Category Archives: Business

Tesla accuses Australian car lobby group of making ‘false claims’ about Labor’s vehicle emissions plan

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Exclusive: Electric car company says Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is running a ‘concerted public campaign’ by suggesting plan would push up price of popular cars

Tesla has launched a scathing attack on Australia’s main auto industry lobby group, accusing it of attempting to delay climate action by repeatedly making “plainly false” claims to the public about an Albanese government clean car policy.

In a submission to the government about the design of a vehicle efficiency standard, Tesla sharply criticised the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), an organisation in which it holds a board seat and is an active member.

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Australia news live: Higgins and Reynolds in defamation mediation talks; first apparent lithium battery-related fire deaths in NSW

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Zoe Daniel says Asean has not done enough on crisis in Myanmar

The independent MP for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, was just on ABC RN to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. She argued that Asean hasn’t done enough on the issue, and needs to do more.

There’s also I think, a desire within Asean for economic cooperation and to try to take that route with the junta as a form of leverage … My concern though is that, I think, that we might be heading down the path of a form of normalisation with the junta and you’ve currently got a situation where about 30% of the country is in stable control of rebel ethnic groups, and the junta is really only holding the major cities.

Any form of normalisation with the junta that is pushed by Asean, and I think will be raised with the Australian government for support this week, could backfire because it could in effect allow the junta to enter some of those areas that are reasonably stable and are actually managing themselves.

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Mortgage reforms have excluded first-time buyers, say UK building societies

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Report calls for overhaul of rules on loan affordability and repayment, and more flexible mortgage products

Mortgage reforms introduced after the 2008 banking crisis have “tilted too far” in support of financial stability to the point that first-time buyers are being excluded from the housing market, building societies have warned.

A report commissioned by the Building Societies Association has called for an overhaul of affordability and repayment rules, which they say have contributed to a steady decline in first-time buyer mortgages since the mid-2000s.

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EU fines Apple €1.8bn over App Store restrictions on music streaming

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Penalty for breaching competition law is four times higher than forecast as Brussels looks to send message to tech firms

Apple has been fined €1.8bn (£1.5bn) by the EU after an investigation found it had limited competition from music streaming services such as Spotify.

The fine is nearly four times higher than expected as the European Commission attempts to show it will act decisively on tech companies who abuse their dominant position in the market for online services.

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Chinese tourism to Australia still in the doldrums after pandemic travel bans

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Tourism industry disappointed but hopeful Chinese holidaymakers could return by year’s end – but economists predict a longer wait

In the two weeks either side of lunar new year, Mandy Ho, who manages a hot air balloon company in Melbourne, has many balls in the air.

Most mornings before dawn, when weather permits, her colleagues fly Chinese tourists from the vineyards of the Yarra Valley over Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to parkland on the city’s fringe. Interpreters make sure nothing is lost in translation.

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‘Nearly a billion dollars’: BoM chief indicates cost of IT overhaul to staff after refusing to disclose to senators

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Exclusive: January 2023 video shows Andrew Johnson detailing Robust project’s initial and ongoing costs, despite telling senators such details were bound by cabinet secrecy

The CEO and director of the Bureau of Meteorology, Andrew Johnson, revealed to staff the cost of its delayed IT overhaul – one of Australia’s most expensive ever – despite repeatedly telling senators such details must be kept under wraps for cabinet secrecy reasons.

Johnson declined senators’ requests in October to disclose the cost of the bureau’s computer upgrade, labelled Robust. He again rejected such calls during Senate estimates on Tuesday, telling the South Australian Greens senator Barbara Pocock: “I wish I could tell you, but as a cabinet decision … I’m not at liberty to disclose those to you.”

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‘Profiteering off children’: care firms in England accused of squeezing cash from councils

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A local authority leader claims private equity groups are exploiting vulnerable youngsters in care homes in the pursuit of profit

Care companies are insisting on unnecessary and expensive support packages for vulnerable children to boost their profits, a council leader has claimed.

Barry Lewis, the Tory leader of Derbyshire county council, said that former family-run businesses acquired by private equity groups were trying to get “as much cash as possible” out of local authorities.

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Battle to save pristine prehistoric rock art from vast new quarry in Norway

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Archaeologists fear more than 2,000 carved figures in Vingen could be destroyed when digging begins

One of the largest and most significant sites of rock art in northern Europe is under “catastrophic” threat.

The Vingen carvings, in Vestland county, Norway, are spectacular, and include images of human skeletons and abstract and geometric designs. Even the hammer stones, the tools used by the ancient artists to create their compositions, have survived.

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Rail fares to rise by 4.9% in England and Wales on Sunday

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In London, Tube and bus fares are being frozen and prices reduced during rush hour and on Fridays

Rail fares in England and Wales will rise by 4.9% on Sunday, adding hundreds of pounds to annual travel costs for many commuters.

Campaigners said passengers would be “rightly angry” at the latest increase, above the current inflation rate of 4%, despite the government arguing that it had made a significant intervention to keep the fare rise down.

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Sunak hints at further national insurance cuts in spring budget

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Government wants to make life easier for working people, he says at Scottish Tory conference

Rishi Sunak has issued a strong hint that there could be further cuts in national insurance rates in next week’s budget.

The prime minister told reporters gathered at the Scottish Tory conference in Aberdeen on Friday that he wanted to make life easier for working people across the UK, particularly at a time when the Scottish National party government was raising income taxes from April for anyone in Scotland earning above £28,850.

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UK a ‘tax haven’ for polluting SUVs, says green thinktank

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First-year vehicle excise duty is a fraction of that in countries such as France and the Netherlands

Low taxation on petrol SUVs in the UK compared with much of Europe is inviting a glut of large, polluting luxury cars, according to an analysis by a green thinktank.

The tax paid when buying a new petrol or diesel SUV in the UK is only a fraction of the levies in neighbouring countries, including France and the Netherlands, and lower than many others in Europe, making it a “tax haven” for the bigger, less environmentally friendly vehicles, the report from Transport & Environment (T&E) found.

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Boeing agrees to pay $51m over export violations in China and other countries

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Company accused of violations including Chinese employees improperly downloading files relating to Pentagon programs

Boeing said on Thursday it had reached a $51m settlement with the US state department for numerous export violations including Chinese employees in China improperly downloading documents related to US Pentagon programs.

The state department said from 2013 through 2017 three Chinese employees at Boeing facilities in China downloaded technical data involving programs including the F-18, F-15 and F-22 fighter jets, the E-3 airborne warning and control system, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the AGM84E cruise missile.

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Food trade bodies consider legal action over post-Brexit ‘not for EU’ labelling

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Producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation

Food industry trade bodies are discussing whether to take legal action against the government over post-Brexit plans that will require all meat and dairy products sold in the UK to be labelled as “not for EU”.

Food producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation, and they are discussing a legal challenge as a viable option if a solution with the government is not found.

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Clare Lombardelli named deputy governor of Bank of England

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Ex-Treasury official and adviser to David Cameron will replace Ben Broadbent, making MPC majority female for first time

The Bank of England’s interest-rate-setting committee is set to become majority female for the first time, after the appointment of a former key adviser to David Cameron and George Osborne as one of its deputy governors.

Clare Lombardelli, the chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will sit on the nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC) when she joins as the Bank’s next deputy governor for monetary policy.

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Oprah Winfrey announces she is stepping down from WeightWatchers

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Talkshow host says she will donate all her shares ‘to eliminate any perceived conflict around her taking weight-loss medications’

Oprah Winfrey announced she was leaving WeightWatchers on Thursday and giving away all her stock – a move that follows the TV talk queen revealing that her recent dramatic weight loss was due to taking new weight-loss drugs.

A statement from Winfrey issued by the company said that the talkshow host, a public face for WeightWatchers since 2015, would donate all her shares in the company to the National Museum of African American History and Culture “to eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around her taking weight-loss medications”.

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MPs open inquiry into success of UK Treasury sanctions on Russia

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Treasury committee to consider case for targeting buyers of Russian oil and gas as Moscow weathers penalties

The Treasury committee on Thursday opened an investigation looking at the effectiveness of the UK’s economic sanctions on Russia, including whether the measures need to be widened to cover the buyers of Russian oil and gas.

The MPs will take evidence on the work of the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of the Treasury, which implements and enforces the sanctions in the UK, including on implementation within the insurance and shipping sectors.

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Questions raised about whether GPs will be ready for influx of people seeking vaping prescriptions

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Doctors admit helping patients quit vaping is a ‘new experience’ ahead of a near-total ban coming into force on 1 July

GPs are preparing for a rush of patients seeking prescriptions for vapes or help to give up smoking, with a peak doctor’s lobby admitting it is a “new experience” for some medical experts ahead of new government vaping crackdowns and a near-total ban on electronic cigarettes from July.

The health minister, Mark Butler, says there is a need to “upskill” some GPs to help Australians off vapes. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says doctors are well-equipped to handle the looming changes, which will outlaw vapes without a prescription, but the head of the Australian Medical Association says it may be a difficult task.

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Australian workers’ productivity drops 3.7% as employment surges and investment slows

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Wage growth from higher employment and hours worked without output gains could fan inflation, Productivity Commission warns

A surge in employment combined with scant investment by firms to improve output triggered a sharp drop in worker productivity, limiting prospects for income growth without fanning inflation, the Productivity Commission said in its annual report.

Across the economy, productivity fell 3.7% in 2022-23, as output growth failed to keep pace with a record 6.9% increase in hours worked, the commission said. A rush by employers to hire new staff was much higher than in previous bursts – the nearest comparison was the 4.3% rise in hours worked in 1988-89.

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Australia politics live: Victorian premier cancels iftar dinner after Muslim peak bodies boycott; jump in renewable energy investment

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Jacinta Allan confirms dinner, which has been held since 2015, will not go ahead. Follow the day’s news live

Hockey says Asio boss should name accused politician in interests of transparency

Joe Hockey said it was “not standard practice”, as Hockey is now apparently an expert in how Asio and like-minded security agencies operate.

You know, they’ve launched investigations over here. I mean, you know, you had you had the Mueller inquiry into President Trump. You had an FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton. You don’t just make this allegations, leave them unnamed and say, ‘Oh, yeah. They’re back in the community. They’re fine’, that just does not happen.

I mean, allegations have been made against Senator Menendez here as a sitting senator. They named the sitting senator.

Talking about a traitor amongst the ranks. He shouldn’t do that. If he’s not going to name that person. It’s absurd. It’s absolutely absurd.

It’s inconceivable here in the United States or the United Kingdom, or most other countries, that the head of the intelligence agency would go out and make that statement without telling everyone who it was.

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Boeing: DoJ begins investigation as FAA gives 90-day deadline for safety plan

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US justice department scrutinizing whether door blowout violated 2021 agreement with Boeing after two fatal plane crashes

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is giving Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to fix quality problems and meet safety standards for building new planes, as the justice department reportedly reviews whether a mid-flight plane door panel blowout in January violated a previous settlement agreement between the company and the US government.

The FAA said on Wednesday that the directive follows meetings with top Boeing officials, including the company’s chief executive at FAA headquarters in Washington.

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