Federal courtroom ruling confirms Qantas staff ‘sacked in a ruthless, calculated act’, says Labor senator
NSW Labor senator Tony Sheldon says right this moment’s federal courtroom penalty towards Qantas confirms staff have been “sacked in a ruthless, calculated act of company cost-cutting”.
Sheldon was the nationwide secretary of the Transport Employees’ Union from 2006 to 2019, earlier than he was elected to federal parliament.
In a press release, Sheldon criticised the previous Coalition authorities’s therapy of the airline.
Somewhat than assist 1000’s of workers and their households, they successfully condoned the most important unlawful sacking in company historical past – calling it a ‘business resolution’, handing Qantas $2.7 billion in no-strings-attached taxpayer bailouts throughout COVID, voting towards closing the very loophole that enabled the unlawful sacking, and cheerleading the substitute of staff with lower-paid workers doing the identical job.
Key occasions
Luca Ittimani
Lactose-free milk helps A2 gross sales surge
Lactose-free milk has powered a ten% bounce in A2 milk gross sales in 2024-25, as milk components gross sales slumped.
The New Zealand-based firm says it now has practically a fifth of the Australian lactose-free market, up from 12.7% to 18.5% over the 12 months to June. It has a few tenth, or 11%, of the usual milk market, in response to its annual report, printed right this moment.
The product accounted for a lot of the corporate’s NZ$20m rise in Australian milk gross sales, to NZ$209m (A$190m) value of milk throughout Australia. Commonplace milk gross sales additionally rose, outperforming falling revenues throughout the milk business over the 12 months amid what the corporate described as heavy competitors and gross sales.
Income throughout Australia and New Zealand nonetheless slipped slightly to NZ$316m after milk components gross sales fell by practically a fifth for the 12 months.
The corporate recorded a 13% leap in international income to NZ$1.9bn, producing a 21% revenue enhance to just about NZ $203m.
A2 makes most of its cash from promoting on the spot milk components in east Asia, nearly all of which is offered in China, the place A2’s gross sales rose regardless of the market shrinking as China’s birthrates decline. US gross sales additionally rose by a fifth.
Second shark chunk at Cabarita seaside in lower than two months
Surf Life Saving NSW has issued a press release after a surfer’s board was bitting by a shark at Cabarita seaside on the state’s far north coast.
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A spokesperson for the organisation stated a boy was bitten by a shark on the identical location lower than two months in the past.
Simply after 8am this morning the Surf Life Saving NSW state operations centre was alerted to an incident on the unpatrolled Cabarita seaside which was referred to as in by means of Triple-0.
Australian Lifeguard Service lifeguards have been tasked and instantly labored with council to shut the seaside and put up signage to warn the general public to not enter the water.
SLSNSW [drone] property are at present within the air surveilling the scene.
ACCC sues Google over search engine offers with Telstra and Optus
The patron watchdog has commenced federal courtroom proceedings towards Google Asia Pacific after the expertise firm admitted it reached a cope with Telstra and Optus to pre-install Google search on Android cellphones.
In a press release, the chair of the Australian Shopper and Competitors Fee, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, stated Google has “admitted legal responsibility and agreed to collectively undergo the courtroom that Google ought to pay a complete penalty of $55 million”. The courtroom will in the end determine whether or not that penalty is acceptable.
Cass-Gottlieb stated the deal was in place between December 2019 and March 2021 and required Telstra and Optus to solely pre-install Google Search on Android telephones they offered to shoppers, and never different search engines like google.
She says Google has now dedicated to eradicating sure pre-installation and default search engine restrictions from its contracts with Android cellphone producers and telcos.
Right this moment’s final result, together with Telstra, Optus and TPG’s undertakings, have created the potential for tens of millions of Australians to have higher search selection sooner or later, and for competing search suppliers to achieve significant publicity to Australian shoppers.
NSW seaside closed after shark takes chunk out of surfer’s board
NSW Surf Life Saving has closed Cabarita seaside at Norries Headland after a shark bit a big chunk out of a surfer’s board this morning.
Tweed Shire Council confirmed the seaside was at present closed, noting nobody was injured within the incident. The council’s Fb web page noted that “luckily, the chunk missed the rider”.
Pictures posted on-line present the surfer on the seaside with a big, bite-shaped mark lacking from his board. Video footage taken from an area seaside cam reveals a commotion within the water simply earlier than 7.30am.
American browsing legend Kelly Slater chimed in on one put up on Instagram, writing:
Unbelievable he’s okay. Nice instance of why I worry open ocean swimming a lot. Surfboards have saved fairly just a few surfers with that tiny barrier.
Federal courtroom ruling confirms Qantas staff ‘sacked in a ruthless, calculated act’, says Labor senator
NSW Labor senator Tony Sheldon says right this moment’s federal courtroom penalty towards Qantas confirms staff have been “sacked in a ruthless, calculated act of company cost-cutting”.
Sheldon was the nationwide secretary of the Transport Employees’ Union from 2006 to 2019, earlier than he was elected to federal parliament.
In a press release, Sheldon criticised the previous Coalition authorities’s therapy of the airline.
Somewhat than assist 1000’s of workers and their households, they successfully condoned the most important unlawful sacking in company historical past – calling it a ‘business resolution’, handing Qantas $2.7 billion in no-strings-attached taxpayer bailouts throughout COVID, voting towards closing the very loophole that enabled the unlawful sacking, and cheerleading the substitute of staff with lower-paid workers doing the identical job.
Josh Bornstein, a barrister representing the TWU, referred to as the ruling the “darkest day in Qantas’ 105-year historical past’.
Head of Transport Employees’ Union says $90m Qantas penalty displays ‘gravity’ of airline’s actions
Michael Kaine, the nationwide secretary of the Transport Employees’ Union, simply spoke after the historic penalty levelled towards Qantas right this moment.
Kaine stated the employees impacted have been by means of “hell and again”, calling the $90m penalty the “most vital industrial final result in Australia’s historical past”. He stated:
Justice Lee has completely smashed Qantas right this moment for its unlawful conduct and rightly so. This penalty of $90 million, an unprecedented quantity for an industrial breach, displays the gravity of this. That is the most important breach in industrial relations historical past and it devastated these staff and their colleagues and their households. …
It sends a very clear message to Qantas and to each employer in Australia – deal with your workforce illegally and you’ll be held accountable. Sure, we do really feel vindicated right this moment.
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist ‘very grateful’ to be granted asylum in Australia
Ted Hui, the previous pro-democracy Hong Kong legislator who was granted asylum in Australia this weekend, stated earlier this morning he’s “relieved” after the choice.
Hui has been dwelling in Australia for 4 years and stated the safety visa extends to his spouse, youngsters and fogeys. He has confronted intimidation and police bounties of practically $200,000 over his vocal criticism of Hong Kong and Beijing authorities. He informed RN Breakfast this morning:
It means we could be relieved as a result of we’ve been dwelling right here greater than 4 years with out realizing which nation we’ll be staying and the place we’ll be finding out, working, and my dad and mom, whether or not they may find yourself right here.
We’ve the solutions now, so we’ve the reassurance that we’ll be protected by the Australian authorities. In order that’s why we’re very grateful to the federal government and the individuals right here.
Extra on final evening’s lethal capturing outdoors a Sydney pub
New South Wales police simply shared some extra data after a lethal capturing outdoors a pub in Sydney’s Forest Lodge final evening.
Det Supt Alfio Sergi stated “quite a few” pictures have been fired outdoors the Harold Park lodge, with some being described as “whizzing by” a girl working there whereas she was choosing up glasses outdoors. One man was killed and one other is in essential situation who has simply completed a second spherical of surgical procedures this morning.
Sergi stated throughout a press convention it was an “extraordinarily harmful” scenario with slender streets across the space. He stated the investigation is in its early phases, however he believes it was a “focused assault”:
Clearly we’ll be trying on the hyperlinks with organised crime networks, that will likely be a spotlight of our investigation.
Police are interesting for data as they seek for the alleged perpetrator.
Qantas hit with $90m penalty after illegally firing floor staff
Catie McLeod
Qantas should pay a $90m penalty for illegally firing greater than 1,800 floor staff through the early interval of the pandemic, taking the total price of its controversial outsourcing resolution to greater than $200m.
Justice Michael Lee handed down his resolution on the airline’s penalty within the federal courtroom in New South Wales.
Lee stated the provider must pay “at least $90m” which he stated was “barely lower than 75% off the utmost penalty”, and that $50m of the penalty would go to the Transport Employees’ Union (TWU).
He reserved his resolution on to whom the $40m stability must be paid. Lee described the prolonged authorized battle between the TWU and Qantas as “no strange case” and stated:
As as to whether Qantas is really contrite or quite participating in performative regret, I’ve hesitation in reaching a conclusion.
I do suppose individuals of accountability inside Qantas do now have some real regrets, however this extra possible displays the injury this case has carried out to the corporate, quite than a regret for the injury carried out to the affected staff.
Lee’s resolution comes about 9 months after Qantas and the Transport Employees’ Union agreed on a $120m payout for the sacked staff.
Qantas is because of launch its monetary outcomes for the previous 12 months on 28 August, and the true price of the outsourcing saga has far eclipsed the $70m the provider had beforehand budgeted to cowl it.
BlueScope earnings tumble to a few tenth of earlier 12 months
Luca Ittimani
Australia’s largest steelmaker, BlueScope, repeated requires an east coast gasoline reserve after reporting that its earnings tumbled to $84m in 2024-25, simply over a tenth of the earlier 12 months.
The corporate, which is main a bid for the struggling Whyalla steelworks in South Australia, noticed its internet revenue after tax fall from 2023-24’s $806m after taking a $440m hit to the underperforming coated metal merchandise arm of its American enterprise. Sliding international metal costs additionally dragged down income.
BluesSope nonetheless earned most of its income within the US, producing practically 3m tonnes of metal at its North Star mill in Ohio, which was boosted by Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on metal and aluminium imports, later hiked to 50%.
The corporate’s annual report, launched this morning, didn’t level to vital tariff impression on its Australian enterprise, which noticed decrease earnings as costs slipped, regardless of rising home gross sales attributable to elevated building work.
BlueScope stays enthusiastic about increasing regionally by shopping for out the Whyalla plant. The corporate earlier in August introduced it was main a consortium however would solely make a suggestion if it may see a return on funding. Bluescope informed buyers it had submitted a non-binding, indicative expression of curiosity and believed the plant had potential for low-emissions iron productions.
However the firm gave a warning to buyers (and the Albanese authorities): “NO GAS, NO ‘FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA’”. Electrical energy prices additionally dragged down BlueScope’s Australian earnings within the 12 months to June, seeing it repeat its requires an east coast gasoline reserve and criticise the sector’s present strategy: “prioritising huge exports over home market, since 2015”.
Andrew Pulver
Terence Stamp, star of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, dies at 87
Terence Stamp, one of many stellar faces of British 60s cinema, who had a second act from the late Seventies as a personality actor within the likes of Superman: The Film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Limey, has died aged 87.
His household stated in a press release that he died on Sunday morning. “He leaves behind a unprecedented physique of labor, each as an actor and as a author, that may proceed to the touch and encourage individuals for years to come back,” they stated. “We ask for privateness at this unhappy time.”
Stamp turned considered one of British cinema’s glamour figures in its most trendy decade, scoring early high-profile roles in Billy Budd and The Collector for the administrators Peter Ustinov and William Wyler respectively.
In 1994 he performed the trans cabaret performer Bernadette Bassenger in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, for which he obtained Bafta and Golden Globe nominations, adopted by a lead function in Steven Soderbergh’s revenge thriller The Limey.
The next many years noticed extra high-profile castings as curiosity grew in his earlier work, together with roles in Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Needed and The Adjustment Bureau.
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Lisa Cox
Setting teams say nature ‘too vital’ to depart out of reform conversations
The surroundings sector, which has been given restricted illustration on the summit, held its personal roundtable final Friday. A consultant from Watt’s workplace attended. The teams stated half of Australia’s GDP and 75% of export earnings have been reliant on nature.
Dr Jody Gunn, the chief govt of the Australian Land Conservation Alliance, stated:
Nature’s financial function is just too vital to depart out of nationwide reform conversations. If we ignore nature, productiveness suffers. If we spend money on the options it brings, all of us win – with stronger regional economies, higher catastrophe resilience, and more healthy communities.
Conservation teams name for higher illustration at financial summit
Lisa Cox
Twenty of Australia’s main surroundings teams have written to treasurer Jim Chalmers asking for higher illustration for the surroundings at this week’s financial roundtable.
The teams, together with the Australian Land Conservation Alliance, BirdLife Australia and WWF Australia, warned that with out nature-based funding and reform, the continuing decline of Australia’s pure capital would erode productiveness, financial development, and catastrophe resilience.
In a communique to Chalmers and surroundings minister Murray Watt, they’ve referred to as for measures together with:
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Phasing out subsidies that hurt nature.
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Strengthened surroundings legal guidelines and an impartial environmental regulator.
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Treating nature like different essential financial property by measuring and sustaining its situation and forecasting how its loss will impression jobs, exports, and the price of dwelling.
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Extra nature funding from each authorities and enterprise.
Stephanie Convery
Most Australians suppose local weather disaster making cost-of-living rise
Three-quarters of Australians imagine the local weather disaster is rising the price of dwelling, and practically two-thirds suppose coal, oil and gasoline corporations ought to pay for the injury they’ve triggered, new polling suggests.
Timed for launch forward of this week’s economic reform roundtable, the Important polling was commissioned by the Make Huge Polluters Pay Alliance, a brand new coalition of surroundings, help, political and social justice organisations, together with Oxfam Australia, Greenpeace, Local weather Motion Community Australia, Uniting Church of Australia, Human Rights Legislation Centre and extra.
The alliance is looking for the Australian authorities to enact a local weather air pollution levy on coal, gasoline and oil companies, and says the cash raised from the levy must be put right into a local weather compensation fund to “meet the wants of communities on the frontline of local weather impacts, and help on a regular basis households going through rising prices from local weather change and the clear vitality transition”.
Important surveyed a nationally consultant pattern of 2029 Australian residents aged over 18 in June and located that 77% of respondents accepted that main fossil gas corporations are contributing to local weather change, 83% imagine local weather change is rising the price of insurance coverage premiums and meals costs, whereas 75% imagine it’s rising the price of dwelling total.
Some 62% of respondents thought fossil gas corporations ought to pay for local weather injury.
Julie-Anne Richards, from Make Polluters Pay Alliance, stated in a press release:
Australia’s coal, oil and gasoline companies are making round $370 billion in income per 12 months, however typically pay little or no tax. They’re pushing the prices of the local weather air pollution they produce and the local weather change it creates onto communities. On a regular basis Australians are paying by means of larger insurance coverage, meals and different invoice prices, in addition to the prices of restoration from local weather disasters. It’s time these massive companies pay their justifiable share.
Kate Lyons
Man lifeless and one other wounded after capturing outdoors Sydney pub
One man is lifeless and one other has been taken to hospital with critical wounds after a capturing outdoors a Sydney pub.
Emergency providers have been referred to as to the Harold Park lodge on Ross Avenue in Forest Lodge in Sydney’s internal west at about 6.40pm on Sunday.
New South Wales police stated two individuals had been shot a number of occasions by unknown assailants who left the scene by automobile.
One man died on the scene whereas a second was handled by paramedics for gunshot wounds earlier than being taken to hospital in a critical situation.
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