Category Archives: Business

ATO assured minister robotax scheme followed best practice – months later, it came to grief

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Correspondence shows tax officials defended program, which aimed to claw back ‘on-hold’ debts, as being in line with watchdog advice

The Australian Taxation Office assured the government that its widely criticised “robotax” scheme adhered to best practice principles months before it suspended a major component of the program and it was publicly reprimanded by the ombudsman.

Internal ATO documents released to Guardian Australia show the tax office responded to a query from the office of the assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, about the scheme’s methods by arguing the agency had taken on previously issued advice designed to improve how it communicated with taxpayers.

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Disneyland Paris conjures up bumper profits despite strikes

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Theme park generates $343.4m in profit for Hollywood giant as it shores up wider business amid weaker box office returns

Disney’s Parisian theme park complex has delivered a welcome boost to the embattled Hollywood giant, generating $343.4m (€317m) in profits and royalties despite a wave of strikes last summer.

Sales at Disneyland Paris – Europe’s most-visited tourist destination – were driven to record levels by higher room rates and the opening of a site built around Marvel’s hit Avengers movies.

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Energy bills: standing charges are not standing still

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Despite a 12.3% cut in April’s energy price cap, there is an important fixed element in your bill that is rising again

“Great news! Your unit rates are going down.” E.ON’s letter to customers starts with glad tidings – but, as it soon admits, there is an element of their bills that is set to go up in most parts of the country.

Despite a headline cut of 12.3% in April’s energy price cap, yet again standing charges are rising. In E.ON’s case, on its Next Flex tariff, electricity charges are due to rise from 62.205p to 67.9041p – an increase of just over 9% – while for gas, charges go up from 29.595p to 31.894p (up almost 8%).

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Huawei shrugs off US sanctions with fastest growth in four years

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Revenue at Chinese telecom rose 10% as net profit more than doubles

Chinese telecoms firm Huawei grew faster in 2023 than it has for four years, as it shrugged off the impact of US sanctions.

Revenues rose by nearly 10% to 704.2bn yuan (£77bn) as the Shenzhen-based company enjoyed a rebound within its consumer segment, which includes smartphone handsets.

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‘Potentially serious impropriety’: Labour questions Johnson’s Venezuela meeting

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Former PM’s meeting with President Maduro, in capacity as hedge fund consultant, is under further scrutiny

Labour is demanding answers over what the party said was “potentially serious impropriety” by Boris Johnson after it emerged that the former prime minister met the Venezuelan president in his role as a consultant for a hedge fund.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said in a letter to Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister and Cabinet Office minister, that there were concerns that Johnson may have breached the ministerial code.

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Fresh crisis for Thames Water as investors pull plug on £500m of funding

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Decision raises concerns about financial future of UK’s biggest water firm and increases prospect of nationalisation

Investors at Thames Water have pulled the plug on £500m of emergency funding, raising concerns about the financial future of the country’s largest water company and increasing the prospect of nationalisation.

The beleaguered utilities company announced this morning that its shareholders had refused to provide the first tranche of £750m funding set to secure its short-term cashflow, after the company had failed to meet certain conditions.

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China scraps tariffs on Australian wine

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Prime minister Anthony Albanese says China’s duties on Australian bottled wine will come to an end from Friday

China has dropped tariffs on Australian wine, a long-awaited decision heralded by the Albanese government as validation of its “calm and consistent approach” with the superpower on a series of controversial trade disputes.

In a statement on Thursday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, foreign minister, Penny Wong, and trade minister, Don Farrell, said they had been informed that from Friday, China’s duties on Australian bottled wine would come to an end. Australia would, in turn, discontinue its legal proceedings in the World Trade Organization, the government said.

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Senator Tammy Tyrrell quits Jacqui Lambie’s party to sit as independent – as it happened

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Local MP says government ‘had to do something’ about ‘weeks of unrest’ in Alice Springs

MP for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, says the government “had to do something” when asked if a youth curfew, imposed for Alice Springs from last night, was necessary.

That’s culminated in some of the riotous behaviours that we’ve seen played out in the streets of Alice Springs, which over a number of weeks, has gotten increasingly worse. The government had to do something.

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Blow for Sunak as revised figures confirm UK did go into recession last year

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Latest estimate from ONS says GDP declined by 0.3% in final quarter of 2023

Official figures have confirmed that the UK economy went into recession at the end of last year, after the latest estimate found it contracted in the last two quarters of 2023.

In a blow to the government’s economic standing, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy, as measured by gross domestic product, shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of the year, unrevised from an earlier estimate.

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Tory donor Frank Hester raised complaint about NHS contract with health secretary

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Exclusive: Man who has now given party at least £10m copied Steve Barclay into email about problems with bid, documents show

The Conservative mega-donor Frank Hester complained to the NHS and the health secretary last year over problems his IT business had bidding for a contract, documents show.

The Leeds businessman, who owns a healthcare tech firm responsible for 60m UK medical records, raised a complaint about procurement in December 2022 with the chair of NHS England, copying in Steve Barclay, the then health secretary, saying he was an “interested party”.

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UK Libor trader Tom Hayes loses appeal against rate-rigging conviction – as it happened

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The former star UBS and Citigroup trader was convicted of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating financial benchmark and served 5 1/2 years in prison

Britain’s financial regulator has identified shortcomings in how some motor insurance firms are valuing written-off or stolen vehicles.

A review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found evidence that suggests some firms are offering their customers less than their written-off or stolen vehicle is worth and, in some cases, are only increasing that offer when a customer complains.

Having your vehicle written off or stolen can be intensely stressful and we expect firms to offer the right support to help their customers.

We expect all motor insurers to take note of our findings and we are engaging directly with those that have issues that need to be addressed.

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DeSantis allies reach settlement over who controls Disney’s governing district

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Tourism oversight board members approve agreement, ending nearly two years of litigation after DeSantis’s takeover

Allies of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and Disney reached a settlement agreement on Wednesday in a lawsuit over who controls Walt Disney World’s governing district.

In a meeting, the members of the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved the settlement agreement, ending almost two years of litigation that was sparked by DeSantis’s takeover of the district from Disney supporters following the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” law.

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Trump’s Truth Social valued at nearly $8bn as it goes public in New York

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Trump Media & Technology trading on Nasdaq under ‘DJT’ ticker, using Trump’s initials and closing up 15% after first day of trading

The firm behind Donald Trump’s Truth Social went public on Tuesday at a price that values the minnow social network at close to $8bn.

Shares in Digital World Acquisition, the shell company with which Trump’s social media business has merged, have been surging since the turn of the year.

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British Gas owner doubles boss’s pay to £8m – despite qualms over previous rise

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Details of Chris O’Shea’s ballooning package emerge in Centrica’s annual report after company reports bumper profits

The boss of the British Gas owner, Centrica, has seen his earnings nearly double to £8.2m, despite having admitted that his smaller pay packet the previous year was “impossible to justify”.

Chris O’Shea earned a basic salary of £903,000, which was topped up by cash and share bonuses worth an extra £7.3m.

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Australia politics live: Toyota boss says fuel efficiency standard ‘not a car tax’ as Labor defends secrecy around bill

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Follow the day’s news live

Renewed push to scrap activity level requirements for childcare subsidies

There was a lot of disappointment last budget when the government did not scrap the activity test as a way of making early child education more accessible and universal.

Zoe Daniel MP, Member for Goldstein

Georgie Dent, the CEO of the Parenthood

Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia

Kate Carnell, the former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and former ACT chief minister

Natalie Walker, the deputy chair of Goodstart Early Learning

Sue Morphett, a businesswoman and the former president of Chief Executive Women

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Labor unveils watered-down fuel efficiency standard that eases emission rules for large SUVs

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Bill to be introduced to parliament this week will incentivise carmakers to import cleaner vehicles

The Albanese government has watered down flagship new laws aimed at disincentivising the use of high-polluting cars and hastening the importation of cleaner vehicles amid pressure from the auto industry.

On Tuesday the transport minister, Catherine King, and the energy minister, Chris Bowen, revealed the details of compromise bill to be introduced to parliament this week, with the changes largely easing rules for popular large SUVs.

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EU investigates Apple, Meta and Google owner Alphabet under new tech law

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Technology groups face hefty fines if they are found guilty of breaching Digital Markets Act

Apple, Google’s parent company and Meta are being investigated by the EU for potential breaches of the bloc’s new laws designed to police anti-competitive behaviour by big technology companies.

The trio face significant fines if they are found guilty of breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of regulation that came into force on 7 March and is aimed at increasing choice for online consumers.

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US-style executive pay packets in UK would ‘risk higher inequality’

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Leading social scientists issue warning after call by business leaders and London Stock Exchange

More than 20 leading social scientists have warned the UK’s biggest investment companies and pension funds that allowing US-style executive pay packages could “create a significant risk of higher inequality” and “much worse lower levels of happiness, health and wellbeing across society”.

The academics said they had decided to speak out as an increasing number of British business leaders and the London Stock Exchange have argued for much higher pay awards to improve the UK’s competitiveness.

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Chinese EV battery maker in talks to invest £1bn in new UK gigafactory

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Plant on outskirts of Coventry could create up to 6,000 jobs and will be part of planned Centre for Electrification

A Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries is in talks to invest more than £1bn to build a giant new factory on the outskirts of Coventry.

EVE Energy, which says it employs 28,000 staff worldwide, is understood to be in talks to construct a 5.7m sq ft gigafactory, which will form one of the main parts of the planned UK Centre for Electrification, an investment zone in the West Midlands.

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Sadiq Khan rules out London Ulez expansion if he wins mayoral election

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In letter to TfL boss, Khan says plans ‘will not include new pay-per-mile road user charging scheme’

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has pledged not to expand the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scheme if he returns to the role after May’s election.

In a letter to London’s transport commissioner, Andy Lord, Khan wrote that he had “categorically” ruled out the introduction of a pay-per-mile scheme as well as any tightening of Ulez emissions standards.

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