CANBERRA, Australia — Financial investment in an Australian company is no longer just about profits, but the greater good, as environment and humanity are among the latest drivers for those with enough cash to invest. Shareholder activists are increasingly influencing corporate Australia’s decision-making on matters such as executive pay and returns. Rio Tinto’s chief executive was last year forced to step down following an investor backlash after the global miner company blasted some of the world’s oldest Indigenous heritage sites in Western Australia. Financial services giant AMP faced a similar situation, losing its chairman and two top executives after criticism from major shareholders…
Author: zenger.news
SYDNEY — Former Australian Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to share his insights about the power of Australian media moguls to make and break prime ministers when he fronts a media diversity inquiry. Ousted as prime minister, he is scheduled to give evidence on April 12. He blamed the News Corp, one of Australia’s largest media conglomerates, and radio jockeys for helping fuel his departure. One of Turnbull’s predecessors, Kevin Rudd, has already called out the “Fox News-isation” of the Australian media that he says is encouraging far-right political extremism. Rudd gave evidence last month that he was “fearful” of News Corp until…
CANBERRA, Australia — Business travelers and international students will be among the first overseas visitors to visit Australia when borders reopen, leaving tourists last in the queue. International travel suffered a significant setback since health advice for people under 50 to avoid the AstraZeneca vaccine significantly delayed the nation’s rollout. Reopening the border is contingent on the vaccination program, which was due to be completed by October but looks likely to stretch well into next year. Tourism and Trade Minister Dan Tehan said it could be “very much the case” that holiday-makers are among the last visitors to return in a staggered…
BRISBANE, Australia — Scientists have discovered that drugs used to lower cholesterol in humans could stop the spread of the deadly facial tumor disease (DFTD) in Tasmanian devils and help protect the endangered Australian marsupials from extinction. Devil facial tumor disease is an aggressive form of cancer that can spread when the carnivorous marsupials bite each other. Australian and Spanish scientists studied the molecular and metabolic mechanisms of the disease. They found that if cholesterol synthesis is drastically reduced, the tumors don’t grow as the cells need a minimum amount of cholesterol to multiply. The research, undertaken mainly at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research…
BARALABA, Australia — A central community group in Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland is taking its fight against a proposed coal mine on the banks of the Dawson River to the United Nations. Save the Dawson, a group of farmers and traditional owners from central Queensland, have complained to the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) against insurance company Liberty Mutual. “We write to you to lodge a formal complaint regarding serious violations of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment by Liberty Mutual, a signatory of the UNPRI initiative, concerning its ongoing attempts to develop a wholly-owned proposed greenfield coal…
MELBOURNE, Australia — Melbourne Health, one of Australia’s leading public healthcare providers, was fined AUD 340,000 ($259,412) for health and safety breaches more than seven years after a patient took his own life at a psychiatric unit. Peter Nolan, 75, died by suicide at the Melbourne Health-operated Broadmeadows unit in September 2013. Victoria’s second-largest public health service was convicted in the County Court on April 9 and fined for failing to ensure people other than employees to any health and safety risks. The breach centered on the use of a slide sheet that was used as a makeshift curtain in Nolan’s room. This…
CANBERRA, Australia — Jacinda Ardern’s government is being urged to end months of misery for New Zealand migrants and reunite families separated during the Covid-19 pandemic. For Daniel Bredenkamp, a mechanic who relocated from South Africa in the weeks before the pandemic hit, it would mean seeing his wife and two children for the first time in 16 months. “I’ve missed more than a quarter of my daughter’s life,” he said. “It’s really taking its toll on me. Physically, mentally, spiritually, in any way it can. And at this point, I don’t know whether I’m going to be alone this time…
American President Joseph R. Biden has given early signs of a lenient approach towards allowing high-skilled individuals to work in the country. But Indian information technology services companies say they will keep pursuing their localization efforts in the U.S. — their most important market. The vacillating stance of successive U.S. administrations over granting temporary work permits — given in the form of H1B visa — is the primary factor behind the call. The non-immigrant visa allows global corporations based out of the U.S. to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Global corporations, including Google, Microsoft,…
Following on the heels of a month marked by mega investments and a quarter in which Israeli companies raised a record $5 billion, April seems set to meet or beat those fundraising achievements. Some $1 billion in investments was reported on a single day of the first week of the month, indicating that Q2/2021 is going to be a doozy. The two companies accounting for most of that sum are among Israel’s many unicorns: Trax Image Recognition ($640 million in a Series E financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2) and Redis ($110 million in a Series G round…
CANBERRA, Australia — Uber Technologies, Inc., an American technology company, has rejected claims that drivers in Australia are being paid well below minimum wage but left the door open to supporting a push to guarantee base pay. The Senate’s job security select committee heard evidence from leaving gig economy players, including Uber, Ola, and Deliveroo, on April 12. Ola Cabs is an Indian multinational ride-sharing company offering services. Deliveroo is an online food delivery company founded in 2013 in London, England. Senator were told Uber Eats drivers earned an average of AUD 21.55 ($16.42) an hour during peak meal times. Labor…