Business – Page 30 – Michmutters

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Australian IT company Megaport sacks 10 per cent of staff, pays them $1.6m

Australian IT company Megaport sacks 10 per cent of staff, pays them $1.6m

An Australian tech company sacked around 10 per cent of its staff despite announcing its revenue had jumped by 40 per cent to $109.7 million in the past financial year.

The Brisbane-based telecommunications and IT infrastructure company called Megaport revealed that a whopping $1.6 million was spent paying out employees who had been made redundant.

Around 35 staff members – out of its 345 estimated workforce on LinkedIn – were impacted by the cuts.

“On July 14 2022, management made the decision to reduce its workforce in order to reduce costs and prepare for rising prices and inflation across the group’s key markets,” Megaport revealed in its report to investors.

Its revenue had grown from $78.3 million from the previous financial year, its results showed, while its monthly recurring revenue soared by 43 per cent to $10.7 million in June, mainly as a result of new customers from the US.

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The 10-year-old company, which was founded by multi-millionaire Bevan Slattery, is one of the many Aussie tech outfits that have suffered from a battering on the share market this year.

Its shares have plummeted by 53 per cent since the start of the year, but its results reported on Tuesday helped its stock rise by 9 per cent defying the broader trend of investors selling off loss making tech shares.

Megaport reported a full year net loss of $48.5 million down from $55 million the year earlier, while it increased customers from 2,285 to 2,643.

It currently has $82.5 million in cash, according to its report.

tech bloodbath

Aussie employees from the tech sector have suffered a brutal round of cuts in recent times, with Megaport’s staff the latest casualties.

An Australian social media start-up called Linktree that was recently valued at $1.78 billion is sacking 17 per cent of staff from its global operations, it revealed this week.

Immutable, an Australian crypto company valued at $3.5 billion was facing a fierce backlash last week after sacking 17 per cent of its staff from its gaming division, while continuing to “hire aggressively” after raising $280 million in funding in March.

Australian healthcare start-up Eucalptys that provides treatments for obesity, acne and erectile dysfunction fired up to 20 per cent of staff after an investment firm pulled its funding at the last minute.

Debt collection start-up Indebted sacked 40 of its employees just before the end of the financial year, despite its valuation soaring to more than $200 million, with most of the redundancies made across sales and marketing.

Then there was Australian buy now, pay later provider Brighte, that offers money for home improvements and solar power, which let go of 15 per cent of its staff in June, with roles primarily based on corporate and new product development.

Another buy now, pay later provider with offices in Sydney called BizPay made 30 per cent of its redundant workforce blaming market conditions for the huge cut to staffing in May.

Earlier this year, a start-up focused on the solar sector called 5B Solar, which boasts backing from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, also sacked 25 per cent of its staff after completing a capital raise that would inject $30 million into the business

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Holden recalls almost 14,000 vehicles over brake booster manufacturing defect

A Holden ZB Commodore vehicle in the colour white

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications has issued recall notices to the owners of 13,898 Holden ZB Commodore cars.

In a statement, the department said a manufacturing defect with the vehicle’s brake boosters could “increase the risk of an accident” and cause “serious injury or death.”

The vehicles in question were sold to drivers from 2018 to 2020.

“Due to a manufacturing defect, the brake booster may fail,” the department said in its statement.

“If this occurs, the stopping distance in the un-boosted condition would exceed the distance prescribed by the Australian Design Rule (ADR) 31/03.”

The department said the vehicles were “not compliant with the vehicle standard (ADR) 31/03-Brake Systems for Passenger Cars”.

If the brake booster failed to operate as intended, the department said, “it could increase the risk of an accident causing serious injury or death to vehicle occupants and/or other road users.”

A full list of the affected vehicle identification numbers has been provided by the department.

Affected owners offered free software update

The department said owners of affected cars would be contacted by General Motors Australia and New Zealand.

Drivers have been asked to contact their local dealer to have the Electronic Brake Control Module (EBCM) software updated, free of charge.

While the update is free, it’s up to vehicle owners to organize a time to have the task done.

So, if you’re affected, get in touch with your nearest Holden dealer to check availability.

ZB is last Holden model with iconic Commodore badge

The German-sourced ZB was the last Holden model to feature Holden’s iconic Commodore name.

At the end of 2019, the automobile manufacturer announced it would withdraw both the model and the Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand in 2020.

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Genex Power buys massive 2GW battery storage plus solar project in Queensland

Genex Power buys massive 2GW battery storage plus solar project in Queensland

Takeover target Genex Power has bought a massive battery storage plus solar project in Queensland, and plans to kick off the first stage of development with a 400MW, four hour battery – one of the biggest proposed in Australia.

The deal to purchase the 2GW Bulli Creek development from Solar Choice comes a week after Genex rejected a conditional takeover offer from Skip Capital, the private fund of one of the country’s richest people, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson.

Genex said in a statement on Wednesday that Bulli Creek will likely be developed over five stages from around 2024, starting off with the first 400MW/1600MWh battery stage, followed by the first stage of the solar PV component of up to 675MW.

Bulli Creek – first publicly unveiled as a project by Solar Choice in 2015 (at the height of the then Coalition government’s pushback against the renewable energy target) is located 100kms south west of Toowoomba, just 4kms from the Bulli Creek substation, and next to a major transmission line.

The plan by Genex to move first with the battery storage component is an interesting one. It is currently building the Kidston pumped hydro facility – 250MW/2000MWh – in the north of the state, and the 50MW/100MWh Bouldercombe battery near Rockhampton.

It also owns two operating 50MW solar farms – one at Kidston and the other at Jemalong in NSW – that have been making big profits in the recent fossil-fueled price spikes on Australia’s wholesale electricity markets.

Genex says the decision to move first with battery storage at Bulli Creek is prompted by its analysis of the market from the Kidston and Bouldercombe projects.

“The events in the National Electricity Market (NEM) in recent months have only highlighted the urgent need for dispatchable energy storage capacity to manage the transition to a net-zero economy,” it said.

It also has a strong network of partners – including battery provider and revenue underwriter Tesla and J-Power, a partner in a possible wind farm near Kidston – as a result of those developments, and says it is already in discussions with potential joint development partners . It hopes to make a final investment decision in 2H CY2024.

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Next-gen Mitsubishi Triton won’t get a V6

Next-gen Mitsubishi Triton won't get a V6

The next-gen Triton is set to take the fight to the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux.

Supplied

The next-gen Triton is set to take the fight to the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux.

Mitsubishi is hard at work on its new Triton, which is expected to amp up the tech, luxury and size factors to better fight the likes of the new Ford Ranger. But, according to a new report from Australia, it won’t feature six-cylinder power to rival the new Ranger and its mechanical twin, the Volkswagen Amarok.

Mitsubishi Australia’s senior manager of product strategy, Owen Thomson, hinted to carsales that emissions are the biggest reason why the Triton will eschew a V6.

“Emissions regulations are important and we’re yet to see how that will play out [in Australia]because everybody’s going to have to manage their fleet CO2,” he said.

The big difference between the Triton and the Ranger will be cylinder count.

Richard Bosselman/Stuff

The big difference between the Triton and the Ranger will be cylinder count.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out for Ford,” he said, regarding the high level of Australian demand for diesel V6-powered Ford Rangers.

READMORE:
* Next-gen Triton to be the first major ute with a PHEV option
* Ford Ranger loses top spot as high cost of living bites into new car sales
* Mitsubishi ASX knocks off the Toyota Hilux in June car sales
* Road test review: Mitsubishi Triton GLX-R 2WD

“Internal combustion engines are becoming increasingly harder to engineer because the emissions regulations are getting tighter and tighter. Diesels for example, even now, run on a knife’s edge to balance emissions, driveability, combustion noise, all those factors.”

Instead, Mitsubishi will likely offer a new four-cylinder diesel or a heavily-revised version of its current 2.4-liter unit, along with a performance-oriented plug-in hybrid model.

According to Internet rumblings, the PHEV Triton will use a similar set-up to the Outlander PHEV SUV. That means a 20kWh battery, an 85kW motor on the front with a 100kW motor on the rear, along with a 98kW 2.4-liter atmospheric petrol engine allowing a respectable output of 185kW and 450Nm.

In the Outlander, all-electric range is a claimed 87km (according to the WLTP test cycle). It’s unclear if that will change for the ute, but we’d imagine loading up the tray or adding a trailer will cut this down some.

The rumored plug-in Triton will use the powertrain from the Outlander PHEV.

Supplied

The rumored plug-in Triton will use the powertrain from the Outlander PHEV.

That’s not the end of the world, as PHEVs can drive as hybrids if needed to retain the full offering of torque, but it would likely segment the plug-in Triton as a lifestyle ute rather than a workhorse.

Other additions to the Triton will include a bunch of new and improved safety gizmos, with Thomson targeting a five-star ANCAP rating.

“It’s always part of the Australian requirement for Triton – it must be ANCAP five-star, no bones about it. So it will have a pretty comprehensive ADAS suite.”

Towing will also receive a bump, currently rated at 3000kg braked, to match the 3500kg ratings of its main rivals, the Ranger and Hilux.

Mitsubishi is expected to reveal its new ute in the first half of 2023. It will also form the basis of the next Nissan Navara.

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Elon Musk cited this tool in his bot dispute with Twitter. Its creator has some thoughts

Kaicheng Yang, a researcher at Indiana University’s Observatory on Social Media, received quite the surprise last week.

Botometer, a tool he helped build to examine automated activity on Twitterhad been mentioned in court documents in the legal battle between Twitter and Elon Musk over their $63 billion ($USD44 billion) acquisition deal.

Musk, who originally said part of his plan for owning Twitter was to “defeat the spam bots,” has more recently accused Twitter of lying about the number of bots on its platform, and has argued he should be able to walk away from the deal if Twitter won’t provide the information necessary to back up its publicly reported estimates. Twitter has sued Musk in an effort to compel him to complete the deal.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (REUTERS)

Musk’s answer to Twitter’s lawsuit, which was made public last Friday, states that the billionaire’s team used Twitter’s “firehose” of tweets and Botometer to analyze the number of bots on the platform.

Musk’s answer claimed that based on his analysis, “false or spam accounts” comprised 33 per cent of visible accounts on the platform during the first week of July, and about 10 per cent of its monetizable daily active users during the period.

Twitter has long maintained in public filings that such accounts represent less than five per cent of its monetizable daily active users.

Yang, one of the creators of Botometer, said he hadn’t heard from Musk’s team and was surprised to see the world’s richest man had used his tool.

“To be honest, you know, Elon Musk is really rich, right? I had assumed he would spend money on hiring people to build some sophisticated tool or methods by himself,” Yang told CNN Business on Monday.

Instead, Musk opted to use the Indiana University team’s free, publicly available tool.

Musk says his planned takeover of Twitter should move forward if the company can confirm some details about how it measures whether user accounts are 'spam bots' or real people.
Musk previously said his planned takeover of Twitter would move forward if the company could confirm some details about how it measures whether user accounts are ‘spam bots’ or real people. (AP)

Twitter has repeatedly argued bots are not actually germane to the completion of the deal, after Musk signed a binding contract that does not include any bot-related carve-outs. Still, the company hit back in a response to Musk’s answer noting that Botometer uses a different method than the company to classify accounts and “earlier this year designated Musk himself as highly likely to be a bot.”

Botometer does indeed look at the issue somewhat differently, according to Yang. The tool does not show whether an account is fake or spam, nor does it attempt to make any other judgment about the account’s intent.

Instead, it shows how likely an account is to be automated — or managed using software — using various considerations such as the time of day it tweets, or whether it’s self-declared to be a bot.

“There’s overlap of course, but they’re not exactly the same thing,” he said.

The distinction highlights what could become a key challenge in the legal fight between Musk and Twitter: There is no singular, clear definition of a “bot”.

Some bots are harmless (and in certain cases, even helpful) automated accounts, such as those that tweet out weather or news updates. In other cases, a human might be behind a fake or scam account, making it hard to catch with automated systems designed to weed out bots.

Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition in Washington on March 9, 2020.
Musk is headed into a lawsuit with Twitter over the botched deal. (AP)

Botometer provides a score from zero to five that indicates whether an account appears “human-like” or “bot-like”. Contrary to Twitter’s characterisation, the tool has at least since June rated Musk’s account as around one out of five on the bot scale — indicating there’s almost certainly a human behind the account.

It shows, for example, that Musk tweets fairly consistently across all days of the week and the average hours of his tweeting mirror a human schedule. (A bot, by contrast, might tweet all throughout the night, during hours when most humans are sleeping.)

But in many cases, Yang said, the difference between bot and not can be blurry. For example, a human could log in and tweet from what is normally an automated account. With that in mind, the tool isn’t necessarily useful for affirmatively classifying accounts.

“It’s tempting to set some arbitrary threshold score and consider everything above that number a bot and everything below a human, but we do not recommend this approach,” according to an explanation on the Botometer site.

“Binary classification of accounts using two classes is problematic because few accounts are completely automated.”

Celebrity tweets that cost companies billions

What’s more, Twitter’s firehose only shows accounts that tweet, so evaluating it would leave out bot accounts whose purpose is, for example, simply to boost the follower counts of other users — a form of inauthentic behavior that doesn’t involve tweeting, Yang said .

Musk’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story. But Musk’s answer does acknowledge that his analysis of him was “constrained” due to limited data provided by Twitter and the limited time he had to conduct the evaluation. It added that he continues to seek additional data from Twitter.

There is private data from Twitter — such as IP addresses and how much time a user spends looking at the app on their devices — that could make it easier to estimate whether an account is a bot, according to Yang.

However, Twitter claims that it’s already provided more than enough information to Musk. It may be hesitant to hand over such data, which could be a competitive risk or undermine user privacy, to a billionaire who now says he no longer wants to buy the company and has even hinted at starting a rival platform.

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The race for Australia’s cheapest electric car in 2023

The race for Australia's cheapest electric car in 2023

Five new electric cars – including four from China – are due in Australian showrooms within 12 months, each vying to be the country’s cheapest.

alex misoyannis
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The ‘affordable’ electric-car market in Australia is set for a major expansion next year, with the arrival of a range of five new contenders in the next 12 months expected to cost in the region of $45,000.

Five new electric cars – four from China, and one from Europe – are due in Australia between this month and the middle of next year, with expected price tags between $35,000 and $50,000.

For the last 18 months, Australia’s most affordable electric passenger vehicle has been the MG ZS EV small SUV, priced from $43,990 drive-away at launch in late 2020, before rising to $44,990 drive-away last year.

But an imminent mid-life upgrade for the ZS EV will push the starting price to $46,990 drive-away – opening the door for cheaper competition within MG’s own model range, as well as Chinese rivals Great Wall Motors (GWM) and BYD.

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Australian pricing has only been locked in for one of the five cars – which comprise the Chinese MG 4, Ora Good Cat and BYD Dolphin hatchbacks, BYD Atto 3 SUV, and Italian-built Fiat 500e city car – however they’re all expected to cost within a few thousand dollars of each other.

First of the five to launch will be the BYD Atto 3 (above), the first mass-produced model sold in Australia by BYD, short for Build Your Dreams – one of China’s largest electric vehicle makers, distributed in Australia through local company EVDirect.

EVDirect says it has received more than 4000 orders for the Atto 3 – and the ability to source up to 3000 examples from China each month – ahead of the first customer deliveries, due to begin this month.

The BYD Atto 3 is priced from $44,381 plus on-road costs, or $44,990 to $47,932 drive-away – up to $2000 less than the entry-level MG ZS EV Excite in most states (except NSW, Victoria and Western Australia).

Due next year are four small hatchbacks, all expected to cost from around $40,000 to $45,000 drive-away – but of varying sizes, from the city-sized, 3.6m-long Fiat 500e, to the four-metre-long, five-door BYD Dolphin (or Atto 2), and larger, 4.2m-long Ora Good Cat and MG 4 EV.

If overseas prices are a guide, the BYD Dolphin – alternatively slated to wear the Atto 2 badge – may be the cheapest of the bunch, at about $37,000 plus on-road costs (or $40,000 drive-away) for a top-of-the -range version.

This flagship variant is powered by a 44.9kWh battery and either a 70kW or 130kW electric motor, good for up to 400km of claimed driving range under lenient Chinese testing procedures.

With a smaller 30.7kWh battery fitted – for 300km of claimed driving range – Chinese prices suggest an entry-level model could slot in below $35,000 drive-away, however Australian details are yet to be confirmed.

Due at a similar time is the MG 4, available in the UK with 51kWh or 64kWh battery packs and 125kW or 150kW electric motors, delivering between 350km and 452km of driving range according to more realistic European WLTP test protocols.

Using UK prices as a guide, an entry-level MG 4 with the smaller battery pack and less potent motor could cost just over $40,000 drive-away in Australia – a mild price premium over mid-grade versions of petrol cars, such as a Toyota Corolla SX Hybrid ($34,500 drive-away in NSW).

A flagship MG 4 with all features and the longest range could cost about $49,000 drive-away – undercutting the top-of-the-range ZS EV Essence, which offers a higher seating position, but 320km of claimed driving range.

It remains to be seen how the Ora Good Cat – the first right-hand-drive model in a new brand of electric cars from China’s Great Wall Motors, and sized similarly to the MG 4, or a Volkswagen Golf – is priced in Australia.

While some industry estimates placed it below $40,000 drive-away – based on Thai pricing, where the Good Cat is 20 per cent cheaper than a ZS EV – it could cost closer to $50,000, as in the UK its price matches the MG ZS EV variant equivalent to Australia’s $49,990 Essence model grade.

That price gets UK buyers a 48kWh battery pack and 126kW/250Nm electric motor, claimed to be capable of 311km of driving range, and an 8.3-second 0-100km/h time. A larger 63kWh battery capable of covering 420km on a charge is available overseas.

The smallest of the five cars is the Fiat 500e, the successor to the petrol-powered 500 – launched in 2007 as a resurrection of the iconic 1950s Fiat 500 (Cinquecento) – due in showrooms sometime next year.

Despite its size – and lack of rear doors – the 500e may prove to be one of the most expensive of the upcoming ‘budget’ electric cars, with UK pricing suggesting flagship versions may nudge $48,000 drive-away.

If this estimate proves true, it would be the most expensive Fiat ever sold in Australia – excluding the large Ducato van – and close to double the price of the current petrol-driven 500, which starts from about $27,000 drive-away (in NSW) .

While a mid-grade version with fewer features could cost closer to $43,000 drive-away, it’s still higher than even the Abarth 695 hot-hatch version of the current 500, which starts from about $40,000 drive-away after a recent price rise.

Of the two powertrains available in Europe, most likely for Australian showrooms is a 42kWh battery pack and 87kW electric motor, which are said to enable up to 320km of WLTP driving range and a nine–second 0-100km/h acceleration time.

The first of Australia’s new ‘affordable’ electric cars is due this month (BYD Atto 3) – with the MG 4 and Ora Good Cat due to follow early next year, the BYD Dolphin/Atto 2 between March and mid-year (though orders are due to open this year), and the Fiat sometime in 2023.

Other new small electric cars set for Australian launches next year include the Cupra Born hatchback and Renault Megane E-Tech small SUV – but these are likely to cost in excess of $55,000 plus on-road costs.

stay tuned to Drive for full details of pricing and specifications for four of the five cars detailed earlier, as their launches approach next year.

Australia’s most affordable electric vehicles, from 2023

  • BYD Dolphin (or Atto 2) – $35,000 to $40,000 estimated
  • MG 4 – $40,000 to $49,000 estimated
  • Ora Good Cat – $40,000 to $50,000 estimated
  • BYD Atto 3 – $44,990 (Tasmania) to $47,932 (Western Australia)
  • Fiat 500e – $43,000 to $48,000 estimated
  • MG ZS EV – $46,990 to $46,990 nationwide

Note: All prices in the list above are drive-away

alex misoyannis

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines as a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

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McDonald’s Australia: ‘Disgusting’ trend takes off on social media

A disgusting new trend has emerged where young Australians are mocking McDonald's staff by replacing burger patties with fish

‘Disgusting’ McDonald’s trend takes off across Australia – but fast-food workers are NOT impressed and it’s ruining their days: ‘Grow up mate, that’s not funny’

  • Disgusting new TikTok trend has emerged with Aussies pranking Maccas staff
  • Prank sees people replace Filet-O-Fish patty with a dead fish
  • Customers then attempt to pass it off as a mistake to McDonald’s workers

By Sam McPhee For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

A ‘disgusting’ new trend has emerged where young Australians are mocking McDonald’s staff and uploading videos of their encounters to TikTok.

A tradie named Dylan posted a video of himself replacing the processed Filet-O-Fish hoki patty with a dead fish – before attempting to pass it off to McDonald’s staff as their mistake.

The female worker dismisses the attempt, saying she was aware of the viral trend.

‘Yeah, real funny guys. I’ve seen it on TikTok, not tonight,’ she replies.

A disgusting new trend has emerged where young Australians are mocking McDonald's staff by replacing burger patties with fish

A disgusting new trend has emerged where young Australians are mocking McDonald’s staff by replacing burger patties with fish

The clip shows the young man standing in a high-vis vest outside a McDonald’s restaurant, opening the burger to reveal the dead fish inside.

Dylan then walks inside the chain and up to a staff member where he claims to have a complaint.

He again opens the burger for her, before she immediately recognizes what he’s doing.

A tradie named Dylan posted a video of himself replacing a fillet-o-fish protein with a dead fish - before attempting to pass it off to Maccas staff as their mistake

A tradie named Dylan posted a video of himself replacing a fillet-o-fish protein with a dead fish – before attempting to pass it off to Maccas staff as their mistake

‘That’s funny guys, it didn’t come from here,’ she says.

‘It’s real funny, not tonight, we’re busy.’

Australians weren’t impressed with Dylan’s attempted joke and stood up for the hospitality worker.

‘Grow up mate, that’s not funny,’ a man replied.

In a response to Daily Mail Australia, a spokeswoman from McDonald’s said: ‘We can assure our customers, our Filet-O-Fish comes scaled, cooked and delicious.’

Australians slammed for showing no manners at McDonald’s

Australian fast food diners have been slammed for having no manners after leaving a city fast food restaurant littered in rubbish.

A customer waiting for their takeaway order filmed the dining area of ​​the Melbourne city McDonald’s restaurant last month.

Garbage is piled up on the floor and tables – including food wrappers, half-eaten burgers, scattered fries and discarded drinks.

The mess didn’t seem to bother plenty of customers, who took a seat amid the rubbish to eat their food.

‘Melbourne Maccas is something else… They would have to fire me before I cleaned any of this up,’ the uploader wrote.

Australians have slammed the state of a Melbourne McDonald's restaurant left covered with rubbish (pictured)

Australians have slammed the state of a Melbourne McDonald’s restaurant left covered with rubbish (pictured)

Aussies were shocked at the messy surroundings and questioned how people could brazenly throw their rubbish where other customers were eating.

‘Who would sit in that cesspit? I would be furious about the state of that,’ one person wrote.

‘How can people be so inconsiderate, just use the bin,’ another said.

‘And Melbourne is one of the top ten most livable cities in the world?’ a third said.

Some commenters tried to provide an explanation for why the restaurant would be that messy.

‘If this is near the clubs on a Friday or Saturday night it’s not that out of the ordinary,’ one person said.

‘The manager probably tolerates it for the amount of business they’re getting,’ added another.

‘If it’s after midnight the employees might be told to just leave it as it’s a health and safety issue,’ a third said.

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Qantas increases interval between domestic and international from 60 to 90 minutes to reduce baggage mishandling

Qantas increases interval between domestic and international from 60 to 90 minutes to reduce baggage mishandling

Qantas has announced a major change impacting passengers catching a domestic flight before jetting off overseas.

The national carrier has been looking at ways to deny issues around staff shortages which has seen the rate of mishandled bags almost doubled to nine in 1000, up from five in 1000 pre-COVID, The Australian reported.

Passengers connecting from Qantas domestic to international flights in Sydney and Melbourne will have their minimum transfer times extended from 60 minutes to 90 minutes from August 21 in a bid to avoid baggage issues.

The additional “buffer” is considered sufficient for the bags to be successfully transferred without being mishandled amid the current staffing shortage and sickness rates which are 50 per cent higher than normal.

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Customers with an existing booking where the transition between a domestic flight to an international service is less than 90 minutes will be transferred to an earlier domestic flight without charge.

Passengers who will have their flight changed under the new interval will be notified by the airline which said the “vast majority” of travelers would get a flight on the same day.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the measure was to help improve operational performance which had dipped due to the recent staff shortages.

“While there are lots of good reasons why, the simple fact is our operational performance hasn’t been up to the standard our customers are used to, or that we expect of ourselves,” Mr Joyce said.

“We are taking additional steps to get back to our best, which have been shaped by feedback from our frontline teams who are doing a phenomenal job under tough circumstances.

“Bringing our operations back to pre-COVID standard and maintaining our focus on safety is our absolute priority.”

The decision comes just days after it was reported Qantas asked senior executives and other office workers to fill in as baggage handlers amid the staff shortages.

The Australian reported on Monday that the national carrier had called on at least 100 managers and executives to opt into a short-term arrangement over the next three months.

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Why CBA boss is alert but not alarmed about financially stressed borrowers

Why CBA boss is alert but not alarmed about financially stressed borrowers

For instance, about 40 per cent of borrowers is on low fixed interest rates. Only a small portion of these loans will come to term this year. The bulk of these fixed loans roll off in a year to 18 months, which is when these customers will feel the full onslaught of higher rates. And there remains a sizable rump that rolls off in 2024 – by which time there is a likelihood the RBA would have begun easing rates again.

Add to this the fact that 78 per cent of home loan borrowers are ahead with their payments and a third of customers are two years ahead.

But there is also 26 per cent who are less than three months ahead – a buffer that could be quickly eroded with rates rising.

In total, CBA mortgage customers have $64 billion sitting in offset accounts – $19 billion more than there was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past year, the bank has also increased its serviceability buffers such that new borrowers will need to demonstrate an ability to service a loan with an 8.3 per cent interest rate.

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In addition, the average home-loan size has fallen from almost $400,000 to $375,000 in the space of six months.

That said, the proportion of applicants borrowing at capacity has risen slightly but remains at a relatively low 8.7 per cent. The remainder have additional capacity to borrow.

And the biggest group of home loan borrowers are those earning between $200,000 and $500,000, and within that band, more was slow to investors than owner-occupiers.

At June 2022, 0.4 per cent of the combined value of all mortgages was in negative equity – which means the amount of the loan is greater than the value of the property it is secured against. Most of these come from Western Australia.

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While this has been falling and, as such, is a positive, the continued decline in house prices, expected to be about 15 per cent from peak to trough, will result in an increase in negative equity. And more than half of the value of home loans are sitting at a loan-to-value ratio of less than 60 per cent, which means borrowers have a comfortable equity buffer.

This explains why the level of arrears has been trending down over the past two years.

That said, the numbers provided by CBA are a snapshot of where it is today.

By the time we reach peak rates, the picture won’t look as rosy for borrowers.

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CBA said it has provisions to deal with what it anticipates will be the most likely scenarios around rates, economic growth, the decline in the value of housing and an increase in unemployment.

Over the coming months, the economic picture will become clearer as will the degree of fallout from higher rates and a slower economy.

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MacCap rounds up deal for Gumtree, Carsguide owner GCA Group

MacCap rounds up deal for Gumtree, Carsguide owner GCA Group

Importantly, the bankers said GCA Group expected 15 per cent annual revenue growth and 40 per cent EBITDA growth between 2022 and 2026, on a compound annual growth rate basis. The sharp pickup in revenue and earnings was put down to “resilient trading coming out of COVID with motors revenue acceleration underway”.

Combined, the three businesses were said to have more monthly visits than any other online classifieds company in Australia except REA Group, however operated at a lower total revenue per visit.

The bankers said GCA had 37 million monthly site visits in November last year, for $2 in revenue per visit. Domain had 30 million visits for $7 per visit revenue, while Seek and Carsales had fewer visits but much higher revenue per visit.

Potential Apax tie-up?

It’ll be interesting to see who ends up acquiring the business. PE firm Apax Partners has made a splash in the sector recently, buying both NZ’s TradeMe and more recently Pickles Auctions in Australia, while Quadrant Private Equity has a history in online auctions with Grays.

GCA’s owner, Adevinta from Norway, announced its decision to divest the Australian brands last November following its acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group. By May, it told investors the process was progressing well.

It’s a quick flip for Adevinta. The company backed Gumtree’s acquisition of Cox Media’s Carsguide and Autotrader in 2020.