Category Archives: Business

‘Astonishing’: cost of Inland Rail doubles to $30bn as review savages Coalition over project

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Dr Kerry Schott warns she is not confident her assessment captures the full extent of cost blowouts and delays

The predicted price tag of the Inland Rail megaproject has almost doubled in two years to more than $30bn, as an independent review savages the former Coalition government’s handling of the plan.

In her independent review of the Inland Rail, commissioned by the Albanese government last year and released on Thursday, Dr Kerry Schott also flagged further delivery delays of at least four years.

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Furious Credit Suisse investors say bank’s board should be ‘put behind bars’

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Shareholders lash out during final AGM as boss apologises for crisis that led to takeover of lender by UBS

Furious Credit Suisse investors at its final ever annual meeting blocked executive pay plans and called for board members to be “put behind bars”, as the Swiss lender’s chair said he was “truly sorry” over the bank’s demise.

Shareholders used most of the nearly five-hour annual general meeting in Zurich – the last in the 167-year-old bank’s history – to voice fury over poor management, hitting out at excessive pay for “incompetent and greedy” bankers who they said took too many risks and endangered Switzerland’s economic prosperity.

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UK’s status as cinematic powerhouse at risk, warns Oscar winner David Puttnam

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In speech to Bafta, Chariots of Fire producer says industry must invest ‘far more’ to close yawning skills gap

The Oscar-winning producer David Puttnam has issued a rallying cry to the film industry to address its yawning skills gap and grow audiences before the UK is eclipsed as a cinematic powerhouse.

In a speech to Bafta on Tuesday, Puttnam – the president of the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) and a former peer – urged the industry to “invest far more” in its workforce to retain international competitiveness.

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Australia hits peak ‘return to office’, transport experts say

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In what looks to be the new work-from-home normal, the average Australian worker spends 27% or more of their working hours at home

Transport experts believe post-pandemic work habits have finally stabilised and that the return to the office is unlikely to progress any further.

The average working Australian is spending 27% of their working hours at home, calculated across full and part-time employees.

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Payday lender Cigno’s cash prize lottery raises concerns of consumer groups

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Past incarnations of the company which charged exorbitant fees for small loans were pursued in the courts by Asic

Payday lender Cigno is offering lottery-style cash prizes in a revamped business that is raising concerns from consumer groups it will target vulnerable Australians.

The Gold Coast company, which built its business on offering emergency cash to struggling households, has been pursued in the courts by the corporate regulator over past incarnations that charged exorbitant fees for small loans.

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Calls for energy ‘social tariff’ as UK government support ends

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Low-income household will spend on average £200 more on bills than last year, Which? warns

Some of the UK’s least well-off households could be left more than £200 worse-off on their energy bills this year because of reduced government support, the consumer body Which? has warned.

Joining calls made by other campaigners, it said the government urgently needed to introduce a “social tariff” for gas and electricity to protect the most financially vulnerable.

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Deadline to sell off UK government’s NatWest shares extended to 2025

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Recent banking turmoil fuels decision to delay offloading portions of its remaining 41% stake

A plan to whittle down the government’s stake in NatWest has been extended by another two years, after weeks of banking turmoil that hit the lender’s shares and temporarily fuelled fears over a fresh financial crisis.

UK Government Investments (UKGI), which manages the shares on behalf of the Treasury, said the scheme to strategically sell portions of the British taxpayer’s shareholding – after NatWest’s near-£46bn state bailout in 2008 – would now run until August 2025.

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McDonald’s temporarily shuts US offices ahead of layoffs – report

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Fast-food giant to reportedly notify corporate employees about staffing decisions a part of wider restructuring of company

A report says McDonald’s has closed its US offices for a few days as the company prepares to inform employees about layoffs.

The Wall Street Journal cited an internal email from the fast-food giant – which is headquartered in Chicago – saying that US corporate staff and some employees overseas should work from home while the company notifies people of their job status.

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Revealed: new claims of sexual misconduct and ‘toxic culture’ at CBI

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Exclusive: More than a dozen women raise concerns about different men – with one woman alleging she was raped at staff party

More than a dozen women claim to have been victims of various forms of sexual misconduct by senior figures at the Confederation of British Industry, including one who alleges she was raped at a staff party on a boat on the River Thames.

The women, who all work at the CBI or worked there in recent years, approached the Guardian with fresh concerns about what they describe as a toxic culture at Britain’s most influential business lobbying organisation.

An attempted sexual assault by a manager at the same staff boat party in 2019.

A senior manager sending explicit images to junior female staff over several years.

Other senior managers behaving unprofessionally and inappropriately towards much younger female colleagues: alleged instances include a former board member touching a female employee’s bottom and making what was seen as a sexualised remark to another woman in earshot of several colleagues.

A manager propositioning women after they felt he pushed them to drink more alcohol, while they were already drunk.

Widespread use of cocaine at official CBI events.

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Switzerland’s attorney general to investigate Credit Suisse takeover

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Inquiry to focus on whether emergency state-backed UBS takeover breached criminal law

Switzerland’s federal prosecutor has launched an investigation into whether last month’s state-backed takeover of the stricken bank Credit Suisse by its bigger rival UBS broke Swiss criminal law.

The office of the attorney general said it was looking into potential breaches by government officials, regulators and executives at the two banks who thrashed out an emergency merger over a frantic weekend in mid-March to prevent a wider financial meltdown.

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British cows could be given ‘methane blockers’ to cut climate emissions

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UK’s 9.4m cattle produce 14% of human-related emissions, mostly from belching, but green groups remain sceptical

Cows in the UK could be given “methane blockers” to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas as part of plans to achieve the country’s climate goals.

Farmers welcomed the proposal, which follows a consultation that began in August on how new types of animal feed product can reduce digestive emissions from the animals.

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Pacific trade deal is more useful to Joe Biden than it is to the UK’s economy

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Hailed by Tory MPs as a Brexit benefit, CPTPP membership actually turns the UK into a willing pawn in Washington’s geopolitical game

Tory MPs hailed the UK’s entry last week into the Indo-Pacific trading bloc as a major step on the road to re-establishing Britain as a pioneer of free trade.

It was a coup for Rishi Sunak, said David Jones, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Eurosceptics, who was excited to be aligned with “some of the most dynamic economies in the world”.

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Planning applications in England fall to record low in housing blow

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Experts say developers deterred by changes to planning system brought in by successive Tory governments

Planning applications in England have fallen to their lowest level in at least 16 years, according to figures published this week by the levelling up department that highlight the scale of the country’s housing crisis.

Local authorities received fewer applications to build new buildings or improve old ones in 2022 than at any point since before 2006, the earliest year for which the government provides statistics.

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Canada’s approval of major telecoms takeover condemned as ‘dark day’

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Anti-monopoly consumer groups slam multibillion-takeover of Shaw by Rogers that will create a media and sports behemoth

Canada has approved a major telecoms takeover that would create a media and sports behemoth in an already concentrated media landscape, in a landmark deal that anti-monopoly consumer groups slammed as “a dark day” for competition in Canada.

On Friday the industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said he had approved a multibillion-dollar takeover of Shaw by Rogers.

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Recycling rubble can help rebuild Syria faster, scientists show

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Tests show recycled concrete could safely be used in new buildings in war- and quake-stricken country

Concrete rubble from destroyed buildings in Syria can be safely recycled into new concrete, scientists have shown, which will make the rebuilding of the war-hit country faster, cheaper and greener.

Syria, which was also hit by a huge earthquake in February, has a vast amount of concrete rubble, estimated at 40m tonnes. The key barrier to recycling this waste is ensuring that the new concrete is as strong and safe as conventional concrete.

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Kemi Badenoch casts doubt on growth projections for Asia-Pacific trade deal

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Comments threaten to worsen already tense relationship between senior ministers and civil servants

Kemi Badenoch has cast doubt on her department’s projections for how much the Asia-Pacific trade deal the UK government has signed will help economic growth.

The government announced overnight it had joined the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), which includes Australia and Japan, after two years of negotiations.

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AMP shareholders vote against executive pay packets over concerns bonuses too high

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Shareholders at Sydney AGM say remuneration excessive for a financial institution that has dramatically shrunk in recent years

AMP shareholders have voted against executive pay packets at the troubled financial institution over concerns bonuses are too high for a company delivering lacklustre performance and a weak share price.

AMP has lost about three-quarters of its market value in the five years since the banking royal commission disclosed numerous poor practices at the company, including its willingness to charge insurance premiums to dead customers.

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Laura Tingle becomes ABC staff-elected director – as it happened

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The 7.30 political correspondent will sit on the broadcaster’s board alongside chair Ita Buttrose. This blog is now closed

Report of new gas tax for Australia

The Australian Financial Review is this morning reporting that a new gas tax looms as the government tries to raise revenue to begin budget repair.

Major companies such as Woodside Energy, Santos and Shell and their tax advisers have signed confidentiality agreements with Treasury on the PRRT consultation.

Since Treasury resumed the stalled work for Labor late last year, it has cast the net wider to probe other PRRT areas, such as deductions, in an attempt to raise revenue sooner for the government from the profits-based tax.

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Abusive working conditions endemic in Spain’s strawberry farms, report claims

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UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacks

Abusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.

During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva.

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Major Australian home builder Porter Davis collapses leaving customers in the lurch

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Another construction firm specialising in government projects has gone into voluntary administration

One of Australia’s largest home builders Porter Davis has collapsed and construction firm Lloyd Group has gone into voluntary administration in a hit to the sector.

Grant Thornton Partners confirmed it had been appointed liquidators of the Porter Davis Homes Group, covering 14 companies.

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