NewsBite

Melbourne

This Month

The nine-storey office block at 411 Collins Street with net lettable area of 3015 square metres has sold for about $30 million.

Alibaba’s Australian office changes hands for $30m

In the Melbourne CBD market hit hard by the pandemic, some office vendors hope high replacement costs make their existing buildings more attractive. 

  • Michael Bleby

September

Endeavour Group boss Steven Donohue is exiting the top job after six years as CEO and 30 years with the company.

Dan Murphy’s parent Endeavour rocked by CEO exit

Over three decades Steve Donohue rose from the Dan Murphy’s shop floor to the top job. On Friday, he shocked the market with his departure.

  • Updated
  • Carrie LaFrenz
Qantas jet at Sydney Airport.

Qantas says it won’t drop the ball as engineers strike

The airline says plans are in place to keep people moving over the AFL Grand Final weekend.

  • Rachael Ward
A national review of the COVID-response is expected to recommend the permanent establishment of an Australian Centre for Disease Control.

Infection super agency to lead future pandemic response

A new Australian Centre for Disease Control will get powers to manage any future pandemic, under the national COVID-19 review due to be handed to government.

  • Tom Burton
Moving on. Jose Pineda has been priced out of Kingsford.

Jose was priced out of his inner-city home. So were 16,000 others

KPMG data shows rising costs are squeezing out much-needed workers from Sydney and Melbourne’s most sought-after suburbs.

  • Campbell Kwan
Advertisement
John Pesutto, centre, Dr Matt Collins, right, and Pesutto’s wife, Betty, arriving at the Federal Court on Tuesday.

MP v SC: Pesutto spars with Deeming’s barrister in defamation trial

Moira Deeming’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, has attacked Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto’s 2018 remarks about “African gangs”.

  • Gus McCubbing
Hotel mogul Jerry Schwartz at his Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour hotel.

‘Pay to stay’: Average Sydney hotel room rate to hit $426 by 2033

Sydney will be the standout hotel market over the next decade as occupancy rises to 86pc and few new hotels are completed to keep up with demand.

  • Larry Schlesinger
Moira Deeming arrives at the Federal Court for day one of her ten-day trial for defamation against Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto.

Liberals desperately need to end the Pesutto-Deeming drama

A climb down by both sides in this libel case would better for the Victorian Liberals than a damning Federal Court judgment.

  • Terry Barnes
Moira Deeming arrives at the Federal Court on Wednesday.

Neo-Nazis boasted of protecting rally Deeming helped plan, court told

Social media posts made by a neo-Nazi leader have been read out to a court during MP Moira Deeming’s defamation trial against Liberal leader John Pesutto.

  • Gus McCubbing and Patrick Durkin
Simon Hartley, 59, called time on his iconic Melbourne restaurant Becco on Friday.

‘Beautiful chaos’: Iconic Melbourne power diner owner calls time

Simon Hartley has hosted every prime minister since Gough Whitlam at his CBD restaurant Becco. But on Friday, he held the last supper.

  • Gus McCubbing

Dozens arrested after anti-war protest turns violent

Protesters flooded Melbourne’s CBD to take action against a defence expo and the federal government’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

  • Updated
  • Gus McCubbing
Mid-tier fashion group Country Road is owned by South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings.

Country Road goes cheaper at Mimco, Politix in brand ‘reset’

The high-profile retailer will also launch its first fragrance as part of the overhaul, part of a bid to arrest a slide in sales after a difficult year.

  • Carrie LaFrenz
Jayson Westbury: before the fall.

CEO who said TV host needed an ‘uppercut’ lands at Franchise Council

Go figure: saying a TV host needed a “firm uppercut or a slap across the face” isn’t career suicide.

  • Myriam Robin
88 Lewisham Road, Prahran

Spring selling season starts slowly as vendors take wait-and-see approach

Auction volumes held steady during the first week of spring as vendors bet on strong initial results to help bolster prices.

  • Campbell Kwan
Healthscope’s Northern Beaches Hospital.

Brookfield’s Healthscope deal leaves a sick feeling

A weakened Healthscope is the face of the backlash agitating for more funding from the private health insurers.

  • Jemima Whyte
Advertisement
The MSO is not a safe haven for everyone.

The MSO brought this row on itself

Young self-absorbed artists and old complacent arts organisations like the MSO don’t understand that great art is powerful because it transcends politics.

  • John Roskam
Japanese and Australian troops now co-operate more closely.

Japan and Australia face a turning point in world history

Tokyo and Canberra back a free and open international order against unilateral attempts to coerce, says a contender in Japan’s prime ministerial race.

  • Yoko Kamikawa
AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda founded AirTrunk less than a decade ago.

AirTrunk’s $23.5b AI pay day

Blackstone emerged as the winning bidder in the year’s biggest merger and acquisition deal, netting its founder Robin Khuda a $1 billion-plus payday.

  • Paul Smith and Anthony Macdonald
Robin Khuda arrived in Australia as an 18-year-old from Bangladesh, and is now at the centre of the year’s biggest deal.

Robin Khuda is the ringleader of this year’s biggest M&A deal

The founder of AirTrunk has cashed in on the inexorable rise in demand for processing power and built a vast fortune on the rise of cloud computing.

  • Paul Smith and Tess Bennett
Pianist Jayson Gillham, whose onstage remarks about the Gaza war got his next MSO concert cancelled.

Feuding Melbourne Symphony players choose their fighters

While we doubt much of this will end up in court, everyone is getting the very best legal advice. If only for leverage.

  • Myriam Robin

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/melbourne-ch7