Jessica Stanic

More businesses are becoming confident about their sales and profit expectations for the March 2010 quarter, the latest Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) survey shows.

Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly has defended the bank’s decision to increase interest rates by almost double that of the rate set down by the Reserve Bank, claiming that the rate decision was a consequence of higher funding costs.

Independent panel to settle business squabbles With squabbles between businesses said to have soared during the global financial crisis, a trio of organisations has launched a bid to become Australia’s official ‘business umpires’, in what they hope will become a new boom economy for Australia. The Australian Centre for Commercial International Arbitration (ACICA), along with […]

Business groups keen to slash red tape The Federal Government’s draft reforms to cut red tape and improve corporate reporting, formally announced today, have been welcomed by leading business advisory firm BDO. BDO director Wayne Basford, an audit technical expert, urged the Government to ensure the Corporate Amendment (Corporate Reporting Reform) Bill 2010 would pass […]

Business owners advised to take a break over Christmas Australian business owners that fail to take a break from their business over the Christmas period risk damaging their health and their business, a leading business expert has warned. Nic Clark, CEO of national business development franchisor, 10X, said not taking holiday leave can cause exhaustion, […]

Good news for job seekers as job ads rebound After months of uncertainty, job seekers have finally been given some good news, with a major survey of employment advertising reporting a rebound last month. The ANZ bank reported in its monthly survey, the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the […]

Queensland seems to have weathered the worst of the global financial crisis, with 77 percent of CEOs having positive views on the economy and 60 percent saying they were likely to hire in the next six months, according to the inaugural CEO Financial Index. The CEO Financial Index, commissioned by The CEO Institute’s Queensland members, […]

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson will today unveil a craft that could soon carry tourists on an out-of-this-world trip into space. Branson will unveil Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2), an aircraft that can carry six passengers and two pilots on a trip into the unknown galaxy, at $215,000 a pop. The Mojave desert, between Los Angeles […]

St George follows Westpac’s lead on interest rates St George has followed Westpac’s lead on interest rates, moving past the Reserve Bank’s 25 basis point increase, lifting its standard variable home loan interest rate by 0.39 percent. Westpac sparked furore late last week when it announced a 45 basis point increase to its standard variable […]

Google hits back at newspaper critics Google has hit back at its newspaper critics, rebuffing suggestions that it is profiting from their content. Fronting the World Newspaper Congress in India, Google chief legal counsel David Drummond told angry publishers that the search giant is a friend, not a foe. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt also […]