2 MAY

Presidential subpoena

Special Counsel Robert Mueller reportedly warned of a subpoena for Donald Trump to appear before a grand jury after the president's lawyers insisted he had no obligation to talk with federal investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Washington Post reports that the exchange took place in a tense meeting in early March between the lawyers and special counsel. The flare-up is said to have led to weeks of turmoil among Trump’s attorneys as they debated how to deal with the special counsel’s request for an interview, a dispute that ultimately led to the president's lead attorney John Dowd resigning.

A list of proposed questions Mueller allegedly has for Trump was published by The New York Times on Monday. The questions deal chiefly with the president’s firings of the FBI director and his first national security adviser, a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, as well as some questions about the president’s businesses.

NEWS WRAP

Prized possession 

• South Korean President Moon Jae-in believes Donald Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize for trying to end the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. But could he actually win the prize? ABC News spoke to the Centre's associate professor in American politics Brendon O'Connor about the prospect. READ MORE HERE.
   

• President Trump's personal doctor for more than three decades, Dr Harold Bornstein, claims a 2015 doctor's letter released by Trump's campaign, that suggested the then-candidate's "physical strength and stamina are extraordinary" and that he "will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency", was dictated by Trump himself. Bornstein is also alleging Trump's ex-bodyguard Keith Schiller robbed his office when retrieving Trump's medical records. The White House says its medical unit took possession of the president’s medical records, "as is standard operating procedure". READ MORE HERE.
   
• Comedian Michelle Wolf's now notorious set at the White House Correspondents' Dinner continues to fuel think-pieces and ferocious debate about her roasting of the president and his staff. The White House Correspondents’ Association itself released a statement saying the routine didn’t embody “the spirit” of its mission, and President Trump called it an "embarrassment" and prophesied the dinner's demise. But in all the commentary about its appropriateness, did one of Wolf's most searing statements – about the media profiting off the president – get lost? READ MORE HERE.
   
• Fox News presenter Sean Hannity has had more than his fair share of the spotlight in recent weeks, with revelations about his relationship with Trump attorney Michael Cohen, as well as his dealings with the US Department of Housing. Honorary associate Nicole Hemmer sat down with Vox Media's 'Today, Explained' podcast to discuss Hannity's inflated role in Trump's political landscape. LISTEN HERE.
   
• After a number of years of relative disinterest in the Western Balkans, there has recently been no shortage of special panels, roundtables, hearings and reports on both sides of the Atlantic sounding the alarm over the increasingly precarious developments in the region. But given President Trump's well-documented denunciation of both diplomatic engagement and transatlantic ties, can Washington really be credibly involved? US politics and foreign policy lecturer Gorana Grgic took a look for War on the Rocks. READ MORE HERE.

I wouldn’t change a single word that I said.

Comedian Michelle Wolf
(NPR interview)
1 May 2018

ANALYSIS

Making farmers innovative again: Ascendent Australian AgTech 

Spencer Maughan
Visiting Fellow, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program

While many think of innovation as something that solely happens when ambitious young people start working in Silicon Valley garages, quite a lot of innovation is actually occurring in one of the world’s oldest sectors: agriculture. AgTech, a catchall phrase describing technology-based innovation related to products for the agriculture and food value chains, is more popular than ever.

One clear indication of AgTech’s ascendency is the fact that last month, more than 1,000 people from more than 50 countries attended the World AgriTech Summit in San Francisco, by far the largest and most international AgTech summit to date. Australia’s role as the country sponsor for the event further highlighted the global recognition of the importance of such an event.  

These milestones and broad engagement signal the growing maturity of an innovation sector that previously had attracted small investment and little interest. It was really only in the last few years that the AgTech scene in the United States broke out and became more mature than anywhere in the world.

American momentum in AgTech has grown on the back of notable liquidation events in 2017, such as John Deere’s US$350M purchase of Blue River Technologies, which uses artificial intelligence to do robotic plant spraying, and Pioneer Dupont’s US$300M purchase of Granular, which does enterprise resource planning for farming. The entire AgTech sector is also benefitting from the macro-trend of digitisation of industry, most clearly seen in the automotive sector with Lyft, Uber, MobileEye, Waze, and others. Indeed, 2017 was a record year for investment into US agriculture and food startups with more than $1.5B of private capital flowing into the space. The predominantly US-based venture capital (VC) primarily funded US and Israeli endeavours.

In contrast and despite Australia having a subsidy-free, highly productive agriculture sector, the Australian AgTech startup scene is small. In a recent report my own venture capital firm conducted on the AgTech around the world, Australia barely registered in terms of VC-dollars being committed to domestic AgTech innovation companies, with less than A$10 million in deals recorded – a rounding error compared to the US$1.5 billion in US AgTech deals. 

Notwithstanding poor aggregate numbers and startup metrics, there are signs that Australia may be developing an AgTech ecosystem. Multiple new accelerators – programs that provide startups investment, connections, and mentorship – have been created to assist entrepreneurs in creating new AgTech-focused companies. These include SproutX and RocketSeeder, both located in Melbourne. These efforts are also enhanced by the strong AgTech scientific infrastructure Australia already has in place through research and development corporations and CSIRO – both critical for building technology companies.

Australia hosted its very own AgTech conference last month, too. While the Informa AgTech Summit in Melbourne was undoubtedly a domestic affair, having almost no foreign attendees and no foreign technology companies exhibiting, it nonetheless did have many of the research and development corporations, scientific groups, farming operators and Ag chemical distributors that showed the seriousness of Australia’s potential in this area.

Although small compared to San Francisco’s World AgriTech Summit, we very well may be at a tipping point for the Australian AgTech market. However, to really capitalise on any domestic momentum, Australia will need to get institutional investors to write cheques – the sort of investment that is ubiquitous in Silicon Valley. The challenge is how we can harness these opportunities Down Under.

DIARY

The week ahead

• Wednesday, 2 May: US Federal Reserve board meets to set monetary policy.
   

• Friday, 4 May: US Labor Department releases April jobs report.
   

• Tuesday, 8 May: Treasurer Scott Morrison will deliver the 2018-19 Budget in Canberra.
   

• Wednesday, 9 May: US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the nomination of Gina Haspel to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

EVENT

Walter V Robinson: Spotlight on the resurgence of American investigative reporting

VIDEO

President Trump calls Fox & Friends

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#WHCD

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United States Studies Centre
Institute Building H03
University of Sydney NSW 2006

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