Victoria’s Commonwealth Games legal bill balloons to $1.3m

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Original article by Gus McCubbing
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

Victoria’s upper house is to conduct an inquiry into the cancelled 2026 Commonwealth Games, with the inquiry to start later in October. Filling out a questionnaire in response to the inquiry, the Department of Premier and Cabinet has stated that law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler was paid $1,265,982 for legal services regarding the state’s withdrawal from the Games. Arnold Bloch Leibler’s work was said to have begun in June, meaning it was engaged around three weeks before then Premier Daniel Andrews announced his government was cancelling the games; it ended up having to pay $380 million in compensation to Commonwealth Games bodies

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ARNOLD BLOCH LEIBLER

LAWYERS,[SPACE]VICTORIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT]

Ethnic swing away from PM could bring down Voice

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

Australian Development Strategies chairman John Black says there was a significant change in voting intentions against Labor by Asian Australians between the Aston byelection in April and the Fadden byelection in July. He says the shift away from Labor by Chinese and Indian Australian voters could be critical to the result of the Voice referendum, and could see it defeated. Black, who is a former Labor senator, says the party has previously relied on multicultural voters to bolster its support in outer suburban areas, so it would be worried by their apparent change in voting intentions.

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AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES PTY LTD,[SPACE]AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

REFERENDUM – AUSTRALIA,[SPACE]VOTING – AUSTRALIA]

Bullock keeps calm continuity

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Original article by Michael Read
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 4-Oct-23

Reserve Bank of Australia has left the cash rate at 4.1 per cent for the fourth month in a row at its October board meeting, which was Michele Bullocks’s first as RBA governor. She said keeping the cash rate at 4.1 per cent would give the RBA more time to assess the impact of rate increases to date, in a statement that was quite similar to the final one issued by her predecessor Philip Lowe in September. Bullock stated that inflation appeared to have peaked, but that it was still too high and would remain so for some time to come. Treasurer Jim Chalmers welcomed the RBA’s decision to keep the cash rate unchanged, but shadow treasurer Angus Taylor claimed Labor was not doing enough to tackle what he said was " stubbornly high inflation"

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Taylor Swift drove international visitors down under for February concerts

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

Data collected by flight booking systems provider Amadeus has revealed huge interest in flights to cities where pop singer Taylor Swift is performing. With tickets to concerts by Swift in Sydney and Melbourne in February 2024 going on sale in the last week of June, Amadeus data shows that searches for flights for Sydney and Melbourne were up 44 per cent week-on-week. Australian Travel Industry Association CEO Dean Long says it has been a long time since they had seen an event that has attracted as much interest as the Swift tour, while Accommodation Association of Australia CEO Michael Johnson said the Swift tour was turning out to be a "sugar hit" for the industry with thousands of rooms booked.

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AMADEUS GLOBAL TRAVEL DISTRIBUTION SA,[SPACE]AUSTRALIAN TRAVEL INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION,[SPACE]ACCOMMODATION ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA

AIR TRAVEL – AUSTRALIA,[SPACE]POPULAR MUSIC – UNITED STATES]

Endeavour has backed down on potentially blocking a vote on Bill Wavish running for the board

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Original article by Eli Greenblat
The Australian – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

Pubs billionaire Bruce Mathieson Senior has stated the position of Peter Hearl as Endeavour Group chairman is "untenable", with Mathieson Snr being the biggest shareholder of the liquor store and pubs owner. His comments come as Endeavour backed down on its stance of refusing to allow Bill Wavish to run for election to its board without having the necessary regulatory clearance. With Endeavour holding its AGM at the end of October, Wavish, who is a former Woolworths supermarket and liquor boss, can now seek election to the board knowing he has the backing of Mathieson snr, who owns 15 per cent of Endeavour

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ENDEAVOUR GROUP LIMITED – ASX EDV,[SPACE]WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW

LIQUOR STORES – AUSTRALIA,[SPACE]DIRECTORS OF CORPORATIONS – AUSTRALIA – APPOINTMENTS AND RETIREMENTS]

Star hopes to fetch $200m for Brisbane casino and hotel

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Original article by Larry Schlesinger
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

Casino operator Star Entertainment has put its Treasury Casino complex in Brisbane up for sale, with the complex including the Treasury Casino building and the Treasury Hotel building. Both the hotel and the casino will be offered with the potential for vacant possession , with Start to vacate the casino in 2024 when it starts operating its new casino in the nearby $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf development. Sam McVay from McVay Real Estate and Paul Noonan from JLL have been appointed to handle the sale, with Star hoping to fetch upwards of $200 million.

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THE STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP LIMITED – ASX SGR,[SPACE]McVAY REAL ESTATE PTY LTD,[SPACE]JONES LANG LASALLE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

REAL ESTATE – QUEENSLAND – COMMERCIAL]

Australians are increasingly approaching other companies before renewing their household insurance

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Original article by
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

New data from Roy Morgan reveals that fewer Australians are renewing their household insurance without approaching other companies, due to increasing cost of living pressures. In the year to June 2023 only 66.1% of the 29 million household insurance policies were renewed without even approaching another company, down from 66.5% in the year to June 2022 and 67.2% in the year to June 2021. Over a fifth of household insurance policies, 23.2%, were renewed after approaching other companies, up 1.1% points from a year ago, while there is also an increasing market for new entrants to the market with 4.3% of household insurance policies taken out for the first time, up 0.4% points from two years ago. These are some of the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source insurance data derived from in-depth personal interviews conducted with over 60,000 Australians per annum.

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Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards: Australia’s winning retailers announced

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

The annual Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards were recently awarded, with there being 16 winners in the retail categories. The bulk of the awards went to a mix of repeat winners and brands returning to the winner’s circle after some time out of the spotlight. There were 11 repeat winners, including The Reject Shop, which won the Discount Variety Store of the Year for a record breaking eleventh year in a row, and Myer, which won the Department Store of the Year for an eighth straight year. The sole first-time winner was Zambrero, the Mexican themed restaurant headquartered in Canberra, which won the award for quick service restaurant of the year, while Aldi won the award for Supermarket of the Year.

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RETAIL TRADE – AUSTRALIA]

Australia’s wealthiest 20% worth 90 times the country’s poorest, new report reveals

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Original article by Cait Kelly
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 27-Sep-23

The Australian Council of Social Service and the University of New South Wales have released a report which highlights the nation’s growing wealth gap. The report, which is based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data from 2019, concluded that superannuation and property investment have been key drivers of growth in wealth over the last two decades. The wealthiest five per cent of Australians were worth an average of $6.7m in 2019, accounting for one-third of the nation’s combined wealth. Likewise, the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians were worth an average of $3.2m. In contrast, people in the lowest quartile relied on an average of $419 each week in social security payments for half of their income.

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AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Doha views Qatar Airways flight block as national insult

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 2 : 27-Sep-23

Australian Qatar Business Council chairman Simon Harrison has appeared before a Senate hearing into the federal government’s decision to reject Qatar Airways’ request for more flights to Australia. He said the decision has caused "sensitivities" in the local Qatar business community. He added that Qatar regards it as a "national insult" that the decision has been linked to an incident in which Australian women were strip-searched at Doha airport in 2020. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and CEO Vanessa Hudson will appear before the committee on Wednesday; former CEO Alan Joyce may be summonsed to appear when he returns from overseas.

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AUSTRALIAN QATAR BUSINESS COUNCIL, QATAR AIRWAYS, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN