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- Need to Know
Shorten quits politics to join Canberra University
WATCH LIVE: Shorten announces retirement at a press conference with Anthony Albanese; Finance minister says data “pretty clear” households are struggling. Follow live updates.
Latest Posts
Shorten ‘poured his heart and soul’ into politics: Allan
WATCH: Shorten announces move to Canberra University
Election timing not a factor in Shorten’s decision: PM
Shorten asked about his legacy
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- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Why Howard Marks says you’re making a big mistake
Howard Marks says investors must ignore manic depressive markets and focus on the bigger picture. Rates will be higher for longer and that will bring pain – and opportunity.
TPG Telecom, Optus deal gets ACCC stamp of approval
TPG Telecom will market its mobile phone services to more Australians after the competition regulator said it could share networks with Optus in regional areas.
- Live
- Markets Live
ASX bounces as tech, real estate rally; Woodside sinks, NextDC soars
Australian shares bounce after Wednesday’s sell-off. Commodity selling pressure persists. Bullock to speak about cost of high inflation. Follow updates here.
Inside the high-tech sheds worth $24b to AirTrunk
From a single room holding a hard-working mainframe, data centres have evolved into major pieces of high-powered, high-tech infrastructure.
- Exclusive
- Casinos
Star’s banks baulk at cost blowouts, loan plea
The ASX-listed casino operator has been negotiating with its lenders for days. But delays getting security over individual properties is slowing down progress.
Trump’s plan to challenge the election result if he loses
Republican officials in a key swing state have taken over an obscure, unelected board to lay the groundwork for challenging a potential victory by Kamala Harris.
The best of travel, fashion, cars and more, straight to your inbox every Saturday.
The best of travel, fashion, cars and more, straight to your inbox every Saturday.
Companies
Blackstone clinches data centre giant AirTrunk in deal of the year
The transaction is one of the biggest Australian M&A deals yet and will add to the global investment giant’s fast-growing portfolio of digital infrastructure.
Private health giant Healthscope hopes for rent relief at 38 hospitals
But Health Minister Mark Butler has ruled out a taxpayer bailout for major private hospital operators, insisting they deal with soaring costs themselves.
Dean Mintz splashes $15.8m on Cettire shares despite audit worries
The luxury fashion retailer’s founder had helped lift the company’s stock by about 50 per cent this week. The end of the spree sent it crashing on Wednesday.
Family trust: Inside the Pratts’ legal soap opera
Richard Pratt carefully designed a succession plan for his three children, Anthony, Heloise and Fiona. But even the best-laid plans can wind up in court.
Future Fund warns investing only getting harder from here
The Future Fund’s assets stand just shy of $225 billion after it delivered a 9.1 per cent return over the past financial year.
NBN Co names Vocus’ Ellie Sweeney as next CEO
The Vocus Group boss will step into Stephen Rue’s shoes as he prepares to take the reins at Optus.
One big deal brings a second, but are Orora shareholders better off?
It was impossible to predict the packaging group’s whirlwind year of deals. If you can put emotions aside, the latest transaction looks good for investors.
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Markets
Sharp rise in unemployment would compel RBA to cut rates
The jobless rate would have to exceed 4.5 per cent to bring rate relief to borrowers and set the task of mitigating above-target inflation to one side.
Dividends hit lowest since pandemic outbreak
Investors are being forced to look beyond the once reliable income growth provided by mining stocks, and are branching out to other sectors.
Trump Media shares plummet as key date looms
Truth Social shares closed below $US17, reversing all gains since the company’s rapid rise from January.
What happened overnight? The S&P 500 slipped amid a rate cut debate
Australian shares were set to open modestly higher. US stocks drifted lower as Friday’s August payrolls report loomed. Oil extended its losses.
Brokers tip these stocks in an already hot sharemarket
Equities strategists and fund managers are working out how to navigate a market that has been on a bull run, creating increasingly stretched valuations.
Opinion
Government spending plays hero and villain
Jim Chalmers says the weakness of the economy justifies high government spending. He doesn’t want voters to link that with interest rates and inflation.
Columnist
Treasurer v the RBA: Why Chalmers and Bullock are both right
Jim Chalmers says the economy is getting smashed by high rates, but it’s still running too hot for the RBA. The answer is simple: productivity.
Editor-at-large
No tax break bailout for Star’s casino racket
The question posed by Star’s financial struggles and concerns about its Queen’s Wharf partner is whether any casino in Australia can be profitable without dirty money.
Editorial
Japan and Australia face a turning point in world history
Tokyo and Canberra back a free and open international order against unilateral attempts to coerce, says a contender in Japan’s prime ministerial race.
Foreign Minister of Japan
Wall Street needs to wake up to this White House race
Financial markets are wrong to think that Congress will restrain Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. Both of them have troubling plans for the economy.
Columnist
There is a compromise for disputes like the one at MSO
Art is meant to disrupt, but audiences must be free of interference too. There is a time and a place for both.
Social commentator
Reports
Clean Energy - the bumpy transition
This special report looks at how Australia is tracking to meet net zero goals, and the new technology that can help us get there.
Politics
- Updated
- Climate policy
Matt Kean unveils plan to achieve net zero by 2050
The Climate Change Authority’s landmark report downplayed the Coalition’s nuclear ambitions and said wind and solar generation needs to move faster to ensure Australia’s net zero ambitions are not derailed.
Record government spending prolonging RBA’s inflation fight
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the economy would have gone backwards without government spending, but economists warn the outlays are making the RBA’s job harder.
Could a kill switch help us control dangerous AI?
The government is calling for business responses to its plans to rein in the use of potentially dangerous forms of artificial intelligence.
- Exclusive
- International students
World-first EV degree sideswiped by allocation of zero students
It took four years and $4.3 million to get Nova Anglia College ready to open its doors, but the government says it cannot have any overseas students in 2025.
Defence company boss ousted after tensions over big contracts
Ben Hudson is out as BAE Systems CEO after concerns he was not focused enough on AUKUS submarines.
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World
Joe Biden set to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of US Steel
The Japanese bid for the Pennsylvania-based company has become a flashpoint in the Harris-Trump presidential contest.
US cracks down on Russian plot to disrupt election
The US Department of Justice is seizing websites allegedly used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation and support Donald Trump in the presidential race.
The secret behind Germany’s record renewables buildout
Securing approvals for one project to erect three wind turbines used to require 36,000 pages of documentation. Germany turned it around in two years.
Investment banks slash China growth forecasts as confidence wanes
Analysts are increasingly sceptical that Beijing will reach its 5 per cent economic growth target for 2024.
London and Sydney workers slow to return to office: study
London workers spend 2.7 days in the office and Sydney 2.8 days, well behind Paris, New York and Singapore.
Property
The suburbs where housing risks are rising
Risks of sharper house price declines are emerging across many areas in Melbourne as listings surge and demand falls.
Time to buy into REITs: Barrenjoey
Property stocks have weathered the interest rate storm, according to Barrenjoey, who say investors could be “well served” to increase their exposure.
Investors claim mismanagement of Elanor’s $500m hotel fund
The $500 million hotel fund – part of a $6b real estate platform – is at the heart of refinancing issues facing the ASX-listed fund manager.
- Exclusive
- Property market
NSW valuer general takes half its 2.7 million valuations inhouse
The move will save time and money, but there are bigger changes afoot in the valuation sector, with artificial intelligence offering to turbocharge efficiency.
Apartments boost housing approvals – but not enough
Australia’s home-building activity remains well below target to meet the government’s 1.2 million target. The slowdown is hitting all types of housing.
Wealth
We have $360,000 in super. Are we wealthy enough for an SMSF?
There has been much debate about the appropriate dollar threshold for do-it-yourself super.
- Opinion
- Flat Chat
Why it’s important to maintain the rage in your unit block
Property investors can be drawn into a conspiracy of mutually enabled silence with rental agents – neither party wants any hassles. But that’s ultimately a costly strategy.
This ex-Macquarie banker toned up Brazil – and made a fortune
When Declan Sherman moved to the Latin American country with the investment bank, he was inspired to show the locals a new way to exercise.
Technology
Inside the Swedish lolly craze sweeping TikTok
The world has gone mad for Scandinavian confectionery, thanks to a viral social media post about the high-quality, low-sugar sweets.
Apple, Google, parents should stop kids using social media apps: Meta
The company behind Facebook and Instagram says Apple and Google and their app stores are better placed to prevent children joining social media.
- Opinion
- Digital Life
Google or Samsung, which folding phone is best?
Google’s folding Pixel phone has finally come to Australia, so we’ve put it head to head with the incumbent.
Work & Careers
How this former teacher became CEO of a $540m company
Jon Davey, chief executive of payments provider Tyro Payments, became a teacher after finishing school but realised it wasn’t for him.
‘Not chasing high incomes’: Life as a lawyer in Amsterdam
Ally Theng says working in a Dutch law firm offers many of the benefits of heading to the UK, without having to sacrifice work-life balance.
Life & Luxury
- Drinks With Max Allen
- Champagne & sparkling wine
Four great sparkling wines from the Adelaide Hills
Deviation Road at the Adelaide Hills has mastered the knack of arrested development to create extraordinarily fresh and youthful wines.
- Exclusive
- New music
Why Missy Higgins stopped therapy to make an album
Two decades on from the multi-platinum The Sound Of White, Missy Higgins is looking inward again – only this time it’s to cope with being a newly single mother of two.
In Beetlejuice sequel, Michael Keaton looks the same 36 years on
The actor delivers a barnstorming performance as the fast-talking sleazebag demon in Tim Burton’s Burton’s comedic vision of the Afterlife as a nightmarish bureaucracy.
Need to get away? From pyramids to private islands, try these offers
Jump on these deals for spontaneous getaways this month and holidays on the horizon. You’ll be glad you did.
Why the dress watch will never go out of style
In Ripley, the new Netflix adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s book, wristwear becomes a central plot device. Watch and learn.
