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SYDNEY, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Australia's Trade Minister Don Farrell has dangled easier access to the country's vast critical minerals sector as part of negotiations over a free trade agreement with the European Union ahead of possible further talks as soon as next week. Farrell told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that a free trade agreement would simplify European investment in the country's burgeoning critical minerals sector, in part by smoothing access through mandatory Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) screening. "One of the big advantages we've got in this relationship is our access to critical minerals, rare earths, hydrogen and ammonia," Farrell said. "Other countries are looking to invest in our critical minerals and other renewables. Australia was an especially attractive place for critical minerals investment from the United States under U.S. Inflation Reduction Act rules because it was one of the few countries to have both mineral deposits and a free trade agreement with the U.S., said Farrell.

Persons: Don Farrell, Farrell, China, we've, they've, Annalena Baerbock, teleconference, Dombrovskis, Lewis Jackson, Kirsty Needham, Michael Perry Organizations: SYDNEY, Australia's Trade, European Union, Reuters, Investment, Board, Foreign, U.S, EU, Trade, Thomson Locations: Australia, Germany, China, Sydney, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, United States

SYDNEY, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Australia's economy is projected to grow more slowly over the next 40 years as an aging population and slower population growth shrink the workforce, according to long-range economic forecasts set to be published by the government on Thursday. The economy is expected to be around 2.5 times larger in real terms 40 years hence. The report, part of a series which periodically examines how trends in demography or technology will affect Australia's economy, will also flag a changing tax base. Fuel and tobacco excise taxes are expected to fall as people quit smoking and switch to electric cars, while taxes on companies and goods and services will track the growth slowdown. Income taxes will increase as a share of the economy and total tax receipts are expected to hit 24.4% of GDP in fiscal 2034.

Persons: Jim Chalmers, Lewis Jackson, Sharon Singleton Organizations: SYDNEY, Reuters, Thomson

The property industry globally, and office building owners in particular, are struggling as working from home and e-commerce lead tenants to reconsider floor space just as higher interest rates reduce building values and raise debt servicing costs. Dexus sold the 18-story A-Grade office for A$293.1 million ($188 million), a 16.3% discount to its December 2022 valuation, according to company filings. Quintessential Equity, an Australian property developer and investor, announced itself as the buyer on its website without elaborating. Dexus will own a A$50 million stake in the trust that will hold the property, it said in a statement. In June, Dexus sold another premium office building in Sydney's central business district for A$393.1 million, a near 17% discount to an independent valuation made in December.

Persons: Loren Elliott, Dexus, Darren Steinberg, Lewis Jackson, Rishav Chatterjee, Subhranshu Sahu, Rashmi Aich, Sam Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Equity, Thomson Locations: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Australian, Bengaluru

Chevron and Woodside negotiated with unions on Tuesday to avert potential industrial action over pay and conditions at Australian facilities that supply about 10% of the LNG market. Meanwhile, workers at three Chevron facilities, Gorgon, Wheatstone platform and Wheatstone downstream, will vote on potential industrial action after the industrial umpire approved the ballots. Even if members vote for industrial action, the unions will still have discretion over whether to call for any. Possible industrial action could range from 30-minute work stoppages all the way to complete strikes. Employers must be given seven days' notice before industrial action.

Persons: Florence Tan, Saul Kavonic, Lewis Jackson, Bernadette Baum Organizations: Woodside Energy, World Gas, REUTERS, Chevron, Woodside Energy Group, Woodside, Reuters, Workers, West Shelf, Offshore Alliance, Credit Suisse, Thomson Locations: Daegu, South Korea, Woodside

REUTERS/Lewis Jackson/File PhotoSYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Australia will drastically tighten penalties for promoters of dodgy tax schemes and beef up the power of regulators as part of reforms announced on Sunday in response to a scandal over the use of leaked tax plans by PwC Australia. PwC Australia was not fined for the breach under the existing rules, and the changes will not applied retroactively, a Treasury spokesperson told Reuters. "The PwC scandal exposed severe shortcomings in our regulatory frameworks," said the statement from the ministers for treasury and finance and the attorney general. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) foiled several attempts by companies to subvert the 2016 Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law but was frustrated in its subsequent investigation by "highly ambitious if not false" legal privilege claims from PwC Australia. Collins and PwC Australia were not sanctioned until late 2022 by a separate agency that regulates tax agents, the Tax Practitioners Board, after police said there was insufficient information for them to act.

Persons: Lewis Jackson, Peter Collins, Collins, William Mallard Organizations: REUTERS, PwC, Facebook, Bills, Reuters, Australian Tax, Thomson Locations: Barangaroo, Australia, PwC Australia

New Zealand's Defence Minister Andrew Little poses for a picture in Wellington, New Zealand, March 30, 2023. Launching the country's first national security strategy, Defence Minister Andrew Little said New Zealand faced more geostrategic challenges than it had in decades. The inaugural security strategy underscores how China's rise is upending old norms and behaviours even 9,000 kilometres (5,592 miles) away in Wellington. Chinese state-sponsored actors had exploited cyber vulnerabilities in ways that undermined New Zealand's security, said another document that did not provide further details. "The changes in the domestic and international security environment mean our response and preparedness must change too," Little said.

Persons: Andrew Little, Lucy Craymer, Little, Kevin Short, Lewis Jackson, Simon Cameron, Moore, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Zealand's, REUTERS, Defence, Zealand, New, Labour, New Zealand Defence Force, Thomson Locations: Wellington , New Zealand, New Zealand, Wellington, China, New, Australia, U.S, Vietnam

Sydney office buildings and commercial real estate appear behind Sydney waterfront properties in the suburb of Birchgrove, Australia, November 3, 2016. The national CBD vacancy rate rose to 12.8% from 12.6, the data showed. "We are confident that the Australian office sector will stabilise and rebound strongly over the next few years," Curtain said in a statement. However, a review of past reports showed vacancy rates for prime offices in Sydney and Melbourne have increased over the past two years. In the case of Sydney, vacancy rates for prime and secondary offices are almost identical, at around 11%.

Persons: Jason Reed, Lewis Jackson, Kim Coghill Organizations: REUTERS, Property Council of Australia, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Birchgrove, Australia, Melbourne, Perth, Angeles, New York, CBRE

SYDNEY, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Australia's largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, has appointed senior executives to its London office as part of the rapidly growing fund's push to expand its presence overseas. The A$300 billion ($201.39 billion) fund on Tuesday appointed six executives to investment, risk and corporate affairs roles, including Carl Astorri to Head of Investments, Europe; and John Normand, formerly head of cross-asset strategy at J.P. Morgan, to Head of Investment Strategy. Deputy chief investment officer Damian Moloney, who is based in London, said the office was an "important investment engine" for AustralianSuper. AustralianSuper expects to grow to A$500 billion in member assets within five years and will deploy roughly 70% of its inflows to global markets. The fund plans to triple its global team to 300 within three years, spread across its London and New York offices plus a small contingent in Beijing.

Persons: Carl Astorri, John Normand, Morgan, Damian Moloney, Lewis Jackson, Gerry Doyle Organizations: SYDNEY, Investments, Investment Strategy, Thomson Locations: Europe, London, Australia, New York, Beijing

The parliamentary deadlock revolves around the centre-left Labor government's A$10 billion ($6.7 billion) housing package, which The Greens party is refusing to pass through the upper house without changes to increase spending and cap rents. Governments can dissolve both houses of parliament if the upper house twice blocks a bill passed by the lower house. The Greens in June voted with the opposition centre-right Liberal Party to delay the housing bill. Speaking on Monday as parliament resumed, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he preferred the bill passed the Senate but if it did not, the trigger for a double-dissolution election could focus attention on the policy. "What it does is mean that can be a focus, and then you have a joint sitting after a double-dissolution election is held."

Persons: Anthony Albanese, " Albanese, Lewis Jackson, Stephen Coates Organizations: SYDNEY, Labor, Greens, Liberal Party, ABC, Thomson Locations: Australia

LONDON/SYDNEY, July 31 (Reuters) - Commercial real estate investors and lenders are slowly confronting an ugly question - if people never again shop in malls or work in offices the way they did before the pandemic, how safe are the fortunes they piled into bricks and mortar? WALL OF DEBTGlobal banks hold about half of the $6 trillion outstanding commercial real estate debt, Moody's Investors Service said in June, with the largest share maturing in 2023-2026. U.S. banks revealed spiralling losses from property in their first half figures and warned of more to come. Borrowers in the UK real estate holding & development category were 4% more likely to default. But the whale could be commercial real estate in the U.S.".

Persons: Richard Murphy, Jeffrey Sherman, Charles, Henry Monchau, Bank Syz, Jones Lang LaSalle, Savills, JLL, Dhara Ranasinghe, Huw Jones, Clare Jim, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Employers, UK's Sheffield University, Reuters, Investors, Moody's Investors Service, Fed, Federal, Bank, Suisse, Washington D.C, HSBC, Capital Economics, Thomson Locations: SYDNEY, London, Los Angeles and New York, U.S, New York, Beijing, San Francisco, Tokyo, Washington, Shanghai, North America, Hong Kong

SYDNEY, July 28 (Reuters) - Foreign bank lending to Australian office real estate hit a record high in the first quarter as overseas lenders continued to stump up cash for a struggling corner of the property market out of favour with local banks. The data does not identify individual banks, however a separate dataset covering overall corporate lending showed European, Japanese, Singaporean and Chinese banks had led the increase in foreign lending since 2019. Loans from Australia's biggest banks fell A$2.3 billion to A$83 billion over the same period, similar to levels in late 2021, the data showed. So, as Australian lenders have retreated to the relative safety of retail mortgages, foreign banks have stepped up. Sydney was the worst-performing major Asian office market in the first quarter, according to research from global property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

Persons: Jonathan Kearns, Kearns, Jones Lang LaSalle, Lewis Jackson, Stephen Coates Organizations: SYDNEY, prudential, Australia's, Challenger, Reserve Bank of Australia, Reuters, Sydney, Investment, Thomson Locations: Australia, Asia, Europe

SYDNEY, July 24 (Reuters) - Australia Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Monday the country's first budget surplus in 15 years would be even larger than first forecast. Chalmers said the budget surplus for the financial year just past was likely to be a little over A$20 billion dollars, well up from the A$4.2 billion projected in the May budget as first flagged last month. The surplus will be short-lived, with deficits forecast this financial year and next due to rising interest bills and spending on disability care, health and defence. Chalmers reiterated forecasts for economic growth to slow this year. Barrett was an ambassador to the OECD, and, like Chalmers, served as chief of staff to former Treasurer Wayne Swan.

Persons: Jim Chalmers, Chalmers, Chris Barrett, Barrett, Wayne Swan, Lewis Jackson, Alasdair Pal, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, Commission, OECD, Thomson Locations: Canberra, Australia, China, Sydney

Added to valuations from December, major REITs, which build, own and operate property assets, have marked down office portfolios by roughly a tenth or less over the past year. Dexus shares have fallen 28% since 2022, while Charter Hall has nearly halved. "Buyers aren't willing to pay the price from the last valuations," said Winston Sammut, an investment manager at Sequoia Financial Group and a former executive at Charter Hall. Dexus and Charter Hall did not respond to requests for comment. "We're looking to see whether the fund managers, the Charter Halls, the Centurias, the Dexus are also getting large redemptions."

Persons: Tom Westbrook, Buyers, Winston Sammut, it's, REITs, Centuria, Grant Berry, Dexus, Ping, Blackstone, Amy Pham, Sammut, Australia's, Hostplus, that's, Pham, Lewis Jackson, Scott Murdoch, Sam Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Charter Hall, Sequoia Financial Group, Charter, Reuters, SG Hiscock, Company, Blackstone, Sydney, Pengana Capital, Thomson Locations: Epping, Sydney, Australia, SYDNEY, Canberra, United States

Charter Hall did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. On its website Charter Hall said the fund would "only sell assets for prices that reflect fair value and given the lower sales volumes in the office investment markets, sales have proved challenging". Another REIT and Australia's largest office landlord Dexus (DXS.AX) last month sold a premium downtown Sydney office block for a 17% discount on a valuation made six months earlier. The Australian and U.S. REIT benchmark indexes are down roughly a fifth since highs at the end of 2021. But unlisted fund valuations have declined more slowly, creating an incentive for investors to pull money out while a chunky premium over listed equivalents remains, according to fund managers with investments in REITs.

Persons: Australia's, Hall, Dexus, Blackstone, Lewis Jackson, Byron Kaye, Jacqueline Wong Organizations: SYDNEY, Investors, PFA Fund, Charter Hall, KKR, Australian, Income, Thomson Locations: Australian, Sydney, REITs, BlackRock

SYDNEY, July 14 (Reuters) - Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Michele Bullock will take over from Governor Philip Lowe in September and has already flagged that leading the country's central bank through a period of change will be a major priority. Bullock, the first woman to helm the country's central bank, will have the task of leading the bank through its biggest internal shakeup in decades while also maintaining the fight against inflation. "I wasn't sure I would ever be in this position," Bullock said in a 2022 interview with her alma mater. "I never thought that Guy Debelle, who was the deputy governor, would leave the Bank. A review into the central bank published in April recommended sweeping changes including the setup of a separate specialist board to manage monetary policy, less frequent meetings and more public communication.

Persons: Michele Bullock, Philip Lowe, Bullock, Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers, Michele, Jonathan Kearns, Bullock's, Guy Debelle, Lowe, Su, Lin Ong, Lewis Jackson, Stella Qiu, Praveen Menon Organizations: SYDNEY, Reserve Bank, University of New, London School of Economics, Challenger, RBC Capital Markets, Thomson Locations: University of New England, Armidale, Sydney, Lincoln

SYDNEY, July 11 (Reuters) - Social media giant Meta Platforms (META.O), owner of Facebook and Instagram, plans to label government-affiliated accounts on its new Twitter-like platform Threads, an executive told an Australian inquiry on foreign interference on Tuesday. The disclosure comes less than a week after Meta launched Threads, which is widely seen as similar to the microblogging site Twitter. Twitter has removed tags from government-affiliated accounts since billionaire Elon Musk took it private in 2022, bringing complaints about degrading users' media literacy. Asked if Russian state-affiliated broadcaster RT or Chinese government-affiliated publisher Xinhua News Agency would be tagged accordingly on Threads, Machin said, "that's our aspiration". "To the effect that any state-affiliated media are violating our policies, we would remove them," he told the inquiry.

Persons: Josh Machin, Meta's, Elon Musk, Machin, James Paterson, Meta, Meta's Machin, Byron Kaye, Lewis Jackson, Jamie Freed Organizations: SYDNEY, Facebook, Meta, Twitter, RT, Xinhua, Agency, Reuters, Australian Communications, Media Authority, Thomson Locations: Australia, Russia, China, Lincoln

The cost to make a flat white, one of the most popular Australian coffee orders, jumped by nearly one-fifth. The result is smaller profits, a shrinking pool of regular customers and business owners heading for the exit. Before COVID-19, hospitality venues were about one-third of Australian small businesses advertised for sale. It paused in July but warned it may resume hiking if inflation, still running at 7%, fails to slow. "Some of my regulars I used to have will still come and get coffee and say, 'We had to bring lunch.

Persons: Jack Hanna, Hanna, Damian Krigstein, Peter Meredith, Guy Cooper, insolvencies, Patrick Coghlan, that's, David Cox, Cox, Byron Kaye, Lewis Jackson, Praveen Menon, Sonali Paul Organizations: Reuters, SBS Business, Link Business Sales Australasia, Australian Securities and Investments, Thomson Locations: SYDNEY, Europe, Sydney, Ukraine, Sydney's

Uber and Facebook on Friday said they had received advice from PwC Australia about the law. "We had no knowledge their advice may have been based on improperly obtained information," an Uber spokesperson said. Uber dropped PwC Australia as a tax adviser in 2016 after "engagements" with the Australian Tax Office, the spokesperson added. Uber and Facebook's links to PwC on the leaked tax plans were first reported by the Australian Financial Review on Friday. A PwC Australia spokesperson said the matter "was a PwC issue" and its "clients were not involved in any wrongdoing and no confidential information was used to enable clients to pay less tax."

Persons: Uber, PwC, PwC's, Lewis Jackson, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, PwC, Facebook, Reuters, Google, Australian Tax Office, Treasury, Australian, Tax, Board, Public Company, Thomson Locations: PwC Australia, Australia

SYDNEY, July 6 (Reuters) - Two lawmakers on Thursday called on PwC Australia to name all the companies it sought to advise on the basis of leaked government tax plans, after a report linked Google (GOOGL.O) to the national scandal first exposed in January. A cache of 144-pages of PwC emails dating from 2014 to 2017 publicly released by the Tax Practioners Board in May detail how a former tax partner shared with colleagues confidential government tax plans, which they then used to drum up work with companies overseas. One of the released emails dated Jan. 6, 2016 mentioned a "north American project" that had 14 unnamed companies as clients. PwC Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Deborah O'Neill, O'Neill, Barbara Pocock, Pocock, PwC, Tom Seymour, Lewis Jackson, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, Reuters, Google, Tax, Board, Labor, Greens, Senate, PwC Australia's, Thomson Locations: Australia

At the time, a number of organisations had called for the government to delay the planned January 2016 start date. The former partner did not tell Google the information was confidential, the source said. Reuters could not establish if Google was a client of PwC Australia at the time, and if it used the information in any way. What sources told Reuters matches information in the letter, which was publicly released with the name of the company that received the confidential information redacted. Tax officials told parliament in May they foiled several attempts by unnamed multinational firms to subvert the multinational anti-avoidance law in early 2016, months after confidential information had leaked.

Persons: PwC, Peter Collins, Collins, Tom Seymour, Lewis Jackson, Emelia Sithole, Sonali Paul Organizations: Google, Reuters, PwC Australia, PwC, Tax, Board, Thomson Locations: Australia, SYDNEY, PwC Australia

SYDNEY, July 4 (Reuters) - Australia's fourth largest pension fund suspended new work with PwC Australia on Tuesday, the latest in a string of funds to pause work with the accounting firm over a scandal which first surfaced in January over the misuse of government tax plans. The decision by UniSuper, which manages A$115 billion ($77 billion), means five of Australia's largest pension funds, managing a total of some A$865 billion, have paused work with PwC, which says it is a "leading adviser" to the sector. UniSuper said it was concerned by recent events at PwC and the fund had suspended new contracts for the "immediate future". PwC, which was UniSuper's internal auditor according to the fund's 2022 annual report, declined to comment. ($1 = 1.4972 Australian dollars)Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: UniSuper, Lewis Jackson, Alexander Smith Organizations: SYDNEY, PwC Australia, UniSuper, Reserve Bank of Australia, Thomson Locations: PwC

SYDNEY, July 3 (Reuters) - PwC Australia has fired eight partners including its former chief executive as part of an internal investigation into the leak of confidential government tax plans by a former partner, the firm said on Monday. The investigation found multiple examples where the "misuse of confidential information" breached professional standards and also identified "a failure of leadership and governance" to address the breaches, PwC said in a statement. Seymour and the other seven partners named by PwC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Three of the partners were singled out for actions that "failed to meet their professional responsibilities". These behaviours are not, and never have been, acceptable under PwC’s standards," said the statement from PwC, one of the world's "big four" accounting firms.

Persons: PwC, Kristin Stubbins, Tom Seymour, Seymour, Lewis Jackson, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, PwC, Thomson Locations: Australia, Stubbins

A surge in energy prices due to the war in Ukraine plus a buoyant U.S. dollar helped power exports beyond the previous record set a year earlier. Australia's commodities export earnings are set to tumble 15% to A$390 billion this financial year and then to A$344 billion the year after, according to a quarterly government publication. It expects thermal coal export earnings will slump 40% to A$38 billion this financial year while liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will slide 27% to A$68 billion. Iron ore exports are set to decline 11% to A$110 billion this financial year and then fall to A$93 billion the year after, the report predicted. Exports of so-called energy transition metals like lithium and cobalt are forecast to remain over A$40 billion, it said without specifying a timeframe.

Persons: Lewis Jackson, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: SYDNEY, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine, China, Australia

The Australian scandal is the latest in a number the "big four" professional services firm has faced around the globe. Auditor PwC said it was unable to comment on client issues due to confidentiality clauses. Its auditor PwC and affiliates agreed to pay $33 million in fines and compensation to settle U.S. litigation in 2011. India's market regulator barred PwC's local affiliate from auditing listed companies for two years in 2018, but that was overturned the following year. ($1 = 1.4984 Australian dollars)Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Praveen Menon and Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Kristin Stubbins, PwC, Lewis Jackson, Praveen Menon, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, PricewaterhouseCoopers, International, Wyelands Bank, Colonial Bank ., Satyam, Enron, PwC, Thomson Locations: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Alabama, Colonial Bank . India

SYDNEY, June 26 (Reuters) - PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia staff who are found to have acted improperly in a scandal over the leaking of government tax plans will face "severe" consequences, acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins told a state parliament inquiry on Monday. "We have failed the standards we set for ourselves as an organisation, and I apologise on behalf of our firm," Stubbins said. The firm has already placed nine partners on leave and named four former partners directly involved in the breach who have since left the firm. The move will cut PwC Australia off from the "vast majority" of public sector consulting work, although some external audit work for government clients may stay, said Stubbins. She will remain in the role until Kevin Burrowes, currently Global Clients & Industries lead based in Singapore, relocates to Australia for the job.

Persons: Kristin Stubbins, Stubbins, David Seymour, Kevin Burrowes, Lewis Jackson, Diane Craft, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia, Allegro Funds, Global, Industries, Thomson Locations: Australia, New South Wales, ringfence, PwC Australia, Singapore

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