logo
Australia Names Wilkinson Treasury Head, First Woman in Role

Australia Names Wilkinson Treasury Head, First Woman in Role

Bloomberg19 hours ago

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has named Jenny Wilkinson as the nation's new secretary to the Treasury, making her the first woman to hold the bureaucracy's top economic post.
Wilkinson, currently head of the Department of Finance, will replace Steven Kennedy who will oversee the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet after almost six years at Treasury. The two officials will take up their new roles with five-year terms on June 16.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Announcement due over UK government's Casement funding
Announcement due over UK government's Casement funding

Yahoo

time40 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Announcement due over UK government's Casement funding

The government will announce later on Wednesday whether it will make a financial contribution towards the redevelopment of Casement Park. Rebuilding the west Belfast stadium is estimated to cost about £260m - of which £120m in funding is jointly in place from the Stormont Executive, the Irish government and the GAA. Pressure has been building on the government to make a decision, which is now anticipated as part of the Spending Review. The review will allocate money to day-to-day public services for the next three years. It will also set infrastructure budgets for the next four years. The review will directly affect what Stormont ministers have to spend on public services in Northern Ireland. Ministers are also expected to find out if they have succeeded in persuading the Treasury that Stormont's finances require a more generous "needs-based" top-up. Last week, Finance Minister John O'Dowd said he believed the Treasury was in "solution-finding mode" when it came to reaching agreement on funding for Casement Park. Days later, a senior figure in the GAA said the association was "cautiously optimistic" that an announcement on funding was coming this week. The Stormont executive is contributing £62.5m to the project, the GAA will pay £15m, while the Irish government has pledged about £43m. The GAA has acknowledged it will need to increase its commitment. "We are prepared to step up. It would be premature to start mentioning figures here. I think it will be higher than £15m", said Stephen McGeehan, the project lead for the stadium redevelopment. Casement Park, with a proposed 34,500 capacity, had been earmarked to host football games at the Euro 2028 football tournament but, with the project on hold, the plan was shelved. Stormont's Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has defended his handling of the planned Casement redevelopment and insisted the hold-up is not his fault. He has said the GAA will need to make its plans for the stadium more affordable if the government fails to cover the gap for the current proposed rebuild. "What we do need to make sure is that any additional public funding that comes forward for sport is done on a fair and equitable basis," he said. When devolution was restored in 2024, Stormont ministers persuaded the Treasury that Northern Ireland's public services were being funded below an objective level of need. As a result any additional funding Stormont gets from Westminster now comes with a top-up - an additional 24p for every pound. That will be worth more than £800m over five years, the independent Fiscal Council has estimated. The Treasury also left the door open for a bigger top-up if there was credible, independent evidence to support it. Stormont ministers believe they have provided that evidence in the form of an analysis by the devolution finance expert Prof Gerry Holtham. The Treasury's response to that will come as Chancellor Rachel Reeves lays out the government's Spending Review in the Commons on Wednesday afternoon. Spending Review: When is it and what might Rachel Reeves announce? UK government in 'solution-finding mode' on Casement Park

Morgan Stanley Australia CEO Says IPOs, Deals Are Returning
Morgan Stanley Australia CEO Says IPOs, Deals Are Returning

Bloomberg

timean hour ago

  • Bloomberg

Morgan Stanley Australia CEO Says IPOs, Deals Are Returning

Morgan Stanley 's Australia chief said he's seeing a return of initial public offerings and merger activity after a 'horrible' first half as the country's stability draws overseas capital. 'Certainly the first six months of this year have been difficult on deal flow, but I think we are about to see that change,' Richard Wagner said in a Bloomberg TV interview in Sydney. 'We will see the IPO market open' and the M&A pipeline is 'very strong' in Australia, which augurs well for the next six months, he said.

Bessent Returns to Washington as US-China Talks Stretch On
Bessent Returns to Washington as US-China Talks Stretch On

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Bessent Returns to Washington as US-China Talks Stretch On

(Bloomberg) — SUS Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent departed trade talks with China late Tuesday in London, as delegations continued to negotiate over key tech and industrial exports and deescalating their trade war. Trump's Military Parade Has Washington Bracing for Tanks and Weaponry NY Long Island Rail Service Resumes After Grand Central Fire NYC Mayoral Candidates All Agree on Building More Housing. But Where? Senator Calls for Closing Troubled ICE Detention Facility in New Mexico California Pitches Emergency Loans for LA, Local Transit Systems Bessent told reporters he had to return to Washington in order to testify before Congress. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer planned to continue discussions with their Chinese counterparts 'as needed,' Bessent said. 'We have had two days of productive talks, they are ongoing,' the Treasury secretary said before leaving Lancaster House, a Georgian-era mansion near Buckingham Palace serving as the meeting site. Financial markets were closely watching Tuesday as the world's largest economies continued talks over the terms of their tariff truce brokered last month. US stocks rose to session highs after Lutnick said earlier the talks were 'going really, really well.' The teams, which had been led by Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, were still holding discussions Tuesday night in order to iron out technical details, according to a Treasury official. The key issue this week is re-establishing terms of an agreement reached in Geneva last month, in which the US understood that China would allow more rare earth shipments to reach American customers. The Trump administration accused Beijing of moving too slowly, which threatened shortages in domestic manufacturing sectors. In return, the Trump administration is prepared to remove a recent spate of measures targeting chip design software, jet engine parts, chemicals and nuclear materials, people familiar with the matter said. Many of those actions were taken in the past few weeks as tensions flared between the US and China. 'Win by China' 'A US decision to roll back some portion of the technology controls would very much be viewed as a win by China,' said Dexter Roberts, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, adding that the possibility of unwinding 'any controls' seemed 'pretty much unthinkable' until recently. A month ago Beijing and Washington agreed to a 90-day truce through mid-August in their crippling tariffs to allow time to resolve many of their trade disagreements — from tariffs to export controls. Lancaster House carries historical significance. It has hosted major addresses by UK prime ministers, speeches by central bank governors and parties for Britain's royal family. At the same time, Trump's trade team is scrambling to secure bilateral deals with India, Japan, South Korea and several other countries that are racing to do so before July 9, when the US president's so-called reciprocal tariffs rise from the current 10% baseline to much higher levels customized for each trading partner. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday held his first phone conversation with South Korea's newly elected President Lee Jae-myung and called for cooperation to safeguard multilateralism and free trade. 'We should strengthen bilateral cooperation and multilateral coordination, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and ensure the stability and smoothness of global and regional industrial chains and supply chains,' Xi said, according to the CCTV report. —With assistance from Colum Murphy and Stephanie Lai. New Grads Join Worst Entry-Level Job Market in Years American Mid: Hampton Inn's Good-Enough Formula for World Domination The Spying Scandal Rocking the World of HR Software Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store