The Guardian: Australia news live: Coles blames competitor’s Ooshies for slowing sales; young people the first generation to earn less than their parents at same age

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Australia news live: Coles blames competitor’s Ooshies for slowing sales; young people the first generation to earn less than their parents at same age

Coles reported growing profit from its supermarkets despite a slump in alcohol sales and a delayed hit from Woolworths’ Disney ‘Ooshie’ giveaways. Photograph: Ken Leanfore/Woolworths

Coles blames Ooshies for hurting its sales as it reports $1.09bn profit

Luca Ittimani

Coles reported growing profit from its supermarkets despite a slump in alcohol sales and a delayed hit from Woolworths’ Disney “Ooshie” giveaways.

The company today said it grown supermarket sales by 3.7% and gained market share over the year to June. Growth had continued into July but slumped amid a “competitor’s collectibles campaign” – a reference to the “Ooshie” plastic figurines.

Coles said its digital sales boomed 26.4%, to $5.6bn, helped by a partnership with Uber Eats and improved wait times for store-based click and collect orders. Its own-brand product sales grew 6.1%, with the company singling out its cleaning, baby and ready meal range.

The company said the prices of its supermarket products rose just 1.5% through the year. Supermarkets’ own calculation methods for inflation are not necessarily intuitive.

Its net profit bumped up 1% to $1.09bn as a result. Profit would have been $1.25bn if not for a penalty from a federal court ruling over its payment of managers.

But liquor sales fell 3.3% from the prior year. The company said “subdued consumer sentiment” and cost of living pressures were to blame. Its competitor Endeavour, owner of Dan Murphy’s and BWS, reported a steep fall in annual profit yesterday.

Women’s Legal Centre calls for reform to help survivors of sexual assault come forward

Elena Rosenman, CEO of Women’s Legal Centre ACT, has said the greatest motivation for people coming forward is wanting to prevent other people from experiencing the same thing.

The barriers to reporting are structural: the lack of control and of agency in the process, lengthy timeframes that put people’s whole lives on hold often for years, and anxiety about court processes that can retraumatise with no promise of accountability.

We have seen quantifiable increases in requests for assistance in the wake of high-profile cases. Here in Canberra, we began advocating for the establishment of the Sexual Violence Legal Service after tracking the rise in requests for assistance following the advocacy of Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame. High-profile cases can cut both ways. They give people the confidence to come forward, but as these processes extend and become more public, they also show just how gruelling that scrutiny can be, and that’s part of what people weigh up before deciding to report.

Women’s Legal Services has estimated they turn away about 1,000 women every week for capacity and other reasons. The story is similar across community, legal aid and First Nations legal services, she said.

People who have been subjected to violence should seek the assistance that best meets their needs. There are specialist sexual assault support services across the country, and we strongly encourage people to get their own legal advice, either before or as part of reporting. Sexual Violence Legal Services are already operating here in Canberra, as well as in Victoria and WA, with services being established in other jurisdictions.

Family of wrongly arrested Indigenous teen welcome report

The family of a 17-year-old Indigenous teenager have welcomed a damning report finding police wrongly identified their nephew as a suspect and forced him off a bus at gunpoint in Canberra.

The teenager, referred to by the pseudonym Jay, was travelling on a bus in Woden in late 2025 when police boarded the bus with guns drawn. The officers wrongly believed Jay was a suspect in an aggravated burglary. They took him off the bus, brought him to the ground, handcuffed and arrested him.

Police realised their mistake within 90 seconds, but decided to search him anyway before releasing him back on to the bus.

In a report released on Tuesday, Iain Anderson, the commonwealth and ACT ombudsman, found the AFP had “no clearly understood definition of ‘racial profiling’” and had conducted the additional search “inappropriately and seemingly unlawfully”.

In a statement, Jay’s family said he was simply trying to travel to his Aunty’s house and was “compliant and polite during the entire incident”, despite having done nothing wrong.

The failures are numerous and deeply concerning. They include a complete failure to provide any care to our nephew after subjecting him to a traumatic incident despite knowing he was a child, making public statements after the incident which inappropriately attempted to downplay and diminish the incident and an apparent failure of the AFP internally to understand what racial profiling is.

Last year, the ACT’s chief police officer, Scott Lee, apologised for the incident and acknowledged the trauma it would have caused Jay, his family and the broader Indigenous community.

Matthew Guy says Victorian Labor’s $2bn savings on Suburban Rail Loop ‘unimpressive and underwhelming’

The Victorian opposition’s transport infrastructure spokesperson, Matthew Guy, described premier Ben Carroll’s announcement this morning – that $2bn in savings will be found on the Suburban Rail Loop project – as “incredibly unimpressive and underwhelming”.

Carroll is reportedly not a fan of the proposed 90km orbital train line that will eventually travel from Cheltenham to Werribee, via the north-east suburbs and the Melbourne Airport. But on Tuesday he said it’s going ahead with a reducton of scope, saving $1bn, and he’s ordered a technical review he says will save another $1bn.

Guy said this is not good enough. He told reporters outside parliament:

This premier and this government is in complete chaos … They say that the Suburban Rail Loop’s on, then it’s off, then it’s on, partly on, bits are going to be saved. Look, I think Victorians are sick to death of being taken by mugs by this government. A change in premier is not a change in government. It’s the same old tired government that we’ve had for 12 years. I think we’re sick of them.

He said the premier cannot claim he “respects” Victorians’ money while refusing to outline how he will save $2bn on the project, citing cabinet in confidence.

If you’re going to try and make a virtue of saving money and make some broad comments about scrapping connectivity between stations, well, Victorians deserve to know not just the details of what you’re going to try and save money on, but how about show us the contracts? … Not take your word for the fact that you might save a bit.

Guy said the opposition will pause and review the project if elected, then provide an update on whether the project can proceed.

Construction work on the Suburban Rail Loop at Clayton in 2025. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Australia needs thousands more regular donors of O-type blood in the coming week amid supply pressures, including seasonal illness.

Lifeblood said it needs 5,700 more donors of the blood type in the next seven days, which is used in emergency situations when a patient’s blood group is not known.

The appeal comes amid a push from three different nations: Australia, Canada and the England. Cath Stone, the chief customer officer of Lifeblood, said the joint ask was about leveraging a united front in the call for more donors:

Millions of people across our countries are eligible to donate blood, but only a small proportion do. Blood donation is one of the simplest ways people can make a real difference. We need more people to take that first step and become donors.

People line up to donate blood at the Town Hall Lifeblood donor centre in Sydney. Photograph: George Chan/Getty Images

Coles ‘looking at’ facial surveillance tech to combat theft and threats

Coles says it’s interested in facial recognition technology to combat theft and threats in the retail industry, which it attributes to the rising cost of living.

The supermarket giant and its competitor, Woolworths, are both considering increased surveillance methods but have said they have not implemented them, as we reported here:

Leah Weckert, Coles’ chief executive, told reporters today the company had looked at a proof-of-concept but not trialled the tech. She said:

Like I think many retailers, we are looking at it and understanding the technical aspects of it, because we are interested in making sure that our team are as safe as possible. …

It’s something that we are working to understand more at the moment. Wouldn’t rule it out going forward but it’s not something that we’ve got imminently on our plan either.

Weckert said theft and loss had been stable in Coles supermarkets this year after increased use of other technologies, including smart gates, security tags, and cameras in checkouts.

But the broader retail industry was reporting “a slight uptick in theft and threatening situations,” which she said was “broadly consistent with an increase in focus on cost of living again”.

Progress between generations breaking down, Anglicare Australia executive says

Back to the report showing today’s young people are the first generation to earn less than their parents at the same age:

Anglicare Australia’s executive director, Kasy Chambers, said the findings show that progress between generations is breaking down.

For generations, Australians could expect that if they worked hard, they would become more secure over time. That promise is no longer holding for young people.

Young Australians are doing everything we ask of them. They are studying, working and contributing. But they are earning less than the generations before them, being locked out of housing, and struggling to build the security that past generations took for granted. The economic foundations underneath them have shifted.

One of the clearest places to start is Youth Allowance. We have a social security system that literally says a young person needs less money to live on simply because of their age. Our findings show they can’t afford rent on Youth Allowance anywhere in the country.

Ben Carroll says Suburban Rail Loop savings will axe some ‘nice to haves’

Victoria premier Ben Carroll is holding a press conference to announce $1bn in savings to the costly and controversial Suburban Rail Loop and a review to find $1bn more. The new Victorian premier says while the project is “needed” for the state’s future, he has worked to “save every dollar”.

Carroll says:

My first press conference, I said I would look at this project in depth. Here I am within a month, having found substantial savings just by doing a thorough financial audit. That is just the finances. Now I am committed to doing a technical audit and an engineering audit, where I do believe we’ll be able to find additional savings.

He says the $1bn saved is through “commonsense” changes in scope that removes “bells and whistles”:

Overpasses, walkways, car parks, community grants are nice to haves, but they are not needed to build the orbital railway line.

The technical report will be completed in three to six months – after the November state election – with no further contracts signed beforehand. Tunnelling will begin as planned.

Carroll says his approach is more financially responsible than the opposition’s pledge to pause works and review the project if elected. He says:

I’m a premier that will stick to contracts and won’t rip them up. What the opposition do by pausing this project, it will cost millions of dollars a day. They are saying they will pause and review.

It is economic vandalism [what] the opposition are proposing. For the party that’s meant to be the party of financial responsibility, they do not know what they’re doing or talking about, and it shows again how they talk amongst themselves, but do not talk to stakeholders, whether they’re engineers, legal experts, nurses or doctors.

Victorian premier Ben Carroll pushes ahead with rail loop plan after hinting at pause

The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, has made an about-face, committing to pushing ahead with the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop while promising to reduce its total cost by about 6%.

Carroll will on Tuesday announce changes to the scope of the first stage of the project, known as SRL East – a 26km stretch of tunnels between Cheltenham and Box Hill – estimated to save $1bn.

He will also order an “independent, technical review” to identify a further $1bn in savings.

Coles blames Ooshies for hurting its sales as it reports $1.09bn profit

Luca Ittimani

Coles reported growing profit from its supermarkets despite a slump in alcohol sales and a delayed hit from Woolworths’ Disney “Ooshie” giveaways.

The company said the prices of its supermarket products rose just 1.5% through the year. Supermarkets’ own calculation methods for inflation are not necessarily intuitive.

Its net profit bumped up 1% to $1.09bn as a result. Profit would have been $1.25bn if not for a penalty from a federal court ruling over its payment of managers.

Today’s young people the first generation to earn less than their parents at the same age, report reveals

Today’s young people are the first generation to earn less than the generation before them at the same age, and they’re still behind at 30, a new report reveals.

Young people are also being forced to cut spending on both essentials and luxuries, while older people are increasing spending across the board

Home ownership for 25-34-year-olds is below 40%, back to 1940s levels, and not one of 48,776 rental listings was affordable for someone on Youth Allowance

Young people are more than twice as likely as over-65s to experience serious psychological distress. This is borne out by data from Anglicare Australia services.

Primary repair on Sydney train line finished with normal service to resume this morning

Matt Longland, the chief executive of Sydney Trains, said primary repairs are complete after widespread train cancellations on the North Shore line due to an issue with a counterweight at a major train hub in Chatswood.

Longland told ABC Radio Sydney there is still a bit of secondary work to do before power can be turned back on and trains can be reenergised. Sydney Trains are hoping things will be back to normal later this morning.

Longland said:

We’ve obviously worked very closely with Sydney Metro, who have got extra services in place on the Sydney Metro network to keep passengers flowing towards the city.