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Bonuses, overtime drive 19pc gender pay gap

The median pay gap at businesses with 100-plus employees has been revealed for the first time and professional services and banks recorded some of the worst disparities.

Wall Street.

ASX to slip, Wall St mixed, Coles set to report results

Australian shares to edge lower. Iron ore tumbles 4pc. Rally stalls in New York as inflation data awaited. Apple extends slump. Bitcoin tops $US53,600.

Investment banking boys’ club gender pay gaps near 50pc

The biggest gender pay gaps in Australian workplaces are not found on construction sites or down mines but behind trading screens in state-of-the-art office towers.

Family of accused in alleged $180m tax fraud boasts $40m in property

The alleged “controlling mind” of what could be the country’s biggest tax fraud splashed cash on a luxury four-bedroom penthouse boasting Sydney harbour views.

CSR’s patient rebuild leads to a French revolution

Julie Coates restructured the company’s operations and rebuilt its supply chain. The lift in margins those moves created helped seal a big takeover deal. 

Superloop rejects Aussie Broadband’s $466m takeover bid

Superloop investors have backed the broadband internet group’s decision to turn down a $466 million approach from rival upstart telco Aussie Broadband.

Break point: Australia’s venture capital scene is facing a ‘cleansing’

Even the Australian Open is lending its a name to a venture capital fund as start-up industry figures fear the sector will not be able to support so many funds.

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TUESDAY TECH

Why this new Samsung phone can help you be your best self

Samsung’s latest Galaxy S Ultra maintains its position as the most useful phone you can buy. So what if sometimes it gives you more than you bargained for?

Paul Stovell: We should stop putting other countries on a pedestal.

Brisbane tech star Octopus Deploy makes first major buyout in US

The company has acquired Californian software company Codefresh for $42.6 million.

Blackbird co-founders Niki Scevak and Rick Baker have plenty of investors’ money still to deploy.

Blackbird tours US hunting for Aussie deals abroad

Blackbird Ventures investment partners have picked up their search for the next Aussie-founded tech unicorns abroad, as bigger local deals dry up.

‘Make peace’: How Microsoft remade its ruthless corporate image

Can Microsoft, on many days the most valuable company in the world, and with a history of squeezing competitors, truly claim to be more evolved than most?

The cyber lessons Australia still has not learnt

Big data breaches have highlighted cyber vulnerabilities to Australians, but there are two crucial points that are getting lost in the public post-incident brouhaha.

GENDER PAY GAP

Corrs lags top law firms on gender pay gap

Firms with a higher proportion of women partners tended to have a smaller median pay gap among staff, new data from WGEA shows.

How pay compares at the country’s most prominent companies.

Full list: the gender pay gaps at Australia’s top 250 companies

The Australian Financial Review has dug through calculations of pay disparity at more than 5000 companies to zero in on the ASX200 and the largest private firms.

Oil, gas giants claim highest pay gaps in resources industry

More men working offshore and at remote mines in roles that attract away-from-home allowances and higher pay, fuel the mining industry’s highest pay gaps.

When we talk about the gender pay gap, this is what we mean

The Workplace Gender and Equality Agency released individual employers’ gender pay gaps for the first time on Tuesday. Here’s how to understand the numbers.

IPO hopeful Rokt has largest gender pay gap of tech unicorns

Male-dominated software engineering and sales teams have worsened the pay divide across the local technology sector.

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Get the latest business news on the go with the AFR’s new iOS app.

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Companies

Alcoa’s Matt Reed.

Alcoa in $3.3b bid for Australian partner Alumina

The deal would bring a global portfolio of bauxite mines, alumina refineries and aluminium smelters under one roof.

Andrew Forrest slammed uncosted proposals for nuclear energy.

‘Betraying the bush’: Andrew Forrest lashes green energy go-slow

The billionaire appears to sense momentum around climate policy is being eroded by the cost-of-living crisis and some good old-fashioned wedge politics. 

CSR CEO Julie Coates

French group Saint-Gobain wins over CSR board in $4.3b takeover

The CSR board is backing the $9 per share offer from the French group, which said it would explore options for CSR’s 25 per cent stake in the Tomago aluminium smelter.

Westpac, which bought RAMS during the GFC, has appointed Morgan Stanley to sell the franchisee network.

Westpac to sell RAMS Home Loans, 16 years after saving it from GFC

Morgan Stanley has been appointed to sell what was once an iconic mortgage brand, but is now a small network of around 40 Westpac franchisees.

Dan Murphy’s owner Endeavour off to slower start in second half

Trading at its bottle shops in January softened, pinning hopes on a February turnaround and an outsized performance from Endeavour’s pubs.

McGuigan owner Australian Vintage considers merger with Accolade

The ASX-listed group told investors it was in “exploratory discussions” with the Bain-controlled owner of the Hardys, Banrock Station and Petaluma brands.

TPG Telecom annual profits shrink despite surge in mobile customers

TPG Telecom boss Iñaki Berroeta says consumers are still willing to pay for mobile phone services despite rising prices.

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Markets

Adding to the optimism around bitcoin was another large purchase of the tokens by MicroStrategy.

Bitcoin tops $US53,000 to reach more than two-year high

Investors have poured more than $7.6 billion into nine exchange-traded funds that began trading last month.

Amazon’s entry into the Dow, Walgreens’ exit and Walmart’s stock split will cause a ripple effect on the weighting of the Dow stocks.

Amazon joins 29 other ‘blue chip’ companies in the Dow Jones

S&P Dow Jones Indices opened the door to Amazon’s inclusion in the Dow and Walgreens’ exit in light of a 3-for-1 stock split by Walmart.

In its survey, the NABE said 41 per cent of respondents cited high rates as the most significant risk to the economy. That was more than double any other response.

US economy set to expand faster than previously expected

The US economy looks set to expand 2.2 per cent this year after adjusting for inflation, according to the National Association for Business Economics.

Four ASX stocks up at least 50pc in the past three months

These ASX-listed companies have ridden months-long relief rallies to near-record highs, and some analysts think they may still have further to run.

Hedge funds sell Magnificent Seven in ‘frothy’ markets

Investors trimmed their positions in the US megacap stocks heading into the new year, while insiders have also been lowering their stakes.

Opinion

Gender pay gap calls for proper explanation to maximise opportunity

While business is not entirely to blame, there is clearly room for innovative thinking about how corporates can tackle the cultural barriers to women working different jobs at different times in different places for more pay.

The AFR View

Editorial

The AFR View

Reality check for critical minerals, and for Canberra

Australia’s critical minerals ambitions have hit the ground as prices collapse. As nickel and lithium miners head to Canberra seeking help, the Albanese government is trying to figure out what, if anything, it should do.

Keating’s strategic illusion dies hard

The former prime minister’s timid isolationism, leaving others to do the heavy lifting, has its roots deep in Labor’s history.

Gender pay transparency without action is diagnosis without treatment

The gender pay gap is built on complex social and economic bedrock. The time has come for a clear, strategic plan detailing how businesses intend to end the disparity.

Dorothy Hisgrove

Dorothy Hisgrove is KPMG's national managing partner – people and inclusion

Dorothy Hisgrove

As budget bonanza flows, fiscal caution is the first casualty

The rivers of resources gold coming into the government’s coffers are turning into most expensive marginal seat strategy in the nation’s history.

The political failure of Bidenomics

Joe Biden has delivered in spades for ordinary American workers. But it is not enough to get past the gulf that separates them from educated Democrat elites.

David Brooks

Contributor

David Brooks

Reports

Thriving in the AI era

This series looks at how businesses can not just survive the AI era but grasp the opportunity of it and thrive.

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Politics

The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian in 2020 after she was called to give evidence at the anti-corruption inquiry into former MP Daryl Maguire

Berejiklian’s relationship with MP ‘not a conflict of interest’

Lawyers representing former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian argue she never acted out of a desire to advance her relationship as she appeals an ICAC corruption finding.

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest during his National Press Club address on Monday.

Coalition selling false hope with nuclear power ‘bulldust’: Forrest

The Fortescue chief says advocating nuclear power is a ploy by the fossil fuel industry to delay for decades the required shift to clean energy.

Anthony Albanese in parliament on Monday.

Libs aim high in Dunkley but will settle for a swing

A swing of between 3 per cent and 4 per cent at this weekend’s byelection could put the Liberals within striking distance come the next election.

Silos, sugarcoating and second guesses: Insiders on Defence’s problems

Defence officials are inclined to put a positive spin on issues at odds with reality, according to defence insiders.

Smaller minimum wage rise needed to fight inflation: business

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is preparing to argue for a smaller increase in the minimum wage than it was prepared to accept last year.

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World

A Qatari LNG tanker loading up at Raslaffans Sea Port in northern Qatar.

Qatar bets big on LNG despite global price collapse

Doha is betting demand for liquefied natural gas will continue to grow in coming years as it embarks on a new multibillion-dollar project to expand exports.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a gathering of Jewish leaders at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Netanyahu defiant amid Ramadan attacks warning

Amid signs of progress toward a pause in the fighting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces planned to keep pushing into Gaza.

Japan’s new entrepreneurs could save its economy

Today, talented young adults are more willing to risk leaving a big company, and good firms are more willing to make mid-career hires.

Zelensky says 31,000 troops killed as counteroffensive looms

The tally that President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed differs sharply from that given by US officials, who have said the number is closer to 70,000.

Four ways the Ukraine war could end

The situation on the front is desperate and has prompted soul-searching among Ukrainians – and their Western allies – about how, if at all, the war can be brought to a close.

Property

IFM Investors chair Cath Bowtell.

Super funds housing investment ‘not a subsidy’, IFM says

“When we invest in Australian companies that create jobs for Australians, no one says ’What are you doing investing in job-creating companies?” giant fund manager says.

The deceased estate home with shed on a site comprising three separate titles at 7 Churchill Street in the Ipswich,] Queensland suburb of Churchill sold at auction for $1,050,000.

First home buyers don’t get a look-in as investors swoop

Rate-sensitive aspiring home owners hoped to buy one of three lots put up for sale by one vendor, but they didn’t even get to bid.

Andrew Schwartz, co-founder of Qualitas.

Australia needs $115b to fund new housing, Qualitas says

The pick-up in private funding puts pressure on the federal government to clarify rules around inclusion of affordable rental housing in new developments.

Office values plunge as CBD market bottoms

Major CBD office towers are selling at 20 per cent discounts to their peak value, the best evidence yet that the correction in Australia’s office market is nearing the bottom.

House prices rebound in global turning point

Across the 37 industrialised OECD countries, nominal house prices grew 2.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2023.

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Wealth

Over 2023 there were a number of private credit funds that returned well above 10 per cent, even as high as 12 per cent.

Why private credit is redefining fixed income

There’s a lot to like about investing in private credit but beware the shonks.

Sisters take on extended family to win $13.5m inheritance dispute

A sharp rise in blended families is creating complex legal issues, particularly for inheritance claims.

‘Paradigm shift’: How to switch to spending in retirement

After decades spent saving, lean into the fear, plan obsessively and let go of the guilt, experts say.

Technology

Atlassian co-CEOs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have agreed to pay the ATO an extra $US60.5 million.

Atlassian paid $284m tax before ATO deal

Over the past six years Atlassian’s Australian entity paid $283.8 million of tax locally before reaching an agreement to pay more tax.

Blackbird co-founders Niki Scevak and Rick Baker have plenty of investors’ money still to deploy.

Blackbird tours US hunting for Aussie deals abroad

Blackbird Ventures investment partners have picked up their search for the next Aussie-founded tech unicorns abroad, as bigger local deals dry up.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

‘Make peace’: How Microsoft remade its ruthless corporate image

Can Microsoft, on many days the most valuable company in the world, and with a history of squeezing competitors, truly claim to be more evolved than most?

Work & Careers

Strategy firms: McKinsey’s Wesley Walden, BCG’s Grant McCabe and Bain’s Peter Stumbles.

Diversity advocates McKinsey, BCG, Bain land pay gaps over 30pc

Strategy firms that advise clients to increase the diversity of their workforces and leadership teams have gender pay gaps that are up to double the national gap.

Unis that would pay the most – and the least – under ‘envy tax’ plan

Just six of the country’s 41 universities would bankroll half of the annual contributions to the higher education future fund proposed in the Albanese government’s universities accord.

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Life & Luxury

Church in Oia, on the northwestern tip of Santorini.

New player in market set to spark fare wars to Europe

Turkish Airlines will start flying direct into Melbourne (via Singapore) two weeks sooner than previously announced - igniting consumer hopes of better prices.

Flexibility delivered to workers able to do work from home has allowed a father to take daytime walks and collect his daughter from school, which he was unable to do before the pandemic.

The least amount of exercise you can get away with

What’s the solution if you don’t have time for exercise or find it boring?

Pelayo Diaz wears white shirt, beige striped tie, camel coat, black trousers, black shoes, black Hermes bag, outside Hermes, during the Menswear Fall/Winter 2024/2025 as part of  Paris Fashion Week

Why are men still expected to wear ties?

Once considered a necessity, ties are being cast off in favour of a more casual workplace. But can you really get away with ditching them?

Andrew Caillard MW: ‘The Australian wine industry was magnificent once upon a time, you know? I’ve always felt that.’

Wine history comes alive in this definitive magnum opus

For this author, Australia’s wine history is personal – so he wrote a lavishly illustrated, three-volume work on it that’s just come out in paperback.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing prepares to sit in the car prior to F1 Testing at Bahrain International Circuit on February 20, 2024 in Bahrain.

Who’s who on the grid for this year’s F1 season

The 2024 Formula 1 season will be the busiest ever. Here’s our guide to the teams and drivers – and their chances of success.

From the gallery