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Boosting productivity will strengthen the Australian private sector

Boosting productivity will strengthen the Australian private sector

News.com.au20 hours ago

HSBC Australia's Chief Economist Paul Bloxham emphasises the need to address productivity to boost the
'What we need is the private sector to start to revive and to recover,' Mr Bloxham told Sky News host Ross Greenwood.
'How do you get the private sector to pick up … part of it's going to be helped along by interest rates coming down a bit.
'Unless we lift productivity … competition, tax reform, the regulatory environment, all the things that will help to lift the private sector.'

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Closing Bell: ASX arrests slide to fall just 0.2pc as utilities sector leads recovery
Closing Bell: ASX arrests slide to fall just 0.2pc as utilities sector leads recovery

News.com.au

time24 minutes ago

  • News.com.au

Closing Bell: ASX arrests slide to fall just 0.2pc as utilities sector leads recovery

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Developers lodge plans for Australia's tallest building with 101-storey tower in Southport
Developers lodge plans for Australia's tallest building with 101-storey tower in Southport

ABC News

timean hour ago

  • ABC News

Developers lodge plans for Australia's tallest building with 101-storey tower in Southport

A consortium has submitted plans for a two-tower development on the Gold Coast that would include the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Melbourne developer Anthony Goss first proposed One Park Lane in 2022. The group has spent the past two and a half years negotiating with the Queensland government to amalgamate a small parcel of state-owned land adjacent to the site, and obtain approval to build underneath a state-controlled road. The project will include a razor-thin 101-storey tower with 198 residential apartments and a 60-storey office building. The towers will be connected by a sky bridge on the 22nd floor and a three-storey sculptural canopy at their base. If built, the development will rise 393 metres above the Southport broadwater, towering over the spire of the nearby Q1 (322m) and Melbourne's Australia 108 (316m). However, it will not come close to the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (830m). Baracon development manager Brett Rogers said if the project was approved quickly, early works could start before Christmas, but would not say how much the apartments would cost. "This development will help address the desperate need for more housing on the Gold Coast and stimulate broader economic activity," Mr Rogers said. There is no height limit in that part of Southport, which is zoned as a priority development area. The 1,500 square metre site is next to a light rail station and close to a public park where Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate hopes to build a $480 million indoor arena before the 2032 Olympics. He said it was a "vote of confidence" for his vision to transform the suburb into the growing city's business district. "It's great to see an application of this magnitude in Southport, which has the potential to be a great boost to the city's housing stock," Cr Tate said. It would neighbour a 200-unit social housing apartment complex that broke ground this week. An urban planner said the tower contained a relatively small number of apartments for its size and appeared to include 40 levels of full-floor penthouses. Sustainability and urban planning lecturer at RMIT, Liam Davies, said it was healthy to have a mix of people of varying income levels within a single community. "There are two ways of looking at it. The first is that it feels weirdly unjust," Dr Davies said. "A luxury building where people live in apartments that span multiple levels, and then next to it is social housing that has much higher density. "But we can also look at it and see what we want is a distribution of dwellings across an urban area of dwellings to accommodate a variety of households." He said the Gold Coast was likely able to attract these developments because it was a permissive planning environment where people wanted to live, compared to Neom's The Line project in Saudi Arabia. "They're trying to deliver mega permissive things but no-one wants to live there so they never get the capital whereas the Gold Coast has both," he said. Local councillor Brooke Patterson supported the ambitious development and said there was a lot of demand for office space in the suburb. "I don't think they're going to take any issue filling it," she said. Ms Patterson's predecessor, long-serving Southport councillor Dawn Crichlow, said because the site was so small — boxed in by the light rail line on one side and local bowls club on the other — construction would cause traffic chaos. "The whole thing won't work, it's as simple as that," she said. "You will have to change all of Scarborough Street, nobody would be able to get in and out. "They're not looking at the area, they are not talking to the people, they are just looking at pretty pictures. It's a mess."

Scott Power: ASX health stocks fall in ‘lacklustre week'
Scott Power: ASX health stocks fall in ‘lacklustre week'

News.com.au

timean hour ago

  • News.com.au

Scott Power: ASX health stocks fall in ‘lacklustre week'

ASX heath sector falls 1.1% over past five days The US FDA approves CSL's Andembry to prevent attacks of hereditary angioedema Clever Culture systems records its second consecutive quarter of positive cashflow operations Healthcare and life sciences expert Scott Power, who has been a senior analyst with Morgans Financial for 27 years, gives his take on the ASX healthcare sector for the week and his 'Powerplay' stock pick. The ASX healthcare sector has had what Morgans' senior healthcare analyst Scott Power described as a "lacklustre week". At lunchtime on Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Health Care index (ASX:XHJ) was down 1.1% for the past five days, while the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) fell 0.55% for the same period. Markets have been influenced by global economic and geopolitical concerns, particularly escalating tensions between Iran and Israel. And it seems US President Donald Trump has not backed down from tariffs on pharmaceutical imports. 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Affecting about one in 50,000 people CSL said HAE was the first and only treatment targeting factor XIIa for prophylactic use to provide sustained protection from attacks of HAE in adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older. The approval was based on a pivotal phase III (VANGUARD) trial and ongoing open-label extension study, showing Andembry reduced the median number of HAE attacks by more than 99% (mean 89.2%), compared to placebo. Andembry is also the only treatment to offer once-monthly dosing from the start for all patients and is administered via an autoinjector. The drug is already available in Australia, the UK, EU, Japan, Switzerland and UAE. CSL said Andembry will be launched "immediately", with availability through third-party specialty pharmacy network before the end of June. In a note to clients, Morgans' healthcare analyst Derek Jellinek wrote that while Andembry's US approval had taken longer than expected, with application filing in December '24, it's good to see the drug greenlit before the end of '25 "despite the ongoing tumultuous environment" at the US Food and Drug Administration at the agency. "We view Andembry's unique MOA (ie upstream inhibition of key pathways leading to HAE attacks, so broader applicability), favourable safety profile and convenient dosing (every 4 weeks via subcutaneous injection) as key differentiators," Jellinek wrote. While Andembry is expected to impact Berinert sales – CSL's treatment for acute HAE attacks – Jellinek believes the effect should be modest. He wrote Berinert's revenue was forecast to remain steady in FY25 at US$242 million, accounting for less than 2% of CSL's total revenue. Sales are projected to ease slightly to US$230m in FY26 and US$225 million in FY27. However, this is more than compensated by anticipated growth in Andembry sales, which are expected to reach US$120m in FY26 and increase to US$220m in FY27. Morgans has an add rating on CSL and 12-month target price of $329.26. Clever Culture Systems delivers clever Q3 FY25 result Clever Culture Systems (ASX:CC5) has achieved its second consecutive quarter of positive cashflow operations with $500,000 net cash inflow in Q3 FY25 and is on track to achieve break-even or better for H2 FY25. During the quarter Clever Culture continued to execute on its commercialisation strategy for its APAS Independence instruments in the pharmaceutical market, building on success with big pharma companies Astra Zeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). The instruments use artificial intelligence and machine learning software to automate the imaging, analysis and interpretation of microbiology culture plates. Since launching the product in March 2024, Clever Culture said it had completed sales and received orders from pharmaceutical customers for 13 APAS instruments, representing ~$6 million in revenue with a pipeline of 40 qualified opportunities. Clever Culture finished Q3 FY25 with a cash position of $2.2m. "Other top 10 pharmaceutical companies are expected to engage with CC5 following the AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb success," Power said. Emvision awarded $5 million government grant EMVision Medical Devices (ASX:EMV) has been awarded a $5 million federal government grant to further development of its First Responder portable brain scanner. The funds are by way of an Australian government Industry Growth Program (IGP) Commercialisation and Growth Grant. First Responder is EMVision's second product and distinguishes between bleed and clot strokes at the scene and is designed to be used by ambulances and by paramedics. The device should shorten diagnosis time, a crucial element in the patient getting the right treatment. EMVision's first commercial device – the emu bedside brain scanner – is also designed to rapidly diagnose stroke at the point-of-care with a pivotal trial underway to supports US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) de novo (new device) clearance. Audeara hits record, Micro-X gets milestone payment boost In other news of the week, specialist in listening solutions for people with hearing challenges Audeara (ASX:AUA) has delivered record revenue exceeding $3.64 million for the 11 months to end of May FY25. Audeara reported revenue for the 11-month period was up 14% on FY24 total revenue and 25% on FY23, which the company said signalled underlying strength of its ongoing operations. The company expects additional growth to materialise in coming weeks based on strong June 2025 trading. And leader in cold cathode x-ray technology for health and security markets Micro-X (ASX:MX1) has received $2.3 million in milestone payments for two projects. MicroX achieved milestone three under its development agreement with US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a full body CT scanner, delivering $1.4 million. The company also achieved milestone two under a strategic partnership deal with Billion Prima for a baggage and parcel scanning unit due for completion in 2025, delivering $900,000. "We are pleased to continue to deliver strong progress on these key development contracts with ARPA-H, DHS, and Billion Prima respectively, which is a testament to our focus and timely delivery on key projects," Micro-X CEO Kingsley Hall said. "We are also well advanced with the final stages of our Head CT development as we prepare to enter human imaging trials." The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interview in this article are solely those of the interviewee and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead has not provided, endorsed or otherwise assumed responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article. At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Clever Culture Systems, Audeara and EMVision are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.

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