News

The Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens says the outlook for the global financial system is improving, but there are still challenges ahead.

A leading media and communications lawyer is warning of a dramatic increase in civil and criminal defamation cases against Australian businesses and individuals, due to the lack of awareness and understanding of the legal ramifications at stake for users of social media.

Over 40 percent of Australians check work emails whilst on holiday, a new survey has found.

Newly appointed Shadow Minister for Small Business Deregulation, Competition Policy and Sustainable Cities, Bruce Billson has expressed his “enthusiasm” at being given the opportunity to help tackle the challenges small businesses face in Australia.

Disgruntled postal workers across the country have announced they may go on strike in the lead up to Christmas, after negotiations with Australia Post failed to deliver a new enterprise agreement, reports The Herald Sun.

Google adds Twitter, Facebook to search results Google has begun adding real-time social media results to its search engine, pulling various feeds from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Google fellow Amit Singhal made the announcement at a press event held near the firm’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, on Monday. “We are here today to announce […]

A new survey has found that many Australians with home-based businesses chose to keep clients in the dark about operating from home, for fear of losing business.

Consumer confidence dented by rate rise Consumer confidence fell in December, dented by the Reserve Bank’s decision to lift interest rates for the third time in as many months. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer confidence fell by 3.8 percent in December, and is now down 4.7 percent since September. The fall has come as […]

Economy to remain sluggish until 2011 The Australian economy will remain slugging for at least the next 18 months, and growth will be slow, according to a senior Treasury bureaucrat. In a speech to the Australian Business Economists (ABE) conference in Sydney, Treasury director of the Domestic Macroeconomic Group Dr David Gruen said that the […]

As the cash rate continues to increase, economists are putting their bets on just how high it will go, with many believing it will peak somewhere around the four to five percent mark by 2010.

Australia Post’s draft proposal to increase the price of stamps once again from 55 cents to 60 cents has been rejected by competition watchdog, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

While the Federal Government has been working to cut red tape for Australia’s business community, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) is doing just the opposite by issuing new draft guidelines which would ramp up reporting complexity for many Australian businesses, says Grant Thornton Australia.

Federal opposition leader Tony Abbott has today announced his new front bench with some surprising results. Most notably, Small Business Minister Steven Ciobo has been dumped and replaced by replaced by sustainable development spokesman Bruce Billson.

Businesses want tax cuts and lower interest rates Australian businesses would prefer tax cuts and lower interest rates to stimulus incentives, a new survey has found. According to the Atradius Economic Crisis Survey, 59 percent of Australian businesses surveyed believe the Federal Government’s stimulus incentives made no difference to their businesses, with the majority believing […]

SMEs say ETS is not the right solution A new survey has found that the majority of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) believe that the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) in its current form is not the right solution. A survey conducted by SME Boardroom last week found that one third of SMEs support […]

A new survey has found Australian businesses were remarkably upbeat last month, despite a second rise in interest rates. NAB’s monthly business survey found that business confidence rose three points to +19 in November, the highest level recorded since may 2002. While business conditions eased two points to +10, they still maintained most of the […]

Retailers in for a “modest” Christmas Retailers are in for a slow Christmas this year, with retail sales growth expected to be “modest” as rising borrowing costs and slower wages growth erodes spending, Access Economics says. The economic forecaster released a report this morning, revealing Christmas sales would be reasonable, but well short of boom […]

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 […]