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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s embarrassing Netflix deadline looms

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's embarrassing Netflix deadline looms

When the current history of Hollywood gets written, April 19, 2022 will go down as the day that everything changed.

It should have been a routine earnings call during which Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings took tech and business reporters through the company’s latest figures. Instead, Hastings revealed that the company had lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers for the first drop in numbers in 10 years.

The revelations immediately set off something of an earthquake from Wall Street to Los Angeles, with $75 billion in value being wiped off the company’s value in 24 hours.

Why this matters are the consequences this precipitous, stunning reversal in fortune could have for two people about 450km south of Netflix’s headquarters, in the wealthy enclave of Montecito.

In the course of that one earnings one call, not only did the streaming giant’s once-unassailable hold on the entertainment industry come unstuck, but so too did the supposedly cashed-up future of Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, start to look much less certain.

Monday marks 712 days since the world learned on September 2 2020 that the newly self-emancipated Sussexes had signed a reported $US140 million ($A197 million) deal with Netflix via no lesser news outlet than the New York Times with the story trumpeting the duo’s “new Hollywood careers”.

But today, those “new Hollywood careers” have yet to actually take off while once mighty Netflix has lost more than $US200 billion ($A280 billion) in value (yes, billion with a ‘b’) this year.

Nearly two years on from all the self-contributory ballyhoo of September 2, 2020, the landscape for both the titled duo and the streamer has significantly shifted beneath them all.

Will – or even can – the Sussex/Netflix marriage survive?

Not only have the fortunes of Netflix lurched wildly since 2020 but so have Harry and Meghan’s.

At the time the deal was announced, it seemed like the most obvious and logical pairing: Two of the most famous people in the world would worthily churn out documentaries or some such; inreturn; Netflix got to tout the fact that they had a real life Duke and Duchess on their books. Harry and Meghan would get squillions; the company would reap the rewards of the PR coup of the decade.

However, the royal duo are not exactly the sizzlingly-hot property they were back then now are they?

More than 30 months have passed since Harry and Meghan absconded from a life of stifling royal duty for the greener pastures of California and that lucrative embrace of corporate America.

In that time they have managed to ink a series of headline-making deals, including also with Spotify, the coaching company BetterUp and with Ethic, a fintech asset manager, along with launching their charitable foundation and undertaking a seemingly never ending parade of photo opportunities. .

On paper it sounds like it’s been a whirligig of achievement and just the sort of industrious self-starting that America was founded on. Except … what have they actually achieved?

Yes, they have made a series of donations to causes ranging from the World Food Kitchen to helping fix a women’s shelter’s roof after a storm which reflects their generosity and hunger to help others. Kudos. But writing a check here and there is hardly the sort of work that will ever see them make the long list for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sadly, for two people who seem to truly care, there is not one issue, not one cause they have really moved the needle on since they embarked on this new life of theirs.

More importantly for their Netflix and Spotify paymasters, they have failed to genuinely set themselves up as leading voices of the day. They might do their darnedest to sell themselves as inspiring leaders but the proof is in the flaccid pudding that was the lackluster turnout to Harry’s recent UN speech from him.

The international community was hardly turning up in droves to hear him speak while Washington has largely ignored them.

Meghan’s cold-calling of senators about paid parental leave last year went down about as well as a gluten and dairy-free scone at a Buckingham Palace garden party and the Duchess has yet to emerge as any sort of powerplayer ahead of the midterm elections later this year.

In late June, the former actress took part in a conversation with feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem for fashion after the horrendous quashing of abortion protection, saying: “Well, Gloria, maybe it seems as though you and I will be taking a trip to DC together soon.”

Nearly two months on, the Duchess has yet to turn up inside the Beltway.

The bottom line is this: Harry and Meghan have proven totally unsuccessful at making themselves matter in the corridors of power in Washington, New York, Silicon Valley or Los Angeles.

The magic dust of their royalty has largely dulled in the last two years and the novelty factor has worn off. So too has their deal-making momentum seemed to have waned with them not having announced any other venture since July 2021 last year when it was revealed Harry was busy working on a memoir.

Things might look different today if in the last 712 days the Sussexes had been churning out series after doco after one-off specials for Netflix, but as we all know, that is not the case. The company has only ever publicly announced two Sussex projects: Harry’s documentary about the sporting event for wounded armed services personnel Heart of Invictus (an amazing initiative he started years ago as a working member of the royal family) and an animated children’s series from Meghan called Pearl.

In early May it was announced that Netflix was axing the Duchess’ show as part of a much bigger cost-cutting move, with numerous high-profile projects canned as the streamer dramatically tighten their belts.

Then later the same month came news that the company was about to get, as Page Six put it, their “pound of flesh” from the duo with the revelation that Harry and Meghan were already filming something called an “at home” docu series which has a hint of the ignominious about it. (More recent reporting has suggested that Netflix wants it to air before the year is out.)

Potentially hundreds of millions of dollars are riding on this docu series for the self-supporting, private jet-flying, polo-loving Sussexes.

If it turns out that the Duke and Duchess are TV gold, if they are about to demonstrate that they are binge-worthy stars who can pull in streaming viewers globally, then their US careers are set. Get another polo pony! Hell, buy seven.

But, if they fail to live up to the hype and the rhetoric? The huge sums being touted and all those lovely millions supposedly coming their way could dry up faster than a Californian lake.

(And it’s not as if their docuseries is likely to feature much royal access given that Harry and Meghan were embarrassingly sidelined by The Firm when they were in London for the Platinum Jubilee.)

Netflix is ​​clearly a very patient company when it comes to their superstar recruits. Take Barack and Michelle Obama who signed to Netflix and Spotify after they left the White House.

However, this week, Harry and Meghan will break the Obamas’ track record of the 716 days which elapsed between their Netflix deal being announced and their first marquee project starring one of them, coming, being released. (And in the interim they had released two children’s shows and produced two documentaries, one of which won an Oscar.)

Harry and Meghan might have titles and the Buckingham Palace Wi-Fi password but that is not enough of a distinction for big companies to merrily tip millions into their bank accounts for the chance to work with them. They have to actually do something to provide themselves.

They can’t just hope they can coast along on the whiff of a mothballed HRH here forever more.

Since that earnings call in April, Netflix has laid off hundreds of staff and made the drastic decision to finally introduce advertising to the platform. Can the company still afford to carry big name stars who don’t deliver on their books?

Just how much patience and faith will this newly humbled Netflix have for their yet-to-perform big-name hires?

To some degree, the same goes for Spotify too here.

In April, Meghan’s first outing for the audio giant called Archetypes was announced, promising a “groundbreaking” series would launch during the northern summer. With only weeks to go before autumn begins, again, the clock is ticking.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

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Business

Capel Court scammers steal $250k from NSW widow, $2.56m stolen altogether

Capel Court scammers steal $250k from NSW widow, $2.56m stolen altogether

A group of sophisticated scammers have stolen a quarter of a million dollars from a widow in NSW.

Lily*, a retiree from the NSW Mid North Coast near Port Macquarie, has been left reeling after learning she poured her $250,000 fortune into a fake investment scam.

The woman’s term deposit account was maturing and she was searching for a better return on her money.

In February this year, she was paying for her groceries at her local Woolworths when she picked up a magazine that had an advertisement inside it for an investment company called Capel Court.

“I contacted Capel Court as a result of the advert in the publication I’d seen, I’d noted the phone number and I rang them,” Lily recalled.

The so-called investment company had an online login portal and multiple employees with mobile and office phone numbers listed.

After going back and forth with company representatives for several weeks, including having a solicitor look things over, Lily eventually transferred her money in March believing she was investing in a European Investment Bank government bond.

Just a few months later news.com.au exposed that the Capel Court investment scheme was a sham. Including Lily’s losses, scammers have stolen at least $2.5 million that news.com.au knows of from six Australian victims. The highest individual loss totaled $750,000 and even an accountant in his 40s fell for the scheme.

After coming across the article and realizing she had been duped, Lily said, “I was stone cold, absolutely shocked. Probably for two weeks I cried on and off.”

Lily doesn’t have children and her husband has passed away so she was planning to leave whatever was left of her life savings to medical research to help cancer and Alzheimer’s patients.

She spoke to two different scammers who called themselves David Jones and Stephen Jones who answered all her questions and guided her through the process.

They promised her a 6.45 per cent return on her investment, with documents to back that up, which would mean she would be receiving $16,000 per year from dividends.

They tried to pressure her into depositing the money by saying there were limited spots available in the bonds fund as it was oversubscribed.

Lily almost wasn’t able to deposit her money because of the flooding along the east coast earlier this year.

“The flooding came between where I lived and where the bank was,” she said.

During the floods, the scammers called her up several times trying to get her to send the $250,000 onto them.

Finally, on March 10, Lily went into her local Westpac branch and by teletransfer, she moved $250,000 into a bank account for an instant payment system called Cuscal.

She claims bank staff didn’t ask questions and partly blames them for this unfortunate situation.

“I didn’t have any more contact [with the scammers] after everything was signed and sealed,” she said.

Have a similar story? Get-in-touch | [email protected]

In May, Lily learned she had been scammed after reading news.com.au’s previous articles.

Sure enough, when she went on the website had disappeared and she wasn’t able to get in touch with David or Stephen Jones.

“I’ve had a shocking two and a half months. I have to be [upbeat] otherwise I’d be so depressed I’d probably top myself,” she said.

Westpac wouldn’t comment on Lily’s individual case citing privacy reasons. They did not respond to questions about how they allowed an elderly woman to transfer $250,000 in one payment without raising the alarm.

“There has been a rise in investment scam activity, and we encourage all Australians to be vigilant,” a bank spokesperson said.

“Westpac invests heavily in scam prevention and has robust processes in place to alert and protect customers. We work hard to recover money for customers where possible.

“Investment scams often promise low risk for high returns. We encourage people to do their research and seek independent financial advice before making an investment.”

Sadly, this is not the first time this scamming syndicate has duped Australians out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

News.com.au has previously reported on this same group of scammers, who posed as Barclays and Macquarie Bank and EQR Securities.

They scammed one Melbourne man out of $700,000, another schoolteacher out of $500,000, a retired couple lost $200,000 and an accountant fell for it too, losing $160,000. Another widow lost $750,000.

In October last year, retired Queensland couple Antje and Bardhold Blecken had $200,000 stolen from them when they mistakenly believed they were investing in a Barclays Bank term deposit.

Then in March, Melbourne man Andy* thought he was investing $700,000 into bonds with Capel Court. It was fake and he lost his life savings.

Robert*, an accountant, also sank $160,000 into the fraudulent Capel Court group while NSW couple Jody and Corey Bridges lost $500,000 to the same scam.

Michelle Lowry transferred $750,000 to EQR Securities in December last year, which also turned out to be fake.

News.com.au can definitively link these separate scam websites because the same aliases and mobile numbers were used by the fraudsters.

The scammers used multiple aliases including William Hughes, Ben Davis, Jacob Price, Oliver James and of course David Jones.

These particular scammers are fans of rapid payment platforms like Cuscal, Money Tech/Monoova and also cryptocurrency platforms including Binance, TechMarket AU/ED Australia and ElBaite. They have also used bank accounts through the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Citibank and NAB to channel money. It’s understood many of these accounts are under investigation.

In May, news.com.au reported on Melbourne widow Jacomi Du Preez, who lost $760,000 from the life insurance payout of her husband in an elaborate Macquarie Bank term deposit website that turned out to be fake.

Luckily, Ms Du Preez realized it was a scam within a day and was able to recover all her money.

A cyber security expert, Nick Savvides, told news.com.au these particular scams are “sophisticated” and “well-resourced”.

He believes it is likely they had a group of at least 20 people working together to steal large sums of money.

The money has probably ended up overseas and could be part of an organized crime gang.

Names withheld over privacy concerns

[email protected]

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Business

Fewer than 120,000 people inhabit Kiribati yet they apparently hold $682m in Australian banks

Kiribati kid on a swing

There are 33 islands in Kiribati, a small nation in the central Pacific Ocean. Only 20 of these are inhabited.

Yet data released by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and found that $682 million in Australian bank accounts belonged to foreign tax residents apparently from Kiribati, up from just $14 million in 2019.

Fewer than 120,000 people inhabit Kiribati and, according to Kiribati’s 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), the median household income was just $12,000 in 2020.

The nation’s residents are also quite young: the median age of the population is 23 and 35 per cent of the population is under 15 years old.

But the 876 Australian bank accounts apparently held by Kiribati residents had an average balance of almost $800,000.

Kiribati is not the only remote area where people, companies or trusts that hold Australian bank accounts apparently reside.

Tuvalu, with a population of 11,792 in 2020, had 212 accounts registered to “residents” holding $194 million in Australia.

That is an average of more than $900,000 per account, when the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person in Tuvalu is around $7,500 per person.

Equatorial Guinea, in central Africa, had 52 accounts registered’ to residents holding $4 million.

Individuals, trusts or companies from the eleven notorious secrecy jurisdictions of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Jersey hold $6.3 billion in accounts in Australia. On average each of these accounts holds more than $1 million.

Profile picture of tax and social justice advocate Mark Zirnsak
Mark Zirnsak notes ‘red flags’ for money laundering and tax evasion.(Supplied: Uniting Church in Australia)

“The latest data of accounts held in Australia from offshore continue to present red flags for money laundering and tax evasion,” according to the Tax Justice Network’s Mark Zirnsak.

Jurisdictions like ‘Antarctica’ generally reported by mistake, says ATO

The data shows that holdings from uninhabited subantarctic Bouvet Island, Heard Island and McDonald Island have now disappeared, which means there are no Australian bank accounts linked to places with penguins but no people.

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Categories
Sports

Cameron Smith smashed for ‘cowardly’ LIV Golf Series response, world view, reaction, video

Cameron Smith’s pending defection to LIV Golf has been met with a mixed reception. Photo: Getty Images

Cameron Smith’s imminent defection is being viewed as the biggest “coup” to date for LIV in their quest for legitimacy.

Until now, The PGA Tour and its supporters could argue that the rebel league is merely a competition where washed up pros go to fill their bank accounts. No longer.

While tour veterans Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia were the initial names linked to the financially lucrative competition, the domino effect can’t be denied.

Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson – three of the biggest names on the US PGA – have taken the money and left.

Watch LIVE coverage from The USPGA Tour with Fox Sports on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

Cameron Smith's pending defection to LIV Golf has been met with a mixed reception. Photo: Getty Images
Cameron Smith’s pending defection to LIV Golf has been met with a mixed reception. Photo: Getty ImagesSource: AFP

Smith’s signing however is being seen as a game-changer.

At 28, he is only now coming into the peak of his powers, he is the most recent major winner and he overran Rory McIlroy, the biggest name in world golf since Tiger Woods, to claim the Open Championship.

Nonetheless, Smith’s pending defection, which the Australian remained coy about ahead of the FedEx Cup playoff opener, hasn’t been filled with overwhelming excitement and a popping of corks.

Indeed, there’s an overarching sense of disappointment, inevitability and sadness about Smith’s likely defection; financial security has won over legacy and moral compass.

McIlroy reveals tension with LIV golfers | 01:30

Writing for the UK Telegraph – the same publication that broke Smith’s defection on a deal worth more than $AU140 million – chiefs sports writer Oliver Brown emphasized that Smith’s defection “might” capture an audience that eventually garners a TV deal.

“His signing is arguably the Saudis’ most significant coup to date, and could represent a tipping point for the competition – a moment where a gilded freakshow turned into a sporting event which might demand the world’s attention,” Brown wrote.

At the heart of the appeal of LIV Golf, Brown hit the nail on his head when he revealed the ridiculous sums of money today’s stars were forgoing by resisting a move from the PGA Tour.

“Against this backdrop, you can see why the initial contact from Greg Norman, LIV’s ringmaster, became an offer Smith could not refuse,” he wrote.

“(Henrick) Stenson, a 46-year-old who has failed to reach the weekend in seven of his last nine majors, is the type of player he should be beating for breakfast. And yet the Swede, quickly forgetting his defenestration of him as Ryder Cup captain, earned more for a glorified three-day exhibition at Bedminster than Smith did for winning the 150th Open at the Home of Golf.

“From Smith’s perspective, this is an imbalance that urgently needs correcting. If he takes home the maximum loot of £3.93 million on his LIV debut in Boston next month, he would eclipse even the £2.98 million he earned at the Players Championship in May, in what was then the richest prize ever offered by a single golf tournament. Why should the leading man tolerate making less than some forgotten members of the chorus line?”

Cam Smith and others set to join LIV | 01:30

Brown continued by highlighting the ridiculous Saudi-funded money on offer but said the sheer financial sums couldn’t, at least at this point, match the theatre, drama and excitement on show at the PGA and DP World Tours.

“The numbers are so absurd, the golf itself has been rendered a sideshow. When Stenson holed the decisive putt at Bedminster, for the grandest payday of his career, the moment was greeted by the faintest rustle of polite applause. Even the winner himself did not look unduly bothered,” Brown wrote in The Telegraph.

“Here lies the sadness in Smith’s defection. With his talent in the fullest bloom, he deserves to be playing in front of the largest galleries, for the highest stakes. LIV ultimately offers him neither. It is a realm with all the money but none of the prestige. Smith, you sense, understands what true glory in golf means. As he gave his acceptance speech on the 18th green at St Andrews, the Claret Jug in his hand, the quaver in his voice suggested he was genuinely overwhelmed.

“For Smith to be swapping such moments for hollow, show-me-the-money exercises is a cause for lament. At one level, his departure from him in his prime from him demonstrates the scale of the Saudis’ ambitions. But at another, it is the grimmest possible reflection of the schism they have wrought.”

READ MORE

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NEXT TIME: Aussie Matt Jones rejected from $75m event, ‘icy’ standoff avoided as LIV court bid fails

Australia’s Cameron Smith’s decision not to answer whether he is joining LIV has been described as “cowardly” and “lame”. Photo: Getty ImagesSource: AFP

At the USATodayAndy Nesbitt, was far more scathing.

In particular, the publication took aim at Smith’s decision to deflect questions around his future and offer no definitive answer on whether he intended to shift allegiances.

“In doing so, (Smith) tarnished a reputation that just a few weeks ago was one of the best in professional golf,” Nesbitt wrote.

“Smith didn’t deny it and he didn’t confirm it, he just said he had “no comment” on that, which is a really lame way of ducking the question while also pretty much confirming the report to be true.”

Nesbitt went as far as saying his responses were “cowardly.”

“But to not come out with a definitive answer when asked about it before the start of the PGA Tour playoffs is a pretty cowardly thing to do.

“Now it’s a little harder to cheer for a guy who just a few weeks ago was the coolest golfer in the world.”

Terse Cam refuses to address LIV rumors | 00:43

Thomas Kershaw from The Timestoo, wrote that Smith’s pending defection was the competition’s “biggest coup”.

“It has been very easy up until now to dismiss the gimmicks of LIV’s format — featuring shotgun starts, 54 holes and no cuts — as a watered-down exhibition lacking the essentials of elite competition. Critics could point to the players who shrugged off missed putts knowing their money was guaranteed beforehand and the rebel series was derived as a refuge for those who had cashed in on the twilight of their careers,” Kershaw wrote.

“The signing of Smith is a significant riposte to that narrative. LIV may already have a horde of relatively recent major champions but Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka have battled injuries and indifferent form while Phil Mickelson still seems a ghost of his former self. Smith, 28, is the first to defect who is not just at the peak of the game but still entering the prime of his own.

He continued: “Smith remains LIV’s biggest coup to date and also symbolizes another aspect of their revolt that could bring considerable success. Smith had been vocal in urging the PGA Tour to bring a major golf event back to Australia but while those calls fell on deaf ears, LIV — and Norman — have been only too keen to hear them. When LIV expands into a 14-tournament league next year, it is reportedly scheduled to stop in Sydney in April, where Smith is expected to feature in an all-Australian team.”

Australian Cameron Smith is coming under renewed scrutiny ahead of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind on August 10, 2022 in Memphis. Photo: Getty ImagesSource: AFP

Closer to home, James Erskine, the former manager of the late Shane Warne, who also managed Greg Norman in the past, told The Sydney Morning Herald the emergence of LIV was “destabilizing”, but didn’t accept the argument that players had blood on their hands given the competition is being backed by Saudi Arabia.

“It’s destabilizing the fabric of professional golf. I’m on the board of the PGA of Australia and we have to look after all professionals and professionals coming up. They all start as amateurs somewhere and are nurtured through the pathway so they could play golf, and then they get cards and qualify professionally,” he said. “So many people do business with Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, where they have very different rules and regulations and different respect for women.

“But you can name just about any company and they will probably have a link to Saudi Arabia, Rolex, Range Rover, Rolls Royce, Ferrari. Everyone’s doing business with them, so I think it’s very unfair to turn around and say because you’re a professional golfer, you shouldn’t deal with Saudi Arabia.”

Meanwhile, Erskine said Smith would be welcomed to play in Australia even if he joins LIV Golf.

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Business

Phone company Circles. Life fined $300k by telco regulator over customer breaches

Phone company Circles. Life fined $300k by telco regulator over customer breaches

A telco company has been slapped with a $300,000 fine because it exposed nearly 2000 Australians to potential scammers.

Circles Australia Pty Limited, trading as Circles.Life, must pay a $199,800 infringement notice as well as $100,000 in compensation to fraud victims.

On Tuesday morning, the telco regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA), announced the hefty costs.

Circles.Life breached the rules for phone number transfers a whopping 1,787 times when it sold SIM cards in retail stores between August and December 2021, according to the regulator.

The phone company was found to have failed to properly check the identity of purchasers, which meant cyber criminals then “took advantage of these lapses”.

As a result, 42 consumers experienced “fraud-related issues” which included their email and bank accounts being breached.

Of those, at least seven lost money to scammers.

The costly penalty is part of the ACMA’s broader crackdown on the telco industry, after implementing sweeping changes last month to combat phone scams which are on the rise.

The phone company should have adhered to multi-factor identification rules, according to ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin.

“It is deeply concerning that Circles.Life did not have proper processes in place for such a long period and that so many people were affected or put at risk of identity theft and fraud,” she said.

“Combating these types of scams requires concerted action by all telcos and one weak link exposes all consumers to harm.

“It is the customers of other telcos who have fallen victim in this case by having their number transferred to Circles.Life without their knowledge.”

The ACMA also added that while the breaches should not have occurred, Circles.Life “responded quickly” when they realized the extent of the problem.

News.com.au has contacted Circles.Life for comment.

In a statement, the company said it had protocols in place for a one-time password verification for online port-ins, but the same rules didn’t apply for SIMs purchased at brick and mortar stores.

In April, the ACMA announced that phone companies will need stronger customer identity checks for “high-risk transactions” like SIM swaps, account changes or switching providers.

The new requirements, called the Telecommunications Service Provider (Customer Identity Authentication) Determination 2022, came into effect on June 30.

Since then, telcos must use multi-factor authentication of their customers’ identities such as confirming personal information and responding with a one-time code, similar to how banks operate. Before the changes, telcos mostly only required a customer’s name, phone number, date of birth and address to authorize a change.

The ACMA warned that noncompliance can lead to “strong action” including “pursuit of significant civil penalties” like in the case of Circles.Life and also potential Federal Court proceedings.

News.com.au has extensively reported on a particularly ominous phone scam known as a SIM swap hack in the past.

A SIM swap hack is when a cyber criminal ports – or re-routes – the victim’s mobile number onto their own phone, allowing them to intercept text messages and reset passwords to things like bank accounts.

In many cases, scammers were able to do so by impersonating the customer to their telco provider, then convincing the company to switch the SIM card over to an eSIM card.

Often the scammers will transfer the phone number to another provider to make it harder for victims to regain control of their account.

News.com.au reported on a Sydney man waking up to find $52,000 stolen from him by SIM hackers, while an Adelaide schoolteacher lost her entire life savings, $43,000, from a similar order.

Between 1 January and 30 September last year, there were at least 510 incidents of reported SIM swaps, resulting in 163 cases of financial loss, according to the ACMA.

These losses amounted to $4.68 million, with the largest single reported loss being $463,782.

Have a similar story? Get-in-touch | [email protected]

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Business

Melbourne single mum struggling to pay extra $360 a month after RBA interest hike

Melbourne single mum struggling to pay extra $360 a month after RBA interest hike

A single mum’s “dream” of becoming a homeowner has become more like a nightmare as she struggles to survive amid the rising cost of living.

Jodi Cameron, 40, from Melbourne, currently has nothing in her bank account after building her house cost more than expected. She can’t even afford to complete the house, with her driveway unfinished because she ran out of cash.

On Tuesday afternoon, she was hit with more bad news; the Reserve Bank of Australia had increased interest rates again, for the fourth month in a row.

It means the single mum, with two daughters aged four and eight, must now fork out an extra $140 every month to pay back her mortgage.

In total, since the central bank started increasing interest rates in May, the family is now paying back an extra $360 a month — money it desperately needs.

“It’s just horrible,” Ms Cameron told news.com.au.

“I do find myself in a situation where paying rent and a mortgage and daycare fees, there’s nothing left.”

Currently, her savings account stands at $0, she said.

The mum worked throughout the Covid pandemic as a disability support worker and blames her current predicament on one thing — missing out on a government grant.

She had factored in receiving a $15,000 grant to help her build her own home but missed out, leaving her financially wrecked.

“I just wanted to own my own home,” Ms Cameron explained.

“It’s just disgusting, it’s so frustrating, I work my guts out, all I wanted was the great Australian dream.”

Her variable interest rate has gone up from 2.79 per cent to 4.5 per cent in the past three months, and is set to go up even further after the rate hike on Tuesday.

“I’m not on a fixed mortgage, I don’t know how I’m going to do it,” Ms Cameron said.

“I’m probably going to have to pull my [youngest] daughter out of daycare because I can’t afford daycare. That also means, how am I meant to work from home with a child?”

As a single mum with no family to fall back on, Ms Cameron had resigned herself to renting but in 2020, she was given hope that she might be able to break into the property market.

The federal government announced the HomeBuilder grant scheme in a bid to increase the disruption to the economy and the building sector during Covids, where eligible homeowners received $15,000 to form part of the payment for a building project for their primary residence.

Ms Cameron met all the criteria for the grant so bought a $263,000 block of land in Lang Lang, a regional town southeast of Melbourne, in August 2020 in the hopes of setting herself up financially for the future.

“I got on the low deposit scheme, I didn’t need a massive deposit,” she explained.

Then in March the following year, she signed a build contract which cost $300,000 for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home.

She only needed a 5 per cent down payment for the land and the build contracts and was expecting the extra $15,000 from the grant to provide a helpful buffer to afford the progress payments.

But then she logged back onto the HomeBuilder online portal and was devastated to discover she had missed a key due date — which her broker and bank had never mentioned to her.

“I missed a portal cut off date that was never shown or advertised anywhere,” Ms Cameron lamented.

As a result, she was not able to be part of the scheme.

Near the end of her build, the mum ran out of funds and couldn’t afford to pay for a driveway.

“I’ve got no driveway, it’s just mud, I can’t afford it, it’s not nice to have that money you relied on ripped away from you,” she added.

“I owe the real estate the last month’s rent which I can’t pay.

“I assumed I would have this $15,000 to help me out, I don’t have it. This grant meant a lot.”

The mum is now waiting with bated breath as the Reserve Bank is expected to keep hiking interest rates till the end of the year.

[email protected]

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Sports

IPL franchises looking to contract players to 12-month deals, David Warner, Big Bash, The Hundred

IPL franchises looking to contract players to 12-month deals, David Warner, Big Bash, The Hundred

Just weeks after Mike Atherton delivered the ICC an ominous warning of the very real threat of franchise cricket taking credence over the international game, an IPL boss has confirmed the desire to contract players across the world to 12-month deals.

“In an ideal world, sure – because that gives us the opportunity to make our vision and our strategy even stronger,” Kolkata Knight Riders CEO Venky Mysore told The Telegraph.

“If we were able to have X number of contracted players, and were able to use them all in different leagues, I think that would be nirvana. Hopefully, someday it will happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.”

The report comes as former Australian captain Adam Gilchrist said it would be “commercial suicide” for Cricket Australia to allow David Warner to skip the Big Bash and play in a rival T20 league elsewhere in the world.

Australia's David Warner is considering his future in short-form cricket. Photo: AFP
Australia’s David Warner is considering his future in short-form cricket. Photo: AFPSource: AFP

It also comes just weeks after the Proteas withdrew from their ODI series in Australia next January, with South Africa forfeiting their World Cup qualification points so they can have their international players at home for the launch of their new T20 competition.

While Gilchrist could understand Warner, who is in the twilight of his “great career”, wanting to play overseas to top up his bank balance, he said it would set a dangerous precedent for emerging players.

“This is the big kicker, isn’t it, of possibly being the step towards being contracted to the club before or over country for the predominant amount of cricket you play,” Gilchrist told SEN last week.

“I think it would almost be commercial suicide for them (CA) to allow a player like him (Warner) to go head-to-head up against their own competition.

“It’s the new younger player coming in that starts to make those noises where it’ll be really challenging.

“Perhaps it’s the first example where David Warner doesn’t sign a contract with Cricket Australia at all, he just plays for a match fee.

“He goes and plays wherever he wants but says, ‘I’m available for every Test match, for every one-day international and every T20 international’ by way of example, I’ll be there for you in national colours.

“But other than that, I’m going to play my club, my franchise cricket, wherever I want to, knowing that none of those big tournaments will be clashing with international cricket.”

Kolkata Knight Riders’ cricketer Andre Russell is one of a number of players who have become T20 specialists. Photo: AFPSource: AFP

Gilchrist’s comments came a fortnight after Atherton honed in on South Africa’s decision to walk away from their ODI series against Australia and, ultimately, predicted franchise cricket would increasingly fill players’ pockets and see them contracted by cashed-up owners instead of their countries.

“A franchise-dominated landscape, with yearly ICC tournaments and not much bilateral international cricket or Tests, is coming, though,” Atherton, the former England captain, wrote in The Times.

“All this is good news for the players’ bank accounts, mainly, but it will be a very different landscape, with players eventually contracted to private companies who will acquire franchises across the globe.

“I found myself chatting to a player’s agent this week in Birmingham along these lines. England, he said, will be the last man standing where Test cricket is concerned. June and July stand out as the only months without T20 competition when Test cricket can flourish.”

The Telegraph’s report confirms what many respected figures within the game have feared, with the privatization of the game, particularly at franchise level, now starting to take full effect.

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Twelve-month deals would likely have a seismic impact on the international game, enabling franchises to sign players on lucrative year-round deals and, as a result, throw into jeopardy a player’s international availability.

It could also have a destabilizing impact at a domestic level, with the next tier of players unable to improve and test their skills against international players, should they be overseas.

AceThe Telegraph highlighted, The Knight Riders now have four teams under their umbrella – their flagship IPL franchise, the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League, plus sides in the International League T20 (UAE) and Major League Cricket (US), which both launch next year.

Other IPL teams are buying teams in other leagues – all six franchises in South Africa’s new T20 league, which launches in January – as international cricket faces heightened pressure to compete.

One obstacle currently standing in the way of the IPL’s desire to globalize the game is the varied recruitment rules used across different T20 leagues.

Currently, for instance, India’s stars aren’t allowed to play in overseas T20 leagues while only four international players are allowed in an XI in the IPL.

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Mysore is hopeful those barriers will be broken down eventually and says England’s The Hundred and Australia’s Big Bash competitions are the next hunting grounds for IPL owners.

“If it happened that way, at some point in the future, that’d be great,” Mysore told The Telegraph.

“What we want to create is a common platform and a system and a culture that allows us to participate around the year – enhancing our brand, building our fan base, and providing opportunities to cricketers around the world. And in the process, you hopefully build a successful business around it.”

He added: “Our immediate reaction to any such proposal is to say, yeah, we are absolutely interested because this is part of our strategy. Whether it is the Big Bash or the Hundred, although we understand the challenges these leagues face in inviting private investments.

“Wherever we have gone, we’ve made it successful for the mutual benefit of the league as well as the Knight Riders. When a proposal comes to us it’s because they understand the value that the Knight Riders brand brings with it and the entire package that comes with it – we know how to build those brands.”

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