As it happened: The Star enters trading halt; PM backflips on LGBTQ census question

A warm August and recent wild weather has forced Mount Buller to close their ski season a month early.

A spokesperson from Buller Ski Lifts announced the decision on Friday, confirming Sunday, September 1 would be the last day of operations for the 2024 snow season.

“Like all skiers and snowboarders we were holding out hopes for season-saving snow in last night’s storm however the 1-2cms that fell was unfortunately too little, too late,” the statement said.

“I would like to thank everyone in our team who has tried valiantly to keep us sliding for as long as possible. It seems unfair to have had two challenging seasons in a row but I am immensely proud of everyone who have kept striving and smiling and will be doing so until Sunday afternoon.”

Resort Entry and parking charges have been reduced to $44 for the last days of season 2024 and lift passes have also been discounted.

Sam Beaver, the policy lead at climate activist group Protect Our Winters and a research officer at the Australian National University, said the past few weeks of 10-degree days and strong winds had depleted the snow pack at most alpine resorts.

He said Mount Hotham fared better as one of the higher resorts, but had been hit with rain in the past week.

“We’ve had some good conditions, and we’ve we’ve had some really terrible conditions, but overall the trend is that we’re just seeing less snow and our winters shortening,” Beaver said.

According to The Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne recorded an average maximum of 18.2 degrees this month, up to August 29. The previous August record average temperature was 17.7 degrees, so Melbourne is likely to have its warmest August on record.

Let’s move to an opinion piece by Peter Hartcher.

The president of the World Bank is due in Australia next week offering to be a force-multiplier for good in the Pacific Island states, and expecting some federal funding to do so.

In the first visit by a World Bank head in seven years, Ajay Banga is to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other ministers to brief them on his plans and to seek an Australian top-up to the bank’s development funds.

The Washington-based institution is the world’s biggest and oldest multilateral development bank, created after World War II to help lift the poorest countries out of poverty. It made total grants and loans of $US91 billion last year to 75 recipient nations.

Signalling a new commitment to the Pacific Island states, Banga plans to travel from Australia to Fiji and Tuvalu. It would be the first visit to Fiji by a World Bank head in 50 years, and the first ever to Tuvalu, a frontline victim of rising sea levels.

Banga is inviting Australia to contribute to the replenishment of the bank’s assistance facility for the poorest nations, the International Development Association (IDA).

Read more here. 

Let’s see what’s happening on Wall Street.

The ASX climbed on Friday despite a mixed result on Wall Street overnight after a slide from some Big Tech companies late in the session cut into earlier gains.

The S&P/ASX 200 gained 26.2 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 8071.3 at around midday, with 10 of the 11 industry sectors gaining. Consumer discretionary stocks were trading in the red, dragged by Harvey Norman (down 3.7 per cent) after the retail giant’s profits slumped.

The Star entered a trading halt after the NSW casino regulator said it needed more time to decide what to do about the struggling gaming giant after receiving the findings of a damning report into its culture. The company was due to report its results on Friday, but that announcement was delayed.

The big four banks were all up at midday as the heads of NAB (up 0.1 per cent) and ANZ (up 0.3 per cent) faced questions from the House of Representatives economics committee inquiry, following CBA (up 0.3 per cent) and Westpac (up 0.2 per cent) on Thursday.

Read the full report here. 

Crossing back to the economics committee inquiry.

ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said an internal investigation found four traders in the markets unit acted inappropriately.

One was sacked, two quit after the allegations came to light, and another was given a formal warning for “profanity in the dealing room, use of alcohol during work hours, etc,” he said.

Elliott said the use of alcohol involved at least one employee coming back from lunch having consumed wine “not to the extent that they were incapable of doing their job.”

“However, they were intoxicated and therefore lost their job,” he said.

Elliot said there would be consequences for managers at multiple levels for that conduct, and for allowing it to happen in the first place, acknowledging it raised cultural questions for the business.

He said the investigation was separate to allegations being examined by the corporate and prudential regulator that traders in the markets unit manipulated the bond rate during a $14 billion debt sale.

Let’s move back to politics and see what Peter Dutton said in Tasmania this afternoon.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of losing control after backflipping on counting LGBTQ Australians in the census, however stopped short of saying what the Coalition’s position would be on the question.

Earlier this morning, Albanese said there would be one new question about sexuality in the census if testing by the Australian Bureau of Statistics was successful.

Speaking this afternoon in Tasmania, Dutton said it was obvious “the wheels are falling off” the Albanese government.

“I think the prime minister’s all over the shop, one day he says to a group of people that he’s meeting with that he’s going to change the question put to the Australian people in the census, the next day, he says that he’s not going to do that, now he says that he is going to do that,” Dutton said.

“He hasn’t approached us in relation to what it is he’s proposing, we can have a sensible way forward but the prime minister at the moment, I think, is demonstrating to Australians that he’s lost control of the agenda.”

When asked his position on including the question to the census, Dutton said he was “fine” with members of the LGBTQ community being counted, however wanted to see full detail on the legislation.

“I’m fine with that, if the prime minister’s got a proposal, but we hear from the prime minister that he’s not in favour of putting a question and now he is in favour it requires legislation,” Dutton said.

“He’s had no discussion with us, we’ve been ins good with discussions with the government on aged care, on NDIS, on the CFMEU, we’ve had a couple of weeks in parliament, there was no mention of … [the] census.

“The legislation will be dealt with in this parliament and the prime minister has a job to lead and at the moment, as Australians can see, we’ve got a weak prime minister who doesn’t know what he believes in.

“He tells different audiences different things, and then of course, he tries to reconcile it, and it’s why the PM is all over the shop.”

Jordan Thompson has stunned Polish star Hubert Hurkacz to claim his first top-10 victory at a major and be part of Australia’s best start to a US Open in 27 years.

Thompson is enjoying a career-best season at age 30, claiming his maiden ATP title in Mexico in February and being just one spot off a seeding in New York. He added to it with a steely 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, 7-5 defeat of the world No.7.

This year’s US Open is fast becoming a record-setter for Australia, with top-10 star Alex de Minaur, No.28 seed Alexei Popyrin and Chris O’Connell also progressing to the last 32.

“A good day at the office,” Thompson said. “Down early in the first, he served for the first set, and he’s got one of the best serves on tour. So, to turn it around like I did was pretty impressive, even if I say so myself.”

Wildcard Tristan Schoolkate went agonisingly close to joining them, going down 6-7 (4-7), 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (10-3) to Jakub Mensik after having consecutive match points on the Czech’s serve in the 10th game of the fourth set.

Read the full story here. 

– with AAP, Reuters

Let’s move back to the economics committee inquiry.

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott has denied the bank’s alleged misconduct in its markets divisions has cost taxpayers.

Fronting the House of Representatives economics committee inquiry this afternoon, Elliott pushed back on the suggestion that ANZ’s alleged bond trading scandal had hurt taxpayers.

The corporate regulator is investigating the bank for allegedly manipulating the benchmark 10-year futures rate when ANZ managed a $14 billion government bond sale last year.

In doing so, the bank may have gained a windfall profit while adding about $80 million in additional borrowing costs for taxpayers.

But Elliott said from what he had seen, “there is no evidence” of taxpayers having to foot higher costs.

Elliott acknowledged there was still “clearly more work to do” but that he was working with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on an independent culture and control review.

Let’s cross over to politics with an opinion piece by David Crowe.

Adam Bandt is chasing after Labor like a hunter who is certain his target is just about to stumble. The Greens leader is pursuing the government at a frenetic pace on every big issue – housing, the cost of living, Gaza and more – with a total confidence that he can wound Labor at the next election and seize the balance of power.

If he runs as fast as he talks, he might even win.

Bandt barely paused for breath this week when he told the National Press Club about his idea of raising $514 billion in taxes from big business to help pay for free dental care and other services.

He put incredible energy into his claim to jaded voters that the system was “rigged” against them – and that only the Greens could give them a fair deal.

And he did not take a backward step on the big controversy for the party this week: its support for the CFMEU after weeks of allegations of corruption against some of the officials in the union’s construction division. In fact, Bandt doubled down by defending his colleague, Max Chandler-Mather, for standing with some of the union’s former bosses at a protest in Brisbane.

But the sheer intensity of the Greens’ political attack does not guarantee results. Bandt cannot point to reliable proof that his electrifying rhetoric is vaulting him and his party ahead of Labor.

Read more of the opinion piece here.