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Teal MP Sophie Scamps plans private member’s Bill on junk food advertising and marketing

Teal MP Sophie Scamps plans private member's Bill on junk food advertising and marketing

A teal independent is pushing to change the way junk food advertising and marketing is regulated in a bid to stop Australia’s growing childhood obesity “epidemic”.

Sophie Scamps, who was a GP on Sydney’s northern beaches until recently becoming the MP for Mackellar, will put together a private member’s Bill to target fast-food advertisement and sponsorship.

The Bill is focused on the impact junk food has on children’s health, with Dr Scamps seeking to tackle the industry’s prevalent advertising during prime-time television, promotion on social media and its sponsorship of children’s sport.

“We do have an epidemic of overweight and obesity in this country and children are affected by that,” she told NCA NewsWire.

“We need to make the healthy food choices that parents are providing for their children the easy choice, we need to minimize that pest power.

“What I’m calling for really is a regulation of junk food advertising to children across TV and social media channels.”

Dr Scamps said childhood obesity not only creates issues for the individual involved, but the whole Australian health industry.

She said this makes taking preventive measures early on in people’s lives so important.

“Obesity and being overweight creates so many chronic diseases, everything from cancers, to diabetes, to heart disease, strokes, even depression,” she said.

“We also know with children that it’s much harder to gain a normal weight into the future if you have the problem when you’re a child.

“You can see into the future there’ll be a massive burden of disease created by this epidemic. So we either act now or we start investing in our public hospital system.”

But junk-food advertising remains a fixture of any prime-time television viewing experience, and some of the industry’s biggest restaurant chains sponsor the largest sports codes and teams from around the country.

Dr Scamps said junk food advertising through sport can have a big impact on a child’s health choices.

“We know that sport does influence children’s decisions, and we no longer advertise tobacco or alcohol to sport,” she said.

It’s another thing to look at, who is advertising or children’s sport?

The National Obesity Strategy, which was released in March earlier this year, noted that Australians “are regularly exposed to unhealthy food and drink marketing”, which included multimedia advertising and sports sponsorship.

It revealed an average five to eight-year-old child who watches around 80 minutes of television per day is exposed to 827 advertisements and four hours of “unhealthy food advertising” each year on free-to-air television.

A key potential strategy in the 10-year framework is reducing “unhealthy food and drink advertising, branding and sponsorship” to stop childhood obesity.

While the Bill is in its “early stages”, Dr Scamps believed it would be supported by parents and other MPs.

“It’s a common sense measure, it’s something that there’s precedent for. Mindsets change quite quickly once they’re introduced,” she said.

“I think parents will welcome because parents want the best for their children. They want those healthy choices to be the easy choices, they don’t want to be pestered at the checkout.

“As we’ve seen, there’s a lot of doctors who are new in the parliament as well.”

The Bill has the support of the Obesity Policy Coalition, with the group’s executive manager Jane Martin calling for urgent action to improve children’s diet habits.

“Our children deserve to go about their daily lives without being bombarded by ads for unhealthy food and sugary drinks which is the wallpaper that surrounds their lives,” Ms Martin said.

“Kids should be free to enjoy their favorite prime-time TV shows like Lego Masters without seeing ads for cookies or attend their weekend footy or netball games without fast-food sponsorships.

“This marketing influences children’s diets and impacts what kids want to eat, what they ask for and shapes their palates from an early age.”

The practices of the advertising industry are generally self-regulated through the Australian Association of National Advertisers’ Ad Standards code.

The code was updated last year to stop images of junk food being used in sponsorship advertising targeting children.

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Builders, baristas and beef farmers share in JobKeeper billions

Builders, baristas and beef farmers share in JobKeeper billions

The single largest recipient of JobKeeper was Victoria’s cafe, restaurants and takeaway food service sector which shared $1.6 billion to support up to 60,616 people.

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In NSW, more than 15,500 management and consulting services received $1.1 billion through the pandemic.

The data also showed how the farm sector dipped into JobKeeper.

Across rural NSW, more than 9,300 sheep, beef and grain-producing businesses were paid $325 million in JobKeeper. By number, the sector was the 20th largest out of the more than 900 tracked by the ATO.

That was more than double the 4014 sheep, beef and grain producers in Queensland who received $150.4 million. Another 3024 in Western Australia were paid $119 million; 2756 in Victoria received $84.5 million, while across South Australia 1838 producers were given $66.8 million.

Sheep, beef and grain producers in NSW received more than $325 million in JobKeeper through the pandemic.

Sheep, beef and grain producers in NSW received more than $325 million in JobKeeper through the pandemic.Credit:nicole mcguire

Through the early stages of the pandemic, abattoirs and meat processors struggled to stay open, which then affected the supply of meat to the nation’s supermarkets.

Farmers, particularly in NSW and Queensland, were also either drought or bushfire affected and starting to rebuild their herds and flocks.

Outside traditional mixed farming enterprises, JobKeeper was also used by 384 dairy farmers, nine deer producers, all in Victoria, 1693 mushroom and vegetable growers and 2673 fruit and tree nut orchardists.

National Farmers Federation chief executive officer Tony Mahar said Job Keeper had been pivotal to farmers through the pandemic.

“Prices for many farm commodities slumped as the pandemic hit. JobKeeper was able to support a significant number of farm businesses who in turn kept rural economies turning over,” he said.

“It allowed some farmers to keep hold of trained staff, which was hugely valuable as the worker shortage went from bad to worse.”

Earlier this year, the Auditor-General said both the Treasury and the tax office had overseen the program to a high standard. But Labor raised concerns about how up to $20 billion was paid to businesses that actually increased their turnover during the pandemic.

The ATO data, which covers the 2019-20 financial year, also shows how much money young Australians took out of their superannuation nest eggs during the pandemic.

The federal government enabled people to withdraw up to $20,000 from their super if they found themselves in financial hardship because of the pandemic. Concerns emerged early that people were using the scheme without their claims of hardship being properly tested.

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Early analysis of the superannuation access scheme showed about a third were under the age of 30.

The data shows people with the smallest super accounts, people aged between 18 and 24, took out the largest share of money. Men in this age group had a 22.1 per cent fall in their median super accounts while among women the fall was 21.1 per cent.

Both ended 2019-20 with a median balance of about $3,150.

Among 25- to 29-year-olds, the account balances of men fell by 10.3 per cent to $14,643 while among women it fell to $14,666.

Balances among 30- to 34-year-olds dropped by 8 per cent for men and women, although the gap between the sexes had grown. The median balance for a man was $35,673 while for a woman it was $33,081.

Men a decade older had a median balance of $91,642 while for women that age it was $78,750.

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Sydney Pork Rolls bakery lashed on Reddit over extra charge for cutting rolls in half

Sydney Pork Rolls bakery lashed on Reddit over extra charge for cutting rolls in half

A Sydney bakery has been lashed online for charging customers a 20c surcharge just to cut their lunch in half.

A photo posted to Reddit revealed the Vietnamese bakery, Sydney Pork Rolls, has a list of surcharges for the addition of extra ingredients such as salad, chilli, meat, ham, egg, pate and mayo.

When purchasing a banh mi from the store in the inner Sydney suburb of Haymarket, the sign informs customers extra salad will set you back an extra 50c, while extra meat and egg is an extra $1.50.

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An extra bag will also cost customers another 10c.

The bakery copped criticism online for charging customers a 20c surcharge to cut their sandwiches in half. Credit: Reddit

However, the one surcharge that had customers smoking online is the extra charge for cutting the banh mi in half.

At the bottom of the surcharge list, the sign states a “request to cut your roll in half” will cost an extra 20 cents.

Users on Reddit were quick to express their disbelief at the extra charge.

“This is a joke!” one user commented. “This pricing is getting outrageous, all in the name of inflation,” another said.

“They should ask ‘would you like to cut it in half?’ like a fast food worker upselling (by) asking if ‘you want fries with that?’,” another declared.

However, some Reddit users defended the shop, saying the outlet was well within its rights to charge extra for the service.

“Getting it cut in half means the two halves are wrapped and packaged separately. It’s completely reasonable to charge extra,” one user commented.

7NEWS.com.au has reached out to Sydney Pork Rolls for further comment.

Woman attacked by koala on highway.

Woman attacked by koala on highway.

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WA regional and FIFO flights at risk of disruption as Virgin aircraft engineers prepare to strike

WA regional and FIFO flights at risk of disruption as Virgin aircraft engineers prepare to strike

Air travel in WA — including in the FIFO sector — is at risk of further severe disruption as aircraft engineers servicing Virgin Australia’s regional fleet this week joined their Qantas Group counterparts in preparing for a wave of industrial action.

A ballot of about 1000 Qantas Group engineers on their support for a potential strike in protest over their pay and conditions closes on August 10, with the union representing the workers confident it will be decisively backed in.

The West Australian has revealed the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association this week launched a second ballot of the approximately 50 technicians working at Virgin Australia Regional Airlines.

Both polls — launched after obtaining protected action orders from the Fair Work Commission — canvas “work stoppages up to 12 hours in length” and “overtime bans”.

Between them, Qantas Group — which includes Jetstar and Network Aviation — and VARA operate the vast majority of both regular passenger and FIFO flights in WA.

VARA provides FIFO services for Rio Tinto and BHP and flies between Perth and a number of regional destinations including Broome, Darwin, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Newman and Port Hedland.

ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas said engineers at both airlines had endured years of pay freezes despite larger workloads, leading to fatigue and burnout.

He said Qantas Group engineers would commence “a token move of industrial action” within the next three weeks in the hope of prompting the national carrier back to the negotiating table.

The earliest VARA engineers would be able to engage in industrial action would be seven working days after their ballot closes on September 14.

Mr Purvinas claimed the union “do not intend to structure industrial action to disrupt services”.

“Our contest is with the airline, not the public,” he said.

“To that end we can have work stoppages but offer labor via overtime to cover the deficit in work. Certain options appear on the ballot paper but that does not necessarily mean they will be used.”

It remains to be seen what impact any kind of engineering downtime would have for airlines accustomed to operating on finely-tuned schedules.

Virgin Australia did not directly address questions about whether the airline was concerned about disruption to its WA services, a spokesperson saying only that the company was aware a protected action ballot had been launched.

“We intend to continue discussions with our team members and the ALAEA to understand the issues and work towards a new enterprise agreement,” the spokesperson said.

In a previous statement, Qantas Group said it was “disappointed” the union was threatening “completely unnecessary” industrial action.

“The latest claim by the ALAEA was for a one-year agreement with a 12 per cent pay rise for Qantas engineers,” the statement said.

“That’s something we simply can’t afford and is well above wage increases for other employees across the group.”

Mr Purvinas said the 12 per cent claim equaled to 3 per cent for each of the four years engineers’ pay had been frozen.

Both Qantas and Virgin Australia made headlines for their poor performance during the winter school holidays, including hundreds of flight cancellations and widespread delays.

In June, VARA had the worst on-time performance of any airline with nearly half of all flights either delayed or cancelled.

Travelers at Perth Airport endured another evening of chaos on Tuesday after severe storms cut off power to the site and backup generators servicing the terminals failed.

That forced all outgoing flights to be canceled — wrecking the travel plans of thousands of West Australians.

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Trains to be temporarily shut on key rail line from Sydney to south coast

Trains to be temporarily shut on key rail line from Sydney to south coast

Sydney’s commuters face major disruptions to rail services on Wednesday, after the state’s train operators warned that key rail lines between central Sydney and Wollongong will be shut down for six hours in response to a planned strike.

In advice late on Monday, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains said services would not run between 10am and 4pm on Wednesday on the T4 Eastern and Illawarra, and South Coast lines. The lines connect Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east to Bombaderry, south of Wollongong.

The operators have also advised that some Sydney Trains and intercity services may be canceled or run to a reduced timetable during other parts of the day.

Trains will not operate on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra lines for six hours on Wednesday.

Trains will not operate on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra lines for six hours on Wednesday.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The looming disruption comes despite Premier Dominic Perrottet and Transport Minister David Elliott holding discussions with the head of the rail union on Monday. The two sides remain locked in a standoff over modifications to the state’s intercity train fleet, and a new pay deal.

Rail Tram and Bus Union secretary Alex Claassens said management’s decision to shut down the lines for six hours was a “disgraceful response” to rail workers’ protected industrial action, which had been deliberately designed to ensure services could continue to run.

“There is absolutely no reason for the Illawarra line to be shut down on Wednesday. The protected industrial action being taken by rail workers will, by design, impact very few workers at any one time,” he said.

Last week, the union announced escalating industrial action this month, which will disrupt various rail lines and culminate in a refusal to operate foreign-built trains on August 31. Foreign-built trains make up about three-quarters of the state’s rail fleet.

The state’s transport agency said the planned stoppage on Wednesday would disrupt commuters throughout the day, including in the morning and evening travel peaks, due to fewer services, delays and changes to stopping patterns across the rail network.

“While the union action officially starts at 10am, our customers will start to feel the effects from around 6am,” it said. “Although all staff will return to work at 4pm, customers will need to allow plenty of extra time while trains return to the network.”

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Qantas asks executives to volunteer to fill in as baggage handlers | qantas

Senior executives at Qantas are being asked to trade their high-profile positions to work as ground handlers as part of a plan to combat labor shortages.

The embattled airline’s chief operating officer, Colin Hughes, told staff in an internal memo that Qantas is seeking expressions of interest for a contingency program over a three-month period.

“People who respond to the EOI will be trained and rostered into the ramp environment at Sydney and Melbourne airports,” Hughes wrote. “These people will support our ground handling partners, who are managing the Qantas operation, over a three-month period from mid-August.”

At least 100 managers will be recruited to sort and scan bags and transport luggage. Hughes added: “There is no expectation that you will opt into this role on top of your full-time position.”

At least 1,600 baggage handlers were sacked during lockdown, with the service outsourced to contractors, a decision that the federal court has ruled unlawful. Qantas has vowed to appeal the decision.

The once-highly regarded airline has apologized after a litany of complaints from frustrated passengers who have endured delayed and canceled flights, long queues at airports and lost baggage.

Qantas is hoping to address the problems by scheduling fewer flights in the next month and hiring more staff.

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The airline’s domestic and international chief executive, Andrew David, acknowledged that Qantas had been plagued by problems as it recovered from the Covid-19 lockdown period.

A spokesperson said the airline was committed to improving its services: “We’ve been clear that our operational performance has not been meeting our customers’ expectations or the standards that we expect of ourselves – and that we’ve been pulling out all stops to improve our performance.

“As we have done in the past during busy periods, around 200 head office staff have helped at airports during peak travel periods since Easter.

“While we manage the impacts of a record flu season and ongoing COVID cases coupled with the tightest labor market in decades, we’re continuing that contingency planning across our airport operations for the next three months.”

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Magic won’t happen at the moment, says agent who sold Chippendale apartment for $150,000 less than its purchase price

Magic won't happen at the moment, says agent who sold Chippendale apartment for $150,000 less than its purchase price

Was it overpriced? Nope.

What did you think it would go for? We appraised it 12 months ago for $1.4 million to $1.5 million. We reappraised it in March this year at $1.25 million to $1.35 million. [Records show it sold for $1,425,000 in February 2017.]

What was surprising about it?

Magic won’t happen at the moment. That one lucky buyer probably isn’t just there. You need to be realistic with yourself and the market.

What was surprising was the high percentage of people interested in it that viewed it. The numbers were low but the engagement was high. The buyers who were coming were genuine people.

Prior to listing the property, we researched inner-city apartments for sale and everything in the sold section. The properties that seemed to be marketed with no price guide were remaining for sale.

When we were listing the property we recognized that the demand for inner-city apartments was reducing and we also noticed that prices had come back from their peaks of a few years ago. We also know that a lot of people who purchased off the plan paid big prices for their property.

The sale process required a clear understanding by the vendor of how much value the property had lost since its off-the-plan purchase five years earlier.

The vendor had bought it off the plan five years ago. In our discussions with our vendor we had to make it very clear that it wasn’t a profit-making scenario to sell the property.

We have a discussion with our vendors to try to distance themselves from the process.

You have to face reality on pricing, or it’s a collector’s item.

— Agent Duncan Grady

People will happily buy a Mercedes for $200,000, sell it four years later for $70,000 and not bat an eyelid. But if they lose $1 on their property they think it’s a national catastrophe. They feel that they’ve failed. We have this discussion scores of times every month.

But leaving it on the market at an unrealistic price level is not a strategy. We realized that we had to go into marketing with a realistic price guide, which we did.

People engaged with it. At the end of the day, we had three parties making offers. The strongest buyer secured the property.

It’s a really good quality offering. It still required every bit of agency effort to get the result, which shows the state of the market.

But with a clear price indication, it sold: In the end, there were three potential buyers making offers on the two-bedroom apartment.

It was fully styled. We were showing on Sundays, doing night-time inspections. We had one open inspection from 5.30pm to 6pm and we waited till 7pm because one buyer was running late. We really went every mile for our vendor to get our result.

You have to face reality on pricing, or it’s a collector’s item. We need to recognize that borrowing power has reduced substantially with interest rate increases, which means prices have changed. And if agents and vendors are not aware of this they will do so at their peril.

Don’t hide a price to think something will happen.

Do you reckon we’ll see another result like this: a) next week b) next year c) next cycle d) never?

b) Next year. In these inner-city buildings most people have paid large amounts of money for them and are not wanting to realize a loss. Realistically, most of those will take a year to come to terms with new values, or they will hold off and then vendors, if they really want to sell, they will have to realize the current values.

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Why Atlassian is now one of the world’s most expensive tech stocks

Why Atlassian is now one of the world's most expensive tech stocks

It reaches the $US763.7 million free cashflow figure by taking net cash provided by operating activities of $US883.5 million and subtracting capital expenditure on property and equipment of $US70.6 million, alongside payments of lease obligations of $US49.1 million.

As an unofficial accounting method, Atlassian’s free cashflow also excludes other relatively minor expenses booked through its cashflow statement such as investment purchases, purchases of intangible assets, interest paid, and payment of deferred consideration.

Still, it’s correct to say that Atlassian is positive cashflow and not really losing money.

Non-cash expenses

However, the lion’s share of the discrepancy between the accounting loss and free cashflow generation is explained by about $US1.1 billion in non-cash expenses.

Free cashflow excludes $US707.1 million in share-based payment expenses accrued over the year and $US434.3 million in writedowns to the fair value of debt for equity notes.

How investors should treat share-based compensation is a divisive topic.

For Atlassian, paying your staff $US707.1 million in shares to save on cash makes a hell of a lot of sense. It also works perfectly when the market ignores the dilution, as well-paid, aligned staff grow the business and investors bid the stock higher in response.

As the shares rise the company can issue them with less dilution and save more cash on salaries amid a battle to recruit the best tech talent.

However, this trick only works effectively on the assumption your shares maintain an upward trajectory over the long term.

In theory, if Atlassian faced competition and the share price tanked its staff may demand cash instead of shares meaning its free cashflow could turn negative.

It also has goodwill on its balance sheet of $US732.6 million making up about 22 per cent of total assets of $US3.4 billion. Excess goodwill is often a sign a company needs to write down the value of its acquisitions. It has taken advantage of its richly valued scrip to make at least 18 acquisitions including Trello for $US425 million, with amortization expense on acquired intangible assets also backed out of its free cashflow figure at $US32.4 million.

Over the financial year, it also repaid $US1.55 billion in debt in exchangeable senior notes and took on another $US1 billion of bank debt.

The operating cashflow of $US883.5 million and $US1 billion of new bank debt helping available cash to actually finish up $459.4 million for the year to $US1.4 billion.

So for tech investors, Atlassian ticks the boxes.

It’s founder-led, growing quickly, generates plenty of recurring sales on high software margins, and boasts a decent balance sheet. But the jury is out on valuation.

At $US268.59 it trades on 22.5 times annualized sales and 89 times Atlassian’s definition of free cashflow in financial 2022. This means today’s buyers must rely on very strong compound growth rates over the next decade to earn a return, with the market darling likely to remain volatile given its remuneration model.

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‘Opening The Floodgates’—Crypto Braced For A $10 Trillion Earthquake As The Price Of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, Cardano And Dogecoin Swing

'Opening The Floodgates'—Crypto Braced For A $10 Trillion Earthquake As The Price Of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, Cardano And Dogecoin Swing

Bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have struggled to maintain momentum after charging higher through July.

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The bitcoin price, down around 70% from its all-time highs, had begun to rally last month but has since stalled as traders await a Federal Reserve bombshell and a “hundred-pound gorilla gets closer by the day.” The price of other top ten coins ethereum, BNB
BNB
,XRP
XRP
solana, cardano and dogecoin have also struggled.

Now, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $10 trillion in assets under management, has partnered with major crypto exchange Coinbase to provide its institutional clients with access to bitcoin.

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“This is a huge milestone for the crypto space, as it demonstrates the demand from BlackRock’s
BLK
 clients and institutional investors to access bitcoin,” Marcus Sotiriou, analyst with digital asset broker GlobalBlock, said via email. “BlackRock is opening the floodgates for institutions to access bitcoin.”

Coinbase, widely regarded as one of the world’s biggest crypto on-ramps, announced this week it would connect to Aladdin, BlackRock’s investment technology platform that handled $21.6 trillion worth of assets in 2020, allowing the global investment industry access to bitcoin, with more cryptocurrencies potentially added later.

“Our institutional clients are increasingly interested in gaining exposure to digital asset markets and are focused on how to efficiently manage the operational lifecycle of these assets,” Joseph Chalom, global head of strategic ecosystem partnerships at BlackRock, said in a statement.

BlackRock’s move into the world of bitcoin and crypto comes after chairman Larry Fink called bitcoin an “index of money laundering” in 2017.

“I think this could be seen as a green light by other funds to enter the crypto space too,” Sotiriou added, pointing to a report that found almost a quarter of fund managers expect to increase exposure to crypto-related assets over the next two years.

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MORE FROM FORBES‘Exclusive’ Oversight-Senate Introduces A Radical Crypto Bill As Price Of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, Cardano And Dogecoin SwingBy Billy Bambrough

The news has sparked a wave of bitcoin price predictions, with investors claiming BlackRock exposure could see the bitcoin price return to its all-time highs of almost $70,000 per bitcoin.

“As institutional and retail inflows pick up momentum, I predict that we will see bitcoin hit fresh all-time highs by the end of the year,” Nigel Green, the chief executive of asset manager at Vere Group, said in emailed comments. “I would not be surprised for it to hit $70,000, which would surpass the previous all-time high of $68,000 in November 2021.”

“As the infrastructure for institutional investors to place their bets on digital assets grow, so will their involvement in this market,” Mikkel Morch, executive director at Digital Asset Investment Fund ARK36, said via email, adding: “Crypto is simply inevitable at this point.”

The bitcoin price has crashed this year, tanking the wider crypto market and major cryptocurrencies ethereum, BNB, XRP, solana, cardano and dogecoin as the US Federal Reserve battles soaring inflation with a series of historic interest rate hikes and cutting its huge pandemic-era stimulus measures.

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2022 Kia EV6: 115 more electric cars available – but long wait times remain

2022 Kia EV6: 115 more electric cars available – but long wait times remain

An additional 115 Kia EV6 electric cars will be made available to buyers in the queue this year – but for new orders, long wait times of up to two years remain.

alex misoyannis
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Australia will be allocated close to 25 per cent more 2022 Kia EV6 electric cars for the rest of this year – but wait times look unlikely to improve from their current two-year mark.

As foreshadowed in June, Kia Australia’s initial allocation of 500 EV6s for 2022 will be increased to 615 cars, after successfully persuading head office in South Korea.

However, the increased allocation is unlikely to have a significant effect on wait times, with Kia Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith telling Australian media last month the customer queue – at current production rates – still stretches at least two years.

“We had 500 [cars allocated to Australia at launch], we now have an extra 100 to bring us to 600 for this year, a 20 per cent increase,” Meredith said. “The waiting time based on current output? Probably about two years.”

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The Kia Australia executive said at the time the company “could sell about 3000 [EV6s] annually, based on current demand,” if there was unlimited supply.

“We would like to be able to deliver more cars more quickly and we appreciate the high level of interest in this car,” said Mr Meredith.

“We ask our customers to please be patient, place an order, and get in the queue – because then we can go to the factory and demonstrate how many orders we have.”

The expanded allocation does not include the upcoming, high-performance GT variant, due in showrooms before year’s end. It will have its own allocation – though Kia Australia has not confirmed how many examples will be available.

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The increased allotment of Kia EV6 electric cars mirrors its twin under the skin, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, shipments of which are slated to increase over the coming months.

Unlike Kia Australia and its lengthy waiting list at dealerships, Hyundai Australia has elected to sell the Ioniq 5 at fixed prices online, to better control stock allocation.

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is released in batches (dubbed “drops”) of about 100 cars every one to two months, ready for delivery within weeks of ordering.

With the latest August 10 release included, Hyundai Australia has made 818 examples of the Ioniq 5 available to buyers over the past 12 months – 322 of which have been offered in the past three months.

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Since deliveries began early in 2022, Kia Australia has reported 346 examples of the EV6s as sold.

While Hyundai has reported 518 Ioniq 5s as sold over a similar period of time (coincidentally reporting 346 as sold in 2022).

It’s worth noting these totals are believed to include both customer vehicles, as well as those on each manufacturer’s fleet for media evaluation and promotional events (including by Kia at the Australian Open tennis event in January).

Prices were recently increased by $4600 across the Kia EV6 range – for new customers, and those already with an order. The range now starts from $72,590 plus on-road costs.

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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