16 hours ago.
Updated 15 hours ago
The Australian Business Network
It’s been a busy two months for Joseph Daoud since we last checked in with the Sydney-based mortgage broker.
In early July, Margin Call broke the news that Daoud, the founder of mortgage broker It’s Simple Finance, had won the charity auction for a game of tennis at The Lodge with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Daoud dished out $16,500 for the honour.
Back then we thought it looked like a grudge match for the ages – and the stakes have only grown.
Since then, the housing market has tanked, Daoud has been Question Time fodder for the PM, and he has been embraced by Opposition leader Angus Taylor and his shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson.
Oh, and Daoud has joined the Liberal Party. Jim Chalmers’ career-defining budget was the impetus, the small business owner told us.
“I honestly never considered it before,” Daoud told Margin Call.
Negotiations over the springtime showdown at The Lodge continued this week, with Daoud bristling that the PM’s team had backtracked on what he says was an earlier agreement to bring his EA along, in addition to three other people.
It seems a cheeky request to us. The auction description for the “not-to-be-missed opportunity” said the prize was for “hospitality and generous refreshments assured for 4 people” (not four people plus staff).
And anyway, why the need for the EA?
“Someone could call me,” Daoud told us. “I’m a small-business owner.”
We gather the PMO is of the view that four means four. Daoud says the other three along will be people unhappy with this year’s budget: a single-mum from southwest Sydney, a policeman from Queensland and a financial planner who specialises in self-managed super funds.
Back in July when Daoud made his winning bid, the former personal trainer was nursing a nasty injury.
“I had torn a few ligaments in my ankle,” he told us.
Helpfully, the PM did not call the game early so Daoud has had time to heal up.
“It’s feeling fantastic,” he told us.
Our 63-year-old PM, a veteran of the Marrickville circuit, is known as a formidable tennis player. Many remember him as one-half of the 1979 winning duo in the under-17 doubles title at the Marrickville & District Hardcourt Tennis Association.
In preparation Daoud, 35, has been training furiously on courts near his house in Menai in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire (in Labor MP David Moncrieff’s electorate).
Daoud told Margin Call he has been working with a tennis coach three times a week and has “ramped it up” further as the game approaches.
The PM fancies his ability to get along with people. While we doubt the pair are going to bond over Australian housing policy, the two clearly share some common ground.
“I’ve got a smile on my face just thinking about tennis training tonight,” Daoud told us. “I might join a tennis club after all this is done.“
Read related topics:Anthony Albanese
Will GlasgowSenior journalist and Margin Call columnist