Penalty rates for millions of workers will be legally protected under laws set to be introduced when federal parliament resumes. Measures enshrining penalty rates and overtime pay as workplace conditions will be among the first pieces of legislation brought into parliament as part of the Albanese...
More and more Australians are delaying retirement as the dream of home ownership becomes a nightmare at the end of their working life. The number owning their home outright has halved in the past 20 years, census data shows, while the proportion of over-65 households with...
Extending the weekend could be the recipe for improving employee health and the secret sauce to boost business productivity. A large-scale, peer-reviewed study has found a four-day working week could reduce employee burnout and improve job satisfaction. But the research released also found that working fewer hours...
Workforce participation by women must be at the forefront of the federal government’s productivity agenda, as experts call for policies that continue to improve gender equality in Australia. Gender equality advocate Helen Conway has recently been appointed president of Chief Executive Women (CEW) and says the...
Laws to cut debts for university students and graduates are expected to be waved through parliament, saving people hundreds of dollars a year in repayments. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said legislation to slash HECS debts by 20 per cent and increase income thresholds before minimum...
Australia’s banks should use artificial intelligence to enrich their customers’ lives and help address hesitation towards the technology, the corporate watchdog says. The nation should not rush into heaping more regulation on AI as guardrails are already in place and more rules could have a chilling...
Australia needs to bring back a carbon tax and should never have dumped the measure, an economic heavyweight says. Ex-Treasury secretary Ken Henry, now a leading environmental advocate, derided the Abbott-led coalition government’s decision to repeal the carbon price, which came into effect under Labor prime...
The level of Australian businesses going under appears to be stabilising, but firms are still becoming insolvent at record-high numbers. Restaurants and construction firms remain hardest hit in CreditorWatch’s monthly Business Risk Index, which found more than 14,000 businesses went bust in the 2024-25 financial year. But...
Being pushed off a playground fort and breaking his arm at age nine – twice in one month – might just have saved Matthew Larman’s life. The first time, abnormal liver readings had doctors worried he’d torn it but scans were clear and he went home...
Meta has told Australia its privacy reform is “out of step” with international norms and risks discouraging industry investment in AI. The social media giant’s warning to the Productivity Commission comes as chief Mark Zuckerberg and other executives are being sued by shareholders in a $8...