PM to end money for lockdown after 80pc vaccination rate is reached
The Morrison government will pressure the states and territories to stick with the national plan to reopen the economy by turning off emergency financial supports.
Hundreds of documents connected to $660m car park program kept secret
The Infrastructure Department is keeping secret hundreds of documents and emails about the controversial $660 million commuter car park fund.
Young most at risk from regulatory lending curbs
Future first time home buyers could be unduly penalised as regulators consider ways to curb rising household indebtedness. Economists say there is a better way.
- Live
- Need to Know
WA faces virus threat from Russian jet and Singapore cargo ship
Officials say the state is dealing with Victorians who allegedly used fake documents to enter WA, a Russian military plane with an infected passenger and a ship with 11 positive tests. Follow updates here.
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Google will fight ACCC ad attack
The competition regulator estimates more than 90 per cent of ad impressions traded via the ad tech supply chain passed through at least one Google service in 2020, writes Tony Boyd.
Investors hit the hardest by property debt crackdown
Tightening debt-to-income mortgage rules to cool the property market would mainly hit investors, but some first home buyers in Sydney and Melbourne could be caught.
- Exclusive
- Coronavirus pandemic
‘Over the edge’: Australia Post pauses Melbourne parcels
Retailers are reeling after Australia Post told business customers it was pausing parcel pickups, collections and business lodgements in Melbourne for five days.
How to negotiate the new world of work. Expert advice in your inbox every Thursday.
AFR Magazine Power Issue
Australia’s top five deal makers in 2021
In a year when big contracts are flying around like confetti, winners and losers are quickly determined and some old names return to the Power list.
Australia’s top five technology leaders in 2021
A number of big deals in the past 12 months reflect the success of a wave of companies in Australia’s maturing tech sector, as Aussie tech leaders become significant global players.
- Exclusive
- Power List
Mathias Cormann at home in Paris after a whirlwind ride
Following a gruelling campaign, Australia’s former finance minister is now in charge of the OECD as it pushes towards a new world order for taxing big tech.
Australia’s most powerful consultants in 2021
The AFR Magazine’s hotly anticipated annual Power issue includes lists of the key players across six different industry sectors. Here are this year’s most powerful people in consulting.
How ATAGI lost its anonymity and political innocence
Medicine and politics collided this year. For the first time, the two men running ATAGI’s response to COVID-19 talk about what happened.
SMART INVESTOR
- Opinion
- Sharemarket
How to invest with ETFs
A low-cost, diversified core portfolio with only a few exciting satellite ETFs is the best way to build your wealth without taking on too much risk.
- Opinion
- RBA
Boost returns without going up the risk curve
Sourcing unlisted assets, some with inflation-linked revenues, will be key to preserving portfolio returns.
Worried about mortgage stress? Here’s what to do
Understand how much of your income should be going towards your home loan without pushing you over the edge?
- Opinion
- SMSFs
What to put in your ‘when I’m dead’ folder
This seven-point checklist will help your loved ones make good decisions when you’re no longer here.
- Opinion
- Cryptocurrencies
Regulators crack down on cryptocurrency
It’s the turn of crypto investors to worry about authorities landing the hammer blow on their investment returns.
Companies
Toll Group tells truckies to avoid tolls
Toll has been urging drivers to avoid using toll roads due to their soaring cost, unions have told a parliamentary inquiry as transport groups call for toll fares to be regulated.
Airports emit four coal power plants’ worth of carbon
Major Australian airports coughed up enough CO2 emissions to match four coal-fired power plants in 2019, a new global analysis shows.
Extend tougher housing rules to non-banks, say major lenders
A power APRA received after the last round of macroprudential intervention in 2017 has come into focus as banks warn of unintended consequences of blunt limits.
Record thermal coal price adds to global energy crunch
Already reeling from soaring gas and oil prices, buyers of Australian thermal coal are now paying record prices and signs suggest the rally has further to run.
‘There was always a gap’: Forum staffer quizzed boss on financing
A former junior accountant told the court he was not surprised to learn of an alleged fraud within the Forum Group.
Watchdog wants new powers to rein in Google
Google uses its online dominance to shield its ad services from competition and is hurting Australian businesses and consumers, the ACCC says.
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Breville into third decade of value creation
Solomon Lew says he doesn’t invest in what he doesn’t know, and he’s a big reason for Breville’s success, as it takes its coffee machines to Europe.
Companies in the News
Search companies
View stories and data from an ASX listed company
Markets
Young most at risk from regulatory lending curbs
Future first time home buyers could be unduly penalised as regulators consider ways to curb rising household indebtedness. Economists say there is a better way.
Crypto investors urge super funds: ‘get onboard’
A survey by trading platform Swyftx in July found 67 per cent of cryptocurrency owners want their super funds to add exposure to the volatile digital asset class.
Travel stocks defy surging fuel price
Travel stocks have soared to their highest since the pandemic began, with investors more confident that international borders could be open before the year is out.
Energy soars and tapering drums beat, punishing shares
The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 1.47 per cent to 7275.6. Beach Energy rallied 10 per cent to $1.36 as the energy sector surged.
Lithium-sulphur battery player triples on debut
Li-S Energy shares rocketed higher on Tuesday as the battle for lithium-ion battery alternatives heats up.
Opinion
Nationals stab Liberals in the front on climate
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie is deliberately undermining the Liberals’ claim its policies can deliver both emissions reductions and regional jobs.
Columnist
NSW and Victoria lead Australia to COVID-normal
The two most populous states will progressively lead the nation out of the pandemic and lockdown nightmare as vaccination rates break through the 70 and 80 per cent levels.
Editorial
Attacking the symptoms of cheap mortgage money
Josh Frydenberg’s flagged resort to limiting how much homebuyers can borrow is just a sign that the Reserve Bank’s 0.25 per cent cash rate is too low.
Editorial
Labor’s alternative plan for Australia
Just as Paul Keating said, here is how a change of government at the next election will change the country.
Contributor
Mental health crisis overblown as liberty is lost in lockdowns
Say you are pyschologically ill and governments will listen. Protest about inalienable rights, and you will be called an extremist.
Contributor
America needs boring elections like Germany’s
For historical reasons, the Germans want leaders who will govern them competently. Americans, by contrast, want to be entertained by politicians.
Contributor
Politics
Victoria looking at outbreak peak of around 2000 cases
Victoria’s outbreak has overtaken NSW, with authorities indicating cases and hospitalisations are in line with the Burnet Institute projections for a peak of 2000
- Exclusive
- Coronavirus pandemic
‘Over the edge’: Australia Post pauses Melbourne parcels
Retailers are reeling after Australia Post told business customers it was pausing parcel pickups, collections and business lodgements in Melbourne for five days.
‘Most difficult stage’: Coles chief issues warning
Coles chief executive Steven Cain has joined calls for changes to close and casual contact restrictions for staff who are fully vaccinated.
How living safely with the virus is sliced into ‘Swiss cheese’
An Australian approach to improving air safety is at the heart of a strategy for Australia and the world to live safely with low levels of COVID-19.
Investors hit the hardest by property debt crackdown
Tightening debt-to-income mortgage rules to cool the property market would mainly hit investors, but some first home buyers in Sydney and Melbourne could be caught.
SPONSORED
World
US debt limit showdown intensifies as Republicans block extension
Senate Republicans blocked a bill late on Monday to suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022 and keep the government operating past September 30.
Germany’s Laschet under pressure to abandon bid to govern
Conservative leader Armin Laschet’s vow to push ahead with coalition talks after losing Sunday’s election appears to have backfired.
Hong Kong asks banks to report exposure to Evergrande
It’s at least the second time in recent months the authority has taken an interest in how banks are exposed to Evergrande.
China’s power cuts may foreshadow shortages of global goods
The disruption to China’s manufacturing reflects the ruling Communist Party’s struggle to balance economic growth with efforts to rein in emissions.
Regional Fed chiefs step down after securities trading controversy
Robert Kaplan of Dallas and Boston’s Eric Rosengren say they will end their tenure.
Property
Architects lay down challenge for carbon-neutral building
The industry body for architecture wants construction to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 and is drafting new rules for the industry.
Property investors pay high prices for ‘boring’ commercial assets
Boring is the new black for property investors, with sustained competitive interest in long-lease assets sending some yields below 4 per cent.
New Zealand seeks to cool scorching housing market with new law
Billions of dollars in government stimulus, historically low interest rates and New Zealand’s relative success with COVID-19 have inflated house prices, pushing them far ahead of wage growth.
Syndicator nails Bunnings outlet on record yield
Smaller retail assets with secure income streams have proven attractive to investors looking to pandemic-proof their portfolios. Backed by their blue-chip tenant, Bunnings outlets are particularly popular.
Lending curb threat to spur housing rush
The increasing likelihood of a macro-prudential brake on lending may trigger a fresh surge in house price growth to beat the restrictions.
Wealth
Rich lister SMSFs exempted from retirement rules
The Morrison government has quietly exempted self-managed funds from the new obligations designed in response to a growing body of evidence showing retirees are dying with most of their wealth intact.
- Opinion
- RBA
Boost returns without going up the risk curve
Sourcing unlisted assets, some with inflation-linked revenues, will be key to preserving portfolio returns.
- Opinion
- Sharemarket
How to invest with ETFs
A low-cost, diversified core portfolio with only a few exciting satellite ETFs is the best way to build your wealth without taking on too much risk.
Technology
- Exclusive
- Funding
Software that solves workplace whinges raises $14.5m
Kiwi-founded Joyous is killing the staff survey, raising capital as organisations take up its software, which enables conversations between employees and management.
- Exclusive
- Science
Marine scientist and M&A lawyer team up to replace plastic with seaweed
An expat Brazilian oceanographer and a former BHP executive and M&A lawyer have raised capital for an ambitious deep tech firm developing a plastic replacement out of seaweed.
- Analysis
- Cryptocurrencies
Why some NFTs are valuable and others aren’t
The world has officially gone nuts for NFTs, with some worth a motza and others ignored ... so what’s the difference?
Work & Careers
- Exclusive
- Workplace
PwC investigates HR executives after ‘racist’ trivia event
PwC has launched an investigation after one executive mocked Chinese accents and another dressed up as “a bat from Wuhan” at a firm trivia event.
Complexity of ATO legal privilege rules could discourage their use: EY
The draft policy targets the big four consultancies over their clients’ use of privilege and could cause further delays in the ATO’s investigations.
Life & Luxury
Streaming platforms take work overseas amid tax change plan
Arts Minister Paul Fletcher says changes to a tax offset are part of a wider package designed to boost TV and film productions in Australia.
Woollahra’s grandest home quietly sells for record $45m
The Sydney mansion built by a merchant banker sets a new benchmark for houses with no view, doubling the suburb high set last month by Kerri-Anne Kennerley.
Rolling Stones rock on with Watts tribute
The ‘No Filter’ tour, which initially kicked off in 2017 and was delayed in 2020 because of the pandemic, resumed in front of 40,000 fans at The Dome at America’s Centre.
How ATAGI lost its anonymity and political innocence
Medicine and politics collided this year. For the first time, the two men running ATAGI’s response to COVID-19 talk about what happened for the AFR Magazine’s Power issue.
Women follow the lead of Kamala Harris and suit up
Much has been said about the death of formal attire for males – but for females, dressing like you mean business is going strong.
