Palm Beach: where power players go for Summer. When Sydney’s power elites want to escape the stress of city life over summer, Palm Beach, the real-life Summer Bay, is the place they flock to. And who can blame them? Palmy, as it’s known, ticks all the boxes: lush greenery, golden sand, water bluer than all imagining, a median house price of $2.85 million.

Thanks to the sky-high property prices – and the fact it’s a 1.5 hour bus ride from the CBD – there’s no chance it’ll go the way of Bondi and be over-run by the great unwashed. Jonathan Chancellor, editor of The Power Index’s sister site Property Observer, estimates 80% of the insular peninsula’s properties are holiday homes. — Matthew Knott (read the full story here)

Harry Triguboff: my buildings aren’t ugly. Influential Harbour city builder Harry Triguboff has a message: stop saying his apartment blocks are ugly. The billionaire developer is sick of people describing his edifices as gauche, telling The Power Index the structures built by his company Meriton are of “high architectural quality”.

In a facsimile received by The Power Index’s Melbourne HQ, “High Rise Harry” took umbrage with comments directed at his developments by a former NSW premier saying they are “insulting and damaging” to the Meriton brand name. In a recent profile of Triguboff, named our seventh most powerful Sydneysider, one former NSW premier described his developments to The Power Index as “pretty awful stuff”. — The Power Index (read the full story here)

Power Play #5: stop needing to always be right. Truly powerful people don’’t put a lot of stock in always being right. They put much more stock in being interesting and original.

Powerful types also know that fresh is the currency of business today. Don’’t misunderstand. Powerful types do seem to have a knack for being right when it counts but they figured out early on in their careers that right doesn’t get you noticed or promoted. It’’s expected. — Rose Herceg (read the full story here)