Weekly Round Up: This Week in Australian Business

Qantas releases figures for a year to forget. Qantas has announced a record loss of $2.84 billion – three times worse than expected. Further redundancies and cost cutting measures can be expected for the company to remain sustainable.

ACCC issues warning to the AFL over hidden charges. Members had been charged between $7.50 and $39 to attend games in high demand. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deemed this to be misleading. The AFL has responded by removing the fees.

Chevron struggling to lock in sales contract for it’s Gorgon Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export plant in Australia. The energy plant located of the coast of Western Australia is one of the biggest of it’s kind in the world but it is coming under pressure as buyers delay locking in contracts as they search for cheaper alternatives. So far an estimated 65% of capacity has been pre-sold leaving the rest of production susceptible to spot price fluctuations.

Red Rooster found to be underpaying staff. A fair work ombudsman has found the fast food giant has underpaid over 3000 staff a total of $650 000. Red Rooster is in the process of repaying back the wages.

$24 Billion cost to stop the NBN rollout. A cost-analysis report issued by the government dubbed the “Vertigan Report” estimates the cost to the economy of stopping the NBN rollout to be $24 billion.

Australian Tax Office (ATO) to target rental properties and work expenses. The ATO will look further into compliance issues for rental property deductions. Extensive data will also be analysed to review work related expense claims.

Excitement builds over Apple’s upcoming product launch. Apple has announced it will be hosting a product launch on 9/9/2014 but is remaining tight-lipped as to exactly what will be released. A larger screen iPhone 6 and a “smartwatch” are expected.

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