Australian Business News and Times
Business News ,Reports and Times of Australia
Make of this video what you like, but it definitely it raises many questions.
PM Julia Gillard have personally criticised Gina Rinehart, the world’s richest woman, after Gina Rhinehart said Australia is too expensive for companies to do business and made comments about african cheap labour and compared it to Australia.
With Australia becoming a significant hub requiring IT services, the demand for Local based Data Centres have increased.
Many local Businesses and government are more comfortable in a local provider who is under the Australian government laws, handling their data traffic and internet services rather than a company that is somewhere in the US, with the data being able to be investigated by the US authorities at their will.
Cloud hosting provider Rackspace is opening a multimillion-dollar data centre in Erskine Park in Sydney’s west. The company is said to fulfil existing high demand for onshore cloud computing services.
Demand is high for cloud computing and data centres from small businesses to corporate and financial institutions and government agencies.
US-based Rackspace has had a sales and technical support operation in Australia for 3½ years.
Rackspaces top clients
Lonely Planet
Pacific Brands
Tourism Queensland
Xero
Saasu.
With the expansion of this data centre there will be some more jobs with the company expanding to a total of 50 employees within three years. Most big companies like Google and other Big US providers are subject to the US Patriot Act, whereby the US government can access your stored records if they think it necessary, while any company operating under Australian soil will still have to disclose any information in compliance with Australian law.
Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of Amazon.com, recently announced an Edge location in Sydney australia for some of its data and online services. HP has opened a $200 million data centre in Western Sydney, while Fujitsu has done a multimillion dollar upgrade to its Melbourne data centre.
Fujitsu has done a $60 million investment on its data centre to provide its 2,000 Australian enterprise and government customers with increased access to secure hosting services
The get an idea of what a data centre really is , you can check out his pdf information file ( yeh bro) by fujitsu
In 2005 Australia was gripped by drought and Australian drivers were stranded. Water restrictions in most states meant car owners could no longer pull out the trusty garden hose to wash their vehicles. To wash a car at home required about nine frustrating buckets of water and splashing water over a car didn’t have the pressure to lift grit, the volume to properly remove suds or the spray pattern to tidy up the wheels.
“This was too frustrating,” says business owner Ian Godwin, “I thought, there has to be a better way to wash a car that’s legal and water efficient.”
In 2005 Ian started developing a 12V high pressure low flow pump inside a compact tank. In 2007 the prototype was ready enabling a car to be washed in just two buckets of water providing users with a convenient and efficient way to wash a car at home.
Ian’s wife, Miriam Tulevski, who has a background in sales and marketing, encouraged the initial production run. “If we can’t get retail support I’ll sell them to Bondi Markets,” she recalls saying.
The product was launched at a major car show in June 2007 and by 2009 it had distribution in Australia’s premium auto outlets including Repco, Autobarn and Super Cheap Auto.
We started winning awards. Car Cube was voted best-in-class by Choice magazine – Australia’s leading independent consumer magazine. Smart Approved WaterMark awarded it 2009 Product of the Year.
Since then, the business expanded into car care accessories under the name Car Cube sold at Big W and Auto One and Wash Me!, a ranged positioned as high performance and low fuss. We also do premium private label car care products.
“We want Wash Me! to be Australia’s best value car care range” says Miriam. “Parts of the range are already available at Woolworths and Retail Adventures.”
“Of course it can be challenging working with your spouse but we’re a strong fit. Our skills are quite different so in business we complement each other. He’s more technical and operational while I’m more business development and strategy. We share a passion for great quality and excellent value and bring this passion to the products we create and supply for our customers,” says Miriam.
Guest article part of the “New small business start up series”
Related links for Small business start up series
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Oven fairy ( Small Business- Start up Series)
Australia has sent a team of 410 athletes to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This will be the fifth largest Australian Olympic team,after Sydney 2000 (632), Athens 2004 (482), Beijing 2008 (435) and Atlanta 1996 (424).
Swimming – 1st Gold medal
Women’s 4x100m freestyle relay – Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie, Melanie Schlanger have broken the Olympic record coming in at 3:33:15.
Cycling – Below
Anna Meares – Gold Medal
Olympic track cycling women’s sprint title
http://www.icmi.com.au/anna-meares
Athletics – Below
Sally Pearson – Gold Medal
Sailing – Gold medal
Tom Slingsby – Laser sailing class
GOLD – Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (sailing)
Page was victorious in the 470 class at Weymouth along with his sailing partner Mathew Belcher. Page is also said to be confirmed as closing ceremony flag bearer. Tom Slingsby started the gold rush with a win in the Laser class. Australia’s sailing team has won three of the nation’s seven gold medals.
Australia’s K4 team has won our 6th gold medal of the London Olympics ( Kayaking)
The men’s K4 1000m crew of Tate Smith, David Smith, Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear clinched the gold ahead of Hungary and the Czech Republic in the Australia’s first team kayaking. It was Australia’s first team kayaking Olympic gold.
The best overall medal tally performance came when Australia was host in Sydney in 2000, where Australians won 16 gold, 25 silver and 17 bronze for a total of 58.
Many of Australia’s gold medals have come in swimming, a sport which is popular in Australia, with swimmers from Dawn Fraser to Ian Thorpe ranking amongst the sport’s all-time greats. In the Beijing Olympics four years ago, Australia finished with 14 gold medals (6th overall) and 46 total medals (fifth overall). Australia’s best ever gold-medal performance was in Athens in 2004, where the team won 17 Olympic titles.
Woolworths have stepped up the advertising ware to get new customers with a new catchy and cute advertisement featuring a nice oldies song depicting the fresh food people of Woolworth to rival the chef ads from Coles doing the rounds.
Australia’s retailers are spending up big to get the attention of the consumers with catchy new ads as coles have increased their take from the retail grocery market in recent years.
Download Free the woolworths song.. Monday .. Tuesday (6.5mb)
Melbourne singer Gossling, who had a hit with guest vocals on 360’s Boys Like You, has recorded the soundtrack to the major new Woolworths campaign.
A presentation featuring ‘The Voice’s Emma Louise Birdsall performing the new Woolworths song A special presentation featuring ‘The Voice’s Emma Louise Birdsall performing the new Woolworths song
Listen to Emma Louise Birdsall’s performance here.
The Woolworths song `Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – I Love You’ was originally recorded in the late 1940’s by the Big Band vocalist Kitty Kallen with Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Orchestra.
Woolworths slogan has been updated from “the fresh food people” to “Australia’s fresh food people”.
The price fight Coles started last year when it cut the price of its house-brand milk by 33 per cent quickly became an all-out competition between the supermarket giants bringing the consumersbetter prices for many products , but sparking uproar in their grocery suppliers.
Coles has launched an aggressive advertising campaign in the past six months, and is reported to be outspending Woolworths by two to one by also including celebrity chef Curtis stone in their Advertisements
Cole’s has hit back with a a new full length advertisement video by Status Quo. Watch video here http://downdown.coles.com.au/video/ . Down Down, Prices are Down is sung by Status Quo in thier extended tv commercial. thier previous advertisement also featured 64-year-old Vietnam vet, Rowe singing a reworked version of his 1965 hit, a cover of Shakin’ All Over. Coles even got thier new music store @ https://www.colesmusic.com.au/
A Coles spokesman said it was not surprised Woolworths has tried to emulate its success. “They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so let’s just say that with some competitors’ recent activity, we are feeling very flattered,” senior manager consumer PR, Jon Church, said.
Since the new “FATCA Rules”, OECD GUIDELINES and changes in the US internal revenue of service policies in relation to international taxation, several countries have started having a look at their own policies.
When times are uncertain everyone tries to secure what they have and prevent erosion of existing wealth , and that’s what many countries are trying to do right now.
Australia is now looking closer at tech company giants who are getting away with paying minimum tax in Australia as per media reports
Mr Turnbull told The Australian Financial Review he was consulting with chief executives of local media companies after the Australian division of global online search giant Google released accounts this month showing it paid only $74,176 in tax despite earning an estimated $1.1 billion in revenue in 2011.
The new cloud service delivery now being promoted by almost all big tech companies is only going to muddy the waters even more with transfer pricing and other tax issues relating to it, with many countries missing out in revenue.
After the FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Reporting)was released, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) introduces new, and largely parallel, reporting requirements. The FATCA reporting requirements carry their own set of penalties and are filed with the tax return rather than separately.
FATCA requires foreign financial institutions (FFI’s), to report information about accounts held by U.S. taxpayers directly to the IRS. This is a major compliance duty put on the Australian banks and borne by the Australian banks so that the US authorities can claim a piece of their pie. You can read more about FATCA here
The FATCA can impact on several AUSTRALIAN Banks ,Savings and Loan Associations ,Credit unions, Co-operative banking institutions and other financial institutions in australia
Cash-strapped governments around the world are targeting transfer pricing. Transfer pricing in short is defined as the practice in which companies send profits overseas to subsidiaries in low-tax countries
The ATO has found 68 of Australia’s top 100 corporations in 2008 had a subsidiary in a tax haven, low-tax jurisdiction or bank secrecy country as per this media report.
Even in India recently the Vodafone case was high on the media reports internationally as India looks to amend its tax laws after a defeat in this case resulting in a loss of millions of dollars to India
This valuation principle is commonly applied to commercial and financial transactions between related companies. It says that transactions should be valued as if they had been carried out between unrelated parties, each acting in his own best interest.
The Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations (ISBN Number:978926409003) provide guidance on the application of the “arm’s length principle” for the valuation, for tax purposes, of cross-border transactions between associated enterprises. (OECD BOOKS ON transfer pricing
The British tax office is also under pressure to investigate Apple after it emerged the US-based technology giant paid £10 million in British tax in 2010 while generating an estimated £6 billion in revenue and Online retailer Amazon is reported for recording about £8 billion in revenue in Britain over three years without paying tax.
Canada also has cracked down on multinationals that dodge tax through inflating profits or losses in dealings with their related companies overseas
Even with the deepening crisis in Europe , the EU are trying to impose carbon tax on International airlines using EU airports. The tax proposes to not only covers the flight through EU sky but through out the world. It is a scheme to impose ‘a sort of tax’ outside EU airspace which has got the ire of some other countries
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The Federal Government has pledged to deliver a surplus in the 2012 budget, a promise that is likely to mean widespread cuts across government agencies, including to aspirational IT projects. The government is likely to lose a big voter base due to these cuts to decrease pay rises in government jobs and culling of jobs which can be seen with a increase in union protests for pay rises all over Australia.
The budget aspires to spreads the benefits of the mining boom to help low and middle-income families, through increased payments to families and an allowance for eligible income recipients.
$1.8 billion to increase Family Tax Benefit Part A for all eligible families, commencing 1 July 2013
From 1 July 2012, more than tripling the tax‑free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200, freeing up to 1 million Australians from the need to lodge a tax return
An extra $2.1 billion over five years on a new Schoolkids Bonus, paid directly to eligible recipients
From 1 July 2012, delivering tax breaks for small business, like the increase to the instant asset write‑off threshold to $6,500
Delivering 76 major new regional health infrastructure projects across Australia, worth $475 million
Increasing the number of Home Care packages by nearly 40,000, to nearly 100,000, over the next five years
$1.75 billion National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform as agreed at COAG in April this year
Investing over $36 billion in roads, rail and ports over six years to 2013‑14
Budget Documents Download
Appendix A ‑ Australian Government budget aggregates
Appendix B ‑ Assessment against the fiscal target
Appendix C ‑ Helping households with the cost of living
Appendix D ‑ Lowering the tax burdens of Australians
Appendix E ‑ Major initiatives in the 2012‑13 Budget
Appendix F ‑ Major savings in the 2012‑13 Budget
Appendix G ‑ Australian Government taxation and spending
Appendix H ‑ Detailed economic forecasts
Appendix I ‑ Historical budget and net financial worth data
More Budget documents 2012- 2013 PDF download
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry budget 2012-13
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy budget 2012-13
Climate Change and Energy Efficiency budget 2012-13
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations budget 2012-13
Resources, Energy and Tourism budget 2012-13
Uk budget 2012 – 2013 – Chancellor cuts income tax rate for 300,000 richest households, while 4.4 million pensioners are set to lose out by £84 a year – read more
Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013 – US budget contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President’s priorities, budget overviews organized by agency, and summary tables. To download "Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013" as a single PDF click here (256 pages, 4.6 MB) ….. Read more
Indian Union Budget 2012 – 2013 – The indian budget 2012- 2013 lives up to its promise to bring the fiscal deficit down from 5.9% of GDP to 5.1% of GDP as proposed….. Read more
NZ Budget 2012 – 2013 – The Government is firmly focused on rebuilding and strengthening the economy to get back to surplus by 2014/15…. Read more
Canada Federal budget 2012 – The canada federal budget had a sweeping overhaul of Canadian law ever contemplated in one piece of legislation: 425 pages of dense legalese that amends or throws out more than 60 existing federal statutes….Read more
Honk Kong budget 2012 2013 By Deloitte china – Budget papers for Hong kong by PWC coopers and Deloitte
Article by Gee Lan Kwo
The banks have been doing good business, here are the half yearly profit and loss reports for the big four banks here in Australia, Westpac , NAB, CommBank and ANZ.
Westpac 2012 | $3.209 Billion | May 3, Half year profit reporting
WESTPAC CEO – Gail kelly
Australia’s very own Gail Kelly has joined the ranks of Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s ten most powerful women.
NAB 2012 | $2.828 Billion | May 10, Half year profit
NAB CEO – Cameron ClyneNAB Chief executive Cameron Clyne reciived more than $1000 and hour in pay and perks last year according to media reports
ANZ 2012 | $2.925 Billion | May 2, Half year profit
ANZ CEO – Philip Chronican is Chief Executive Officer, Australia.
Philip oversees the Australian geography and is specifically responsible for the bank’s retail and commercial business and customers in Australia, as well as leading ANZ’s retail segment on a global basis
Commonwealth 2012 | $3.649 Billion | August, Half year profit
Commonwealth Bank – CEO Ian Narev
Ian Narev says CBA will step up its rollout of branches in Indonesia and China
An increasing number of businesses are making the move to the cloud in order to gain mobile access to email and documents. For Australian businesses, Google Apps, Google’s cloud service platform, is quickly becoming a top option thanks to the platform’s communication and collaboration capabilities.
When it comes to moving your business to the Google cloud, you can purchase the Google Apps for Business product suite through Google, itself, or through a local Google Apps Authorized Reseller. Enlisting the help of a Google partner ensures increased training as well as more personalized migration and support. In July 2011 having help with your Google Apps migration became even easier when Cloud Sherpas, a Google partner based in Atlanta, Georgia since 2008, opened multiple offices in both Australia and New Zealand.
Here in Australia, Cloud Sherpas works closely with Google and has a headquarters in Sydney in addition to offices in Melbourne and Brisbane. After its summer 2011 launch, Cloud Sherpas quickly became a premier Google partner in the region, serving all types of businesses (small and medium-sized businesses as well as enterprises).
So what are Cloud Sherpas and Google Apps doing to improve the day-to-day functions of Australian businesses? From the initial Google Apps setupand everything that follows, businesses that make the switch to the Google cloud network have premier communication and collaboration tools at their fingertips.
Because Google Apps runs on a 99.9% uptime guarantee and provides users with mobile access, it ensures that businesses will always have access to information – whenever and wherever necessary. With this guaranteed access, businesses can take full advantage of features like Gmail, Google Documents, Google Sites, and Google Groups to improve their communication and collaboration. For example, Gmail allows for storage that is 50 times the industry average, includes a Google-powered search function, and has instant-messaging and video-chatting capabilities. With Google Documents, users can create, edit, and store documents in the cloud and easily share these files with co-workers or customers. Google Docs even allow for real-time collaboration so multiple users can edit a file simultaneously, regardless of location. Applications like Sites and Groups enable larger groups of people to work together and communicate with one another easily by providing users with a central location to post files, deadlines, tasks, and other information (Sites) and by allowing users to communicate as one, cohesive body (Groups).
In addition to improving the communication and collaboration of businesses, Google Apps can also lower IT costs. Since Google Apps is an entirely cloud-based platforms, it runs without any additional hardware or software. This lack of equipment, combined with the fact that Google automatically sends out any updates, cuts down significantly on time and money spent on IT concerns. And businesses can also rest easy knowing their important information is safe, as Google Apps is verified in SAS 70 Type II audit.
As a result of the enhanced communication and collaboration tools – in addition to guaranteed universal access, cost-saving measures, and security – available through Google Apps, this cloud service platform is quickly becoming the top choice for Australian businesses of all kinds and sizes.
Cloud Sherpas is a leading cloud service provider and was named the “Google Enterprise 2011 Partner of the Year.” As one of the first Google Enterprise partners, Cloud Sherpas has migrated over one million users across a variety of industries from legacy, on-premise messaging systems to Google Apps, helping organizations adopt cloud computing to innovate and dramatically reduce their IT expenses. A Google Apps Reseller in Atlanta, GA, Cloud Sherpas has regional offices in locations including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Austin and Sydney, and has more Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialists than any other partner in the world.
Australia’s Favourite men’s magazine “FHM AUSTRALIA” has decided to close down its doors. FHM Australia HM, which stands for “For Him Magazine” was launched in Australia in May 1998. The closure of FHM is one of the first acts of ACP’s new chief executive, Mr. Matt Stanton, who took the top job at ACP Publishing late last year.
ACP publishers recently also started publishing another budget MENS magazine “Zoo Magazine” which also has a online presence. They launched the magazine with a very attractive $2 price range for a short introductory period.
FHM Australia is also on Facebook and has 41,467 fans on facebook.
ACP is owned by the Nine Entertainment Co, which has attempted to sell its magazine division but with little success so far.
Another men’s magazine Ralph, also closed in 2010 because of the global downturn
FHM – now owned by German company, Bauer Media Group – is published in 21 territories, including China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Romania and the United Kingdom.
FHM Australia magazine features a mix of general trivia , sex, gags, grog , gadgets,men tips and raunchy and sexy looking International and local models. Publisher ACP , who publishes this men’s magazine and many other Australian magazines like the The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day yesterday announced the May issue of FHM would be the last and the magazine’s website would close at the same time
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