Shreyashi Chakraborty

State-sponsored hackers were leveraging AI's popularity to infiltrate computer systems of businesses and organizations and then sitting dormant to remain undetected, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) said in a report.

Following the allocation of the funds, Industry Minister Ed Husic said, "What we don't want to see is Australian firms leaving our shores because they don't get the support they need at the right times."

Young Australians, aged 18 to 29, reduced their expenditure by 2% year over year in the third quarter of 2024, with significant drops in both essential (by 2.3%) and discretionary (by 1.9%) spending.

The Labor government had intended to limit the number of new international students admitted to universities to 145,000, other higher education institutions to 30,000, and vocational education and training to 95,000.

The corporate watchdog accused NAB and its subsidiary AFSH Nominees Pty Ltd of violating the regulations between 2018 and 2023, during which the bank failed to respond to 345 customer hardship applications within the mandatory 21-day timeframe.

Though NAB had initially predicted the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would cut interest rates in February 2025, now, that doesn't seem like a possibility before May 2025.

Australia's long service leave entitles employees to receive 2-13 weeks' paid leave after 10 years of service with a single employer, varying by state or territory, with the provision for employees to receive a proportionate (pro-rata) payment for unused leave entitlements when they leave their job.

This legal obligation would require companies like Meta, Google, and X to proactively keep Australians safe and prevent instances of online bullying and predatory behavior, apart from stopping algorithms from spreading harmful content.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that the number of people with full-time jobs increased by 9,700 last month, while the part-time rose by by 6,200, taking the total growth to 15,900.

Retail banking expanded with 121,000 new transaction accounts, while home loans saw an increase of AU$8.6 billion.

"The latest decision of a 3.75% wage increase paid from 1 July 2024 was lower than the September quarter 2023 increase of 5.75%," noted the ABS head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt. "It was also lower than the commission's September quarter 2022 awarded increase of between 4.6% and 5.2%."

ASIC claimed in the lawsuit that more than 6,000 claims were delayed by over a year, representing half of Cbus' total claims at the time.

During the company's annual general meeting on Tuesday, Chairman James Graham said, "In this context, it has been disappointing to see how cost-of-living issues have been politicized and targeted at supermarket operations."

The deal is part of Australia's bid to keep its banks in the Pacific region and ensure that a vacuum does not occur, where Chinese banks can move into.

Jim Chalmers said Monday, "The direct impact on Australia would be relatively mild, but the broader impact on our major trading partners and on the global trading system might be more significant, and in that regard, that is a little more concerning to us."

The vendors, who were highly reliant on Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, see their efforts dwarfed by supermarkets' tactics, forcing them to restrict their business to the domestic market, the industry's peak body told the ACCC.

Although its clients were surviving the economic downturn, NAB, the country's biggest business lender and third-largest retail lender, stated that an increase in late loan repayments among residential and commercial borrowers was concerning.

The consolidation, finalized in December, will combine approximately 1,000 retail stores and 16 distribution centers across Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking at the Raisina Downunder conference in Canberra, Andrew Shearer, Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence, said the nexus, which included China, Iran, and North Korea, warranted thorough evaluation.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has revealed plans to introduce new legislation to allow for adjusted electronic monitoring and curfews. Burke said in a statement that "regulations are now being finalized that will allow for an adjusted process for electronic monitoring devices and curfews to be used."

Mark van Dyck, who has previously served as the Asia-Pacific leader at Compass Group, will take over as Domino's chief from Wednesday.

RBA's latest decision to keep interest rates at a 12-year high of 4.35% was met with a silent market reaction, as seen by the Australian dollar's steadying around $0.6595.

Even while it mostly impacted Westpac's business and wealth division, the company's profits improved by 13% to AU$2.4 billion because of more lending to businesses in the fields of professional services, health care, and agriculture.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, "We're busy prioritising all of our purchases when it comes to defence assets, we've got a considerable increase in our defence budget and we'll make sure all of the decisions that we make are in our national interest."

Qantas and Virgin Australia used carried-forward pandemic losses to dodge taxes in 2022–2023, while Netflix Australia made nearly AU$1.15 billion in the 2023 fiscal year without paying taxes.

Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said China's recent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in the South Pacific particularly triggered Australia to enhance its missile stockpiles, deploy advanced naval defenses, and collaborate closely with the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

Compared to Q2, Australia's inflation rate declined one percentage point in the September quarter and broadly aligned with expectations of being between 2-3%. The drop in the inflation rate is being attributed to lower fuel prices and energy bill discounts.

Albanese, however, said he behaved openly and disclosed 22 complimentary Qantas upgrades in the register of gifts to parliamentarians, and denied any wrongdoing.

Fortescue CEO Dino Otranto said soaring demand for decarbonization was increasingly threatening Australia's position as the biggest seaborne iron ore supplier.