Rio Tinto's green warning 🌱🚨

G’day.  

Welcome to Point Blank – How was your Friday coffee run? 

 💼 Practice Points

• Albanese government to add a general prohibition on unfair trading practices under the Australian Consumer Law. The move is designed to crack down on subscription traps, drip pricing, deceptive online tactics, dynamic pricing, unnecessary account setups, and poor customer support.

• High Court rules that SkyCity must include loyalty points converted to gaming credits in its gross gambling revenue, requiring an additional $13.1m in casino duty.

 📢 Talking Points

• ACCC and ASIC urge the Albanese government to lift a 13-year pay freeze that caps barrister rates at $2,730 for government work, far below the $9,500 they can earn in private practice, impacting law enforcement.

• Elon Musk has donated over $70m to support Donald Trump's campaign, making him one of the biggest donors this election season.

• British MPs have approved a bill to remove hereditary aristocrats from the House of Lords – 88 hereditary peers remain in the upper chamber. If passed by the House of Lords, dukes and earls will no longer become ‘peers’ of the chamber, ending the 700-year tradition. Tony Blair’s Labour government removed the majority of hereditary peers from the chamber in 1999.

• A Californian court has ruled that the tech giant Meta must face lawsuits accusing it of fueling mental health problems among teens by making its Facebook and Instagram platforms addictive.

 🏦 The Treasury

 🤝 Deal Room

• KKR exited the race for Loscam’s $3bn logistics business, while Brookfield may still pursue a 40% stake.

• Blackstone deployed and committed $54bn in capital—the highest in over two years—amid a resurgence in dealmaking following US rate cuts and an optimistic economic outlook.

• After Rio Tinto's bid for Arcadium, small and mid-cap lithium stocks are outperforming larger peers—Pilbara Minerals and MinRes are down 12% and 7% respectively, as analysts note that lithium majors are viewed as unattractive takeover targets.

🏛 Policy Watch

• Woodside urges other Australian states to follow WA's lead and transfer responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions policy to the federal government to streamline project approvals and reduce regulatory duplication.

• A recent survey reveals that 50% of Australians support a Coalition proposal to force supermarkets to sell assets if they hold too much market power.

• Rio Tinto has warned the Albanese government not to go too green at the expense of the red dirt mining sector, requesting the government embrace “practical thinking” on environmental laws.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has dismissed a Greens-initiated parliamentary report that found negative gearing changes could help hundreds of thousands of renters into home ownership.

🏗 Sector Specific

Diggers

• Global coal demand is projected to hit new highs in 2024, fuelled by China and India. Meanwhile, Matt Kean cautions against extending the life of Australian coal stations emphasising that it could delay investment in renewables.

• BHP sells iron ore for weakest prices in more than 4 years, driven by reduced Chinese steel demand and operational disruptions.

• Twiggy Forrest and ex-wife Nicola have stepped down as co-chairs of the Minderoo Foundation, with prominent barrister Allan Myers taking over just months after the organisation cut its workforce by one-third.

The Fin

• CBA fined $7.5m for sending 170 million spam emails in breach of the Spam Act, including 34.8 million people who had not consented.

• Mastercard has been denied the opportunity to appeal a Federal Court ruling regarding payments data collected by the Reserve Bank of Australia, in its ongoing legal dispute with the ACCC.

Retail

• Star Casino fined $15m for compliance breaches, with NSW regulators conceding that pulling its Sydney gaming licence would cause the collapse of the entire company.

• Airbus plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs, representing 7% of its Defence and Space division workforce, by mid-2026 due to ongoing losses in its satellite business.

• A review of Nine Entertainment revealed a toxic workplace culture marked by widespread bullying, intimidation, and sexual harassment.

🏘️ Word on the Street 

• In a dramatic courtroom face-off, a human lawyer triumphed over an AI, proving that when it comes to the art of crafting an argument, humans still hold the upper hand.

• Sue Kench, global CEO of KWM, will step down at the end of the year, leaving the firm to confront the structural challenges within its Australia-China alliance.

• Former KPMG partner joins Holding Redlich, having spent nearly six years at KPMG including as the firm’s government and defence practice.

• Hedge fund manager Jun Bei Liu has hired Jason Todd, chief investment officer of Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s private banking unit, for her new A$1.5 billion fund.