Herd on the Terrace: Humbug abounds over Northern Star’s Finlayson loss

Northern Star Resources finally came clean on Thursday about the worst kept secret since Meg O’Neill landed the top job at Woodside. In a surprise to absolutely no-one on the Terrace, the gold miner revealed Raleigh Finlayson would not be returning to its board following his brief sabbatical at Harvard. What is surprising is the humbug that has been emanating in recent days from Northern Star and Finlayson’s new pet venture Genesis Resources. You may recall that Genesis triumphantly announced on September 22 that Finlayson would be kicking $7 million of his own hard-earned cash into the gold junior and take on the role of managing director in March. This was blurted out on the same day Northern Star disclosed Finlayson’s sabbatical and made its unbelievable claim that the former Saracen boss would return as a non-executive director on April 4. It is incongruous that Northern Star should this week cite his role at Genesis and the company’s holding in the explorer as “governance considerations” for him not rejoining the miner’s board. The company should have been well aware of those same issues six months ago. Curiously Genesis’ September 22 announcement also noted excitedly that Nev Power would be kicking some dollars into the company and joining its board. The former Fortescue Metals Group boss was convicted of COVID border breaches last week and given an eight-month suspended sentence. While Mr Power recently resigned from his chairmanships of Perth Airport, the Royal Flying Doctors Service and the Foundation for the WA Museum, his future tenure as a director at Genesis remains unclear. Finlayson assured us this week that the company was “having those conversations right now” and he expected a resolution soon. We think it is pretty clear. The Corporations Act clearly states that directors are automatically disqualified from their position if they are convicted of an offence that involves dishonesty and is punishable by imprisonment for at least three months. The act says “dishonest means dishonest according to the standards of ordinary people”. Bypassing WA’s pandemic border restrictions while flying into WA with your chopper pilot son is deceitful and therefore dishonest by the standards of our time. But we shouldn’t single out Genesis. It seems disability services group APM and Perth Basin gas player Strike Energy don’t quite know what to do with the fallen high-flyer who is also on a “leave of absence” from those companies. Babbage rubbed out as financial planner All this hullabaloo about former corporate high-flyer Nev Power sneaking into WA in a helicopter almost made us forget about those two over-privileged Melbourne Football Club supporters jailed for cheating their way to Perth for last year’s AFL grand final. Just in case you need a reminder, dashing restaurateur Hayden Burbank and his nerdy financial planner mate Mark Babbage did three months Porridge for entering Dear Leader Mark McGowan’s sovereign territory via Darwin. But sadly for Babbage, those pesky folks at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had not forgotten his conviction for providing a falsified Northern Territory driver’s licence, a territory tenancy agreement and a bank statement showing a tropical address. A check of ASIC’s adviser registry shows that the watchdog three weeks ago banned Babbage from the financial advice and credit capers. For some reason, the order was still not publicly available this week. But a check with our ASIC moles revealed the ban was for 10 years — a negligible banishment compared with the 57-year premiership drought that Babbage witnessed and celebrated being broken at Optus Stadium. And Babbage will still be seven months below 50 when he can start advising again — plenty of time to re-establish himself in daddy Jim Babbage’s sizeable Hawthorn operation. Pemberton up stake in leafy Applecross Spare a thought this weekend for NRW Holdings chief executive Jules Pemberton after flogging more than a quarter of his shares in the red dirt contractor. Clearly hoping to kill any notions that an insider was getting out, NRW company secretary Kim Hyman released an explanatory note along with Pemberton’s director’s interest. Hyman assured punters that Pemberton needed the $6.36 million to fund personal tax liabilities and to buy a property. The size of Pemberton’s tax bill has not been disclosed. But digging by the Bull reveals Pemberton has just stumped up $4.4m for a tasteful riverside mansion in Applecross, complete with pool and sun room, looking across the Swan River from indoor living and outdoor dining areas. We’re not sure what to read into this, but Pemberton purchased his long-time residence in Applecross’s leafy heart for $3.8m in June 2008 with funding from National Australia Bank just as the WA property market was crashing. Going by the guesstimates on various real estate websites, that Macleod Road property could well still be worth less than Pemberton paid for it. Just in case you feel he needs a hand, please don’t forget he still has 8.46 million NRW shares valued at more than $17m on Friday. Talk is cheap, but support is priceless The Bull got himself into a twirl this week after hearing talk that Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service was leaving billionaire philanthropist Tim Roberts’ Rous Head chopper port. The rumoured prospect of the service having to operate from the busy Jandakot Airport was downright alarming given the rescue helicopter could spend one-sixth of its air time over the Cockburn and Fremantle hinterlands. But a series of phone calls this week killed the rumour and left us confident that Roberts’ 11-year, multi-million-dollar commitment to this vital service is rock solid. Read more from the Bull in Herd on the Terrace inside the business pages of Saturday’s The West Australian, or check out more gossip from WA’s business community here.