Vidhya CK

"There has been speculation that potential misconduct by ANZ in connection with this issuance may have cost taxpayers. From what I have seen, there is no evidence of this. I've not seen any evidence, any of the data that supports any misconduct, market manipulation or otherwise, from ANZ," ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott told a parliamentary committee on Friday.

"Overall, it's clear there was little momentum behind consumer spending at the start of the quarter. And while it is early days, the data broadly reinforce our view that Australian households are not rushing to spend their newfound tax cuts," economist Abhijit Surya said.

The probe will address eight key questions, such as how WFH should be defined, should employees be given legal right to request for WFH, and how overtime should be authorized and calculated.

However, extending the life of the 2.9 gigawatt Eraring coal plant north of Sydney, which is Australia's single biggest generator, has eased the risk of outages.

Melbourne University's vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell said it would take about a week to finalize the number even as he criticized the move. "It is staggering that we continue to have this debate while there is apparently no serious intent to address really major reform issues," he stated.

Despite the 93.3% drop in profit, the company announced Wednesday an annual net profit of AU$1.71 billion, after tax, for the year 2023-24.

In July, energy prices dropped to 6.4%, compared to the usual 0.9% rise, and as the government announced rebates across the country, further drop in prices were expected.

Primary residences, hotels, motels and caravan parks have been exempted from the short-stay levy.

The intake would be limited to 145,000 in publicly funded universities and 95,000 for vocational institutions, while each institution may set individual limits after consulting the government.

Coles chief executive, Leah Weckert, said the supermarket sales soared as "a lot of Australians were choosing to eat out less and eating at home more."

After achieving a landslide victory in Saturday's election, Lia Finocchiaro stressed her government's priority will be drafting a suite of tough legal reforms before the parliament resumes in mid-to-late October.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) will have the authority to determine whether the refusal by the employee is reasonable or not. It has the power to issue a cease and desist order, and non-compliance will fetch a fine of up to AU$19,000 for an employee or up to AU$94,000 for a company.

According to the new initiatives, the airlines will have to "show cause" the reason for delay and cancellation of flights during their regular briefing to the government, while the ombudsman can seek more information.

Since last November, Houthi rebels have increased their attacks on container ships using drones, ballistic missiles, and even an explosive unmanned vessel. Due to the attacks, many logistics companies were forced to halt the ship movement in the route that handles 12% of the world's seaborne cargo.

An independent review of the RBA last year recommended several proposals, including dividing the bank's board -- one responsible for monetary policy, which will continue to set interest rates, and the other, a Governance Board, to handle operations.

"We know that trade unionists do a great job when they look after the wages and conditions of their members, but there's no place for corruption or intimidation in the building industry. To have a corrupt union, you need a corrupt employer to be paying them money and there's no place for it," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

"The current operating model and structure is not sustainable for us. Our customers are moving to digital channels ... but we have also seen very significant margin compression," BOQ's chief executive Patrick Allaway said.

The patients were told about the abnormal embryos after they underwent the non-invasive pre-implantation testing (NiPGT). However, Monash IVF later admitted that test results from the now-suspended NiPGT were 75 to 85% similar to a standard test.

According to a survey by accounting firm Deloitte, 101,500 Australians could become jobless in the next one year, taking the unemployment rate from the current 4.2% to 4.5%.

Backed by the tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, the project aimed to build a solar farm in NT's outback, an 800 km transmission line to Australian city, Darwin, and 4,300 km of underwater cables to supply electricity to Singapore.

Criticizing the deal to pass the bill, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe said, "Bill Shorten has blood on his hands for doing this dirty deal with the coalition. Labor and the coalition have teamed up to characterize NDIS participants as fraudsters, criminals and sexual deviants."

Echo Law, the legal firm that filed the suit Wednesday, claimed even though the airline was obliged to refund the money, it gave travel credits to customers between 2020 and 2022.

The central bank has extended its inflation rate target deadline to 2026 from the earlier forecast of achieving the target by 2025.

According to University of Melbourne Professor Tom Kompas, people between the ages of 30 and 49 contributed the most to the loss. "Workers in that age bracket contributed to a loss of 52 million worked hours, or more than 50% of the total labor and productivity lost in 2022," he said.

The bill proposes a three-year minimum period of administration for the union, opportunity to grill the administrator every six months in parliament and ban on political spending while under administration.

Financial pundits have been betting on rate cuts by the end of the year, that would provide relief to mortgagors and renters.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said, "These critical reforms will revolutionize defense trade, innovation and cooperation, enabling collaboration at the speed and scale required to meet our challenging strategic circumstances."

Administrator Sam Freeman said more than more than 20,000 passengers flew Rex in the first week of administration, adding that only the capital city routes serviced by Boeing 737s have been grounded.

Australia has accepted nearly 3,000 visa applications from Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank, while rejecting 7,000, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.