Australia news live: Coles chair says supermarket has been ‘targeted’ with cost-of-living issues ‘politicised’; Dutton advises Albanese to ‘read the room’ after Trump win | Australia news
Coles chair says cost-of-living issues have been ‘politicised’
Jonathan Barrett
The Coles chair, James Graham, has opened the supermarket’s annual general meeting by defending the company’s profit levels and criticising “politicised” attacks.
Graham told shareholders in Melbourne today that:
In this context, it has been disappointing to see how cost-of-living issues have been politicised and targeted at supermarket operations. This is in sharp contrast to the level of engagement and support of supermarkets by governments and regulators during the Covid lockdown years.
Representatives of Coles and rival Woolworths have appeared at several parliamentary inquiries, and the major chains are the target of a government-ordered examination of their pricing and business practices, conducted by the competition regulator.
Separately, Coles and Woolworths are being sued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over allegations they misled shoppers by offering “illusory” discounts on hundreds of common supermarket products.
Graham said today that its profit margin “remained essentially constant” over the past five years.
Guardian Australia analysis has consistently found that profit metrics at the major supermarkets are now significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, and have jumped ahead of most of their international peers.
Key events
Jamie Oliver urged to engage with truth-telling inquiry over fantasy novel backlash
Adeshola Ore
Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling inquiry has called on Jamie Oliver to engage with the commission and learn about Australia’s history after he pulled his children’s book from sale over backlash for stereotyping First Nations people.
The British celebrity chef has issued apologies after his fantasy novel for children received condemnation from First Nations communities.
The commission’s deputy chair, Sue-Anne Hunter, has released a statement saying Yoorrook has invited Oliver to “engage with the truth-telling commission and meet with First Peoples as part of a learning and healing process”:
Too often we see people who mean well cause harm or offence because they don’t know the full story of our shared history in Australia.
The publication of Billy and the Epic Escape shows why truth-telling is so important – to learn and understand history from First Peoples’ perspective.
We hope this can be the start of a positive process that also helps foster greater understanding among everyday Australians.
Guardian Australia understands Yoorrook has written to Oliver’s agent and publisher.
Spending on concerts, sporting events jumps
Consumers splashed out in October on tickets to Oasis, Luke Combs, Metallica, next year’s Melbourne Formula One race as well as household goods, new figures show.
As AAP reports, money flowed into recreation – especially ticketing services – and online marketplaces, hardware stores and discount department stores in October, contributing to a 0.8% increase in Commonwealth Bank’s household spending index.
CBA chief economist Stephen Halmarick said lower fuel prices, energy bill help and income tax cuts created some breathing room in household budgets to spend on nice-to-haves.
It’s important to note however that this increase in discretionary spending only partially offsets the fall seen in September as the October boost was driven by a number of one-off major events.
Spending on ticketing services was up a massive 27% for the month. Spending was higher across most categories in October, aside from education and utilities, the index based on customer payments showed.
First of Asian elephant herd arriving in South Australia
The first of South Australia’s new Asian elephant herd is arriving today.
Burma is arriving at Monarto Safari Park in Adelaide, having been transferred from Auckland Zoo. She will immediately begin a standard 30-day quarantine period. Montaro Safari Park said in an earlier statement:
We are thrilled to welcome [Burma] to her forever home, where she is the first of five Asian elephants who will form a herd by the end of 2025.
Burma will have her own police escort after touching down at Adelaide Airport, guiding her along a planned route to the park around 5pm.
Premier Peter Malinauskas told ABC News Breakfast earlier this morning everyone was “pretty excited”.
It’s an iconic venue and something unique around the country … It’s been a long time coming.
NSW Greens responds to new anti-protest laws from Minns government
The NSW Greens’ democracy spokesperson, Kobi Shetty, has responded to news the state government is introducing tougher penalties for railway protests (see more earlier in the blog here).
She labelled the move as “another shameful attack on the right to protest” from the Minns government and said in a statement:
This is a knee-jerk response and little to no information has been provided to the crossbench on the justification for these severe penalties. It is a targeted attack intended to silence the voices of people concerned about the government’s woeful inaction on the climate crisis.
The government is doubling down on their anti-protest laws despite the fact they have still failed to release the findings of the review into these laws which was meant to be tabled in October.
The so-called review of anti-protest laws has been exposed as a sham. This government has no intention of tabling its findings or repealing laws that the Supreme Court has found partially unconstitutional. Instead, they are expanding undemocratic laws to limit our fundamental right to protest.
Shetty said she has introduced a Greens bill to repeal “draconian” anti-protest laws and will be encouraging the government to support the legislation.
Josh Butler
Albanese fields even more questions on election timing
Anthony Albanese is also getting a number of questions today on election timing (because that’s the kind of questions politicians get when there’s not immediately a big political news yarn of the day). The prime minister bat away questions about an article in the papers that the Western Australian government is looking at the potential to shift its March election date if the federal government chooses to hold its poll sometime around that time.
Albanese poured scorn on “speculation” about federal election dates, noting constant media speculation around various dates that have come and gone.
What I have been focused on is governing.
Peter Dutton earlier accused Albanese of seeking a “tricky” plan around election timing and called on him to be upfront about the date. Albanese countered:
Peter Dutton needs to be upfront to the Australian people about anything at all. Anything will do. Can we have a single costed policy?
Josh Butler
Protesters chant ‘save the Maugean skate’ at Albanese press conference
The protesters at Anthony Albanese’s news conference were chanting various slogans including what sounds like “save the Maugean skate” – an endangered species of ray found only in Tasmania, which is being affected by salmon farming in its local habitat. It’s a major environmental issue in the Apple Isle, with governments balancing conservation of the skate against the jobs in salmon farming.
The Albanese government this morning gave cash to the issue, including $21m to boost oxygenation in Macquarie harbour, $5m for Maugean skate breeding programs, and $2.5m to skate population and environmental monitoring (see more earlier in the blog).
Amid the protesters’ chants, Albanese said the announcements were “important measures.”
The task of government is to make sure that industry can operate, jobs are created, but that we have protection of the environment and sustainable industry. I support the industry. I support the jobs that come from economic activity here in Tasmania. I’ve made it very clear. But we need to make sure that the industry operates in a sustainable way.
Peter Hannam
NAB’s monthly business survey sees confidence climbing highest since early 2023
We are accustomed to hearing things are gloomy but on both the business and consumer fronts confidence is quietly edging back to almost two-year highs.
The latest NAB business survey out this morning found sentiment “rose sharply” in the past month, and the improvement was broad-based. Services were particularly strong. And while business conditions were steady, they remain at “around average” levels over the past five years.
There was also mildly positive news on the price front, with Input cost pressures easing further. In October, labour cost growth eased to 1.4% in quarterly equivalent terms, down from 1.9% in September, while purchase cost growth eased to 0.9% from 1.3%, NAB said.
Gareth Spence, NAB’s head of Australian economics, said:
It appears that businesses are less able to pass on cost pressures as consumer demand growth slows.
ANZ’s latest weekly consumer survey they do with Roy Morgan found a similar story. Confidence edged up 0.2 points last week to 86.7pts, while the four-week moving average rose 0.8pts to 86.8pts, its highest level since January 2023.
Not going quite in the desired direction, though, were inflationary expectations. These rose 0.1 percentage point to a rolling four-week average of 4.7%. The Reserve Bank, among others, would like to see that trend point lower.
Former Tasmanian opposition leader selected as Labor candidate for Lyon
Josh Butler
Former Tasmanian opposition leader Rebecca White has been selected as Labor’s federal candidate for Lyons for the next election. She is at a press conference in Tasmania now, appearing with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who is on a swing through the state.
We’ll bring you more from that press conference – Albanese’s second in one morning in Tasmania – shortly. The PM is being heckled by some protesters who have appeared at the back of the media event.
Lyons is held by Labor, but only on a razor-thin 0.9% margin. It is being targeted by the Coalition, and Albanese is on a trip through Tasmania to shore up support ahead of what’s expected to be a tight election sometime early in 2025.
Current Labor MP Brian Mitchell had been tipped to step aside. The ABC reported just last month that he would be happy to stand aside for White to run in his seat, praising the former state Labor leader as a “once-in-a-generation talent in Tasmania”.
AFP union say NSW police wage deal in ‘jarring contrast’ to their offer
The union representing Australian federal police employees says the New South Wales police wage deal “stands in jarring contrast” to the deal the Albanese government wants AFP officers to accept.
NSW police officers will receive a pay rise of up to 40% over the next four years, whereas the AFP is being offered 11.2% over three years.
The Australian Federal Police Association president, Alex Caruana, said the difference in the deals was stunning and it was tough to see the offer as “anything short of blatant disrespect.”
From a moral perspective the Albanese government’s deal is clearly inadequate. AFP officers put their safety and health on the line dealing with the worst of humanity so the rest of us don’t have to worry about it.
The Albanese government has dragged AFP officers through months and months of gruelling negotiation before deciding on a lowball offer. Unless they genuinely believe that AFP officers are nowhere near as important as state police then they need to do better.
NSW government releases new renewables planning guidelines
Peter Hannam
New South Wales has been the laggard among the states in terms of approving new renewable energy projects for a while, with one industry study last year finding a new wind farm took an average of 3,488 days (almost a decade) to get the nod.
By contrast, in Queensland the average time to assess a windfarm was just 190 days, 384 days in Victoria and 533 in South Australia, that report found.
After much urging and feedback by would-be investors, the government has issued its new guidelines that it hopes will draw more investment into the state at a pace commensurate with the exit of coal-fired power plants (and the need to carbonise).
We haven’t waded through the multiple side reports (such as on wind, solar, community benefits sharing, etc) yet but will do when time permits.
The fine print that investors will look at will include how much setbacks will be needed, say, for wind turbines to minimise their visual impacts, to what extent “hypothetical dwellings” can be used by neighbours to limit turbine or solar panel locations nearby, and so on.
The Minns government, for instance, touts the prospect of “over $400m” in extra funds slowing to “support community and local government initiatives” from the changes.
The “suggested rate” a year includes $850 per megawatt for a solar farm, $1,050/megawatt yearly for a windfarm and $150/Mwhour hour per annum for stand-alone big batteries in rural zones. These sums would be indexed to the consumer price index.
That sounds good but here too its success will hinge a lot on locals either getting their mitts on the money or at least getting a say on what local governments do with any extra cash.
Labor senator ready to run for federal lower house seat
Labor senator Anne Urquhart is stepping down to run for a federal lower house seat in Tasmania, AAP reports, ahead of an expected tight election race for the party across Australia.
Anthony Albanese wants to retain majority government after next year’s national vote, despite opinion polls showing Labor is behind the coalition.
The seat of Braddon in north-west Tasmania is held by Liberal Gavin Pearce on an 8% margin. It’s seen as a key seat for Labor, given Pearce will not stand for re-election.
Urquhart was first elected to represent the Apple Isle in 2010 and was re-elected in 2016 and 2022. Her current term expires in 2028, meaning Labor will need to appoint a replacement to fill the vacancy in the upper house.
Albanese will soon announce Labor’s candidate for the neighbouring seat of Bass, held by Liberal MP Bridget Archer on a slim 1.4% margin. Labor is also looking to sandbag the adjoining seat of Lyons, which it holds by less than 1%.
All three Tasmanian seats defied the national trend and swung towards the Liberal Party in the 2022 federal election.
The agriculture, fisheries and forestry minister Julie Collins holds the Tasmanian seat of Franklin by almost 14%. But she took a sizeable 7.3% hit to her primary vote in 2022, before surviving with a small 1.5% swing towards her after preferences.
Adeshola Ore
Victorian man sentenced to four-and-a-half-year’s jail for exit trafficking
A Victorian man who tricked his wife into travelling to Sudan and abandoned her there without her two young children and passport for almost 18 months has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
In April the man, 52, became the first Victorian convicted of exit trafficking – where someone is coerced, threatened or tricked into leaving Australia against their will. The maximum penalty for the commonwealth offence is 12 years’ imprisonment.
The man appeared in the Victorian county court this morning. Judge Frank Gucciardo says the man’s offending required a degree of planning:
You treated her as a chattel that could be simply discarded.
A Victorian county court jury found him guilty of the federal offence after a month-long trial.
The man pleaded not guilty to the charge and denied having deceived the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Domestic airfares skyrocket after Rex collapse
Elias Visontay
Domestic airfares have increased by 13% after the collapse of Rex’s flights between capital cities, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has found, as Qantas and Virgin’s duopoly surges to 98% market dominance.
The ACCC, in its latest domestic airline monitoring report, found that since Rex suspended its jet operations between metropolitan cities across 11 routes and entered administration, the average air fare on all major city routes increased by 13.3% in the quarter to September 2024.
Flights are also fuller as a result of Rex’s exit from the market, with the number of seats on these routes falling by 6% despite passenger numbers remaining stable.
ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said the 13% spike in air fares corresponded with “a less competitive domestic airline sector”. Despite jet fuel prices falling by 41% in the 12 months to September, air fares have remained similar. The average cheapest economy tickets also increased dramatically on routes formerly serviced by Rex, with Adelaide to Melbourne services up 95%.
While we also typically see a seasonal peak in air travel in September due to major sporting events and school holidays, there were additional pricing pressures this year. Passengers were no longer able to access the lower fares that Rex offered, and airline seating capacity decreased following Rex’s exit. This in turn has contributed to higher air fares.
Brakey noted the airline sector had become drastically less competitive after the collapse of Bonza and Rex’s jet operations in 2024.
Earlier this year, almost half of all passengers flew on routes with either three or four airline groups, the ACCC said, but by November, there is no domestic route serviced by more than two major airline groups, with Qantas Group (including budget operator Jetstar) and Virgin Australia servicing 98% of domestic passengers.
The domestic airline industry has become even further concentrated, and it may be some time before a new airline emerges to compete on popular services between metropolitan cities, with normal barriers to entry and growth exacerbated by aircraft fleet supply chain issues and pilot and engineer shortages.
Elias Visontay
Qantas blasted for failing to provide specific data
The opposition transport spokeswoman, Bridget McKenzie, has blasted Qantas representatives for failing to turn up to a Senate committee hearing with specific data.
A Senate committee hearing into reforms proposed by Labor in February to amend the strict laws governing airlines’ access Sydney airport has heard from Qantas representatives about the impact the amendments would have on its operations.
We had more on this earlier in the blog, here, where Qantas said it does not expect the reforms to dent its dominant hold of slots at the airport.
Markus Svensson, the chief executive of Qantas’ domestic operations, was asked by the committee about cancellation figures in and out of Sydney airport but provided only Qantas’ national average cancellation figure of about 2%.
McKenzie said:
My question again is not about how many flights you cancel into Devonport or Burney or Cairns. This bill is all about Sydney … The slots into Sydney that you hold, how many of those allocated are regularly affected by cancellations?
Svensson replied:
I don’t have the data for Sydney specifically. I’ll have to take that on notice.
McKenzie then replied:
Of course, because we were always going to be discussing Perth in this inquiry.
