Small firms ‘propping up’ cash flow, ATO warns
Small business operators are increasingly using unpaid tax and superannuation liabilities to ‘‘prop up’’ their cash flow, attracting growing scrutiny from the Tax Office, second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn says. The Fin
Divestment an option in rare earths row
Australia could order the major shareholder in rare earths company Northern Minerals to divest its stake, in an escalation of a row over Chinese attempts to maintain a monopoly on the supply of materials essential in defence and other industries. The Fin
Teen forces Billabong to start paying penalty rates
One of Australia’s best-known surf labels has been forced to pay hundreds of its retail staff minimum penalty rates for the first time in eight years after a 19-year-old union member axed its long-expired workplace agreement. The Fin
Defence projects face axe to pay for new weapons
Defence contractors are being warned that a slew of planned military acquisitions will be cut to free up cash for new weapons, as the government admits a key defence review on industry policy has been delayed until next year. The Fin
PM’s case of chronic pain in the middle
Labor is facing an increasingly hostile electorate with 60 per cent of the key 35 to 49-year-old cohort saying they are worse off compared to two years ago, as Anthony Albanese prepares to lean on Jim Chalmers’ mid-year budget up- date and a migration shake-up to win back angry voters. The Aus
CSL had secret plan to cut pay, sack staff
Australia’s third-biggest company, vaccine and blood products supplier CSL, devised a secret plan to shift workers on to lower pay and conditions and make them redundant if they refused to relocate to the biotech giant’s new $800m hi-tech plant in Melbourne, confidential company documents reveal. The Aus
Lab leak lessons not learned: Covid conspirator
The US health official who conspired with Anthony Fauci to downplay suggestions that Covid-19 leaked from a Wuhan laboratory says another pandemic could emerge from high-risk experiments in laboratories globally, saying the lessons from Covid-19 have not been learnt. The Aus
Boys will be decent men
A school-based program that promotes gender equality and targets toxic masculinity will receive a $1.5 million funding boost to allow its expansion into non-government and Catholic campuses. Premier Roger Cook will unveil the cash injection to the program, Respectful Relationships, as part of a new “multimillion-dollar” package designed to stamp out family and domestic violence. The West
OnlyBans! City bows to ad fury
The City of Stirling will ban adult-only related industries from advertising after community outrage over an X-rated billboard for an OnlyFans model led to 70 pages worth of complaints. The West
The Australian Financial Review
Page 15: The billionaire Oatley family has halted a sale of Hamilton Island in Queensland after a review conducted by UBS, ending plans to offload the tourism asset for a mooted $1 billion.
Page 17: New laws to regulate buy now, pay later providers have been delayed due to resourcing pressures on the federal government’s legislative drafting teams.
Page 17: Insurer QBE says inflation still has an impact on the cost of Australian car and home cover, signalling more pressure in the insurance sector on customers or shareholders.
Page 19: Credit Suisse funds claiming $2.8 billion in insurance after the collapse of Lex Greensill’s eponymous financial empire should share some blame because they did not check the validity of the policies, IAG has alleged.
Page 19: The board of home-grown lithium and nickel producer IGO is standing by its decision to appoint Ivan Vella as chief executive after investigating the circumstances that led Rio Tinto to sack him a fortnight ago.
Page 20: A procedural voting issue will force some institutional Origin Energy investors to reconfirm their scheme ballots and potentially reduce voter turnout, strengthening the hand of AustralianSuper and other opponents bent on defeating the $20 billion deal.
Page 20: Online beauty retailer Adore Beauty shares surged 19 per cent yesterday after it knocked back a $122 million takeover proposal from UK-based e-commerce and retail business THG.
Page 20: The private vehicle behind Sportsgirl, Sussan and Suzanne Grae has posted a $20 million slide in profit, new accounts show, with labour costs rising faster than sales at the Naomi Milgrom-backed business.
Page 21: Optus is appealing a court ruling that could lead to the release of a forensic report into last year’s cyberattack, as a Commonwealth review into this month’s phone and internet outage gets under way.
Page 24: Venture capital funding of artificial intelligence is producing outcomes that are so toxic for humanity that one of Australia’s top AI companies, Akin, is planning to skip the process and list on the US stock exchange instead, its founder Lee Yearsley says.
Page 24: Edrolo, an education start-up that banked $40 million from Australia’s biggest venture capital firms and four superannuation funds last year, has laid off ‘‘large swathes’’ of its content staff as AI-generated material disrupts the sector.
Page 25: An expected wave of merger and acquisition activity in Australia’s technology scene is picking up momentum with the closure of two deals in the fintech sector, for a tax software company and an online mortgage broker.
Page 30: A sell-off in commodity stocks led the Australian sharemarket lower yesterday after the value of iron oredeclined on fears Beijing will intervene to curb a rally in prices.
Page 31: Can you end a years-long property crisis without triggering a surge in the commodity that stands to benefit most? That’s the dilemma facing the Chinese government, which is taking the most decisive steps yet to ease the impact of a devastating real estate crunch. Yet, it’s already grappling with the bullish consequences for the price of iron ore – a key source of commodity inflation for the world’s No. 2 economy.
Page 33: Housing affordability could worsen further in the next 12 months, as interest rates stay higher for longer and new supply dwindles, ANZ’s Housing Affordability Report shows.
The Australian
Page 11: Irish author Paul Lynch has won the 2023 Booker Prize for fiction for Prophet Song, a dystopian novel about an Ireland that descends into tyranny.
Page 15: Australian industry superannuation funds, through the global institutional arm IFM Investors, have agreed to invest £10bn ($19.5bn) in Britain over the next four years for large-scale infrastructure and renewable energy.
Page 17: Australia’s competition watchdog has put big technology companies on notice, warning their rapid expansion into smart home devices and cloud storage could harm consumers via “invasive data collection practices” and stifling innovation by crushing smaller rivals.
Page 18: Major Australian companies are well placed to cope with the introduction of mandatory climate change reporting due to begin next year as they already have been complying with global standards, Brambles Industries global head of decarbonisation Marisa Sanchez Urrea says.
Page 19: More women are working in traditionally male-dominated sectors but Australia needs to hire more men for highly “feminised” jobs like nursing, aged care, childcare and teaching to meet future demand for workers.
Page 19: Young entrepreneurs are driving a fresh wave of business start-ups, as new Commonwealth Bank re- search suggests almost two-thirds of small businesses are established by millennials and generation Z.
The West Australian
Page 16: A review of WA’s restrictive wages policy — a hallmark of the six years of the McGowan Government — is in its final stages with any changes expected to be announced by the end of the year.
Page 16: Police officers will no longer have to “prove” they suffered debilitating mental injuries on the job after the State Government committed to expanding its posttraumatic stress disorder presumption so first responders can more easily apply for workers compensation.
Page 60: Gold miner Perseus Mining has taken a leaf out of the Gina Rinehart playbook and amassed a blocking stake in a takeover target — OreCorp — less than two weeks before a deal for the gold explorer goes to a shareholder vote.
Page 60: Liontown Resources’ shareholders have turned their noses up at the lithium hopeful’s fundraising efforts, as its share price continues to dwindle amid the fallout of the failed $6.6 billion takeover offer from US chemicals giant Albemarle.
Page 61: Australia’s peak gas body warns more of the resource needs to be unlocked if the Federal Government wants to bring down energy prices and avoid extending the cost of living crisis.
Page 62: Developer Iris PW has hit out at BGC after replacing it as the builder at Shenton Quarter, in the latest twist in the tit-for-tat fight over the $140 million project.
Page 62: Fortescue Futures Industries South & South-East Asia president Allard Nooy has left the company after less than 18 months, joining the exodus of senior executives from Andrew Forrest’s firm.
Page 62: Regional Express will ramp up fly-in, fly-out services after securing two new contracts, in a move the airline claims will bolster the position of its subsidiary National Jet Express in regional charter flying.
