 seat arena they have there,” he says. “It is state of the art and the kind of thing Sydney needs. I saw The Killers and it was an amazing experience.”

He is confident the precinct development will go ahead. And with his track record it is a prediction that cannot be ignored. In the past he has played a crucial role in developing the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and was chair of the WestConnex Delivery Authority.

The chairman of Infrastructure SA and Racing NSW board member shows no sign of slowing down having just squired author Kathy Lette to Royal Ascot.

Mr Shepherd remains passionate about Sydney and its future. Almost as passionate as he is about the AFL where he is chairman of the Greater Western Sydney Giants.

Liane Moriarty

Author

Down 6

Another year, another critically acclaimed work from Sydney author Liane Moriarty is adapted into an international small screen hit.

Following huge global success for Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, the New York Times bestseller’s latest series if based on her book, Apples Never Fall.

Annette Bening, Sam Neil, Jake Lacy, Alison Brie and Georgia Flood are in the cast of the seven episode series that was shot in Australia and released right round the world.

Next up for Moriarty is another project with Nicole Kidman – who appeared in both Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers. Kidman, along with Teresa Palmer, Miranda Richardson and Danielle Macdonald shot The Last Anniversary the series at the end of last year and it will be shown locally in Australia on streaming service, BINGE.

Despite her huge success, Moriarty is low-key and lives a quiet life with husband Adam. They have two children together, George and Anna.

Moriarty’s next book, the much anticipated Here One Moment, is scheduled for release on September 10.

It will centre on the stories of passengers on a domestic flight, who are unsettled when an older woman predicts when and how some of her fellow travellers will die.

A press statement described the novel as “a deft rumination on free will and destiny and our innate need for certainty in an uncertain world”.

“Most are able to convince themselves this encounter was nothing more than ravings of an unwell woman – that is until her predictions start coming to pass.”

Moriarty meanwhile serves as executive producer on many of her TV projects.

Dating back to her first release in 2004 with Three Wishes, she has published nine novels and three children’s books.

Moriarty is estimated to have a net worth of around $8 million from her more than 20 million book sales.

David Gallant.

Walker Corporation CE) & managing director

New entry

David Gallant is in charge of building on the late Lang Walker’s legacy.

Prior to Walker’s death in January, the two would talk four or five times a day — seven days a week.

“He was a great teacher,” Gallant recalls.

And a great listener. Walker liked to get a diverse range of opinions before making a decision.

“He would ask someone we would never think to ask,” Gallant says, like a gardener.

“He wanted to know what everybody was thinking,” says Gallant, who had worked with Walker since he was in his 20s.

Gallant says Walker could see opportunities where others could not.

A prime example was Broadway Shopping Centre.

“People said retail near the city was dead,” Gallant recalls.

“Lang could see urban regeneration would happen and be successful.”

Broadway went on to become Australia’s number one mall in terms of sales per square metre for years and years.

Walker Corp now has a $30 billion pipeline of work, more than at any time in its history, including the new Blacktown CBD and 13,000-home project at Appin on Sydney’s south-west edge.

The next step with Blacktown is the master planning for the precinct with the community and council.

Meanwhile at Appin, the first development application is being prepared. Gallant says the aim is to start delivering homes from mid next year.

“My job is to manage and deliver that work and it’s also to grow the next generation,” he says.

“I’m just here as a custodian here for the family – to grow Lang’s legacy.”

John Hatzistergos.

ICAC Chief Commissioner

Up 1

Few boast a resume as impressive as that of John Hatzistergos, so it came as little surprise when the lawyer turned politician turned District Court judge was appointed chief commissioner of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption in August 2022.

He hit the ground running with Operation Hector, a mammoth investigation into allegations of contract rorting involving employees of Inner West Council and Transport for NSW.

Commissioner Hatzistergos presided over the subsequent public inquiry in 2023 and in April this year, delivered corrupt findings against eight people involved in the scandal.

Widely recognised as one of the most progressive Attorneys-General in recent times, he continues to bring innovation, integrity and 21st-century thinking to the longest serving anti-corruption body in the country.

Gretel Packer

Philanthropist

Down 2

There are many Sydney charities, galleries, theatres and hospitals that have billionaire philanthropist Gretel Packer to thank for being able to do what they do.

In the most recent example, in July this year Packer emerged as the saviour of the historic Metro-Minerva theatre in Potts Point. It was set to become a boutique hotel. After her $26 million purchase, it may be returned to its former glory. Or better.

Packer’s giving earned her an AM in 2020 in what were then the Queen’s Birthday Honours, in recognition for her commitment to the visual and performing arts and to conservation.

One of her lesser known recent endeavours was as executive producer on the Australian film New Boy, starring Cate Blanchett.

She has also been increasingly active in the Sydney residential property market.

Robbie & James Ferguson

Immutable co-founders

Steady

When you ignore the acronyms and nerdy jargon, the significance of what the Ferguson brothers and their friend Alex Connolly are building at their Sydney-based company, Immutable, becomes clear.

About $US150 billion ($A227bn) is spent every year on the items inside video games.

Yet players have no real-world ownership over what they have bought.

“Just because these assets are digital, we essentially have taken away all property rights from these goods,” Ferguson, the 27-year-old former Knox dux, recently said on CNBC.

“We can give people the ability to trade, sell (and) collateralise … game items.”

In a separate interview he said “ when players have the option to sell, you have brand new monetisation mechanisms, secondary marketplaces, royalties. But you also will take the size of gaming from $150 billion to trillions of dollars.”

Immutable claims to be the market number one in the “Web3” games world where ownership is decentralised.

Its shareholders include America’s largest crypto exchange Coinbase, Chinese tech titan Tencent and Westpac’s venture capital firm.

Prue Car

NSW Deputy Premier

Up 8

Deputy Premier Prue Car moves up the list this year, thanks to some breakthrough achievements in her portfolio of education.

Big wins included helping broker a new pay deal for the state’s teachers – taking the starting salary from $75,791 to $85,000 – and implementing the phone ban.

The Education Minister and Minister for Western Sydney has been vocal in needling her federal counterparts for more funding for education already this year.

Also under her remit are public preschools – for which the government earlier this year announced $769m in funding for, with a goal of building 100 new facilities by 2027.

There remains big challenges for the Deputy Premier, however, with NSW still facing a shortfall of more than 1700 teachers at schools at the start of the school year in 2024.

Ensuring enough schools are built alongside Western Sydney’s booming population is another test set to continue in coming years.

“When I became the Minister for Education, I said I would not shy away from making important decisions to address the teacher shortage crisis and lift student outcomes,” she says.

“This year’s improved vacancy figures affirm our reforms for getting more qualified teachers in front of our children.

“We still have a lot of work to do to turn around the challenges faced in public education, and addressing teacher vacancies remains my key priority.”

Mark McWhinnie

Crown Sydney CEO

Up 6

In April, Crown Sydney’s CEO Mark McWhinnie proudly declared the harbourside casino is “the safest place to gamble in the state”.

After delivering 432 remediation activities to the NSW Independent Casino Commission and receiving the green light to hold a casino licence, his claim was justified. In February 2021, the Bergin Inquiry found money laundering and links to international criminal syndicates meant it was not suitable to hold a gaming licence. Crown casino swept out its board and senior management brought in British-born casino veteran McWhinnie and cleaned up its act.

The watchdog’s chief commissioner Philip Crawford acknowledged the changed culture and said it would be able to “respond to the changing face of the casino industry” to ensure it did not return to the “dark places” it was in a few years before.

Along the way, Crown has had to lay off 1000 employees, mostly in Melbourne, consolidate its two gaming floors in the $2.2bn Barangaroo tower and close its award-winning Silks Chinese restaurant.

McWhinnie has quietly overseen the transformation with a minimum of fuss. “Crown has invested millions of dollars in transforming our business – with significant investment in our guest experience, as well as gambling harm minimisation and financial crime prevention,” he said when the watchdog restored the casino’s full licence.

Across the water, rival The Star is undergoing a second inquiry into its operations after the regulator found it had not taken the changes required seriously enough.

Alexander Ryvchin

Executive Council of Australian Jewry CEO

New entry

It is fair to say that co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry would much rather the events of the past year had not thrust him centre stage into the fight against anti-Semitism.

Yet nearly a year after the horrific October 7 attacks and the months of fighting that have taken place since between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists, Alexander Ryvchin has taken it in his stride as a way to give back.

“I came to this role via a bit of a roundabout, unconventional path,” Ryvchin says.

Unlike many leaders in the local Jewish community who have been deeply immersed in Sydney Jewish life for generations, Ryvchin and his family fled the Soviet Union in 1988 as “refuseniks” denied permission to leave by the communists.

His early life spent escaping Soviet anti-Semitism in the 1980s had a profound effect on Ryvchin, who draws on this experience combating the worst rise in hate since World War II.

But Ryvchin says he hears much more good than bad from the community, and is convinced the majority of Australians stand against hate.

“But things will never be the same again, the Jewish people are in a perilous position in Israel and Australia and around the world,” he says.

Chris Bowen

Federal Climate Change & Energy Minister

Steady

With another election slated to be fought on climate change and energy, Chris Bowen will be front and centre at the next federal poll and the 12 months leading up to it.

The Coalition and Labor have starkly different energy policies with Peter Dutton chasing nuclear energy while Mr Bowen and Anthony Albanese pursue renewables based on sun and wind.

Solar and electric vehicle take up is on the rise in Australia, which is a win for Mr Bowen, but the Energy Minister has his work cut out for him with a growing push against his pursuit of offshore wind across NSW and the nation.

Locals on the south coast of NSW and Port Macquarie are up in arms over claims the projects will damage the environment and marine life.

Mr Bowen will also have to fend off attacks from the coalition over claims he has underpriced the cost of renewables and exaggerated the cost of nuclear.

Ben Fordham &amp; Ray Hadley.

2GB radio talkback hosts

Steady

Whatever the future of Australian radio, there will be no other Ray Hadley.

Recently notching-up his 200th consecutive ratings win in the morning timeslot, the 2GB talkback host has dedicated his life to telling and sharing stories with his listeners.

“What I’ve found over the years is as you get older, you get a bit lazier, and I’ve tried not to do that,” the 69-year-old recently told The Daily Telegraph. “I’ve tried to be as intense now as I was when I started but you still get nervous on ratings day. We stand by our record, which is the best that has ever happened and so it is hard to beat and I don’t know if anyone will beat it again in the future.”

Hadley has been a friend and mentor to 2GB Ben Fordham breakfast host Ben Fordham throughout his career, guiding him in the cut throat world of ratings.

It has been an interesting few years in breakfast radio with the rise of FM music stations, notably KIIS duo Kyle and Jackie O. Fordham and Kyle and Jackie O have bounced around, back and forth in taking over each other in the coveted top ratings spot from survey to survey.

Fordham took on breakfast from Alan Jones in 2020.

Just like Hadley, both wield massive amounts of power as they use their voices to speak up for their audience. He champions issues that matter to them.

“Whatever influence we may have comes strictly from the audience,” Fordham says. “If you’ve got a large and loud bunch of listeners, you become harder to ignore. The little guy can use 2GB to get a fair hearing in the halls of power.”

Chris Waller.

Racehorse trainer

Steady

Chris Waller is the nation’s dominant racehorse trainer. He arrived in Sydney in 2000 and built his business from scratch, eventually earning worldwide fame as the trainer of champion mare Winx, winner of 33 races in succession including 25 at Group 1 level.

Winx isn’t the only champion racehorse Waller has prepared out of his Rosehill stables. He’s also trained the likes of Nature Strip, Verry Elleegant, Fangirl, The Autumn Sun and Riff Rocket. Waller has already trained more than 400 winners including 161 Group 1 races with his runners earning more than $470 million prizemoney.

But Waller, a Hall of Fame inductee who is about to claim a 14th Sydney trainer premiership, remains totally unaffected by his extraordinary success. He is humble by nature and a devoted husband to wife Stephanie and father to their two children, Tyler and Nikita. The champion trainer is always measured and thoughtful but when he speaks the racing world listens.

Asked what he does to be as close to 100 per cent as much as possible, he says: “A: I just try to keep an open mind and with that comes health and family and staying focused on making consistent and level-headed decisions.”

Nikhil Autar

NSW Young Australian of the Yeah

New entry

If just one of Sydney doctor Nikhil Autar’s multiple innovative plans come to fruition, the lives of countless Australians will be vastly improved.

The 30-year-old – who’s the 2024 NSW Young Australian of the Year – was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 17 and has undergone chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, open heart surgery and as well as chronic illness.

He was also recently diagnosed with myasthenia gravis - a 1/100,000 condition which causes weakness and fatigue, but he has not let his difficult experiences slow him down.

In fact they’ve given him a very patient-centric and unique understanding of how medical systems can be fixed.

Dr Autar has already got the ball rolling on a new app called Knia Maps – “Know in Advance Maps”, to help patients and disabled people navigate venues like major Sydney hospitals, universities and transport.

“We’re currently beta testing and are looking for people to help map out their communities,” he says.

He also founded Bheem Health, which provides low-cost medical devices for sick and vulnerable people. The first device called BheemUP can convert regular beds into hospital beds. And he’s now working on “BheemSense”, a world first sensor mat which will track sleep and minimise pressure sores.

“I’ve faced a lot of these challenges myself, but in the end, my dad taught me to try to leave this world in a better state than how you found it,” he says.

“Unlike money, power, fame etc the feeling of putting a smile on someone’s face and making their life better can never be taken away from you.”

He’s working to bring healthcare into the home.

“Right now, we’re working with UNSW in doing a healthy volunteer validation study, before we work with aged care partners to trial this (converting the beds) in clinical environments.”

Ryan Stokes & Jeff Howard

Seven Group Holdings MD & CEO, Seven West Media MD & CEO

Down 2

The uncertain economy has not shaken Seven Group chief executive Ryan Stokes’ faith in the future of his Seven West Media TV empire.

The Seven Group, which is chaired by Ryan’s billionaire father Kerry, owns almost half of Seven West Media which is valued at $260 million. It is a small part of the Seven Group’s $15 billion empire that includes mining, energy, construction and now building materials group Boral.

“We’d like to see a position where the (media) business would get back to delivering earnings growth, but that’s going to take time and effort and a lot of focus on how we continue to revise the operating model,” Mr Stokes told The Australian.

Getting the business back on track is the task of Seven West Media’s new managing director and chief executive officer Jeff Howard. His first step was to save $100 million a year with cuts including 150 jobs.

“There have been a lot of changes at Seven in recent months, including the appointment of several new executives. These changes have allowed us to take a fresh look at improving our workplace culture,” Mr Howard says.

That shake up of the company culture comes on the heels of a string of scandals that have resulted in the company making headlines rather than reporting on them. Now Mr Howard wants to focus on the schedule for the rest of the year.

“There is a lot!,” he says. “The TV WEEK Logie Awards, the AFL Finals including the Grand Final, the Brownlow Medal, the Channel 7 Perth Telethon, Bathurst 1000, the Everest, a lot of cricket, The Voice, My Kitchen Rules and more. From September we’ll also be streaming major sport on 7plus for the first time.”

He is also working with other traditional media companies to make the digital and social media giants such as Meta accountable for their actions.

“There are a number of steps the Federal Government can take, such as designating Meta under the News Media Bargaining Code and making sure the digital platforms take responsibility for the content they distribute, particularly when it comes to what children see,” he says.

“As a country, we shouldn’t bow to the demands of the digital platforms. They should be made to play by our rules.”

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David Gallop & Kerrie Mather

Venues NSW chairman & CEO

New entry

The team at the top of Venues NSW know they have a challenge on their hands and they are up for the fight.

“There’s an arms race for sporting and entertainment events to fill stadiums, not just in Australia but across the Asia Pacific,” chief executive Kerrie Mather says.

She believes the quality and variety of venues in the state, from Accor and Allianz stadiums to the Sydney Cricket Ground and stadiums in Newcastle and Wollongong, offer a unique advantage.

“When US superstar P!nk toured Australia earlier this year, we were able to host her concerts in three of our venues – Accor and Allianz stadiums in Sydney and McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle - each serving distinctly different markets,” the former Sydney Airports CEO says.

Mather has long been a champion of women’s sport and believes the change in attitude after the Matildas performance in the World Cup has been a game changer.

Venues NSW chairman David Gallop, the former boss of the National Rugby League and Football Federation Australia, believes it is change that offers opportunities to drive further economic benefit for the state.

“The rise of elite women’s sports and leagues will continue to reshape the Australian sporting landscape and I believe the standalone domestic competitions will not only continue to grow, but also demand to be played at our biggest venues,” he says.

Gallop is delighted Premier Chris Minns has swept aside objections from NIMBYS to allow more performances at Moore Park. “Major events make a significant contribution to the NSW visitor economy,” he says.

“Taylor Swift’s record-breaking four concerts are the perfect example, tens of thousands of people travelled from interstate and overseas.

“They stayed in NSW hotels and ate at NSW restaurants and cafes, bought merchandise, caught taxis and Ubers and spent money in local shops.

“This happens whenever there’s a major event in our venues, whether at the SCG and Allianz, or the major concerts and Women’s Origin we’ve taken to McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle,” Gallop says.

Saranne Cooke

Racing NSW chairwoman

New entry

The acrimonious departure of Russell Balding as chair of Racing NSW at the end of last year left a vacancy that only a very special person could fill.

Mr Balding’s term ended late last year and the Minns Government’s attempt to extend his tenure was torpedoed in parliament in a shambolic late night vote.

Racing Minister David Harris then appointed existing Racing NSW’s longest serving board member Dr Saranne Cooke to take the reins as the first female chair. It was a shrewd decision.

Dr Cooke has a PhD in board governance, giving her an understanding of the workings of ASX 200 boardrooms, and is chair of both the Royal Flying Doctor Service (South Eastern section) and the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians.

“Dr Cooke is the perfect choice for the role, with the leadership skills needed to navigate the challenging economic headwinds facing the racing industry,” Mr Harris said at the time.

He tells The Daily Telegraph’s Power 100: “The industry is lucky to have someone of Dr Cooke’s experience, she is forward thinking and will bring a new lens with fresh ideas.”

Dr Cooke concedes that “it is a challenging time” and that she has “a lot to do”. Wagering revenue is down and the industry is fragmented. Jealous Victorian racing bosses have waged a campaign against NSW’s reframing of the racing calendar in spring with popular innovations such as The Everest, the world’s richest race on turf.

“We are uniting an industry that has been fractured over time,” Dr Cooke says. “We’ve completely reinvigorated the industry which has unsettled people who previously had a stronghold on spring racing.”

Now she is looking to find “common ground” to focus on to see if NSW and Victoria can work together. “The reality is that if we succeed on Everest day they have a huge uplift in participation in their race meetings too,” she says.

Dr Cooke has plenty of work to do to secure the long term future of an industry that contributes $3.5 billion to the NSW economy, supports 27,500 jobs and pays $250 million in taxes to the NSW government.

Vanessa Hudson

Qantas CEO

New entry

As the CEO of an airline that burns through thousands of litres of jet fuel a day, it may come as a surprise to hear Vanessa Hudson suggest climate change poses the biggest threat to Australia’s future prosperity.

But the Qantas chief knows that the aviation industry has as big a role as any in decarbonisation which she says presents a lot of opportunities for Australia.

“We are geographically positioned a long way away from the rest of the world and even within our borders our population is dispersed, so we rely on transport, both road and air to be connected,” Hudson says.

“I think it’s critically important to find the pathways to make that transport not just more efficient but more sustainable from an emissions perspective, and it’s a really good step forward to recognise we have the natural resources that could enable us to create new industries that deal with what are going to be these long term climate change issues for decades.”

Tackling the sustainability challenge is just one of a zillion hurdles Hudson faces in her still relatively new role of Qantas CEO. Nine months into the job, she says she’s learned to compartmentalise and not take work issues home with her.

“To do that I spend time with my husband, my daughters, I take my dog for a walk, put on a podcast, and just find ways to be in nature and to be present,” she shares.

“Those moments to relax are really important in order to feel fully refreshed on a Monday morning.”

Amanda Bardwell

Incoming Woolworths CEO

New entry

Amanda Bardwell started working in a supermarket when she was 14. She’s about to run about 1400 of them.

She comes into the job at a difficult time for the Fresh Food People. Customers are under the pump as grocery prices keep on rising. The company’s financial results have been poor.

And there have been multiple inquiries into supermarkets this year – one by former top competition cop Allan Fels, another by ex-federal consumer affairs minister Craig Emerson and a third by the ACCC, which is yet to be made public.

The heat proved too intense for her predecessor Brad Banducci, whose departure was announced after he lost the plot during a TV interview.

The beginning of the end for Banducci was when he decided not to stock Australia Day merchandise.

It will be interesting to see what Bardwell does regarding January 26.

One of Bardwell’s most important tasks will be to restore the reputation of Woolworths.

She has been running Woolies’ digital arm for the past seven years.

Bardwell has been described as quietly spoken and thoughtful. She has been very quiet ahead of taking command of the supermarket giant in September.

She was not available to be interviewed for the Power 100.

Tony Burke.

Federal Home Affairs Minister

Down 1

The Member for Watson has had a big year when it comes to influence over modern work rights – raking in major victories like the new right to disconnect and same job same pay principle.

But the big win was a major promotion heading into an election year, when boss Anthony Albanese gave him the beefed-up Home Affairs and Immigration portfolio alongside the MulticulturalAffairs, Cyber Security and Arts portfolios.

The new role adds to Mr Burke’s job as Leader of the House and makes him one of Albanese’s most influential allies.

As Workplace Relations Minister (until late July), Burke managed to push through a number of controversial industrial relations reforms despite staunch opposition from the business community.

He was divisive on his position on the war in Gaza when he spoke out and supported a council in flying the Palestinian flag. The comments angered the Jewish community, but earned him favour in his Western Sydney electorate which has a strong Muslim population.

While he has a massive margin in his seat, he cannot rest easy. The new The Muslim Vote movement arguably represents a threat to his political career.

Sam Prince

Zambrero founder

Down 2

There are not too many people in the Power 100 who are as interesting as Sam Prince.

He’s a medical doctor and, according to some valuations, he’s also a billionaire — mainly because of the success of his business, Zambrero.

The Mexican food chain has 300 stores and is aiming to open a new store every week for the next 12 months. The ultimate goal is more than 1000 outlets across the world.

Its financial backers include Scott Farquhar of Atlassian fame, who has described Prince as one of the “smartest, most curious” people he knows. The two went to the Grammys together last year.

Zambrero has donated 80 million meals to those in need worldwide through its Plate 4 Plate program, which lets customers contribute to alleviating world hunger simply by purchasing a burrito.

Through his not-for-profit One Disease, Prince eliminated crusted scabies in Australia.

He’s also reforming the way medical practices work.

Prince took the former CEO of Zambrero Stuart Cook to the Federal Court earlier this year to stop Cook claiming to have established Zambrero and been primarily responsible for its success. The case was settled and Cook can no longer make those claims.

Prince did not respond to requests for an interview. Zambrero didn’t either.

He did speak to Forbes for a profile in October last year. For the article, he provided a written valuation of his wealth: nearly $1.6 billion. His worth is likely higher now, given the price put on Guzman y Gomez, which recently listed on the share market.

The Forbes story said Prince is focusing on Zambrero at the moment, with a goal of giving away one billion meals.

Richard White.

Richard White.

Richard White

WiseTech Global founder & CEO

Down 2

Richard White is upending the traditional transition from school into a career.

WiseTech Global’s billionaire founder is expanding his “earn and learn” program that pays undergraduates up to $300,000 while they study – and work for his business.

There will be more places in the scheme and the number of universities will grow.

“What you don’t get from an education university alone is … to really be fluid in the technologies that you learn. There’s this need to practise the art of software development (and) of software engineering,” White says.

While White has been sponsoring efforts to lift literacy in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects among young people for 12 years, he says much more needs to be done.

“Despite all of the commentary around STEM, and how important it is to stem and people saying stem every second word, and every second paragraph, the participation rates in science and maths have actually dropped, which is shocking when you think about it.

“And worse than that, the results in science and maths have also at the same time dropped, that there’s something fundamentally wrong here.

“And I’m not blaming teachers, or the education system, or the government for that, I’m saying we’ve got a problem, a social problem that we’ve got to resolve here,” White says.

“Because if you’re going to have the engineers of the future, the high-value jobs, the jobs that are really sustainable over the long term, you need those … digital skills … that allow people to lift themselves and develop much higher career paths.”

White says his key to being at his best is his “very curious mind.”

“Today, I probably did three different pieces of research that I really wanted to do, because they were indirectly related to the things that I can do with education with WiseTech. And that drives you every day.”

Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Mike Cannon-Brookes

Atlassian Corp co-founder

Down 9

When Scott Farquhar quit as Atlassian co-CEO in XX after 23 years in April, leaving Mike Cannon-Brookes solely in charge, he said: “Mike, it’s hard to put into words the gratitude I feel, and my love for all we have created together.

“You really are George Bernard Shaw’s Unreasonable Man, and the world and I are better as a result.”

The Irish playwright had famously said the reasonable man adapts himself to the world while “the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

It is, of course, a lot easier to adapt the world to yourself when you are worth $18 billion.

It’s been a quieter year for Cannon-Brookes. In the 12 months leading up to our last list, the climate warrior famously used his fortune to become the number one shareholder in AGL so he could stop its de-merger and set the energy giant on a path more to his liking.

He continues to work on that.

In one of his more colourful comments since our 2023 rankings, he described AGL as “one of the most toxic companies on the planet,” adding that it had “more emissions than the entire country of Portugal, or the entire country of New Zealand”. Or Sweden.

Maybe he will buy one of them next. Seems like a better investment than the Rabbitohs, which Cannon-Brookes partly owns.

While Farquhar plans to spend more time playing golf at Royal Sydney, Cannon-Brookes’ love of work shows no signs of abating.

“I don’t feel like I’ve had a 23-year job. I’ve had a series of one-to-two-year jobs. It’s not like this job is the same as it was two years ago, right, so it is still extremely interesting and challenging on a daily basis,” he told The Australian recently.

Justin Hemmes.

Justin Hemmes.

Justin Hemmes

Merivale CEO

Up 2

It might be one of the toughest times for hospitality in recent memory, but that hasn’t stopped Justin Hemmes.

In April, within a week of each other, the Merivale Group chief executive opened two new venues: JAM Record Bar and Good Luck Lounge. Almost instantly both these venues became the talk of the town, with celebrities like Rita Ora and Taika Waititi dining on opening weekend.

A month later he took control of the cafes inside of the city’s most exclusive venues, The Sporting Club of Sydney.

On the openings, Hemmes told The Daily Telegraph he didn’t plan to have them so close together and during a cost-of-living crisis, however, “everything we plan or create is for decades time, not just for the next 12 months”.

Merivale started as a fashion house, named after Hemmes’ mother, but has become the biggest hospitality player in Sydney.

Their portfolio has more than 90 venues, which include The Ivy, and is valued at more than $3 billion. Later in the year Hemmes is set to open a second Jimmy’s Falafel site in Paddington.

Jodie Haydon with Anthony Albanese.

Jodie Haydon with Anthony Albanese.

Jodie Haydon

Australia’s ‘first lady’

New entry

A chance encounter sparked by a shared love of the South Sydney Rabbitohs heralded the beginning of a real-life fairytale for Jodie Haydon and her soon-to-be husband Anthony Albanese.

In between preparing for a federal election, plans are afoot for the pair to tie the knot after the Prime Minister proposed to Ms Haydon over an Italian meal in Canberra earlier this year.

The spouses of Australian prime ministers have no official duties, meaning the public profile and role of each individual can vary dramatically.

Ms Haydon picks her public moments carefully in between balancing her job as head of strategic partnerships for Teachers Mutual Bank, a position that follows more than 20 years of experience working in finance, superannuation and banking.

From using major events like the coronation of King Charles III to showcase Australian designers, to — according to Mr Albanese — getting on with First Lady Jill Biden “like a house on fire”, Ms Haydon holds her own on the world stage.

She approaches the role with grace and fortitude, eager to lend her voice to uplift others.

“It’s important for women to share their talents and perspectives, to be visible in positions of power and to inspire other women to reach their potential,” she says.

The biggest immediate challenge for Australia is cost of living, according to Ms Haydon, who also nominated education as a key priority to ensure the future prosperity of the nation.

“As the daughter of public school educators, I am really passionate about education and the transformative effect that can have on a child’s life and the benefits that can bring to our nation as a whole,” she says.

“I think we need to continue to focus on ensuring all kids have equal access to quality education and the life-changing experience it can offer.”

Ms Haydon says she feels “humbled” to be included in the Power 100 list, adding there were many more deserving women leading their fields in Sydney.

As for her approach to her own leadership role, Ms Haydon says she tries to stay focused on delivering “positive outcomes and how to bring that optimism to all that I do, both professionally and personally”.

“I am very fortunate to be part of a supportive team at work and I have an equally supportive group of friends and close family in my personal life, which keeps me energised,” she says.

“I feel very grateful also to be with such a supportive partner in Anthony (Albanese).”

David Hudson.

David Hudson.

David Hudson

NSW Deputy Police Commissioner

Up 34

The reputation of NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson has long been established, with his role as a steadying hand crucial over the past 12 months.

Once known as “Switzerland” because of his ability to stay neutral in the vicious world of police politics, he has been referred to lately as “The Rock”.

Hudson was crucial last June in the formation of Taskforce Magnus, which cracked down on Sydney’s organised crime figures amidst weeks of murders.

Despite often wanting to stay in the background, he was forced on a number of occasions to front major press conferences when his boss Commissioner Karen Webb came under enormous pressure, including informing the public of the specific details of alleged killer cop Beau Lamarre-Condon’s attack on Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.

Over the past 15 years, Hudson has been privy to some of the city’s best-kept secrets, from drunk politicians to misbehaving sports stars and celebrities.

Latrell Mitchell.

Latrell Mitchell.

Latrell Mitchell

South Sydney Rabbitohs & Origin player

Steady

When Latrell Mitchell speaks, the Australian sporting public listens. No other NRL player carries as much sway, or swagger, as the South Sydney fullback — on or off the rugby league field.

A champion of Indigenous causes, the 26-year-old has been forthright in calling out racism at every level. It led to a very public slanging match with Anthony Mundine earlier this year, after the former NRL star and world champion boxer claimed the Spencer Leniu-Ezra Mam incident wasn’t racism.

He doesn’t always get it right, however. Mitchell was heavily criticised over an expletive-laden post-game interview earlier this year, and was forced to serve a three-game ban for elbowing New Zealand Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson.

During the NRL’s Indigenous Round in May, he posted a photo with his son, and another with his Indigenous Rabbitohs teammates, to his 320,000 Instagram followers with the caption: “Hard times create strong men!”

Mitchell likes to get home to his farm near Taree in his downtime, and spend time with his partner Brielle and their three children

Mitchell made a highly anticipated successful return to the State of Origin arena for the first time since 2021, after he was rushed back in for game two as NSW trounced Queensland 38-18.

“It’s been a long time. I love playing Origin,” Mitchell said.

“I bleed blue and I’m happy to be back.”

Patrick Delany.

Patrick Delany.

Patrick Delany

Foxtel Group & Hubbl CEO

Steady

With the Logies just around the corner, it’s worth noting that Foxtel won more gongs than any other network last time round.

“That was an extraordinary moment for us,” Foxtel boss Patrick Delany says.

It helps to explain why he is ranked where he is in the Power 100.

Delany is responsible for a lot of the best Australian TV content on offer.

He’s also an innovator who sees change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

In response to the rise and rise of streaming that challenged the viability of the traditional Foxtel business he has successfully established a suite of new brands, including entertainment-focused Binge and sports leader Kayo, which have brought in new audiences and extended Foxtel’s reach.

Delany’s latest innovation is Hubbl, which aggregates subscriptions into one view.

It’s one of reasons why Delany has found himself drawn into Blue Lights — a police drama from Northern Ireland screening on SBS.

“That’s the thing about Hubbl — it’s not just what Foxtel has got, but everything,” he says.

“I think it makes the modern era of streaming very, very simple.”

Delany says his streaming brands are benefiting from an advertising shift away from linear TV channels to “digital addressable” targeting specific audiences.

“That’s where we are growing quickly,” he says.

The low point of the past year was the loss of industry legend and former Foxtel executive Brian Walsh.

Paul Whittaker.

Paul Whittaker.

Paul Whittaker

Sky News Australia CEO

Steady

In the past year, Paul Whittaker’s Sky News has had its two highest-rating days in its history.

The biggest was the day of The Voice referendum, in October.

The second was in April, with the delivery of the verdict in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Ten on the Monday after the Bondi Junction stabbing attack.

“When big news events happen, people come to Sky,” Whittaker says.

And people are coming to Sky in all sorts of ways.

It recently became the first news channel in the nation with 4 million subscribers on YouTube.

Its website attracts more than 3 million Australians.

And Sky is the most engaging Aussie news brand on Facebook, as measured by the number of likes, comments and shares.

In April it also returned to being the number one channel on Foxtel for the first time since Covid.

“That means we’ve beat every other channel — including sport,” Whittaker says.

He’s also proud of expanding his pool of on-air talent, adding high-profile names such as Chris Uhlmann, Cheng Lei and Joe Hockey.

Whittaker is looking ahead with excitement to a huge run of elections in Australia and across the world.

“That is our absolute bread and butter at Sky,” he says.

Nick Politis.

Nick Politis.

Nick Politis

Businessman and Sydney Roosters chairman

Steady

The Greek migrant started off with just one business — City Ford — but is now worth an estimated $2.8 billion and controls more than 280 car dealerships across Australia as a major shareholder of Eagers and another 70 in private ownership.

The most influential club boss in rugby league, Nick Politis has been involved at the Roosters for 48 years, the past 32 as chairman.

Under Politis, the club has recovered from near-bankruptcy in the ’90s to a rugby league powerhouse, and set them up for the future after overseeing the investment in a diverse property portfolio worth more than $200 million.

At 82, he is still heavily involved in player recruitment and the day-to-day running of the football club, and talks to coach Trent Robinson every day, with no plans to slow down.

“I love the club and the game too much,” he says, “it’s my life.”

Robyn Denholm.

Robyn Denholm.

Robyn Denholm

Tesla Inc chairwoman

Steady

A big part of Robyn Denholm’s job is trying to get Elon Musk to focus on Tesla, rather than his other business interests such as SpaceX or X — the company formerly known as Twitter.

As the head of the board of one of the world’s highest-profile companies, Lugarno-raised Denholm is operating on a wholly different level to most Australian business leaders.

How she goes about that has been under intense scrutiny in the past year.

In January, a court was critical of Denholm as part of a case brought by Tesla shareholders who thought the company was planning to pay Musk a tad too much — about $US45 billion ($68bn) worth of stock options.

That’s not a typo.

The judge questioned whether Denholm could be adequately independent of Musk, given she had earned $US280 million ($420m) in her five-plus years as chair.

Shareholders later approved the Musk package, in a win for Denholm.

Since 2021, Denholm has been the “operating partner” of Blackbird Ventures.

Anthony Albanese’s two biggest tech announcements have involved Blackbird-backed businesses — the SunDrive-AGL venture in the Hunter Valley and the $470m investment in PsiQuantum, the quantum computer maker.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Denholm said the key to Australia’s future prosperity was its people.

“Our researchers are among the very best in the world, punching far above their weight in quality of work. In truth, we push the boundaries of human knowledge like nowhere else,” she said.

“But that incredible research talent and creativity has not historically made its way into our businesses — either in new start-ups, or in established businesses. We need to step up and change that, if Australia is going to remain as bright and prosperous as we have for the past 30 years.”

While she has been interviewed for the Power 100 in the past, she did not respond to requests this year.

Denholm and her family are big basketball fans. They have further expanded their interests in the game in Australia, buying a stake in the Women’s National Basketball League.

The Denholm family is also the majority shareholder of the Sydney Kings basketball team.

Ivan and Nathan Cleary.

Ivan and Nathan Cleary.

Ivan & Nathan Cleary

Penrith Panthers NRL coach & Panthers player

Up 12

The father-son combination of Ivan and Nathan Cleary orchestrated what hasn’t been done in rugby league in 40 years — winning three straight NRL premierships.

Nathan’s concluding 20 minutes of last season’s comeback win over Brisbane has been lauded as the greatest grand final performance of all time.

Now the pair are trying to secure a fourth consecutive title.

Nathan, whose relationship with Matildas star Mary Fowler has captivated the country, is also literally helping change the landscape at Penrith.

He is a partner in local brewing company Drink West, which was established five years ago and, in late 2022, opened a brewery on the site of an old aluminium plant in an industrial area, which has now become a popular social and entertainment hub.

He’s also opening a dedicated sports bar, Freddy’s, in the heart of Penrith.

“My passion and all my time goes into footy, but to have something on the side where you’re learning as you go, and picking up general life skills, and skills for after-footy, business skills, that’s important,” Nathan says.

“It gets your mind off footy for a bit too, which is nice. It adds a bit of balance to life too.”

Ivan recently revealed that he would not have come back to Penrith from Wests Tigers in 2018 if Nathan had been anything but a star.

“Not having to worry about whether I should pick him, or whether people criticised me, or brought the whole nepotism thing into question, which was always going to be a thing … I don’t think I would’ve done it if Nat was a fringe player.”

Shemara Wikramanayake.

Shemara Wikramanayake.

Shemara Wikramanayake

Macquarie Group CEO

Down 1

Shemara Wikramanayake is a big thinker.

Macquarie Group CEOs need to be. A big part of their job is to look at the major forces shaping the world and work out how to make money from them.

So when Wikramanayake thinks about AI, she sees opportunities in owning data centres and the sources of green power required for artificial intelligence bots to learn.

“There are massive amounts of data. The training of ChatGPT requires huge amounts of energy. So these are sectors that are going to structurally grow a heck of a lot,” she recently told investors and business leaders at a Macquarie conference.

Repeated requests for an interview were declined.

“Decarbonisation, that also is another structural change that is in an early innings, just like the AI impact,” Wikramanayake says.

“We are going to have a lot of structural change in this decarbonisation response.”

The world needs $US4 trillion ($6bn) of investment between now and 2030 to meet net zero targets, she says.

“Having said that, we are also going to have to focus on what are the transition fuels. So things like gas are going to have an important role.”

Wikramanayake was born in England then raised by her grandparents in Sri Lanka for a period before returning to England. She moved to Sydney when she was 13 and was educated at Ascham School. It must have been a good experience – her daughter has studied there, too, and excelled.

Wikramanayake routinely tops the list of Australia’s highest paid CEOs and she is a fixture of global lists of the world’s most powerful businesswomen.

She and her husband Ed Gilmartin are big supporters of the arts and social ventures. She reportedly took a year off to establish a charity fund for child education.

Nicole Kidman.

Nicole Kidman.

Nicole Kidman

Actor

Down 2

There is good reason Nicole Kidman is so prolific. You could say she is a workaholic.

Arguably our biggest star to make it in Hollywood, the 57-year-old Academy Award-winner has also spoken about the fact she doesn’t like to stop working for fear whatever job she is filming may be her last.

She is also devoted to lifting others, partnering with director Lulu Wang with this year’s critically acclaimed Expats.

“My commitment to this industry is that I will give a platform for new voices to come forward and they can piggyback on me. That’s part of the ‘paying it forward’,” she said in a 2021 interview with The Guardian. “I could rest. Or I could actually do what I’d promised I’d do. Sure, I’m tired. But at the same time, I feel this strong sense that I need to stop talking about it, and actually … do it.”

However bright her international star shines, Kidman has also always been dedicated to bringing it home. Through Covid, you could say she and a handful of others were responsible for making Australia a hub for filming activity when Hollywood was on its knees.

And she’s kept the jobs coming since. Working with long-time Blossom Films producing partner Per Saari, her next project is again based one of Aussie author Liane Moriarty’s books, The Last Anniversary.

“Australian accents, an Australian project with Australian accents for the world,” she declared at a South by Southwest Sydney event in October.

Industry online bible imdb.com lists eight other projects for Kidman over the next year, including another season of Nine Perfect Strangers. Goodie.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb

ACCC chair

Up 2

Pocket rocket Gina Cass-Gottlieb has racked up some big wins recently, including a $120 million penalty against Qantas. But there’s no let up in the demands on the nation’s top competition and consumer cop.

Scrutinising merger proposals. Solving complex market problems for government. Taking on businesses that are behaving badly.

Combating the rise and rise of scams.

Two years in and the thing that still surprises her about the gig is just how “huge” it is.

“I always knew it was broad,” says Cass-Gottlieb, who was previously the nation’s leading competition lawyer. “But what I did not realise was the intensity that can occur on any given day, and at the moment every day, because of how critical the decisions are and how developments can occur very quickly.”

And when she’s not prosecuting – or trying to prevent – dodgy-doing, Cass-Gottlieb is flat out pushing for law reform to improve protections for the public.

Cass-Gottlieb’s predecessor Rod Sims used to say petrol prices was the issue that was most commonly raised with him by the public. By a mile.

But it’s more of a mix for Cass-Gottlieb.

“Scams are very frequently raised,” she says. “And the other is people’s loss of confidence in the service that they get from the main businesses that they deal with. So supermarkets, of course, are of great interest currently.”

As are the likes of Meta — aka Facebook. More than 80 per cent of Australians, including young people, are spending six hours-plus a day on social media.

“In a way, while we do still get a lot of responses about petrol prices, particularly on social media, actually, when people are engaging with us, they are very affected by the digital transformation.”

Sam Mostyn.

Sam Mostyn.

Sam Mostyn

Australian Governor-General

Up 50

One of the main reasons Sam Mostyn was added to Power 100 last year was her influence on Anthony Albanese.

But we could not have predicted her rise would lead to her being installed as the King’s representative about nine months later.

Mostyn was announced as G-G by Albanese in April and she took over in July.

In her first speech in the role, she said: ‘‘If I can capture in a few words my aspirations for our country, I believe these testing times call for an unstinting focus on kindness, on care and on respect.

“Care has a deep and resonant place in our Australian identity. Care is the gentle thought and the outstretched hand that Australians have always been ready to share when great challenges present themselves. Care is the quieter, better part of ourselves.”

Prior to becoming Governor-General, Mostyn chaired the federal government’s Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce.

She had also been recently appointed to lead the board of one Australia’s largest superannuation funds, Aware.

Mostyn was on the board of the government’s Climate Change Authority as well.

But the decks had to be cleared so she could become G-G.

This is not the first time Mostyn’s life has been up-ended by a call from a Prime Minister.

In the early 1990s, Paul Keating rang her and asked her to leave the Seven Network and come work for him as a communications policy adviser.

She spoke to her army-colonel father, who was no fan of Keating.

He had clear and somewhat surprising advice: If the prime minister of the country is asking for your help, you say ‘yes’.

That was her second stint in Canberra. Mostyn, who is a trained lawyer, met Albo during her first.

Ever since, she has been “someone he can trust … and have a chat with,” as she told The Daily Telegraph for her profile in last year’s Power 100.

Daniel Mookhey.

Daniel Mookhey.

Daniel Mookhey

NSW Treasurer

Up 11

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey spends a lot of his time saying “no” — specifically, to his colleagues when they come cap in hand wanting various projects funded.

In his first budget he paid down the state’s debt bill while giving pay rises to public sector workers.

While he got help from increasing government revenue, walking that tightrope came at a cost: he cut some $13 billion in spending, including for things like palliative care.

Mookhey’s job has only gotten harder – and his responsibility greater – this year, after a GST reallocation ripped almost $12 billion out of the cash NSW was expecting to receive from Canberra over four years. That money, which pays for things like schools, hospitals and roads, was vital to the bottom line.

At the time of writing, Mookhey was neck deep in budget preparation, including forcing his colleagues into the office on Saturdays to run the ruler over the state’s books.

“Most of my colleagues are still speaking to me, so I think that’s a good sign,” he jokes.

Mookhey says the responsibility of preparing the state budget “weighs heavily” on him.

“We are at a time when families are doing really tough. It’s a stark reminder that we have to manage our budget well, so families can manage their budgets well,” he says.

The billions of dollars worth of GST cuts is a “big setback,” he says, but praised his colleagues for tightening their belts.

“The fact that our cabinet and our ministers and our party has really risen to the challenge has made my life actually easier.”

Mookhey believes the biggest challenge to Australia’s future prosperity is our declining education standards.

“Australia makes its money by selling the intelligence of our people to the world, and so declining education standards today is a recipe for economic decline tomorrow.”

Asked what he does to stay at the top of his game, Mookhey nominated regular exercise and cooking for his family.

“As a person whose family is from North India, I will cook a lot of Indian food, and right now I’m raising my two kids’ spice tolerance levels,” he quips.

Cliff Obrecht &amp; Melanie Perkins.

Cliff Obrecht & Melanie Perkins.

Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht

Canva founders

Down 2

Canva founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht have made no secret of their aim to make their Sydney-based digital design company one of the most valuable in the world.

And when they do they intend to give away the money.

They have made a pretty good start over the past 18 months by giving $39 million to the Canva Foundation. It, in turn, handed $31.6 million to good causes, including $23 million to people living in extreme poverty and almost $7.4 million to helping kids learn.

Perkins, 36, and Obrecht, 38, still own a large slice of Canva, which is now valued at $US26 billion, but have vowed to give away most of their wealth to do good.

“We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world’s problems,” they have said previously about their desire to use their power, money and influence as a force for good.

“We feel like it’s not just a massive opportunity, but an important responsibility and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that.”

The largesse has not stopped with good causes. In April, staff at the graphic design company, which is also embracing artificial intelligence, became millionaires after they were given the chance to sell shares to new investors.

In total $2.27 billion worth of shares were sold as Canva employees cashed in. Next year the folding stuff will continue to roll through the door, with the company going public because of its size.

Karen Webb.

Karen Webb.

Karen Webb

NSW Police Commissioner

Down 4

Police Commissioner Karen Webb has had a year she would rather forget, which has seen her reputation take a battering and her ranking in the top 100 tumble.

As the state’s top cop, Webb holds one of the most powerful law enforcement jobs in the country, but has come in for a fair amount of criticism for poor media performances, particularly when belatedly fronting the public after one of her officers, Beau Lamarre-Condon, had allegedly killed two people.

She all but thanked an alleged double murderer, saying she was “grateful” for the assistance he gave to locate the bodies of the victims. She compounded the problem after she used the Taylor Swift line on TV, saying: “Haters will hate”.

Internally there is growing disquiet with her lack of visibility and the moving sideways of a number of senior officers. Recruitment numbers have collapsed and the force is drastically understaffed.

At one stage powerful people in the media and parliament were talking about whether Premier Chris Minns would have to make the tough decision to get rid of the state’s first female top cop.

She regained much-needed ground with a much better showing publicly after the Bondi Junction stabbings where six innocent people lost their lives, and then two days later when she swiftly declared the stabbing of Archbishop Mar Mari Emmanuel atWakeley a terror attack.

Webb is still there and fighting, but has a tough job to convince the public and her 17,000 dwindling staff how long she should remain.

Pat Cummins.

Pat Cummins.

Pat Cummins

Australian cricket captain

Up 1

In a World Cup final against the national side of the world’s most populous democracy, in front of more than 90,000 fans at a stadium named after the home side’s Prime Minister, Pat Cummins silenced India.

Five months earlier he had orchestrated a manoeuvre that would rock the cricket world in the middle of its most famous venue, the stumping of Englishman Jonny Bairstow.

Come the following January, Cummins once more showed his preparedness to put his neck on the line, calling for a change to Australia Day.

A few months later he was skippering a franchise in the Indian Premier League. The same people whose hearts he had helped break were eating out of his hands.

This is the Cummins effect.

Skipper of global titleholders in both Test and one-day cricket, protector of the Ashes, statesman, commercial beast, unassuming agitator and, most critically, one of Australia’s greatest ever cricketers.

Cummins, husband to Becky and father to son Albie, was named ICC men’s cricketer of the year in 2023, a year in which his greatness was entrenched.

“It’s a huge honour. It has been a big year, lots of wonderful team success,” Cummins said.

“To get this individual honour is huge and I am pretty amazed. In terms of individual accolades, it is right up there.”

The challenges will keep coming though.

Cummins has never played in a winning Test series against the behemoth that is India. He will again be tasked with leading an ageing side through what shapes as a blockbuster battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy next summer.

Michael Miller.

Michael Miller.

Michael Miller

News Corp Australasia Executive Chairman

Steady

Michael Miller is on the front line in the fight against some of the biggest and nastiest businesses in the world, such as Meta, TikTok and X.

These are companies which, as he said in a recent National Press Club address, have brought us online scams and blackmail, cyber-bullying and revenge porn, doxing and trolling, deep fakes and conspiracies, as well as the surveillance economy and the live-streaming of massacres.

These businesses need to adhere to the nation’s laws, he says.

“Australians should not be disadvantaged by bad behaviour and disrespect for our country,” Miller says.

Continual audience growth and engagement has been the standout achievement of the past 12 months, along with the impact of News campaigns such as the Bush Summit, which started in NSW and has now gone national.

“We advocate for and put a light on an important part of the economy that doesn’t often get the attention it deserves,” he says.

In his view, the biggest threat to Australia’s future prosperity is declining competitiveness.

For entrepreneurship, Australia is 62nd out of 64 countries and near the bottom for our company tax rate and lack of complexity of our products.

Australia’s overall competitiveness has slipped from fourth in 2004 to 19th.

“We must do better,” Miller declares.

Asked what he did in his personal life to try to be at his best, Miller says he loved to cook, run and spend time with family. He is also a rugby referee.

During games he has to have complete focus and ignore his Apple Watch if it is vibrating.

“I feel like I’m giving back,” he says.

Katie Page and Gerry Harvey.

Katie Page and Gerry Harvey.

Katie Page & Gerry Harvey

Harvey Norman CEO & chairman

Steady

Retail giant Harvey Norman is expanding its global reach this year with the opening of its first store in England — in Dudley in the West Midlands.

Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page and husband and chairman Gerry Harvey have driven the global expansion into more than 100 stores in eight countries, including Croatia, Singapore, Slovenia and Malaysia.

But they have not forgotten their roots and this year returned to Auburn in Western Sydney, where the first store opened more than 40 years ago, with a donation of almost $8 million to launch a decade-long leadership program through Auburn Girls High School to empower the next generation of female leaders.

Ms Page says the Western Sydney University-led program was inspired from the experience she had gained from providing scholarships to young women, often from refugee families.

“Those scholarships are allowing women that couldn’t afford it to have a tertiary education — they are bright and they should not be held back,” she says.

“It shows the rest of the family what they can do as well. It has this knock-on effect with family, then with community, that says ‘we are doing this’.”

It is the embodiment of the words of Winston Churchill, who once said: “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

Ms Page has devoted countless hours and millions of dollars to champion women in life and especially through sport. Harvey Norman this year boosted its long association with and sponsorship of the Australian Paralympic team by becoming the official partner of the Australian Olympic Team.

“If we can achieve anything in our partnerships, it is to support the creation of more dreams and bring more Olympic and Paralympic dreams to life,” Ms Page said when the partnerships were announced.

Matt Comyn.

Matt Comyn.

Matt Comyn

Commonwealth Bank CEO

Up 5

When Matt Comyn was interviewed for the job of CBA CEO in late 2017, he ended with a promise: “I will never let you down.”

“Obviously it was a difficult time in the organisation and an important decision. It wasn’t something that I’d pre-planned to say,” Comyn tells The Daily Telegraph for the Power 100. “But it was one of the last things I said at the end of the interview process.”

The bank was still in the midst of a tumult triggered when the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) filed bombshell proceedings against the nation’s biggest bank for more than 50,000 breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.

The scandal was the reason the top job was up for grabs, with then boss Ian Narev forced to resign.

Under Comyn, in June 2018, CBA agreed to settle the case for $700 million – which at the time was the largest civil penalty in Australian history.

He navigated the Hayne royal commission and Covid pandemic. CBA’s share price has risen by more than 60 per cent under his stewardship.

Comyn has become one of the most, if not the most, respected figures in corporate Australia.

And he is using that status more and more to advocate for change, such as comprehensive tax reform.

“I think it’s incumbent on all of us, and certainly anyone in a leadership position, to make sure that we’re setting up and delivering the sorts of opportunities for future generations for our children and their children that we’ve been afforded,” he says.

Comyn is still in his 40s. He says he hasn’t given any thought to whether he would take another executive position after his days running CBA are over.

“It’s a very consuming job. And I spent all of my time trying to do that to the best of my ability. And I know that if I focus on that, then that’s the most important thing that I can be doing at the moment.”

He’s also a father of three. Balancing work and family is tough.

“For me, obviously, I try to focus on quality at times over quantity,” he says.

For example, he’s helping his son explore an interest in learning to fly in the future. Comyn has a degree in aviation and has piloted planes in the past. It’s not something he sees himself doing again though.

“I think it’s the sort of thing that’s best done either a lot, or not at all, right?”

“I don’t think it’s a great hobby.”

Peter V’landys.

Peter V’landys.

Peter V’landys

Racing NSW CEO & Australian Rugby League Commission chairman

Steady

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys made his first appearance in the first Daily Telegraph Power 100 list in 2019 and has not left the top 10 ever since.

When he started, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison was at number one ahead of former Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

He has seen off plenty of big names since then, and consolidated his position on this list by also taking on the role of chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission.

He puts his longevity down to his working class Wollongong roots and a dogged determination to never give up.

“I’ve seen off eight chief executives from Racing Victoria while I have been in the job,” he says.

In the past few years Mr V’landys has had lunch with the Queen, invited Prince Charles to Royal Randwick, and had his photograph taken with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden in the White House.

His ambition has seen the NRL opening games played in Las Vegas in a bold bid to open up the huge US sports market. He was nervous but the gamble paid off.

He sees his success as an example to others. “One thing I take pride in is, if I can succeed, anyone can succeed,” Mr V’landys says.

“Because I’ve come from nothing — the closest I got to a private school was walking past it.”

Now he is using the power and influence he has to help others from disadvantaged backgrounds with the Gotcha4Life Foundation raising money for mental health workshops in grassroots Rugby League clubs across the country.

He is also building relationships between Australia and Papua New Guinea by supporting the introduction of a PNG team in the league — something with which Chinese diplomacy cannot compete.

School attendance in PNG is patchy at best, but an NRL team and involvement of players could show children a different pathway.

“That’s what this program is going to do, encourage them to come to school and be part of the school system,” Mr V’landys says. “In any society the first thing you require is an education.”

Michele Bullock.

Michele Bullock.

Michele Bullock

RBA governor

New Entry

Michele Bullock doesn’t expect you to agree with her, but she does want to ensure you understand what the RBA is trying to do.

In an exclusive interview for the Power 100, Bullock tells The Daily Telegraph she never considered the possibility of becoming governor until Guy Debelle quit as her predecessor Philip Lowe’s deputy in 2022 to go work for billionaire Andrew Forrest.

She became Lowe’s deputy, then took his job in September last year after he got the punt for reasons including his failure to clearly explain the bank’s thinking and actions.

Bullock hopes to lift the public standing of the central bank through better communication.

She says that by the time she’s done, “I would like people to look back and say, ‘I didn’t necessarily agree, but I understand where they’re coming from. They’ve communicated clearly and I understand them and I respect that’.”

Bullock has spent her entire working life at the RBA – nearly 40 years – after interning at the bank while doing honours in economics.

Upon finishing school, Bullock was accepted into a medicine degree in Sydney, but switched and stayed in Armidale where she grew up.

Bullock is the first woman to be governor and says the RBA wants to get more women into the bank.

“We’ve got a pipeline problem because women aren’t tending to study economics,” she says. “We also feel that sometimes women aren’t drawn to these types of economics. There’s a dearth of women in financial markets and economics. They tend to drift into health economics and other sorts of economics.”

Only a third of high-school economics students are girls and just 37 per cent of those enrolled in economics at university are women.

“We’re working very hard on that. We’re working hard on the pipeline at school, getting women to take school at university as well. And we are actively in our recruiting trying very hard to get more women in,” she says.

Bullock says the biggest influence on her career was John Laker, who was her boss when she became deputy head of payments policy.

“At that time, I just had my second child and I wasn’t sure about coming back into the workforce. He empowered me. He believed in me. He gave me every opportunity to display what I had, and I grew. I grew so much.

“The people that empower you and help you grow, support you when you need it (and) back you, they’re the ones that I’ve really learned from in terms of my leadership style, and that’s the way I tried to pay it back.”

Anthony Albanese.

Anthony Albanese.

Anthony Albanese

Prime Minister

Down 1

Of all the crises damaging Anthony Albanese’s chances of securing a second term as Prime Minister of a majority Labor office, cost of living cuts the deepest.

Households across the income spectrum are suffering as a result of higher inflation and interest rates, and as voters buckle under pressure their ire increasingly turns on the federal government.

Elected more than two years ago on the promise of “no one left behind”, Albanese is acutely aware just how serious this moment is in ensuring Australia’s future prosperity.

In an exclusive interview for the Power 100, he says the nation’s success depends on whether Australia is positioned to “take advantage” of the shift in the global economy.

“I think the next period will determine the next few decades,” he says.

Be it in the green energy transition, manufacturing, jobs or national security, Albanese wants to capture every opportunity.

The biggest threat to this lofty goal? The PM has a blunt answer: “Standing still, inertia, complacency, thinking that things will just stay the same.”

“We live in a fast-changing world and unless we move, the world will go past us,” he says.

With less than a year until the next election, Albanese isn’t interested in going into any specific regrets from his tenure so far, insisting his focus is on ensuring Australia can “seize the opportunities” before it.

“Always there are challenges that you have to deal with, including challenges that aren’t expected,” he says.

Chief among these, he says, is global inflation and its impact on Australia’s economy.

With Labor betting big on energy rebates and tax cuts to ease household pain, the PM’s critics have argued he has not used his powerful position to sufficiently tackle rising costs.

But more sympathetic observers acknowledge it would have been electorally untenable for Labor to have withheld extra support for households entirely.

Albanese prides himself on running a “cabinet-led” government where ministers are given space and authority to run their portfolios.

In sharing his power, the Prime Minister has brought stability to his senior team, but with this approach comes the risk of mistakes and errors going unchecked for too long.

Unexpected challenges have highlighted how quickly a series of minor decisions by one minister can become a big problem for Mr Albanese.

After using up much of his political capital advocating for the failed Voice to Parliament referendum, the PM cannot afford any more setbacks in his pursuit of momentum.

Chris Minns.

NSW Premier

Up 1

Chris Minns is nothing if not ambitious; the Premier has spent his first 18 months in office trying to fix one of Sydney’s most entrenched problems, our crippling housing crisis.

Minns’ efforts in tackling the issues that matter to Sydney, including fighting recalcitrant councils and building more homes near transport hubs, have seen the Premier climb the Power 100 rankings to come out on top.

Dramatically reshaping Sydney with higher density housing is the issue on which Minns has staked his political future.

He has made good on a promise he first made at The Daily Telegraph’s Bradfield Oration to rebalance housing targets and build up, not out.

His plans to increase density around transport hubs have been unpopular with councils but appear to have been welcomed by the electorate, who are feeling the pain of higher rents and skyrocketing house prices.

But there is a lot of work to go before these homes are actually delivered; people cannot live in a press release.

It is a tough time to be an incumbent government. The rising cost of living, coupled with (and fuelled by) a housing crisis has taken a chunk out of the Labor government’s popularity.

In an interview to mark the Telegraph’s Power 100 magazine, Minns says that in the year since the last issue was published he has learned that “politics is a team sport”.

“We have to rely on one another to be successful government,” he says.

“Our aim is not about short-term wins or quick victories, it’s really about establishing what are the perennial problems facing the state.”

The problem with a team sport is that everyone needs to perform. Even government insiders think some of their colleagues are not playing at the top level.

“It is a steep learning curve for everybody,” Minns concedes.

In government ranks, Minns has centralised power within his office. That is not necessarily a bad thing, given that he does not have the strongest middle order.

After a year and a half, the realities of governing are beginning to hit home.

“But I’ve been able to see a lot of my colleagues step into some big roles, confront major challenges,” Minns says.

The biggest challenge has been the economy. The inflation dragon has stopped governments stepping in to ease hip pocket pain.

“That’s been a massive problem confronting NSW,” he says.

The biggest challenge facing NSW’s prosperity is a drop in the value of our trade exports.

“There are quite a few threats: It could be geopolitical, it could be a downturn in the economy, it could be a change in our relationship, it could be a commodity price drops in natural resources,” Minns says.