Art dealer Tim Klingender found dead in Sydney Harbour

Thanks very much for reading Need to Know this Friday, July 21. Here are today’s biggest developments:

Art dealer Tim Klingender found dead in Sydney Harbour: Leading Indigenous art dealer Tim Klingender has been found dead in Sydney Harbour following a suspected boating accident.

Andrews refuses to reveal cost of axing Games amid exit negotiations: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has again refused to give an indication of how much money the state government might have to pay in compensation for axing the Commonwealth Games, likening it to revealing the reserve price before an auction.

Three people killed and road blocked in horror Queensland crash: The driver of a car stolen in a violent carjacking is the only survivor of a catastrophic high-speed crash that killed three people.

Economic, social policy can work in tandem, says Chalmers: Treasurer Jim Chalmers says federal social and economic policy objectives must work together, as he today unveiled the Albanese government’s first wellbeing budget.

‘Out of touch’: Opposition says wellbeing report is embarrassing: Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor says the Albanese government’s wellbeing report ignores the cost-of-living crisis currently affecting Australians.

White paper to ‘flesh out’ full employment, says Chalmers: Treasurer Jim Chalmers has welcomed a debate between economists and union groups about how full employment should be defined.

‘Blood from a stone’: Pocock blasts Deloitte, EY response to Senate probe: Greens Senator Barbara Pocock says questioning senior leaders of major consultancies about how they run their firms in parliamentary hearings has been akin to drawing “blood from a stone”.

Leading Indigenous art dealer Tim Klingender has been found dead in Sydney Harbour following a suspected boating accident.

Friends and associates confirmed the body found at Watsons Bay in Sydney’s east on Thursday to be that of the 59-year-old.

Melbourne gallerist D’Lan Davidson said Klingender was “the architect of the market we have today”.

“He leaves behind a huge vacuum for Indigenous art in this country and around the world,” Davidson said on Friday.

Sydney gallerist Michael Reid said the art community has received the news with “profound sadness”.

“The death of Tim Klingender was an unimaginable and devastating loss to his family and indeed the Australian art world,” he said.

“Tim was quick to laugh. First in on adventure and always up for a chat … [he] had ability, warmth, and presence in spades.”

Friends said the art dealer had gone out on a boat for a fishing expedition early on Thursday morning.

The NSW Police Marine Area Command initially responded to reports of boating debris floating in the water off Watsons Bay about 10.20am on Thursday.

Officers recovered the body of a man in the water of the debris field, police said in a statement on Friday.

Investigators are being assisted by PolAir and the Rescue Squad to search for a second man, 51, who was believed to have also been in the vessel.

Klingender was the international director of auction house Sotheby’s between 1998 and 2009.

He founded Sotheby’s Aboriginal art department in 1996, touring works internationally before their sale in Australia.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor says the Albanese government’s wellbeing report ignores the cost-of-living crisis currently affecting Australians.

Taylor said the report was “out of date”, “out of touch” and “deeply embarrassing”.

“It’s insulting to Australians struggling with the cost-of-living crisis,” he told Sydney radio 2GB.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers unveiled the Measuring What Matters report this morning, which tracks progress across 50 indicators across health, the environment, the economy, community safety and cohesion.

“The report that we’re releasing today is part of an effort to refocus the economic conversation so that it’s about the wellbeing of real people in real communities around the country,” Chalmers told ABC’s RN Breakfast.

Taylor said some data on which the report had based its findings was outdated and related to economic conditions before “Labor’s year of inflation”.

“[The treasurer] ignores all of that and of course Australians know that that’s bearing down on their wellbeing more than anything else right now,” he said.

Chalmers responded to similar criticism this morning, saying one of the report’s objectives was to identity areas for improvement.

“We’ve made it clear ... that this is a first crack at it,” he said.

KPMG Australia has taken the unprecedented step of allowing its partnership deed to be published, revealing partners can be given a one-time bonus payment worth up to a year’s income when they retire.

The firm provided the “KPMG Australia Partnership Agreement 2022” to the Senate committee examining consulting without requesting the document be made private. Its publication by the committee on Friday marks the first time in the history of the big four consulting firms that this tightly held material has been released publicly.

Greens Senator Barbara Pocock criticised leaders of Deloitte and EY earlier in the week for failing to provide similar documents to the committee when asked. PwC, which triggered the inquiry with its tax leaks scandal, has provided its agreement but asked the committee to keep it confidential.

Deloitte and EY both defended the decision during public committee hearings on Monday and Tuesday.

Read more.

Chinese spy ships will be closely watching military exercises off the coast of Australia as tens of thousands of troops prepare for the war games.

More than 30,000 defence personnel from 13 countries will take part in Talisman Sabre, which begins in Sydney on Friday.

Originally involving Australia and the US, the biennial exercises have expanded to nations including Japan and South Korea.

Vessels from China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy are expected to head towards Australia while the military exercises take place.

Talisman Sabre director Brigadier Damien Hill said the Chinese ships would be free to come into Australia’s exclusive economic zone.

“We monitor our borders very carefully and that includes nations such as the PLA operating,” he said.

The Matildas have smashed historic television ratings records, with almost 2 million people tuning in to watch the team’s first match of their much-anticipated FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign.

The shock absence of star skipper Sam Kerr did not deter viewers or crowds from the opening match of the tournament, with an average of 1.93 million viewers watching on Seven and its online video service 7Plus.

Optus Sport, the broadcast partner of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, does not break out audience figures for its app.

The Matildas’ 1-0 win against the Republic of Ireland is now the most watched women’s team sports match in Australian history, breaking the previous record of 1.87 million for the Matildas’ semi-final against Sweden in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Australia’s first World Cup match was also far bigger than the Matildas’ warm-up match against France the week before, which was watched by 299,000 viewers on Network Ten.

Read more.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has again refused to give an indication of how much money the state government might have to pay in compensation for axing the Commonwealth Games, likening it to revealing the reserve price before an auction.

Andrews on Tuesday sensationally announced Victoria would drop the Games, set to be held in regional hubs including Bendigo, Ballarat, Shepparton and Geelong in 2026, saying the cost had blown out from $2.6 billion to potentially $7 billion.

The Victorian Liberals say the government could be on the hook for up to $2 billion in compensation, but the premier has repeatedly declined to speak on the matter while a team of lawyers negotiates the exit with Games organisers in London.

“If this was like a house auction, you’re essentially asking me to give you the reserve price before the auction started,” Andrews said in Geelong on Friday.

“That would not be smart. I’m not doing that.”

US CIA director William Burns said he remains optimistic Ukraine will be able to make advances in its counteroffensive against Russia, based on the intelligence he has reviewed.

Russia suffers from some significant “structural weaknesses” behind the considerable defences it has built up, Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday (Friday AEST). Those weaknesses include poor morale, poor generalship and “disarray” among its political and military leadership.

“It is going to be a tough slog, but we’re going to do everything we can as an intelligence agency to provide the kind of intelligence support and sharing that’s going to help the Ukrainians to make progress,” Burns said.

Burns said mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny in June had “exposed some of the significant weaknesses in the system that Putin has built.”

“For a lot of Russians watching this used to this image of Putin as the arbiter of order, the question was, does the emperor have no clothes or at least why does it take so long for him to get dressed,” Burns said.

Burns’ comments echoed remarks earlier this week by Sir Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, known at MI6. Moore said Putin’s government was beset by “venality, infighting and callous incompetence” and that the aftermath of Prigozhin’s mutiny had been “humiliating” to Putin.

The United States has imposed Russia-related sanctions against nearly 120 people and entities aimed at blocking Moscow’s access to electronics and other goods that aid its war against Ukraine, the Treasury and State departments announced.

The new measures also are designed to “reduce Russia’s revenue from the metals and mining sector, undermine its future energy capabilities and degrade Russia’s access to the international financial system”, Treasury said in a statement.

“Today’s actions represent another step in our efforts to constrain Russia’s military capabilities, its access to battlefield supplies, and its economic bottom line,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement.

Russia’s embassy in Washington called the latest sanctions part of the “endless attacks” by US President Joe Biden’s administration “in the context of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against our country”.

The driver of a car stolen in a violent carjacking is the only survivor of a catastrophic high-speed crash that killed three people.

Queensland’s Bruce Highway remains closed to all traffic after the three-car collision south of Gympie about 4am on Friday.

The driver of the stolen car was taken to Gympie Hospital with serious head injuries and remains under police guard.

The vehicle had been stolen 12 hours before the highway crash in a violent carjacking in Gympie on Thursday, police have confirmed.

An alert for the vehicle was issued after a man armed with a knife threatened a mother and her three children as the family were getting into the Isuzu MU-X.

The terrified mother got her kids out of the vehicle before handing over the car to the robber.

The woman and children were not injured and police have been unable to confirm if the robber was involved in the fatal crash.

Southbound lanes of the Bruce Highway are expected to be closed for an extended period and diversions are in place.

The forensic crash unit is investigating.