PM unveils ‘new deal’ as path to virus freedom
Australians are being enticed with an end to the uncertainty of snap lockdowns and border closures by early 2022 after national cabinet agreed to a plan to grant greater freedoms once a critical mass of the population was vaccinated.
Vaccine rollout gains pace but lockdown threat to remain
Epidemiologists have welcomed a four-phase plan to end COVID-19 restrictions in Australia, but say patience is still required
- Live
- Need to Know
New health alert for Sunshine Coast, Perth to exit lockdown
WA records one new case but high testing rates have given confidence to officials to reopen, restrictions remain for three days; PM and national cabinet agree on a four-step path to get back to normal. Follow updates here.
Suicide attack shocks Hong Kong as it marks security crackdown
A year after China introduced draconian national security laws, tensions in Hong Kong continue to simmer beneath the surface.
‘Next few days critical’: Sydney on a knife-edge
Sydney’s lockdown is likely to be extended if the city can’t get a lid on the COVID-19 infections that are still being found out in the community.
- Exclusive
- Hayne fallout
Still paying big bonuses, CBA fails Sedgwick test
Commonwealth Bank has been outed as the institution paying large bonuses to staff in defiance of a 2017 recommendation to cap them at 50 per cent.
- Analysis
- Nuix investigation
The numbers that spelt trouble for Nuix IPO
Insider trading allegations made sensational headlines this week. But for investors who have seen their Nuix shares crash, it’s the second ASIC investigation into the Nuix prospectus and accounts, that is the main game.
AFR Weekend: The big stories, best reads and expert advice. In your inbox on Saturday.
Weekend Reads
China’s communists and a century of revolution
As the Chinese Communist Party turns 100, its leaders are still struggling to find the balance between growth and stability, repression and reform.
Ghislaine Maxwell steps out of the shadows
A new documentary sheds light on Maxwell’s rise to infamy and suggests her defence may be that she was as much under Jeffrey Epstein’s control as the girls he abused.
- Opinion
- Australia's China challenge
Whitlam’s trip to China started as an adventure and ended with a coup
When Gough Whitlam decided to go on his ground-breaking trip to Beijing 50 years ago, he tracked down Stephen FitzGerald in a Canberra pub to ask him along.
How Torres Strait islander Chris Tamwoy invented a new guitar style
The Badu-born performer’s unique ‘tap’ variation came in part from observing the waves roll in near his island home.
- Analysis
- Coronavirus pandemic
Australia’s great debt gamble
The scale of Australia’s post-pandemic debt challenge looms large in the next 40 years but there’s little appetite for major reforms from vote-chasing governments.
Companies
Wesfarmers and rivals charge down the road with lithium
Australia’s emerging lithium hydroxide producers are looking at ways to repurpose the huge volumes of waste left behind while making the key battery material.
Seven Group tells Boral to suspend share buyback
Boral has denied it is in a blackout period ahead of its full-year results, after suitor Seven Group said it should not buy back shares after the end of the financial year.
Billionaire heiress wins legal battle with her brother
The WA Supreme Court has rejected claims by Julian Wright was duped out billions of dollars by his siblings.
Westpac to pay $87m for corporate action notice failures
Westpac says users of its platforms weren’t told of 328,000 corporate actions over 15 years, missing out on ten of millions of dollars of risk-free gains.
Big dividends flow from payday lending-backed venture
ASIC and consumer groups have taken aim at payday loan arranger Cigno in Parliament, but does it generate much cash?
AMA reveals CFO resignation, after word leaks to market
The resignation marks the latest departure after the former chief executive warned of a management exodus.
Gorgon partners to invest another $6b in gas supply
The partners in the $US72 billion Gorgon LNG project have committed to invest another $6 billion in equipment to maintain gas flows to the onshore plant on Barrow Island.
Companies in the News
Commonwealth Bank
AGL Energy
National Australia Bank
Telstra Corporation
Westpac Banking Corporation
Updated: Jul 2, 2021 – 4.10pm. Data is 20 mins delayed.
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Markets
ASX finishes week on a high with 0.6pc gain
Australian shares climber slightly higher this week, supported by a solid session on Friday when the local sharemarket added 43 points.
- Live
- Markets Live
ASX gains; Westpac exposed to $200m ‘potential fraud’
S&P/ASX 200 gains after Thursday fall; iron ore price up overnight; QBE defends pandemic cover allegations.
ASIC warns about social media-driven ‘pump and dump’ scams
The corporate regulator has warned the new generation of Millennial and Generation Z investors that it has detected a spike in scams targetting them.
Tamboran sinks in ASX debut
Northern Territory shale gas explorer Tamboran Resources has got off to a subdued start to life on the ASX, with the shares sliding from their issue price in the difficult market for fossil fuel producers.
Buy, hold, sell: Afterpay, Treasury Wine, IDP Education, Appen
Growth stocks are back in vogue, and interest rates are down even though inflation is around.
Opinion
Open borders are the next big regime change
The RBA’s policy will have to traverse the complex and deflationary transition from closed to open borders over the next year, writes Christopher Joye.
Columnist
Morrison must restore order over disunity and hysteria
Australians will have been shocked by the week’s ill-discipline, and Scott Morrison needs to restore order when the national cabinet meets again on Friday.
Editorial
Freed from quarantine, PM enters the zombie apocalypse
Amid Barnaby Joyce’s rising from the grave and the state premiers’ takeover of the country, Scott Morrison’s return is like one of those movies in which the coma victim awakes.
Political editor
China’s communists guard their future from the past
As they celebrate their party’s centenary, China’s leaders remain obsessed with the fate of the Soviet Union and its political reforms. They study history to avoid a repeat.
Contributor
No signs of softening in Xi’s strident anniversary speech
Xi Jinping has made it clear that China is in no mood to tolerate Western criticism or relax its position on Taiwan.
China correspondent
Delta farce: the political blame game is now deafening
Warring premiers have taken control of pandemic politics, with the national cabinet only able to agree on a lowest common denominator response.
Columnist
Politics
Ad expert urges government to dial up fear around delta in ad campaign
The Morrison government has spent less than $10,000 on COVID-19 vaccine ads online in the past four months as the man behind the 1987 AIDs ‘Grim Reaper’ ad calls for them to work harder to convince Aussies to get the jab.
COVID-19 becomes a further drain on chronic nurse shortage
Australia has about 17,000 nurse graduates each year but it’s not enough to meet demand in a system that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
- Analysis
- Coronavirus pandemic
Australia’s great debt gamble
The scale of Australia’s post-pandemic debt challenge looms large in the next 40 years but there’s little appetite for major reforms from vote-chasing governments.
Australia signs on for $3b gain in global tax floor
The country has joined a new, global agreement for a 15 per cent minimum corporate levy as well as a redistribution of certain taxation rights among countries.
PM may bow to states on overseas arrivals
Friday’s meeting of national cabinet could cut arrivals into Australia’s locked down economy by as much as 80 per cent.
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World
China’s nuclear arsenal build-up ‘concerning’
Reports say China has begun constructing more than 100 new missile silos in a desert area in the western part of the country.
Labour leader Starmer lives to fight another day after byelection win
Keir Starmer was facing a potential leadership challenge if a second Labour stronghold had fallen to Boris Johnson’s Tories.
The new weapons in the war against COVID-19
Global virus treatments are evolving beyond vaccines as countries discover there are more ways than one to deal with the pandemic.
- Analysis
- Coronavirus pandemic
What can rain on Biden’s independence parade?
This year’s 4th of July celebrations are set to usher in a new kind of independence - freedom from the COVID-19 virus. But is the country too quick to celebrate?
Rumsfeld: a cunning leader who oversaw a ruinous Iraq war
For all former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s achievements, it was the setbacks in Iraq that will likely etch the most vivid features of his legacy.
Property
Zagame family’s $25m mansion finds a buyer
A sale at the bottom of the guide for the contemporary five-bedroom home would top the residential property price record for the Melbourne suburb of Brighton.
Growth trumps virus concerns for property industry confidence
The property industry is calling for a guide on entry into and exit from lockdowns and speeding up purpose-built quarantine sites to allow safe immigration of students and high-value workers.
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
More questions than answers in Lendlease downgrade
After delivering Lendlease’s second consecutive profit downgrade, new CEO Tony Lombardo left the market hanging on his restructure of the group.
Sydney house prices surge 15pc in fiscal 2021
All capitals ended the financial year with double-digit price growth except for Melbourne and Perth, which gained 7.7 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively.
Charter Hall, Abacus start FY22 with $666 million in deals
Charter Hall and Abacus have hit the ground running this financial year announcing a series of key deals worth a combined $666 million.
Wealth
New YourSuper website reveals best and worst funds
Industry experts have likened the prospect of being labelled an underperformer by YourSuper as a “death sentence” for affected funds.
- Opinion
- Rich families
I was taught from a young age to protect my dynastic wealth
A common ideology underlies the practices of many ultra-wealthy people. The government can’t be trusted with money. Far better to keep as much as possible for themselves.
How super co-contribution can continue after 67
The work test will apply but you can continue to make contributions until you’re 71.
Technology
Web source code NFT sells for $7.2m at Sotheby’s auction
Sotheby’s on Wednesday auctioned off the code, created by Tim Berners-Lee, in the form of a non-fungible token, or NFT, for $US5.4 million ($7.21 million) with fees.
- Opinion
- Competition
The law can’t keep up with Facebook and its Big Tech friends
Politicians and regulators of all ideologies now condemn the reach of Big Tech. Yet it remains nascent enough that age-old legal doctrines can prove useless to contain it.
Elon Musk’s Starlink to deliver internet nearly worldwide within weeks
SpaceX aims to offer broadband to as much as 5 per cent of the world’s population where conventional fibre and wireless networks can’t reach.
Work & Careers
Just one in 10 ASX 200 chairmen is a woman
Women accounted for 33.6 per cent of ASX 200 company directors at the end of May, up from 30.9 per cent a year ago.
Australia gets a new university and three university colleges
The higher education regulator is trying to promote diversity in the tertiary education system, with the National Institute of Dramatic Art promoted as one of three new university colleges.
Life & Luxury
How Adam Liaw went from lawyer to top TV chef
His on-screen persona may be sunny and warm, but there’s a darker side to the celebrity cook that’s winning him Gen Z fans.
There’s still life yet in this popular genre of painting
While the experts might look down on such paintings, a new book on still lifes reinforces the continuing popularity of the form.
How a Torres Strait islander invented a new guitar style
The Badu-born performer’s unique ‘tap’ variation came in part from observing the waves roll in near his island home.
Elvis Presley: The Searcher and agent for social change
In his 42 years, Elvis proved to be a revolutionary agent for social change, breaking down colour barriers and unleashing a raw sexual appeal while staying the polite southerner.
Imagining Australia and the world with Diana still alive
This week marked the Princess of Wales’ 60th birthday. What would she be doing now, if her life hadn’t been cut short in that car crash of 1997?
