Montgomery said he would remain the executive chair of the business, as well as the chief investment officer of the private fund.
Australian Eagle would keep its North Sydney offices for now, but would go into Montgomery’s Castlereagh Street offices on non-work-from-home-days.
Both funds were put on watch by rating houses Zenith Investment Partners and Lonsec, as they prepped for out-of-cycle reviews to weigh the manager changes.
Poor returns, high fees
The 10-year-old Montgomery Fund has posted 7.32 per cent annualized over the nine years to July 31 after fees, which was 0.67 percentage points a year lower than S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index over the period.
It’s ahead of the benchmark on a since-inception basis at 143.69 per cent cumulative return, versus 140 per cent from the index.
The private fund, which was and will be co-managed by Montgomery, fared worse. It has posted 133.29 per cent since it launched in December 2012, which was 13.4 per cent lower than the ASX 200 Industrials Accumulation Index.
Australian Eagle Asset Management’s Sean Sequeira. Tamara Voninsky
Its performance has worsened in the past year, with the fund returning -12.95 per cent when the benchmark did 3.48 per cent.
Montgomery pointed out the two funds’ returns were better than the benchmark on a three-year annualized basis.
“The MIM team have improved their performance over the last few years, but not many managers can match the track record of Sean and Alan and the team at Australian Eagle,” he said in response to the funds’ under-benchmark returns.
The new manager, Australian Eagle Asset Management, has been around since 2004/2005 and currently manages about $250 million. Its long-only strategy has beaten the index by 4.1 per cent since inception and by 3.82 per cent on a one-year basis, according to the firm. (It also runs a long/short strategy).
Montgomery Investment Management only works with smaller-ticket investors and has stayed away from managing money for institutional funds.
It was called out for its high fees and high cash allocation by Lonsec in 2020. Montgomery said it hadn’t changed its fees since then, and there was no immediate plan for them to change under the Australian Eagle deal.
Over the last three years, the firm has increasingly looked to external fund managers to expand its business, instead of building internal investment capabilities. It’s now in global equities (via distributing Polen Capital’s strategies down under), Australian small caps (via a joint venture with Gary Rollo and Dominic Rose) and credit (via a distribution agreement with Aura Funds Management).
“We’d be flattered to be thought of in those circles,” Montgomery said, when asked if his business had transitioned from an investment firm to a funds distribution business like Pinnacle, Fidante or GSFM.
“Difference is those operators would have multiple managers in similar strategies,” he said adding his firm was much more focused.
A speculative bubble, wrote Nobel laureate Robert Shiller in irrationalExuberancehis landmark book on human foolishness, is “a situation in which news of price increases spurs investor enthusiasm, which spreads by psychological contagion from person to person, in the process amplifying stories that might justify the price increases and bringing in a larger and larger class of investors, who, despite doubts about the real value of an investment, are drawn to it partly through envy of others’ successes and partly through a gambler’s excitement”.
Observers of the tech industry are wearily familiar with this kind of irrationality. Throughout 2020 and 2021, as Covid-19 wreaked economic havoc on countries throughout the western world, the tech industry remained strangely untouched by what was happening on the ground. While the rest of us cowered in lockdown, the pandemic made tech bosses and owners insanely richer. Their companies grew faster and became even more profitable while other industries languished. Apple had so much extra cash that it spent $90bn (£74bn) – nearly the gross domestic product of Kenya – buying its own shares. Amazon laid out $50bn in 2021 on warehouses, hiring tens of thousands of employees, ordering fleets of electric vehicles and building cloud computing centers. And so on.
So while the pandemic had put many conventional companies on life support, it looked as though it had consolidated the dominance of Alphabet (neé Google), Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple, making them the new masters of our networked universe.
And then something happened. On 19 November 2021 the Nasdaq stock market index (which is heavily influenced by tech companies) stood at an all-time high of 16,057, then suddenly went into rapid decline. As I write, it stands at 12,369. And so the question became: was this just what economists euphemistically call a “market correction” or an indicator that this particular speculative bubble had really burst?
The answer, if the quarterly figures released last week by the tech giants are anything to go by, is that it looks as though the bubble has at least been punctured. The numbers, according to an analysis by Luke Gbedemah and Sebastian Hervas-Jones of Tortoise Media, suggest that a split is emerging between the companies that can “sustain an economic downturn and those that might be facing existential decline”. The figures indicate that, for the first time in the history of the industry, the combined real revenue growth rate of the companies was negative rather than positive and real revenues overall were less than the year before.
Alphabet’s revenues, for example, were up by 13% but its profits fell by 14%. Apple’s revenues increased by a whisker but profits were down by more than 10%. Amazon’s revenues were up by 7% but profits fell by a whopping 60.6%. Meta – that is, Facebook – had a terrible quarter, with revenues slightly down but profits dropping by 36%. Just about the only bright spot was Microsoft: its revenues were up by nearly a fifth, but even then profits just inched up by 2%.
In interpreting these numbers, the usual caveats apply: these are just one quarter’s results (though Meta has now had two dreadful ones); global supply chain problems and pulling out of Russia may have had a disproportionate impact on Apple; and Amazon’s results may reflect the impact of its huge investment in Rivian, the electric vehicle manufacturer, from which it has ordered 100,000 vehicles.
But overall, one has the feeling that these giant money-printing machines are moving into territory that is unfamiliar to them – territory where, instead of having endless resources for expansion and experimentation, margins will be squeezed, costs and perks cut, workers fired and efficiencies found. Suddenly, Alphabet’s chief executive is calling for staff “to be more entrepreneurial, working with greater urgency, sharper focus and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days”. Similar sanctimonious exhortations are doubtless being issued by his counterparts at the other giants.
Two further thoughts stand out. The first is that the period of what one might call “tech exceptionalism” – the era when these companies and their cheerleaders were lauded for being different from normal, boring corporations – may be drawing to a close. From now on, they’re just corporations – like BT or Unilever.
The second is the extent to which we have all underestimated Microsoft simply because it fumbled the smartphone opportunity. Instead, it focused on providing the basic computational infrastructure of the organizational world. The NHS, for example, has something like 750,000 PCs, all of them running Microsoft operating systems and software. Ditto for the UK government, large corporations, university administrations and small and medium-size enterprises in the western world. And it now has a successful cloud computing business. It’s not glamorous or exciting but it’s a rock-solid, enduring business. If you bought shares in it 30 years ago, you’d have the basis for a pretty good pension now. And it’ll still be around when Facebook is just a bad memory.
What I’ve been reading
on sail The Maintenance Race on the Works in Progress website is a riveting account by Stewart Brand of the first round-the-world solo yacht race.
Algorithm and blues Kyle Chayka’s interesting new yorker essay The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety explores the subtle pressures of surveillance capitalism.
photo finish Instagram Is Dead is an angry blogpost by talented photographer Om Malik about how Meta has destroyed a platform he valued.
Private equity types think of it as a potential COVID-19 re-opening type trade, with the ability to bulk up gym membership numbers after a tough few years for the industry. It’s also one that plays into the aging population/increased focus on health trends thematic. It may be one of the more defensive plays in the sector given its membership prices.
fighting fit
Anytime Fitness is a large multinational budget gym franchise chain, which started in the United States at the turn of the century and entered Australia in 2008.
The Australian business, under the Anytime Australia Pty Ltd corporate account, has about 570 locations mostly in NSW and Victoria, and is focused on budget 24-hour gym franchises.
It’s the No.2 player in Australia with 17.4 per cent market share, according to IBISWorld’s sector report as at March, placing it behind only Quadrant Private Equity’s Fitness and Lifestyle Group, which owns a bunch of brands including Fitness First, Goodlife Health Clubs and Jetts Fitness.
The market’s reasonably concentrated, with four players accounting for nearly 60 per cent of the industry’s revenue.
IBISWorld reckons Anytime Australia would have reported about $380 million revenue in the year to June 30, including franchise revenue. While the 2021-22 number would be up on the previous two years, it would still trail the $400 million recorded before the pandemic.
Russo tells The Australian Financial Review’s How I Made It podcast that after losing another job, she decided she would start her own company. She set up a typing school in 1979.
Sarina Russo was fired as a legal secretary. Now, she’s one of the country’s richest women.
But things were tricky for female founders then. She remembers her de ella accountant telling her that for all the rent she was paying, she could probably buy her own offices. “We started looking and not one real estate agent would take my call,” Russo recalls.
She asked her brother-in-law, a lawyer, to call the agents for her.
“And of course, they took his call. And the rest is history. I bought 82 Ann Street [in Brisbane], which I still own today. I’ve never sold it.”
The building is part of an extensive property portfolio spanning Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
Building her property and business interests took persistence. She was fired quite a few times, but Russo does not believe in failure.
“I didn’t believe I failed. Every job I went for, I learned more than the last job. I was not a failed legal secretary, I was different. I challenged the status quo,” Russo says.
In 1979, Sarina Russo started a typing school.
When Russo was fired from her job at a typing school, the students demanded she be brought back, she tells the podcast.
“I got reinstated. but as she [my former employer] was telling me to come back, and persuading me to come back, I thought, ‘I can do this on my own’,” she says.
“So that was a boost of confidence that I got from the students.”
Russo went to the bank, which required a big chunk of her savings as security for an overdraft facility.
“I virtually kick-started the company with 600 bucks,” she says.
“And I gave myself eight months that I was going to do this. And I was determined. I used to work 17 hours a day to drive this little business. In the first year, I was making more money than the prime minister of the day.”
Russo has since expanded, and the company boasts more than 100 offices that help get people into employment, training and education.
But it has not always been easy. In 2009, Sarina Russo Job Access lost government contracts for 11 areas in Brisbane and south-east Queensland, representing about 30 per cent of its national market share.
Headlines screamed she was set to sack hundreds of staff as a result. Except, she did the opposite.
“I said, I’m not going to make one person redundant. Everyone will have a job. I’m going to keep all the offices open. And I’m going to re-engineer the company. And we re-engineered ourselves,” she says.
“We moved to the UK, to the Midlands, and we actually shook the tree. And we placed over the last 10 years there in the Midlands something like 10,000 [people]. I was told that I’d never make it in the UK because I didn’t belong to the class distinction. And I said, well, watch me.”
Hear what it takes to earn your way onto The Australian Financial Review Rich Lists. Sign up where you get your podcasts or on Apple, Spotify.
New photographs taken by an Australian traveler show a heartbreaking sight in Bali.
While more tourists are returning to the party island since international travel resumed, and businesses are reopening, things are still not quite the same at the famous tourist hub of Kuta as they were before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
But despite this, there are still some parts of the resort area that remain a ghost town, with some of the pubs, shops and restaurants that were once major tourist drawcards still closed.
This can be seen in images of the once-popular Kuta Town Houses and its surrounds, which now appear to be an abandoned site, boarded up and overgrown with weeds.
Traveler Kat Willeme told news.com.au that on a recent visit she had gone for a morning walk to check out the area and was surprised by what she found.
“What an absolute heartbreaking sight to see things in such disrepair and all the surrounding businesses shut down,” Kat said.
“The area used to be so lively and was the main thoroughfare between Poppies Lane 1 and 2. We are understanding now why they are both struggling to recover.”
However, she said it’s crucial for tourists to keep coming back to support Bali as “they need our help”.
She explained that most of her friends have businesses in the area which were still struggling to recover, unlike other parts of Bali which were thriving. She hopes to raise awareness of what’s really going on in Kuta, in the hopes of bringing life back to the area.
“It is not like this everywhere,” she said.
Kat also posted the images in a Facebook travel group and it was flooded with comments, many reminiscing about the past and devastated to see the state of the building now.
One commenter said: “So sad – this was such an awesome place.”
Another said: “This is a crying shame. We are so lucky in this country. Good buildings going to waste, only increased tourism can remedy this. Please help by visiting Bali.”
And a third wrote: “Yes it’s so sad! We were there recently and it was a sight to see. Just want it back to the way it used to be.”
Another commenter shared some fond memories: “It’s so sad. We stayed there since they opened and they were like family … It’s the worst to see it all so overgrown.”
Others pointed out that with the boards removed, and some weeding and general maintenance work done, the building would look much better.
Closed for business
Kat also shared other images from the streets of Kuta showing businesses that are shut. They include places such as the Matahari Shopping Center on Kuta Square, and other eleven-busy shops nearby.
She said there were many shops still shut along the formerly bustling Poppies Lane 1.
Meanwhile, most shops are open for business along Poppies Lane 2, but due to some local hotels being shut Kat said she noticed “there is a lack of foot traffic getting down there”.
She also said popular businesses such as Tubes and Bagus Pub are shut, along with the famous Bounty Hotel which Kat said “is still all boarded up and looking a little shabby”.
But there is hope that things will slowly improve.
A local advised her the Bounty is hoping to reopen in September after doing some renovations.
“You can see them doing work and repairs everywhere you go and more and more stores and hotels are reopening each day,” Kat said.
tourism revival
The Covid-19 pandemic caused international travelers to disappear from the island nation, leaving 400,000 Balinese people without jobs.
In April this year, Indonesia’s Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno asked Australians to return, as the nation “misses” us.
“We want you guys to be back,” he told 9news.
“We are seeing demand, very healthy demand from Australia in particular. Bali is now open.”
Honda has revealed a new version of its compact E electric car – but, as with the standard model, it won’t be coming to Australia
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Sling has revealed a limited-edition version of its first purpose-built electric vehicle, the 2022 Honda E Limited Edition – but as with the car it’s based on, it’s not coming to Australia.
Based on the flagship Honda E Advance model, the recently-announced run of 50 special-edition cars can be distinguished by their unique Premium Crystal Red paintwork, black 17-inch wheels and other darkened exterior elements.
To celebrate its launch, Honda invited Red Bull Racing Formula One driver Max Verstappen – who drove a Honda-engined car to an F1 World Championship last year – for a steer through the Italian neighborhood of Dozza.
The Honda E Advance is a fully-electric hatchback powered by a single rear-mounted electric motor developing 113kW/315Nm. It features a 35.5kWh battery pack and is claimed to be capable of 220km on a full charge.
the 2022 Honda E Advanced Limited Edition is priced from £38,120 drive-away in the UK, which converts to about $AU67,000.
Given the Honda E range is not offered by Honda Australia, don’t expect to see the new Limited Edition on our roads.
However, that has not stopped private enterprise fulfilling the burgeoning need for electric cars in Australia. Drive has had the chance to review an imported Honda E on local soil – click here to read that review.
After more than a decade working in the product planning and marketing departments of brands like Kia, Subaru and Peugeot, Justin Narayan returned to being a motoring writer – the very first job he held in the industry.
The Californian restoration company has paused orders for its iconic million-dollar Porsche 911-based model, as it prioritizes even more profitable versions.
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Iconic US Porsche restorer Singer has announced the order books for its range of million-dollar modified 911s are closed indefinitely – as the company pushes even more expensive upgrades to the front of the queue.
Having established itself as the go-to company for restored and modified Porsche 911s throughout the last decade, Singer says it won’t build any more of its $US650,000 ($AU930,000) “Classic” models for the foreseeable future.
Instead, the California-based company will focus on its upcoming “Turbo Study” – a modern interpretation of Porsche’s iconic 930 Turbo from the late 1970s.
Expected to cost at least $US750,000 ($AU1.07 million) – excluding taxes and the price of the donor car – the Turbo Study will be the most expensive model to come from Singer’s workshop to date.
Singer Classic North Island Commission in New Zealand
In an interview with UK publication topgearSinger Vehicle Design founder Rob Dickinson said his company would shift its efforts towards the Turbo Study, with limited production of the Classic likely to safeguard the values of existing cars.
“We’ve capped it to about 450 (cars). We’ve got a lot of Turbos to build.
“I’d love to say there’s a master plan… there isn’t really a master plan. There wasn’t a master plan 12 years ago when we started, we’re kind of making it up as we go along.
“We’re just trying to be respectful to the guys that are buying the (Classic) cars. We want to maintain the values of the cars if they change hands afterwards of course, which I think has more to do with the perception of Singer as a ‘brand’ over and above the quality of the cars.”
All 450 examples of Singer’s Classic models have been built as bespoke creations for each owner, although they share the same formula and philosophy.
Based on the 964-generation Porsche 911 – which owners must supply as a ‘donor vehicle’ or starting point – Singer takes the rear-engined sports car and completes a forensic restoration and modification process.
All Singer Classics are designed to recapture the shape of the first-generation Porsche 911s, although significant upgrades are made under the skin to bring its engine, suspension, and brakes up to modern standards.
Dickinson promises Singer will use lessons learned from his Classic production run in building the Turbo Study.
“Wheel arches making promises the wheels can’t keep was a phrase that kept buzzing through my head,” Mr Dickinson told topgear.
“Using that opportunity to put some bigger brakes on the car, upgrade the mechanical grip, and just getting out of the way of the iconography and celebrating the great bits… and editing some of the not-so-great bits.
“It’s time to have a go at turbocharging – synonymous with Porsche in so many ways.
“To do a refined car, really chase the NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) and make the car – dare I say it – luxurious and something that made you feel super good as well as being fast and super refined was another challenge for us after the DLS and the Classic, which we’ve been doing for 12 years.
“Turbo lag has always been a conversation with (original) 930 Turbos.
“This engine (in the Turbo Study) has no lag at all. Nothing. We could introduce some lag – count three seconds and then it comes, which we might do for a bit of fun.”
Computer illustrations of two customer orders have so far been released, one in Wolf Blue and the other in Turbo Racing White with green stripes.
However, with further testing and fine-tuning expected to start in the next few months, the first production Turbo Study may not hit the road until the end of 2024.
Jordan Mulach is Canberra/Ngunnawal born, currently residing in Brisbane/Turrbal. Joining the Drive team in 2022, Jordan has previously worked for Auto Action, MotorsportM8, The Supercars Collective and TouringCarTimes, WhichCar, Wheels, Motor and Street Machine. Jordan is a self-described iRacing addict and can be found on weekends either behind the wheel of his Octavia RS or swearing at his ZH Fairlane.
Many Tripadvisor reviews of DK Oyster Mykonos allege the place is a scam. The owner, however, has hit back at the negative press, saying: “we have advertised in the ways we consider suitable for our restaurant and we will not succumb to the influencers who have been attracted to the beautiful island of Mykonos.”
Reviews of DK Oyster Mykonos on Tripadvisor do not paint a pretty picture. Of the 1,074 reviews that exist at the time of writing, 631 of them are “terrible” (read: one star out of five). 33 are “poor,” 19 are “average,” 52 are “very good” and 339 are “excellent.”
Tripadvisor also has a “message from Tripadvisor” above the reviews. The message reads: “Tripadvisor has been made aware of recent media reports or events concerning this property which may not be reflected in reviews found on this listing. Accordingly, you may wish to perform additional research for information about this property when making your travel plans.”
Disgruntled reviews of DK Oyster. Credit: Tripadvisor
Interesting. So, what’s the backstory? Basically, there are a bunch of tourists who claim they were scammed by the restaurant. They claim they had a hard time getting their hands on menus, and that the blackboard prices were either hard to decipher, or misleading. One mother and daughter say they were charged €600 ($881 AUD) for two drinks and a plate of crab legs.
When they questioned the bill, they were allegedly told: “I will call the police. They will keep you here and you will not return to your homeland. We can easily find where you live.”
A Canadian couple on their honeymoon made a similar complaint, telling media they were charged $570 USD ($818 AUD) for a dozen oysters, a beer and an Aperol spritz. The couple say they were not provided with a proper menu, pressured into ordering food and given a bill in Greek.
RELATED: The Embarrassing Mistake Every Tourist Makes In Paris
According to Meterthe owner said if they weren’t given a cocktail menu, despite asking for one, they shouldn’t have placed an order.
He said the woman was an “influencer looking to get famous” and that “no adult in their right mind” would order a drink without first checking its price.
As for the other similar dozens of complaints (of customers being refused menus) on Tripadvisor of the restaurant, the owner said he had decided to put three blackboards at the entrance displaying prices, in response.
More disgruntled reviews of DK Oyster. Credit: Tripadvisor
The common flu Tripadvisor reviewers have seems pretty clear: astronomical prices, which only become evident when you get the bill.
One review, entitled “worse” read: “Terrible don’t go. Scam artists and cons. Honest businesses don’t resort to these kinds of tactics. Don’t know why they are allowed to be open.”
RELATED: Santorini’s ‘Other Side’ Instagram Doesn’t Want You To See
Another said: “SCAM! THIEVES! DON’T GO HERE!“. This was followed up by: “Absolutely the worst! I was charged 600 Euros for a drink and a portion of oysters. They are total scammers!”
It has also been called “a complete con,” a place with “no menu or prices” and a place the police should take a close look at. Another Tripadvisor reviewer said “the owner is deluded” claiming he (as part of a group) “ordered 36 Oysters between our group of 6, the waiter said they were very cheap but very tasty – GREAT we thought.”
Yet more angry reviews. Credit: Tripadvisor
The story continues: “When the bill came they wanted $2400 – I’m fairly sure they have hired ex-military staff who will stand over you until you pay, I noticed a very long machete under his black robe that he looked at and then winked at me.”
“I thought about running out, but I couldn’t leave my entourage behind… So i offered to settle the bill at $150 which I felt was more justifiable, in short this place is a joke.”
Regardless of how much poetic license you believe is evident in these reviews, if you don’t like paying high prices for oysters and alcohol, DK Oyster would seem like a good place to give a miss.
They outline a campaign that started last week to shape public discussion and position the auto industry as a “trusted voice” in the “moderate middle” of the climate debate. But behind the scenes, they are lobbying policymakers to adopt rules that would preserve petrol and hybrid cars that are the main business of the biggest manufacturers such as Toyota for decades to come.
Asked about the strategy, FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said the industry group wanted to see significant emissions cuts in the sector but there were constraints around the number and cost of low emissions cars available.
“We want a sensitive debate predicated on the availability of technology, price points and what Australian consumers want to buy, not some sort of debate created around ‘we need to do something by 2050’,” Weber said.
“We want to transition to low-emissions technology but you’ve got to put it in the context of the country you’re in. We’ve had the climate wars over a decade — we’re late to this party. We’ve also got to recognize the Australian context, what Australian consumers drive.”
The auto industry’s existing emissions scheme relies on a system of “super credits” in which lower emissions vehicles are awarded points that can be used to offset higher polluting vehicles.
Audrey Quicke, a climate and energy researcher at the Australia Institute think tank, said voluntary standards were lax, riddled with loopholes and opaque in the way they calculate emissions performance.
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Australia’s car industry could comfortably exceed its own voluntary standards for 2030 by operating in a business-as-usual manner as more electric and hybrid vehicles from overseas flow into the Australian market, the FCAI documents show.
“The current FCAI industry target achieves a reduction in CO2 emission from new car sales that exceeds both the Paris commitment of 26 to 28 per cent and the new government’s commitment of 43 per cent over 2005 levels,” the FCAI’s strategy says.
But analysts point out that the government’s 43 per cent by 2030 emissions cut target applies to the nation’s total emissions. Reaching a 43 per cent cut for new car sales in 2030 would still mean car emissions fell far short of a total 43 per cent target because the vast majority of cars on the road are over one year old.
“Anything that delays emissions standards is going to create problems for the longer term [because] almost every single petrol car sold in Australia in the next couple of years is still going to be on the road in the 2030s and 2040s, and that’s when Australia needs to be getting to net zero,” said Gareth Bryant, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney who specializes in climate and energy finance.
“From the car companies’ perspective they’re operating globally so they’re pigeon-holing Australia as a place where they can keep selling these polluting, high-emissions vehicles,” Bryant said. “They can rejig production to balance it out. To some extent they can use Australia as an offset for places where there are standards.”
Transport is Australia’s third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and the sector is getting dirtier, with CO2 output rising by 48 per cent since 1990 and most of those emissions coming from the tailpipes of cars and trucks on the road.
The FCAI documents acknowledge that regulation and deeper emissions cuts are coming, and call for big boosts in electric car charging points and other infrastructure, while fighting for the core issue of keeping fuel efficiency standards favorable to the biggest manufacturers.
The objective is to “implement a mandatory new car CO2 regulation in line with the FCAI voluntary standard,” the documents say. The FCAI strategy concedes that “the government is unlikely to adopt the current FCAI standard without change”. Weber said the industry would continue to review its targets.
Confidential research prepared for the car industry group suggests Australia’s car market is about to radically change shape as more hybrid and electric vehicles displace internal combustion engine cars.
Currently, 88 per cent of new passenger vehicles sold are powered by internal combustion engines, with 10 per cent having versions of hybrid engines and just 2 per cent having battery-powered electric engines. Plug-in electric cars are less than 1 per cent of the market, the research shows.
But with new models flowing in from many global car companies, and prices for versions of electric cars expected to plummet, the market is expected to look vastly different by the end of this decade.
Even without further government action, hybrid vehicles will make up over half of all new passenger vehicles sold by 2030, the research shows, with internal combustion engine vehicles making up 24 per cent and battery-powered electric vehicles 18 per cent. Plug-in electric cars would make up 4 per cent of new sales.
“The price of an entry BEV (battery electric vehicle) midsize car will decrease by $17,400 between 2021 and 2030,” the research says.
The strategy mirrors aspects of the approach used overseas by car manufacturers such as Toyota, which combines public statements about environmental stewardship with behind-the-scenes pressure on policymakers to weaken regulation of car emissions.
Toyota formed “Team Japan” in that nation along with Subaru, Mazda, Kawasaki and Yamaha to defend the place of petrol and hybrid cars in the face of competition from electric vehicles.
Toyota last year refused to commit to a Glasgow Declaration pledge to phase out fossil fuel cars by 2040, saying “an environment suitable for promoting full zero emission transport has not yet been established” in many parts of the world.
Influence Map, an independent international think tank that records climate change-related lobbying by companies and industry groups, found Toyota to be the world’s third worst offender in attempting to quash emissions cuts after Chevron and Exxon Mobil in an analysis of 350 large-emitting global companies.
“Automotive industry associations are spearheading global opposition to climate regulation across major markets,” Influence Map concluded in a report released this year.
Green groups in Australia have also observed the parallels, describing the car industry’s public relations efforts as greenwashing.
“The car lobby’s engagement with fuel efficiency standards reflects the pattern we’ve seen elsewhere – conjuring roadblocks where there are none,” said Lindsay Soutar, a Greenpeace researcher who has tracked car company lobbying activities around the world.
Industry insiders said some in the auto industry were uncomfortable with the FCAI’s strategy, with division emerging between manufacturers who sold electric vehicles and those who had focused on petrol and hybrid vehicles.
The organization’s membership is based on market share, with the biggest manufacturers such as Toyota holding dominant roles. The FCAI’s chair is Toyota Australia’s chief executive Matthew Callachor.
The federal government has announced financial support for a network of electric vehicle charging stations, with a focus on rural Australia and cuts to fringe tax benefits which would lower the price of some electric vehicles.
A spokesperson said the transport department had “already been tasked with establishing a unit to drive our domestic transport sector towards net zero emissions” and was considering “further policy positions”.
Behyad Jafari, chief executive of peak body the Electric Vehicle Council, the members of which would stand to benefit from stronger fuel efficiency standards, said Australia was a global outlier for its lack of standards.
“The reality is that emissions standards are what car companies are used to facing all around the world,” Jafari said. “It’s business as usual for them and they have adjusted to produce cleaner cars in many places. But not here.”
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After getting stung with a sudden $90 a week rent increase, Hoshi in Bunbury, WA, set about selling what they owned.
Key points:
Young people are more likely to have picked up extra work than any other age group
Financial insecurity means they are generally more exposed to inflation
Aside from their normal full-time jobs, some are teaching languages at night or picking up weekend cafe shifts
First, the furniture, bicycles, and sports equipment. Then, clothes and jewellery.
Finally, they gathered up the little things that had sentimental value.
They would sell them last.
“I’m not just missing $90 a week,” they said.
“With the price of vegetables and transport costs going up, it feels like someone has really just taken a huge bite out of that financial flexibility.”
Faced with rent increases, price hikes and stagnant wages, Hoshi is one of many young people who have been hustling for income on the side, outside of their normal job, to make ends meet.
The rush to pick up extra work has been seen across most age groups, but has been greater with young people, who are generally less financially secure and more exposed to the effects of inflation.
Young people are the most likely age group to have more than one job, and this trend is on the increase, ABS data shows.
For many, the situation is dire, but some are finding creative ways to stay afloat.
Working 9-5, and then hustling
Rose earns $200-$400 per week from three separate side hustles.(Supplied: Rose)
Outside of her full-time 9-5 office gig, Rose tutors French and Italian over Zoom, delivers online food orders, and sells the pot plants she propagates in her crowded Sydney apartment.
The hustle began two months ago, after lockdowns had eased and, like many, Rose found that the extra socializing was expensive.
On top of this, she had recently moved from a sharehouse to escape the chaotic and cramped experience of COVID lockdowns.
Living alone had been affordable when she was bunkering down, but not anymore.
“Lockdown kind of changed things — it made me want to have a bit more stability in my life,” she said.
“I got used to a nicer way of living at home and now I’m going back to those old comforts of going out, and I have to readjust.”
At the same time, the prices of most things are going up.
Average weekly rental payments have increased almost 10 per cent over the past year, while inflation is rising at its fastest rate since 1990.
Fruit and vegetable prices have risen almost 6 per cent in the June quarter alone.
Wages grew 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2022, or less than inflation, meaning the average wage shrunk.
For Rose, side-hustling is a way to break even while still going out.
Tutoring brings in up to $100 a week, food delivery anything from $100-$200, and selling plants nets less than $50.
“[The side hustles] can be about an extra $200-$400 a week sometimes,” she said.
“It turns out that I don’t have as much disposable income at the end, once I’ve paid all my bills.”
After moving house, Rose realized how many plants she had — and that she could propagate and sell some.(Supplied: Rose)
The rush to pick up extra work
COVID and lockdowns have seen the rate of what the ABS calls “multiple-job holding” bounce around over the last few years.
Towards the end of last year, with lockdowns easing, the number of multiple-job holders jumped 13.1 per cent.
According to the ABS, just under 900,000 Australians were working more than one job in the December quarter — more than at any other time since the bureau started keeping such records in 1994.
But not all age groups were affected equally.
This rush to pick up extra work was by far the greatest among young people.
Note the big spike in the light blue line (15-24 year olds) in December 2021.
That’s the point where lots of young people rushed out to get extra jobs, signing up to deliver food or pick up shifts in hospitality.
It’s also roughly when inflation and rent increases started to bite.
In the UK, where inflation is even higher, a recent study found almost half of Gen Z have recently started a side hustle to make ends meet, or plan on starting one in the near future.
Many of the extra jobs Australians have been picking up are in hospitality, retail and administration.(Unsplash: Robert Anasch )
One reason for this was that young people were generally more exposed to inflation than older Australians, said Impact Economics and Policy lead economist Angela Jackson.
“Young people are more likely to rent and therefore this takes up a bigger part of their income,” she said.
“The price rises facing younger people are much higher than the average figure.”
Also, young people were more likely to have been unemployed during the pandemic, and have depleted their savings.
“They might not have that buffer,” she said.
“They’re facing rising costs with nothing behind them.”
Extra jobs in retail, hospital, admin
A lot of the extra jobs Australians have been picking up are in retail, food services and administration, ABS data shows.
Katy, whose name has been changed, works 9-5 in a communications role and struggles with the “exorbitant” price of groceries, electricity and petrol.
“It’s feeling like going out to dinner with your friends is a crazy thing to do — I’ve never felt like that before.”
Financially stressed, the 27-year-old recently went back to working weekends at the cafe that she had employed her seven years ago.
“It’s a huge relief knowing that I’ll get paid on the weekend — it’s a cash-in-hand situation,” she said.
Tips for reducing your expenses
Inflation continues to rise and experts predict a further 10 per cent increase in average rental payments over the next 12 months, so it’s worth looking at ways to save money, if you haven’t done this already.
Most money experts recommend writing down your expenses, and then dividing these into items that you have to pay (like rent), those you can reduce (like groceries), and those you can potentially cut entirely (like buying takeaway or even streaming subscriptions) .
Then go through each category, and look at ways to spend less.
“Talk to your landlord about a rent reduction,” said Angela Jackson of Impact Economics.
“It’s better for the landlord to have you in the house than to have the house vacant.”
In most parts of the country, you can shop around for the cheapest energy provider.
Check if you have gym memberships or streaming subscriptions you don’t use.
Finally, don’t be too hard on yourself.
You’ve probably already cut back on expenses and are trying your best to save, but rising prices are making this harder and harder.
“Even if you’re doing all those things that everyone advises you to do, it’s still going to be very difficult,” Ms Jackson said.
If you’re finding yourself in financial trouble, you can reach out to the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 for free financial advice.
In each state and territory you can also access food assistance and rental and crisis accommodation.
