Woolworths CEO to retire
The Woolworths chief executive, Brad Banducci, will retire in September this year.
The group made the announcement today, with Banducci advising Woolworths Group of his intention to retire after 13 years with the group, and eight as CEO.
Amanda Bardwell will start as managing director and group CEO on 1 September.
Key events
Jonathan Barrett
Woolworths boosts profits from grocery business
Woolworths has ramped up the profits derived from its Australian supermarkets business to record a $929m overall half-year profit, as pressure mounts over the company’s ability to keep delivering impressive returns while its customers grapple with fast-rising grocery costs.
The strong result contrasts with the bruising hits Australia’s biggest supermarket chain has been suffering to its reputation. It is facing multiple parliamentary inquiries and a year-long pricing probe from the competition regulator, designed to determine whether it is using a dominant market position to price gouge.
Profit margins for the chain’s Australian food business increased to 6.1% in the six-month period to December, up from 5.8% a year earlier.
Revenue across its business, which includes Big W and its New Zealand operations, increased 4.4% to $34.6bn. Its net profit result was up 2.2% from the prior corresponding period.
Outgoing Woolworths CEO praises successor Amanda Bardwell
Announcing his resignation, outgoing Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci said in a statement:
It has been a privilege to be a member of the Woolies team and one I have never taken for granted. We have a wonderfully talented and passionate team at Woolworths Group, as personified in Amanda Bardwell, and I look forward to working with Amanda and our team over the next few months as we set ourselves up for the next chapter.
Bardwell – who will take on the role of CEO and managing director from 1 September – has worked with Woolworths Group for 23 years, including as head of marketing for Woolworths Supermarkets.
Outgoing Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci’s resignation comes after Monday’s Four Corners on the ABC, which focused on supermarket profits and market power.
Banducci made headlines with his interview for the program, in which he briefly called off the conversation and walked away.
Woolworths CEO to retire
The Woolworths chief executive, Brad Banducci, will retire in September this year.
The group made the announcement today, with Banducci advising Woolworths Group of his intention to retire after 13 years with the group, and eight as CEO.
Amanda Bardwell will start as managing director and group CEO on 1 September.
WA heatwave continues
The hot weather is continuing to affect parts of Western Australia today.
The far south of the state, around Esperance, has an extreme fire danger rating today. Esperance is forecast to reach a maximum of 36C.
Total fire bans are also in place in these areas, and a number of parks remained closed due to the bushfire risk.
More broadly, southern and western parts of the state have a high fire danger rating, including the eastern suburbs of Perth, which are forecast to reach a more moderate 30C today.
Coalition urges Labor to push for Yang Hengjun’s release
The shadow foreign affairs minister, Simon Birmingham, has responded to Yang Hengjun’s decision not to appeal his suspended death sentence.
Birmingham said the decision was “entirely understandable” given the “terrible circumstances”, and urged the government to advocate “continuously … at the highest levels” for his release.
He wrote on X:
In these terrible circumstances the decision by Dr Yang is entirely understandable. It now falls to the Australian government [and] all with influence to advocate continuously [and] at the highest levels for his release from the unjust detention imposed on him by Chinese authorities.
In these terrible circumstances the decision by Dr Yang is entirely understandable. It now falls to the Australian Government & all with influence to advocate continuously & at the highest levels for his release from the unjust detention imposed on him by Chinese authorities. https://t.co/74F2CBFh0b
— Simon Birmingham (@Birmo) February 20, 2024
Here is the full story on detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun’s decision not to appeal his suspended death sentence in China:
Assange case needs resolution – Marles
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, has been making the rounds this morning, and just spoke with ABC News Breakfast.
Speaking about Julian Assange, he was asked whether Australia should step in and urge the US to drop its extradition proceedings.
Marles said:
His situation needs to be brought to a resolution, that’s really the point here. You can’t have somebody who’s indefinitely being incarcerated. And the advocacy that we provided both to the UK and the US governments is in respect of that. What we want to see is resolution.
Obviously we respect the independence of both the UK and the US judicial systems and we are very respectful of that, but in respect of an Australian citizen who is incarcerated overseas, we are very simply saying that this has been a long time now and this is a circumstance which needs to be resolved.
Q: Is it good enough for any Australian citizen to be in this situation?
Well, no, and that’s why we’re advocating on his behalf.
Children’s charity ‘appalled’ at US veto on Gaza ceasefire
Save the Children Australia says it is “appalled” the US has vetoed a UN security council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the third time.
The US argued the move would undermine negotiations over a hostage deal. The UK abstained from the vote.
You can read all the details on this below:
Save the Children Australia’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jason Lee, said:
We are appalled to hear of this new low in an already deep pit of failures from the international community. After four months of relentless violence, we are running out of words to describe what children and families in Gaza are going through, as well as the tools to respond in any adequate way.
The scale of death and destruction is astronomical. And with tanks poised to roll into Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has been forced to flee amid rising hunger and disease, this war is about to enter the deadliest stage possible.
Last week Australia, Canada and New Zealand warned Israel against a carrying out a “devastating” and “catastrophic” ground offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza, saying in a joint letter “there is simply nowhere else for civilians to go”.
Turning to Yang Hengjun, the Australian writer detained in China, who has decided not to appeal his suspended death sentence.
Speaking to ABC RN just earlier, deputy prime minister Richard Marles was asked whether this means Hengjun is now dependent on the government to try and secure his release?
Marles said:
Well, obviously the circumstances are very concerning. We will continue to advocate on his behalf each and every day. That’s in terms of sentence that’s been handed down to him, but also the day-to-day sense of the consular access that we have…
Turning to housing, Peter Malinauskus said policy certainty went hand-in-hand with housing security.
“It’s more than one policy that will inform our capacity to increase housing supply in this country,” the South Australian premier said.
I’ve [spoken to] a lot of people who have wanted to focus on a range of different policy ideas, [but] the only ones that will make a difference are the ones that contribute to supply. We have a supply problem, which means it goes to trade, it goes to land release, it goes to trunk infrastructure, particularly water infrastructure, which is a major challenge in my state … and also it goes to state-based taxes like stamp duty.
We’re pulling every one of those levers because of the high degree of urgency here. I think we’ve seen a lack of action in the past from governments of both political persuasions and now’s the time [to come together] across the political spectrum to try and turn this course around, because homeownership is is still very much part of the way we grow wealth in this country.
SA premier calls for more skilled migrants in state
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskus, was next up on ABC RN to speak about the government’s defence deal.
Construction of the Hunter-class vessels will begin at the Osborne shipyard in South Australia this year, with the government saying the work would sustain at least 2,000 local jobs and create 500 jobs over the next decade.
The number of Hunter-frigates ordered by the government has been reduced from nine to six.
When discussing the workforce needed to deliver the frigates, Malinauskus is calling on the commonwealth government to increase the number of skilled migrants in South Australia.
When we see a curtailment of that program, it actually disproportionately affects our state because we know the default setting for most skilled migrants coming through countries to go to Sydney and Melbourne. We actually need a set of policies that allow people to see the full suite of options that are available to them, and here in South Australia [there is] more opportunity than any other point.
Malinauskus said the local workforce would have to be doubled in the next two-and-a-half years.
This isn’t doubling the workforce on service shipbuilding out in the never-never, this has to happen in the immediate future. It has to start gearing up before our next state election two years away.
Marles talks up navy overhaul
The defence minister and deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is speaking to ABC RN about yesterday’s defence announcement, with $11bn in extra funding.
You can read all the details on the announcement below:
The opposition defence spokesman, Andrew Hastie, said the country wouldn’t see a new ship in the water until 2031 and should focus on getting things happening by 2026.
Marles rejected this and said the procurement of the general-purpose frigate had been accelerated, but did not specify a date.
But the fundamental answer, and the hypocrisy from Andrew Hastie here, is astounding, is what we inherited from the former government… Where the opposition were at, they wouldn’t have a service combatant in the water until 2034. We will have four.
(In a later interview on ABC News Breakfast, he said the first general-purpose frigate would be in service “in the 2020s”).
Commenting on the vessels set to be built offshore, Marles suggested countries were already bidding for this work:
I’m pretty confident that there will be countries out there bidding very hard to get our work and that is already happening as we speak, as you could imagine.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for heavy rainfall in the north-east and east coast regions of Tasmania:
