Category Archives: Business

Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce to front Senate inquiry into blocked Qatar Airways flights

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Transport minister Catherine King revealed in question time on Wednesday that she spoke with Virgin Australia before blocking the request

Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce will be called to front a Senate inquiry over his discussions with the federal government in the lead up to a ruling that blocked competitor airlines from offering more flights.

Other witnesses to be invited to give their side of the story include Joyce’s successor, Vanessa Hudson, along with officials from Qatar Airways, Virgin Australia and regional airline, Rex.

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Manchester United shares in record fall after report of sale U-turn

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Drop on New York stock exchange comes amid claims Glazer family have taken club off market

Manchester United shares have suffered their steepest single-day fall in price after a report claimed the Glazer family was considering a U-turn on plans to sell the club.

Shares in the Premier League club dropped by 18.2% on Tuesday to $19.35 (£15.40), the biggest daily drop since they were listed the New York stock exchange in 2012.

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Petrol prices expected to rise as oil cost climbs above $90 a barrel

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Motorists could be hardest hit after Russia and Saudi Arabia extend cuts to supplies

Motorists are braced for higher pump prices after the cost of oil climbed above $90 a barrel for the first time this year as Russia and Saudi Arabia extended cuts to supplies.

Oil jumped to its highest price since last November, after the two oil-rich nations said they would prolong a plan to withhold supplies from the global market until December.

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The RBA’s interest rate-rising looks done – and a soft landing for the economy could be on

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Australia’s economy might be just where Philip Lowe wants it – barring any nasty surprise – as he hands over to Michele Bullock

As two of Australia’s more contentious figures Philip Lowe and Alan Joyce head towards their gilded departure lounges, the economy seems set in a holding pattern with improving prospects of a desired soft landing.

To be sure, a happy outcome of a jobless rate remaining within cooee of 4%, wages finally catching if not outpacing inflation, and even the federal budget staying in the black a bit longer is far from assured.

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Family of Uber Eats rider who died after being hit by truck urges MPs to pass Labor’s gig worker changes

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Union helps Burak Dogan’s family lodge workers’ compensation claim after company denied them $400,000 death benefit

Yavuz Cikar still seethes at the injustice that followed his nephew Burak Dogan’s death.

Dogan, an Uber Eats rider and 30-year-old Turkish student, was riding an electric bike in Sydney’s inner west in April 2020. About 26 minutes after he cancelled an Uber Eats delivery, he was hit by a truck.

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Global economic fears deepen as service sector dips in China and Europe

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Fresh signs of weakness in Chinese economy and weak UK and eurozone data spook investors

Fears about the health of the global economy have intensified following downbeat news about service sector activity in China, the eurozone and the UK.

Share prices fell in Asia and the pound dropped to a 12-week low against the US dollar after fresh signs of weakness in China triggered speculation that its post-lockdown recovery was running out of steam.

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Pakistan in uproar as protests over soaring energy prices turn violent

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Traders close shops, electricity bills are set alight and utility firm staff are attacked as anger rises over living costs and political strife

Protests against rising electricity and petrol prices have rocked Pakistan over the past week, with thousands taking to city streets and setting their electricity bills alight.

The cost of electricity has doubled in the last three months to about 50 rupees (12p) a kilowatt. Petrol prices have shot up from 262 rupees a litre in June to 305 rupees this month.

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Retailers look on sunny side as holidaymakers splash out

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Sales of health and beauty products help high street stores bounce back after a disappointing start to the summer

Britain’s retailers have received a boost from consumers making themselves beach-ready by increasing their spending on skincare and makeup before their summer holidays, despite the cost of living crisis.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sales of health and beauty products helped drive up spending on the high street as shoppers made the most of brief spells of sunshine in August, although squeezed consumers were holding back elsewhere.

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Wilko: rescue deal to save many stores at risk over supplier debts

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Big suppliers want debts paid upfront in order to guarantee supplying shops

A rescue deal to save the majority of Wilko’s stores has been put at risk as some key suppliers want outstanding debts repaid upfront to guarantee continuing to provide products to the chain.

Doug Putman, who engineered a turnaround of HMV in the UK and owns Toys R Us in Canada, has been negotiating a deal to save as many as 300 of Wilko’s 400 stores, throwing a lifeline to its more than 12,000 staff.

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Australia to roll out new south-east Asia trade strategy to hedge against China

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Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the new economic blueprint during his trip to the Indonesian capital Jakarta

Anthony Albanese will fly to Jakarta this week to launch a major new strategy to deepen Australia’s trade and investment ties with south-east Asia and hedge against top trading partner China.

Despite China recently reopening the door to key Australian exports that it shunned at the height of diplomatic tensions in 2020, the Albanese government wants to diversify economic ties to reduce exposure to further political tumult.

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Australia remains free of lumpy skin disease despite Indonesia blocking cattle imports, officials say

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Indonesia imposes strict testing conditions on cattle from three major export ports after claiming infectious disease detected in eight cattle

The Australian government has denied suggestions that a highly infectious livestock disease has been detected in the country, after the Indonesian government moved to block live exports of cattle from northern Australia.

On Sunday, Indonesian officials notified their Australian counterparts they had detected eight cases of lumpy skin disease in cattle imported from Australia.

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China’s share of Europe’s electric car market accelerates as UK leads sales

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Chinese-owned MG’s MG4 is Britain’s bestselling EV after Tesla’s Model Y in first seven months of year

China’s share of the European electric car market has more than doubled in less than two years as the world’s second largest economy tries to take the lead in the transition away from petrol and diesel cars.

The UK is the largest market in Europe for Chinese electric car brands, accounting for almost a third of sales in 2023 so far, according to data from Schmidt Automotive Research on the 18 largest European car markets. About 5% of all new car sales in the UK were from Chinese brands in the first seven months of 2023, a market share second only to Sweden.

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‘This is psychological warfare’: Starbucks workers allege anti-union firings

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The National Labor Relations Board has reinstated 28 of the more than 200 pro-union workers fired since late 2021

Alicia Flores had worked at Starbucks in Portland, Oregon, for seven years until June, when she received a voicemail from a manager – filling in for her usual boss, who was taking a leave of absence – who informed her she was being fired.

Flores is far from alone.

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Country Garden shares jump after Chinese developer strikes debt deal

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European stocks hit three-week high as China’s government tries to prop up ailing economy

The share price of the ailing Chinese developer Country Garden has jumped by as much as a fifth after its creditors agreed a delay on debt repayments, offering some respite from the country’s crisis-hit property market.

The company agreed over the weekend to extend the payment dates on a 3.9bn yuan (£430m) private bond, to the relief of investors who had thought it would default on payments due on Saturday. Country Garden will instead have three years to repay the debt, after it won a narrow vote with the backing of 56% of its creditors, Reuters reported.

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Uproar in parliament as pharmacists jeer ministers – as it happened

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Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley is told to leave the chamber during chaotic question time. This blog is now closed

Liddle says ‘we don’t have the detail’ on how voice would work

When it is pointed out that what Liddle is describing sounds like the voice, the Liberal senator says:

No, because we don’t have the detail about who is going to be on that voice and how that’s going to work.

When you actually consider that funds for health, housing, jobs and actually come from Canberra and are sent to the states and territories, there is a lot more accountability that [doesn’t just sit] at the commonwealth level, but also in the states and territories and in those very organisations that are actually charged to deliver change, not just putting a grant application and deliver the same same, but deliver the change.

So that’s why I support that proposition much more and I want to make sure that people who are experts in the particular area of focus are actually the right people at the table.

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‘A big shock’: the Israeli startup helping ultra-Orthodox Jews enter world of hi-tech work

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Entrepreneurs want Haredi men, many of whom live in poverty, to have access to the opportunities of Tel Aviv

Entering Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood just a few kilometres away from the gleaming towers that testify to Tel Aviv’s prowess as a global hi-tech hub, feels like stepping into a different world.

Despite the startups and advanced technology initiatives on their doorstep, much of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, population still shuns modern inventions such as television and smartphones, which are viewed as a threat to their way of life.

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Owners of 100,000 properties held by foreign shell companies unknown despite new UK laws

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Loopholes are used to obscure ownership of two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies

More than two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies do not report the identity of their owners, according to analysis that found significant flaws in laws meant to prevent oligarchs from hiding their wealth.

The UK government hurriedly introduced a register of overseas entities in August 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that year, in an attempt to “flush out corrupt elites laundering money through UK property”. However, critics said there were severe flaws in the rules from the start.

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Ex-Nationwide teller in London jailed for part in £130,000 bank fraud

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Nathan Gilbert, of Enfield, changed the account details of customers and fraudulently issued passbooks

A former teller at a London branch of Nationwide has been jailed for more than two years for his part in a £130,000 bank fraud.

Nathan Gilbert, 26, of Enfield, north London, who was said to have abused his position of trust at the bank, pleaded guilty at Southwark crown court to committing fraud and was sentenced earlier this year.

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Australian government to close labour hire loophole to help 67,000 workers being ‘ripped off’ by employers

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Workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, says move will be ‘life changing’ for workers it is intended to protect

The federal government will move to close a loophole allowing employers to undercut workers with cheaper labour hire as part of what it calls a “life-changing” tranche of workplace reforms to be introduced to parliament this week.

Under the proposed laws to be introduced to parliament on Monday, companies with more than 15 workers will be forced to pay labour hire staff the same wages as those engaged under enterprise agreements.

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US clean energy drive fuels shortage of engineers in Australia

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Australia has to make the case it is an attractive place to live with a solid commitment to renewable energy to counter America’s Inflation Reduction Act, experts say

Australia’s rush to build renewable energy fast enough to replace ageing coal-fired power stations is being fettered by the US’s own clean energy push that is luring key talent, particularly engineers, industry officials say.

America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed just over a year ago, will pour at least US$370bn (A$570bn) into clean energy programs. Groups such as the Clean Energy Council warn the program “has the potential to permanently tilt the scales toward the US and hamper our progress in Australia”.

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