Far be it from us to tell to Indian billionaires how to conduct their business, but Gautum Adani might want to consider the optics of his entourage before flying into Australia, cap in hand,
If it were me, for example, and I was hoping to convince the Australian government to hand over $1 billion to help build a rail line from the Galilee Basin to the Queensland coast so I could ship all the coal I had dug out of the ground back to India, I probably wouldn't come flying in on my $30 million private jet.
The cheeky coal digger's Embraer Legacy twin-jet performed a bit of an east coast milk run on Tuesday, starting in Melbourne (where Adani met the PM), then on to Townsville (where he had a date with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – no doubt delighted to announce something, anything of substance and federal minister Matt Canavan – who reached for the hyperbole and earned the ire of Cowboys fans everywhere by describing the day as the "biggest news for North Queensland since the Beatles came to Australia") before hopping down to Proserpine – presumably to perform a site visit of sorts, and not leg it to Airlie Beach for Tuesday Taco and Tequila Night at the local backpackers. Though, who knows?
And while he was busy jetting about the joint in his private jet, a second plane in his fleet (a smaller, but no less flash) Challenger 604 was making its way from Bali to Brisbane. Bringing the family in to celebrate, perhaps? Or making a dash for the Coldplay concert at Suncorp?
It reminds us of the time back in 2008 in the US when the CEOs of the Big Three auto makers flew to Washington in their private jets to ask for a government handout. Outstanding!
