Rampart Talks

This is just an excerpt. The full interview with TODD GREENBERG is available exclusively for Rampart subscribers - go to rampart.news to watch now.

Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg joins Rampart’s Joe Aston for a conversation about the future of the sport and his attempt to privatise the domestic T20 Big Bash League.  

Greenberg has been in sports administration for three decades, starting at the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs rugby league club. His leadership weathered many crises and scandals before his abrupt departure in the early days of the COVID crisis. 

Now at the helm of Cricket Australia, he faces a new challenge: convincing state-based cricket associations to sell off a minority stake of their T20 Big Bash League clubs to private capital. 

Greenberg maintains that privatisation in one form or another is inevitable, not only delivering hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue but bringing new leadership into cricket. 

Greenberg says the proceeds of privatisation would go towards creating a “future fund” that would underwrite the game and player salaries before the next broadcast rights deal is struck in 2031.  

He also addresses a scandal that rocked CA in May, when an executive was sacked after a governance breach. Also, the looming retirement of Australia's current crop of star players who drive bumper crowds and big sponsorship deals. 

Finally, Greenberg opens up about the personal challenges of leadership, his wife Lisa’s sobriety after a battle with alcohol, and his shock at seeing the rise of antisemitism in Australia.

Rampart Talks is brought to you by ⁠⁠BHP⁠, ⁠Ray White Commercial⁠ and Generation Life.

About Joe Aston:
Joe Aston is one of Australia's most influential commentators on business, finance and politics.

For 12 years, he struck fear into the hearts of the nation's political and corporate leaders, transforming The Australian Financial Review's Rear Window into the nation's premier daily column.

In 2024, he became a best-selling author with the publication of his first book, The Chairman's Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out.

And in 2025, he launched ⁠Rampart⁠, a premium subscription news publication specialising in Australian business and finance.
 
Follow Joe Aston on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ and ⁠X⁠.

Follow Rampart on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠.

Rampart Talks
Producer: Eliza Harvey
Production/Editing: Mentored Studios
Commercial support: Squiz Media

This is just an excerpt. The full interview with RUTHIE ROGERS is available exclusively for Rampart subscribers - go to rampart.news to watch now.
American-British restaurant legend Ruthie Rogers is Joe Aston’s guest on this month’s Rampart Talks. She’s the owner of the River Cafe, a Michelin starred Italian restaurant on the banks of the River Thames in London, about halfway between Harrods and Heathrow.
This podcast explores the humble beginnings of the restaurant which has become a global phenomenon. In 1987, Rogers and her co-founder Rose Gray had a basic goal: to serve the kind of simple, delicious food they enjoyed eating in Italy.
Four decades later, the restaurant is an important stop on the global food trail. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was discovered as a young trainee in the restaurant’s kitchen, while over a million copies of The River Cafe Cookbook series have sold internationally. 
More recently, after the death of her famous architect husband Lord Richard Rogers, Ruthie embarked on a new professional endeavour. Her podcast, Ruthie’s Table 4, has gained a cult following off the back of interviews with celebrities like Paul McCartney and David Beckham, who discuss their memories and life experiences through the lens of food. 
In this interview with Joe Aston, Ruthie talks about balancing her desire to be in the kitchen with the realities of running a business, how technology has diminished the dining experience and what she reaches for when she needs some comfort food. 
Rampart Talks is brought to you by ⁠⁠BHP⁠, Evidentia Group and ⁠Ray White Commercial⁠.

About Joe Aston:
Joe Aston is one of Australia's most influential commentators on business, finance and politics.
For 12 years, he struck fear into the hearts of the nation's political and corporate leaders, transforming The Australian Financial Review's Rear Window into the nation's premier daily column.
In 2024, he became a best-selling author with the publication of his first book, The Chairman's Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out.
And in 2025, he launched ⁠Rampart⁠, a premium subscription news publication specialising in Australian business and finance. 
Follow Joe Aston on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ and ⁠X⁠.
Follow Rampart on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠.

Rampart Talks
Producer: Eliza HarveyProduction/Editing: Mentored Studios Technical and commercial support: Squiz Media

This is just an excerpt. The full interview with HAMISH DOUGLASS is available exclusively for Rampart subscribers - go to rampart.news to watch now.

The co-founder of Magellan Financial Group Hamish Douglass is Joe Aston's guest on this month's Rampart Talks interview series. In his first major interview since disappearing abruptly from public life in February 2022, Douglass speaks candidly about the extraordinary events that brought him to his knees. 

We explore the huge changes in his personal life and identity; the disturbing rumours about him that survive to this day; the mental breakdown that left him a shadow of his former self; and his message of hope, having made a full recovery.

Joe and Hamish discuss all things Magellan, including packing out ballrooms of financial advisers; his much-analysed relationship with co-founder Chris Mackay; the company's near-fatal key man risk exposure; and the seeding of the new investment bank Barrenjoey which he claims as his idea.

They also discuss Magellan's controversial loan-funded employee share scheme and his decision to sell down his own shares in the company. 

Rampart Talks is brought to you by ⁠⁠BHP⁠, Generation Life and ⁠Ray White Commercial⁠.

About Joe Aston:
Joe Aston is one of Australia's most influential commentators on business, finance and politics.

For 12 years, he struck fear into the hearts of the nation's political and corporate leaders, transforming The Australian Financial Review's Rear Window into the nation's premier daily column.

In 2024, he became a best-selling author with the publication of his first book, The Chairman's Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out.

And in 2025, he launched ⁠Rampart⁠, a premium subscription news publication specialising in Australian business and finance. 

Follow Joe Aston on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ and ⁠X⁠.
Follow Rampart on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠.

Rampart Talks
Producer: Eliza Harvey
Production/Editing: Mentored Studios
Technical and commercial support: Squiz Media

This is just an excerpt. The full interview with Oliver Curtis is available exclusively for Rampart subscribers - go to rampart.news to watch now.
What happens when a man with everything to prove builds a company that Nvidia, Meta and Blackstone can't ignore?
Oliver Curtis – a convicted insider trader and now aspiring ASX-listed company CEO – sits down with Joe Aston for one of the most candid conversations in Australian business. This is a story about second chances, big bets, and a technology race that could reshape Australia's economy for generations.
​​Curtis makes the case that AI token production is Australia's next commodity boom, arguing it could be as big as the country's iron ore industry. He claims that Firmus' cost of production, plus its distinctive chip cooling technology, is well positioned to lead it. 
But how does a neocloud operator that started life as a Bitcoin miner end up as a strategic partner to Nvidia, the world's most valuable company?
We get into all of it: why hyperscalers like Meta are a customer (well, not that Curtis will confirm that just yet) and how Firmus plans to deploy more than $70 billion (yes, you read that right) of capital expenditure in the three years to 2028. 
Curtis doesn't dodge the hard questions – it's his first interview since he left Cooma Correctional Centre in 2017 after spending a year in jail for insider trading. When asked by Aston about his co-conspirator turned Crown witness John Hartman (now CEO at Andrew Forrest's Tattarang) Curtis is loath to engage, arguing that it's in the past and he's focused on the future. 
Curtis also reflects that while people may have made judgements about him based on glimpses on his famous wife Roxy Jacenko's social media account, they're often wide of the mark. Undoubtedly, Curtis is a man on the hard sell, but this interview dispels any notion that he lacks substance.
You don't want to miss it.
Rampart Talks is brought to you by BHP, Generation Life and ⁠Ray White Commercial⁠.
About Joe Aston:
Joe Aston is one of Australia's most influential commentators on business, finance and politics.
For 12 years, he struck fear into the hearts of the nation's political and corporate leaders, transforming The Australian Financial Review's Rear Window into the nation's premier daily column.
In 2024, he became a best-selling author with the publication of his first book, The Chairman's Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out.
And in 2025, he launched ⁠Rampart⁠, a premium subscription news publication specialising in Australian business and finance. 
Follow Joe Aston on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, Instagram and ⁠X⁠.
Follow Rampart on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠.
Rampart Talks
Executive Producer: Eliza Harvey
Production/Editing: Mentored Studios
Sales: Squiz Media

This is just an excerpt. The full interview with Matt Comyn is available exclusively for Rampart subscribers - go to rampart.news to watch now.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn sits down for a candid conversation with Rampart’s Joe Aston. From the very restaurant where he landed his first CBA job in 1999, Comyn opens up about being the unlikely choice as CEO, his two days in the witness box at the Banking Royal Commission and the subsequent challenge of restoring public trust in the company. 
What makes this episode unmissable:
The world's most expensive bank: How he runs the bank which trades at 26 times forward earnings, while also overseeing a healthy corporate culture.

The Royal Commission: Comyn reveals what it was like spending 8.5 hours in the witness box, including the explosive moment when his notes about being told to "temper your sense of justice" became headline news.

AI's real impact: Comyn likens the impact of AI and its consequences to changes brought by the industrial revolution and notes that there’s no “island or moat” that will protect Australian industry from these changes. 

Housing affordability's impossible equation: Comyn notes the challenges for ordinary Australians to enter the housing market who don’t have access to the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. Comyn says supply-side solutions are needed to ease the housing crisis.  

Resilience forged through personal hardship: Comyn shares how traumatic events in his childhood fortified him against professional challenges as an adult. He notes that psychological and physiological resilience are just as important as elite banking skills. 

From Canberra power dynamics to multi-billion-dollar investments in CBA’s technology, from the loss of sponsorship of the Australian cricket teams to measuring sleep and staying fit —this is a rare interview where one of Australia’s leading CEOs discusses the importance of having good judgement and knowing when to walk away.  
Rampart Talks is brought to you by ⁠RESOLVE Forensic⁠, ⁠BHP⁠ and ⁠Ray White Commercial⁠.
About Joe Aston:
Joe Aston is one of Australia’s most influential commentators on business, finance and politics.
For 12 years, he struck fear into the hearts of the nation’s political and corporate leaders, transforming The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window into the nation’s premier daily column.
In 2024, he became a best-selling author with the publication of his first book, The Chairman’s Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out.
And in 2025, he launched ⁠Rampart⁠, a premium subscription news publication specialising in Australian business and finance. 
Follow Joe Aston on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, Instagram and ⁠X⁠.
Follow Rampart on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠.

Rampart Talks
Producer: Eliza Harvey
Production/Editing: Mentored Studios
Technical and commercial support: Squiz Media