- Opinion
- Chanticleer
The Senate cage match that saw Woolies CEO threatened with jail
Brad Banducci and Greens senator Nick McKim played a brutal game of verbal tennis over Woolworths’ profitability.
- Live
- Markets Live
ASX down 2pc, major banks deepen losses
Shares drop; Woolworths CEO threatened with jail at hearing; Macmahon buys Decmil; Imugene sells US facility; Suncorp, Vicinity seek funds; $A slumps. Follow updates here.
Plibersek launches EPA but delays overhaul of environment act
The federal government has announced the establishment of an Environmental Protection Authority, but responded to political pressure and delayed the overhaul of the EPBC Act.
China GDP grows faster than expected on fresh stimulus
The government is drawing on infrastructure work - a well-used playbook - to help lift the economy as consumers are wary of spending and businesses lack confidence to expand.
12 big players dominate fruit and vegetable supplies
Watch Live: 12 suppliers make up half of the total value of all fruit and vegetables sold in Woolies; Coles paid its staff $5 billion in wages last year; Woolworths boss threatened with jail. Follow updates here.
- Updated
- Terror charges
Shock stabbing at Sydney church a ‘terror’ attack
Spy agency head Mike Burgess said ‘lone wolf’ attacks remain Australia’s biggest threat after NSW Police labelled a Sydney church stabbing a terror attack.
Lakemba Mosque heightens security after firebomb threats
The mosque’s Imam said he was worried last night’s stabbing was being treated “as a Muslim problem”; The 16-year-old arrested after a bishop was stabbed in Sydney church was known to police. Follow updates here.
An insightful look at the week’s biggest tech stories, deals and trends delivered free to your inbox every Tuesday.
lehrmann verdict
Judge finds Lehrmann raped Higgins, but no Morrison cover-up
Justice Michael Lee has found that Bruce Lehrmann raped his former colleague in 2019, but says the talk of a political cover-up was “short on facts”.
- Analysis
- Lehrmann trial
The stupidity of Bruce Lehrmann
The ex-political adviser turned victory into defeat in the quest for money. He will now be known as the rapist who put himself on trial, and lost, writes Aaron Patrick.
The omnishambles built on rape and ‘short-on-facts’ theory
Never before in Australia’s history has one allegation sparked such an extensive, expensive and, oftentimes, downright bizarre series of courtroom battles. Ronald Mizen reports.
What judge in Lehrmann trial said about consent
The judgment sheds light on modern understandings of consent – or, as Justice Lee said, what “the ordinary person on the Belconnen omnibus” views as rape.
- Analysis
- Lehrmann trial
How Lehrmann’s many lies added up to rape
In this contest of credibility between Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins, the judge decided it was no contest, writes Michael Pelly.
tuesday tech
- Exclusive
- Start-ups
‘We’re not lemmings’: What happens when Blackbird drops a start-up
The fund is seen as the purest expression in Australia of the venture capital playbook of doubling down on best bets. What happens to the rest?
AI to create 150,000 jobs, claim the academics who study it
A new economic analysis by a consortium of top Australian professors has found AI should add 150,000 jobs to the economy by 2030 and boost GDP by $200b a year.
- Opinion
- Digital Life
A router that will (eventually) make your home Wi-Fi fly
Can you save money and improve download speeds, both at the same time? With WiFi 7, we think you can.
- Exclusive
- Venture capital
Made in Australia ‘over-due’ as Sydney VC forms $US150m fund in Singapore
Sydney-based VC fund Investible has secured Indonesia’s biggest bank as an investor, its CEO says Australia has ground to make up on regional peers.
- Exclusive
- Consulting
Consulting giant builds $300m Aussie cyber group with acquisitions
Following a string of acquisitions, Fujitsu has created a 300-strong team of cyber professionals to take on IBM, Accenture and CyberCX in Australia and New Zealand.
Get the latest business news on the go with the AFR’s new iOS app.
Companies
Woolworths CEO clashes with Greens during inquiry
Brad Banducci has rejected Senator Nick McKim’s claims that the supermarket giant is pushing suppliers to the wall and punishing households with price gouging.
Goyder pleads for support for Woodside’s climate plan
The vote on Woodside’s climate action plan goes to the heart of its credibility as a legacy fossil fuel company committed to transition to net zero emissions.
Rio and BHP’s massive US copper mine faces religious freedom challenge
Resolution Copper would be the largest development of its kind. Native American groups opposed to it have found new financiers for legal action against it.
- Updated
- Casinos
Star plotted to oust regulator, failed to check high-risk clients
Star Entertainment’s chairman and former chief executive privately schemed to wage war on the casino regulator and considered engaging shareholders in a class action against a NSW government-appointed manager.
Sydney petrol hits record as traders brace for Israel retaliation
Petrol prices have steadily climbed with a higher oil price as analysts warn Brent could hit $US100 a barrel from the escalating tension in the Middle East.
Blackstone move signals end of Aussie bid for UK gigafactory
The US private equity giant’s reported move on the site of a failed battery maker looks like curtains for entrepreneur David Collard’s $16 million takeover.
- Analysis
- Governance
The slow death of Magnis Energy shows plenty wrong with the ASX
Over many years, the EV play has shown nothing but contempt for shareholders, most of them small investors. In its inaction, so too has the market operator.
Companies in the News
Search companies
View stories and data from an ASX listed company
Markets
$A hits five-month low as hopes of rate cut fade
The local currency fell to the lowest since November after surprisingly strong US retail sales data tempered investor bets of the US embarking on early rate cuts.
Big investors avoid ‘too hard basket’ Fortescue – and miss major rally
The Andrew Forrest-chaired group is one of the ASX’s best performers, but remains the least loved among brokers and the top Australian equities fund managers.
RBA might be forced to cut rates before US Fed
Experts say the Reserve Bank is still on track to cut rates this year but sticky US inflation might force the powerful Federal Reserve to delay until at least Christmas.
What happened overnight? A shock jump in US spending weakened the case for rate cuts
Much stronger than expected retail sales in the US diminished the likelihood of interest rate cuts. The threat of Israeli retaliation boosted gold to a near-record.
- Analysis
- Investment banking
Deutsche Bank’s Aussie problem solver on markets’ ‘pinch me’ moment
The German lender’s chief financial officer cannot quite believe how the world’s largest economies have weathered multiple shocks.
Opinion
Why bond markets are worried about a 1967-style ‘soft landing’
It’s rare for central banks to be able to pull off a “soft landing”, and even rarer for them to do so when official rates are below nominal economic growth.
Columnist
Iran’s light show illuminates the real enemy of Mid East peace
Some Arab nations recognise that Iran is the biggest threat to peace in the Middle East. That is a reality which many in the West are blind too.
Editorial
Labor’s making merger law fit for a modern economy
The government’s reforms will make Australia’s approval system faster, stronger, simpler, more targeted and more transparent.
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury
Iran’s attack opens up a new world of risk
Iran’s drone and missile strike against Israel didn’t do much damage, but the potential response is unsettling the White House as well as global markets.
Columnist
Once more to the brink in the Middle East
As the tinder in the Middle East smoulders once more, much will depend on whether Netanyahu lights another match or follows Washington’s calls for restraint.
International editor
Forget Made in Australia: we should do the things we already do well
We can’t be sure what the industries of the future will be, so it’s more prudent to compete in fields where Australia already has a good reputation.
Economist
Politics
- Exclusive
- Industrial relations
Workers could get rights to double their holidays
Unions and employers are close to agreement on introducing a right for workers to take twice their annual leave on half pay.
- Exclusive
- Federal budget
PM’s Made in Australia plan a risk to taxpayers: former RBA boss
Bernie Fraser, the only person to serve as both RBA governor and Treasury secretary, has warned governments have a poor record of picking winners.
- Opinion
- Foreign relations
Iran’s attack opens up a new world of risk
Iran’s drone and missile strike against Israel didn’t do much damage, but the potential response is unsettling the White House as well as global markets.
- Exclusive
- Federal election
No majority support for four-year federal terms: poll
More voters believe four-year terms will deliver better government, but they also like being able to change governments more often.
Lehrmann, BRS defeats will make public figures think twice before suing
A series of significant defamation defeats, coupled with recent law reform, will see the number of high-profile cases continue to fall, academics and practitioners say.
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World
- Updated
- Courts
Trump’s criminal trial begins, but impartial jurors prove hard to find
The initial pool of prospective jurors dwindled rapidly. More than half of the first group of 96 were dismissed after indicating they could not be impartial.
Israel says it will respond to Iran strike as world urges restraint
Facing pressure from all sides, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly looking for non-lethal options to retaliate against Tehran’s weekend missile fusillade.
He’s blinded in one eye, but Salman Rushdie’s vision is undiminished
The author’s brush with death came more than 30 years after Iran’s ayatollah issued a fatwa calling for his killing over the ‘The Satanic Verses’.
Tesla to slash more than 14,000 jobs
Slowing demand for electric cars has led Elon Musk’s company to announce it will sack 10 per cent of its workforce globally.
Iran’s attack increases pressure on US Congress over aid
Speaker Mike Johnson has sat for two months on a $US95 billion supplemental package that would send support to US allies, and provide aid for civilians in Ukraine and Gaza.
Property
- Exclusive
- Hotels
Gold Coast chicken farmers spend $45m on Brisbane hotel
The Singh family has bought the 179-room former Pacific Hotel in Spring Hill and converted it to a Mercure hotel to be operated by Accor.
Warehouse construction to surge again, but no oversupply fears
Warehouse completions fell by almost 1 million square metres last year, but the stabilisation of debt and construction costs will fuel a strong rebound.
Welcome to Sydney, where a garage can set you back $500,000
The buyer of this neighbourhood space doesn’t have an electric vehicle. But enough people already do to make it an asset worth having.
America’s most expensive housing market births an unexpected rebel
A Fox News host and adviser to ex-British prime minister David Cameron is on a mission to tame the costs that make home ownership akin to a luxury good.
- Exclusive
- Commercial real estate
Japan investment in Australian real estate hits $2b record
Japanese investors are tapping Australia’s population growth through commercial property.
Wealth
Nine of the best games to play to supercharge your investing
What if you could learn everything you need to know about investing by playing a few board games? Here are nine that will give you a head start.
- Opinion
- Investing
Where to shop for opportunities in the retail sector
Consumer spending may start to turn around from mid-year, throwing up opportunities in retail companies.
Super fund sued over customers’ unpaid penalties in ‘unique’ case
The claim that ESSSuper left customers more than $40 million out of pocket could prove a test case on how rigorously the $3.6 trillion industry is held accountable for meeting its trustee duties.
Technology
Apple exec’s secret to success: don’t take notes
In his first day of cross-examination, Apple Fellow Phil Schiller lays out its casual but obviously effective approach to decision-making.
- Opinion
- Digital Life
A router that will (eventually) make your home Wi-Fi fly
Can you save money and improve download speeds, both at the same time? With WiFi 7, we think you can.
- Exclusive
- Consulting
Consulting giant builds $300m Aussie cyber group with acquisitions
Following a string of acquisitions, Fujitsu has created a 300-strong team of cyber professionals to take on IBM, Accenture and CyberCX in Australia and New Zealand.
Work & Careers
- Opinion
- Big four consultants
Consulting clients look elsewhere as trust in big four plummets
Smaller firms have an opportunity to build trust with clients and take work off the previously dominant big four, whose reputation is in tatters.
Male mentors drove Mostyn’s career, but she influenced them too
The next governor-general is best known as an advocate for professional women. She also had influential male mentors.
Life & Luxury
Everything you need to know about using ‘anti-ageing’ retinol
The vitamin A derivative that’s so clever it treats acne and the signs of old age has its share of critics as well as devout followers, including Nicole Kidman.
Tasting Australia’s $795 debut train trip an instant sell-out
“I’ve come up with a menu that will work in a galley,” chef Asma Khan says of the coming journey. Here’s a taste of this and other events at next month’s culinary extravaganza.
Does everything still look better in black and white?
Kobo’s first foray into colour e-book readers would be perfect if it wasn’t for one, small flaw.
Over 50 and lonely? Here are six ways to fix that
Loneliness isn’t always apparent from the outside. It’s an invisible cloak that eats away at your wellbeing without anyone knowing. That can make it deadly.
Middle-aged? Male? Heed the 2pc rule
Throw out your T-shirts and remember to befriend your barber. Oh, and sharpen up your image a little bit more every year past the age of 45.
