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If your business is turning inspiration into innovation, it’s time to be recognised.

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers and RBA governor Michele Bullock.

Budget handouts put interest rate cuts further out of reach

Economists have warned handouts that bring down bills will not rein in underlying inflation, undermining the government’s message that its budget will help the Reserve Bank.

Star Entertainment implosion leads to closure of Tetsuya’s

The relationship between the casino’s former CEO and chief financial officer deteriorated over an unnamed “material” project, a NSW inquiry heard last month.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the report about Sportsbet was ‘deeply concerning’.

Labor slams the NRL’s ‘deeply concerning’ Sportsbet tie-up

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is deciding what to do with recommendations from an online gambling inquiry, including a blanket advertising ban.

These 5 ETFs posted double-digit returns in April’s shock sell-off

The fall in global sharemarkets stopped the fast-growing ETF industry in its tracks in April, but proved profitable for several short-style strategies.

Lendlease tax woes could trigger second profit downgrade

John Wylie’s Tanarra Capital is pushing for a seat on the Lendlease board, as the country’s largest property group faces the prospect of a damaging profit downgrade after tax officials handed it a $112 million bill.

‘Horrible on every level’: Universities object to migration changes

Changes to limit the number of foreign students at educational colleges, universities and schools are highly interventionist and prescribe not only where students can study but what they can learn, providers said.

UK’s bet on PsiQuantum is one-fiftieth the size of Australia’s

Leading British quantum computing specialists have expressed surprise at the Albanese government’s decision to invest nearly $1 billion in backing the start-up.

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FEDERAL BUDGET

Jim Chalmers says the budget will be good for women.

Budget tips fast inflation fall, reviving rate cut hopes

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says measures in Tuesday’s federal budget will help bring inflation down to within the Reserve Bank’s target band by Christmas.

The figure, known as the ‘table of truth’, cuts through the spin and shows how the treasurer’s saving and spending decisions affect the bottom-line.

The little-known budget figure you should care about

The figure, known as the ‘table of truth’, cuts through the spin and shows how the treasurer’s saving and spending decisions affect the bottom line.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and former treasurer and prime minister Paul Keating.

Jim Chalmers rips up Paul Keating’s economic playbook

The treasurer is breaking from Labor’s previously claimed belief in the Hawke-Keating market-based economic model that helped deliver 30 years of prosperity, writes John Kehoe.

Everything we know about Tuesday’s budget so far

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down the Labor government’s third federal budget this week. Here’s everything we know ahead of the announcement.

Budget to extend $20,000 business tax breaks

Businesses with a turnover under $10 million a year will be able to claim a $20,000 tax deduction for the cost of assets including cars, computers or R&D, under an extension of the ‘instant asset write-off’ in Tuesday’s budget.

MONDAY MEDIA

ARN chairman Hamish McLennan has urged media law reform after his initial plans for Southern Cross Austereo failed.

ARN throws a Hail Mary to revive collapsed radio merger

Takeover target SCA gave a dim view of the revised plan, which doesn’t include private equity firm Anchorage Capital.

ARN Media chairman Hamish McLennan and chief executive Ciaran Davis.

$250m deal to reshape radio market collapses

Southern Cross Austereo’s regional TV stations proved the sticking point for Anchorage Capital Partners’ deal. ARN is left to try and salvage a way forward.

There are similarities in the hitting style of Glenn Maxwell and former Red Sox player Dustin Pedroia.

New laws risk the end of free sports on TV

The government has one chance of modernising how broadcast rights are organised. Otherwise, iconic sporting events will be harder to find.

The researchers influencing billions in global marketing

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute is sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company, McDonald’s, Mars, Nestlé and PepsiCo. Its findings guide global business decisions.

Showtime! Media CEOs’ last stand with Foxtel over future of TV

Years of lobbying by free-to-air networks and Foxtel have come down to this week, when two crucial pieces of legislation are set to go before the Senate.

Features include the ability to save articles, dark mode and real time notifications.

Get the latest business news on the go with the AFR’s new iOS app.

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Companies

Lendlease tax woes could trigger second profit downgrade

John Wylie’s Tanarra Capital is pushing for a seat on the Lendlease board, as the country’s largest property group faces the prospect of a damaging profit downgrade after tax officials handed it a $112 million bill.

ANZ said ASIC is investigating “suspected contraventions” of the ASIC and Corporations Act, and is “cooperating fully with ASIC”.

ANZ confirms investigation of its government bond sale

ANZ said is “co-operating fully” with ASIC as it investigates “suspected contraventions” of the Corporations Act relating to a government bond sale last year.

The NSW government wants to overhaul Sydney’s complex toll fare system.

NSW toll reform suggestions ‘a recipe for disaster’: IPA

NSW’s tolling review should dump suggestions of overriding the state’s toll road contracts with legislation because it risks spooking investors, says Infrastructure Partnerships Australia.

Partners Group co-founder Urs Wietlisbach and country head Martin Scott expected the Swiss firm to try and sell 21 assets this year.

Partners Group to restart Guardian sale after childcare review

The Swiss private equity firm expects deals to ramp up in the second half, and primed its early learning business to be the first off the block.

PwC elevates tax and legal into its service line

The new model will also bring together the firm’s deals and private advisory professionals and its consultants into a renamed “advisory” service.

Tesla buyers using tax breaks bring spike in EV leasing

FleetPartners shares have climbed 48 per cent in six months and the CEO said 63 per cent of its novated lease customers in March bought an EV, taking advantage of a $3000 tax break.

ASIC investigates ANZ over Treasury trades

The corporate regulator acted after receiving a complaint from the Australian Office of Financial Management, which raises government debt, sources said.

Companies in the News

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Markets

Some investors are starting to use Nvidia as an inflation hedge.

Nvidia rivals gold as shield against inflation, survey shows

The mega cap US tech stocks are not only a bet on innovation, but also offer potential protection against inflation, according to some investors.

Rate rise still priced in despite Chalmers’ ‘optimistic’ forecasts

Bond markets are continuing to bet that the RBA will have to lift rates this year, despite new government forecasts predicting inflation will fall faster than the central bank expects.

Australian shares are poised to start the week lower.

ASX closes flat, Fletcher, Lendlease drop 

Shares flat; Fletcher hit by weak housing market; Lendlease disputes ATO claims; Iress in security breach; ANZ investigated by ASIC.

Airlie’s Emma Fisher is making her next big bets

Mineral Resources and Reece have been career-defining picks. This year, she’s sold down CBA and is going large on one of the most shorted stocks on the ASX.

US shale companies accused of collusion over oil price

ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and Diamondback Energy are among the companies named in at least 10 class actions alleging they conspired to constrain production.

Opinion

Substantial surpluses, not bigger deficits, should be running at this point

Instead, Jim Chalmers has confirmed that forecast deficits will widen as Labor’s Future Made In Australia budget centrepiece rolls out subsidies for the green energy and advanced manufacturing subsides.

The AFR View

Editorial

The AFR View

The one standout success metric for the budget

More investment is required to drive productivity. We won’t get this without cutting red tape and making the things more business-friendly.

Bran Black

BCA chief executive

Bran Black

As India votes, doubt grows about Modi’s intentions

India’s prime minister is set to extend his power once the election results are known. That is likely to bring further tests for Australia and the world.

James Curran

International editor

James Curran

This is a bold opportunity to refocus Australia’s economy

The Future Made in Australia Act is not picking winners. It is about reshaping whole sectors around a mission of managing climate change.

On his third budget, Chalmernomics has finally emerged

The Albanese-Chalmers government embodies a short-term and emotive response to wage stagnation, not a rational one.

Bonza’s failure is a warning for corporate Australia

The private equity-backed airline’s abrupt collapse shines a spotlight on the potential risks brewing in the massive, unregulated private credit market.

Karen Maley

Columnist

Karen Maley

Reports

BOSS Best Places to Work

The awards celebrate the achievements of the best small, medium and large organisations and nine sector winners.

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Politics

Plane makes safe emergency landing in Newcastle

A light plane with three people on board and no functioning landing gear has landed safely after circling for two hours. Here’s how the day unfolded.

Douglas Hsu.

Meet Taiwan’s new ‘matchmaker’ for Australian business

As Taiwan prepares to welcome a new president and bolster economic ties with Australia, the self-ruled island’s envoy issues a warning over Chinese coercion.

Transport Minister Catherine King.

Labor warned of risk from Victoria’s $200b rail loop

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King is fighting to keep secret the details of 30 projects that her hand-picked review said should be scrapped, as well as warnings over Victoria’s controversial Suburban Rail Loop, which will cost more than $200 billion to build and operate.

Palestinians’ aggressive lobbying upset Labor but it worked

Australia’s decision to support Palestinian UN membership follows seven months of intense, and aggressive, lobbying by a network of activists.

Payments innovation under threat from RBA

Buy now, pay later, which revolutionised Australia’s highly concentrated payments system, is under potential threat from increased regulation, writes Tony Boyd.

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World

Voters queue at a polling station during the fourth phase of voting for national elections in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

Religious tensions rise as India election passes halfway mark

The world’s most populous nation began voting on April 19 in a seven-phase election in which nearly one billion people are eligible to vote.

Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip walk through a makeshift tent camp in Deir al Balah.

Fighting flares anew across Gaza as Hamas regroups

Close-quarters ground combat between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops raged in parts of northern Gaza over the weekend as people continued to flee Rafah.

Andrei Belousov

Putin replaces defence minister in rare cabinet shake-up

The Kremlin said Russia’s ballooning defence budget warranted putting economist Andrei Belousov in charge.

‘Nothing to see here’ as Singapore gets new PM

Lawrence Wong is considered a safe pair of hands. But Singapore is facing many challenges that need radical new ideas rather than technocratic continuity.

Ken Griffin urges Harvard University to embrace ‘Western values’

The hedge fund founder who has given his alma mater more than $US500 million has slammed the pro-Palestinian protests sweeping colleges as “almost like performative art”.

Property

Confident about its housing business: Frasers residential boss Cameron Leggatt.

Demand for housing and sheds to drive Frasers forward

Frasers’ booming Australian residential and industrial businesses will help drive profits at the Singaporean giant, after they fell at the half-year stage.

The home at 21 Coventry Lane in NSW Central Coast’s Hamlyn Terrace sold at auction for $780,000, $50,000 more than the identical neighbouring property sold for in November.

First home buyers purchase from investors in $780,000 sale

This Central Coast home’s proximity to the M1 highway made it popular with tradies commuting to Sydney – and with rates outlooks stabilising, they were confident about buying.

Retiring Reece chair lists $12m family mansion in South Yarra

Melbourne-based Reece chair Tim Poole and his wife Jane have listed their South Yarra home, Atherley, after 24 years owning the Italianate mansion.

Killara Golf Club’s greenkeeper house sells for $700,000 above reserve

Auction clearance rates fell at the weekend as buyers grow cautious from interest rates staying higher for longer, but well-located properties remain popular.

House builders can’t compete with states’ cash splash

In the race for talent and materials in Australia’s construction game, housing has consistently run in second place to the infrastructure sector.

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Wealth

ASIC’s Simone Constant says super funds found evidence of fees being charged but no service delivered.

ASIC finds super funds still charging fees for no service

Super funds are obliged to ensure members are only charged for financial advice they actually receive but not all are doing so.

A smarter way to tax high super balances

The government has tried to keep things simple, but in doing so fairness has gone out the window.

Coalition to oppose ‘sophisticated investor’ test overhaul

Labor is grappling with backlash from the start-up sector over calls to limit access to venture capital to investors worth more than $4.5 million.

Technology

Grant Custance - CEO of Nimbus

Business warned payroll software is not up to speed on new IR laws

The disconnect between the hours that payroll systems think people work, and how long they’re actually working, is only going to get more expensive to ignore.

Apple will revamp Siri to catch up with chatbot competitors

Apple is expected to release an improved Siri that is more conversational and versatile at its developer conference in June.

X owner Elon Musk has slammed Australian government attempts to remove videos on his site.

15 minutes to get around X’s stabbing video ban, court hears

Lawyers for the social network argued that they had complied with a government take-down notice, which they said was invalid, by blocking footage in Australia.

Work & Careers

Aged care unions rejected government concerns a large pay rise for the sector could fuel labour shortages elsewhere.

Aged care providers back delaying pay rises

Aged care employers have supported the government’s proposal to phase-in aged care pay rises, clashing with unions who are demanding the full rise by July 1.

Domestic violence is also a workplace issue

Governments should take the lead on the problem, but other groups can do more, including employers. Companies can achieve much more than many imagine.

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Life & Luxury

While the science is sound, it is not widely known that “anti-hormone” drugs can significantly reduce this risk of breast cancer in many women.

How women can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 50pc

The science is sound but is not widely known that many women at increased risk of breast cancer can halve the risk with “anti-hormone” drugs.

Shona McElroy at her studio in Paddington, Sydney. She wears a leather coat from Citizen Concept Store in Paris, Cos turtleneck, Zara jeans, Christian Louboutin shoes, earrings from Bottega Veneta and her Cartier Tank.

The interior designer who swears by secondhand fashion

Shona McElroy loves measuring things, having Veuve to serve, and Buddha’s hand

VO2 max refers to the maximum volume of oxygen that the body can take up and use in a single minute of intense exercise.

The number on your smartwatch you should pay most attention to

Your VO2 max is a good measure of your heart, lung and muscle function – but what exactly is it, and how can you find out yours?

“Vinegar is the end of a very beautiful natural process,” says cider and vinegar maker Tim Jones.

Top restaurants can’t get enough of the mother of all vinegars

Tasmanian cider maker Tim Jones has branched out into barrel-aged craft vinegars and a refreshing sweet-and-sour cordial.

Stewart Cameron heli-skiing in the Skeena Mountains in British Columbia, Canada.

A managing partner’s guide to great skiing

When Stewart Cameron isn’t heading up Hicksons Lawyers, he’s hankering for an opportunity to shred the powder – preferably in the US or Canada.

From the gallery