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Enter the panda: China ramps up the soft power
Li Qiang”s visit is the first to Australia by a senior Chinese leader in seven years. On the surface, there will be emphasis on co-operation and mutual respect, but underneath tensions and suspicions remain.
Chalmers seeks to boost small banks with mortgage review
Labor has launched a review into the future of struggling small lenders ahead of the Treasurer’s long-awaited decision on ANZ’s $4.9 billion bid to buy Suncorp’s banking arm.
ACCC overplaying Chemist Warehouse’s supply risks: Barrenjoey
The broker has told clients that the competition regulator has ignored independent wholesaler CH2 when warning the deal will mean less drug supply competition.
Westpac to follow CBA by dumping Hayne-era bonus caps for bankers
Westpac chief executive Peter King said he was “considering our approach to ensure we remain competitive and keep the best bankers”.
Major offshore wind farm zone for NSW south coast
The federal government has approved an offshore wind zone along the Illawarra coast with a reduction following community concerns.
Putin demands land concessions from Ukraine
The Russian president said Ukraine must recognise four regions and Crimea as Russian territory and Kyiv’s neutral status needs to be cemented.
- Exclusive
- CFMEU
Setka’s AFL threats force watchdog to launch investigation
The Fair Work Ombudsman is investigating John Setka’s bid to pressure the AFL to sack its new umpires head after Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke flagged potential breaches of industrial action laws.
Australia’s most influential corporate column unpacks the most important stories in business, markets and politics.
weekend reads
- Analysis
- Political leadership
Why compulsory voting keeps Australia in the centre
It doesn’t stop parties on both sides testing the limits, but the middle ground is where elections are won and lost.
China’s broken housing market and a generation ‘lying flat’
While wallets were open at last weekend’s national Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese consumers are still not spending enough to get the economy out of its housing hole.
Enter the panda: China ramps up the soft power
Li Qiang”s visit is the first to Australia by a senior Chinese leader in seven years. On the surface, there will be emphasis on co-operation and mutual respect, but underneath tensions and suspicions remain.
Macron has poured on the petrol. Someone will get burnt
The President hopes to prove that votes for the right in Europe were just voters venting steam. If he’s wrong, the consequences will be felt far beyond France.
Emma McKeon on training for Paris: ‘Your head makes or breaks you’
Australia’s most decorated Olympian is getting ready for her final Games. But first she swaps her swimsuit for couture.
smart investor
Eight ways to squeeze more into super – which ones are you using?
A couple employing just four of these methods could boost their retirement savings by almost $5 million.
- Opinion
- Inflation
Profligate public spending amplifies inflation crisis
Financial markets might spit the dummy and unilaterally impose a much higher long-term cost of capital on everyone.
Eight ways high earners can maximise their tax returns
The key message this tax time is to bring deductions forward and push income back.
The four biggest mistakes downsizers make, according to this expert
Many people overestimate how much they will have left over after downsizing, but smaller doesn’t necessarily mean cheaper.
The average retiree has 7800 days to fill. Here’s how to find your passion
Researchers at Macquarie University have identified the “big five” activities that mentally healthy people do every day.
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Companies
- Exclusive
- Private equity
Private equity giant Blackstone enlists former AFL boss Gill McLachlan
The businessman stepped down as chief executive of the AFL at the end of last year. He’s been linked to a range of roles across sport and wagering.
Fortescue’s British Formula 1 car designer loses CEO
The Williams Advanced Engineering boss is the latest executive to exit Andrew Forrest’s empire. WAE is central to the company’s batteries ambitions.
From union boss to KPMG chief: ‘Unlearning’ key to Paul Howes’ success
The senior KPMG partner is as surprised as anyone else that he will chalk up 10 years at the firm next month.
KPMG launches radical overhaul, cuts 200 senior jobs
KPMG Australia will overhaul its consulting business to focus on tech-related advisory and software installation as part of an $80 million cost-cutting exercise that will include cutting about 200 roles at the firm.
Telix pulls $300m Nasdaq IPO as investors demand deep discount
The cancer treatment hopeful had announced plans to list in New York only last week as it searched for more capital. On Friday, it withdrew from the initial public offering.
Can investors de-risk the energy transition? It depends who you ask
Energy companies and big investors are pivoting to projects that can skirt the transition roadblocks, cut carbon and make money for shareholders.
LME failure on nickel due to its own self-interests: Rudd
The Australian ambassador says prices kept artificially low by China were creating a risk of a 20 per cent slump in global supply of the commodity.
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Markets
World is looking ‘more like the 1930s’, Future Fund warns
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund chief is reshaping its $200b portfolio as global risks hit a 50-year high.
Wall St slips as French political crisis deepens
The S&P 500 was modestly lower in afternoon trading. European shares fell further amid a resurgent far-right. Bitcoin drops.
ASX greenlights first bitcoin ETF in landmark listing
VanEck’s bitcoin ETF is expected to list next week, marking the first direct exposure to the emerging asset class on Australia’s primary exchange.
- Opinion
- Investing
Get ready for a riskier world
The causes and effects of geopolitical risk events are complex and multi-faceted. Events can take many years to develop and are almost impossible to predict.
Investors scramble for Guzman y Gomez shares amid hot demand
Sources said some investors interested in the $2.2 billion float received 10 per cent of what they had wanted, while others managed to grab 45 per cent.
Opinion
Australia-China ties are not ready for AUKUS
It’s no surprise that Li Qiang will head straight to Australia’s mining capital and most pro-Chinese city. But he will bypass the Stirling naval base where US nuclear-powered submarines will arrive.
Columnist
Setka’s AFL square-up out of bounds
What amounts to an appalling abuse of union power to blackmail a third party, and make a former public servant unemployable just for doing his job, must surely be against the law.
Editorial
Australia’s anticompetitive pharmacy regime
The competition watchdog should also be analysing how Australia’s anticompetitive pharmacy policy settings – much like labour monopolies on construction sites and on the wharfs – are substantially lessening competition.
Editorial
Suspend your disbelief? Naaah! This is Hollywood
Here’s the movie pitch: the former president of the United States locked up with the, er, druggie son of the current president, and, ah, they’re plotting how to escape.
Satirist
Dutton’s climate war spells trouble for Labor, and all of us
The question is why the Coalition feels it can talk safely about doing less on climate change, two years after losing an election where perceived climate change denialism was a major factor in the loss.
Columnist
What directors should learn from Musk’s massive payout
Tesla’s shareholders still believe in the magic of their chief executive, but critics say the bumper payday has warped some of the company’s decisions.
Columnist
Reports
Chanticleer celebrates 50 years
In 1974, Chanticleer revolutionised business journalism. This anniversary wrap celebrates 50 years of covering the corporate deals that shape the nation.
Politics
Home ownership is this Labor treasurer’s great middle-class goal
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who hands down his second budget on Tuesday, says building wealth and financial security through home ownership must be a core objective of the modern Labor Party.
- Exclusive
- Interest rates
Chalmers’ budget is expansionary: RBA analysis
Labor’s third budget adds more money into the economy this year than it takes out, making it ‘slightly expansionary’, according to RBA research.
- Exclusive
- Nuclear energy
Cancelled nuclear talk enrages politicians and engineers
There’s been a revolt against Engineers Australia over cancelling a speech by a nuclear scientist after a pressure from renewables backer Simon Holmes à Court.
Teals lose North Sydney in NSW shake-up, Bennelong turns Liberal
After taking into account the redistributions in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, nationally, Labor has 77 seats and the Coalition 59.
Higher education key to bigger pay, Labor MP argues
When it comes to the relationship between education and earning capacity, research suggests more is better.
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World
Israeli jets strike targets in Lebanon after missile barrage
The Israeli military said its jets and artillery attacked targets operated by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.
China’s broken housing market and a generation ‘lying flat’
While wallets were open at last weekend’s national Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese consumers are still not spending enough to get the economy out of its housing hole.
Why Keir Starmer’s wife is being kept off the campaign trail
Victoria Starmer is said to be highly resistant to the idea of breaking up the family’s happy life in the leafy streets near Hampstead Heath, and has kept a remarkably low profile.
Nigel Farage’s party overtakes Tories in UK poll blow
Right-wing Reform UK provides a symbolic ‘crossover moment’ in support that Conservative strategists have been fearing for months.
The ‘fundamental gap’ in the UN Gaza peace plan explained
Neither Hamas nor Israel will agree to the proposal without at least one significant change, according to policy experts.
Property
- Exclusive
- Luxury property
Snack queen buys Rich List garbo’s $25m beach weekender
Snack food wholesaler Lenka Dransfield has paid $25 million for one of three Palm Beach waterfront properties owned by Rich Lister garbo Ian Malouf.
$12m sale reveals how Steel City turned to property gold
While it will never compete with Sydney prices, regional hub Newcastle has shed its industrial origins to become a coveted prestige market.
‘Impossibly unaffordable’ housing a social risk: report
The level of housing price relative to incomes poses an “existential” risk and demands a rethink of urban growth boundaries, a new global report says.
Chris Minns wants Sydney to feel like Brooklyn
To encourage an urban renaissance, the NSW premier has a message for the city’s property developers: build, build, build.
- Exclusive
- Property market
Ray White founders seek investors for $1b lending bonanza
The White family is seeking to raise $400 million for its second credit fund, which will provide loans to developers. It has already lined up $841 million of deals.
Wealth
- Opinion
- Flat Chat
ATO warns property investors not to ‘double-dip’ on expenses
Rental property taxes can be tricky, and that’s before you add in the strata factor.
What to do with $400,000 inheritance when you have no super
A windfall could give a woman living in her daughter’s granny flat access to three income streams.
When it’s worth giving up government subsidies to stay home for longer
There may be more home care packages in the recent federal budget, but in some cases you would be better off financing care yourself.
Technology
What Apple Intelligence means for you
Though the “where” and “when” of Apple’s new AI system are still a mystery, we do know a lot about the “who”, “what” and “why”.
Why publishers fear Google AI search will kill their websites
News organisations are heading into another battle with tech giants, with growing fears the race to beat each other with AI summaries will result in more content stolen.
- Updated
- Workplace culture
Canva co-founder calls for ‘wartime’ approach to staff performance
Cliff Obrecht says companies that let poor performance slide are forced to do big lay-offs, something the graphic design group headed for an IPO has avoided.
Work & Careers
- Exclusive
- Workplace
Employers lose more than 655,000 days of work to mental health claims
Increased awareness around mental health and the rising cost of living are contributing to a big jump in workers’ compensation for mental health injuries.
Jobs are booming in this industry, but the cause is rooted in sadness
A mental health services recruiter says demand for employer assistance programs has skyrocketed since the pandemic as people battle cost of living pressures.
Life & Luxury
Meet the Timorese lawyer chasing Australian wind licences for Norway
A former refugee carried out of East Timor on her mother’s back has returned to Australia as country head of Norwegian energy giant Equinor to chase offshore wind licences.
Aussie swimmers poised to make Olympic history
Australia’s swim team could make history in Paris, with a long line of champion women powering through qualifying trials.
Finally, a documentary about Midnight Oil
Paul Clarke’s ‘The Hardest Line’ is largely a celebration of the Oils that never ventures a word of criticism.
Inside the world of art nouveau visionary who defied nazis, communists
A new Alphonse Mucha exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW will give Australians their first meaningful exposure to a giant of Czech culture.
- Driving With Tony Davis
- Motoring
Why Aston Martin’s $633k convertible is perfect for the open road
The DB12 Volante is the latest addition to the British marquee’s stable of high-performance convertibles.
