IVF clinics under the microscope
Every year, Australians are relying on IVF to start their families but after two high-profile bungles at Monash IVF clinics, the industry has come under pressure.
It's prompted a national investigation into the sector, Antonia O'Flaherty filed this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
'Golden parachutes' for Australia's top corporate leaders drop to lowest level in 15 years
So-called "golden parachutes", or big pay-outs when the leaders of Australia's largest listed companies leave, might be a thing of the past. The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors' annual review of how much chief executive officers at ASX 200 companies are paid found termination payouts have dropped to their lowest level in 15 years. Total termination payouts have dropped to $8.4 million in the financial year 2024, down from $33.5 million the previous year. Some of that is explained by a smaller number of departures; however, the average payout per CEO also fell, from $1.97 to $1.4 million. "The research indicates this is saving Australian investors about half a million dollars per termination," said ACSI's executive manager of stewardship, Ed John. Mr John noted that there has been a continual decline in the size of payouts since the Corporations Act changed in 2009 after the global financial crisis. "This was a really major issue in Australia, and we saw more than $80 million of shareholders' money paid out to terminated CEOs before the law was changed in 2009," he said. "What those laws did was give shareholders a vote on large termination payouts. At Australia's largest listed companies, in the ASX 100, leaders' salaries come in at 55 times the average earnings of an Australian worker, despite flattening over the past decade. That's up from 50 times the average earnings in the 2023 financial year, but down significantly from 2014, when CEO salaries were 71 times the average worker's. "Australia is actually doing well relative to other markets where there's been a significant breakout in CEO pay," said Mr John. "There's been recent studies that show CEO pay is a multiple of about 106 times median salaries in the UK and in the US, that's actually more than 300 times in the largest companies." This table shows the chief executives with the highest realised pay (which includes fixed pay and bonuses received): The top earner was US-based Robert Thomson, who runs News Corporation, and earns almost $42 million a year. The only woman on the list, Shemara Wikramanayaka, CEO of Macquarie Group, made just shy of $30 million last financial year. The median realised pay for ASX 100 leaders, which includes fixed pay and bonuses received, was $4.15 million, compared to $3.96 million in 2014. Corporate governance expert, Swinburne University's Helen Bird, said the two-strike rule against remuneration has had a dampening effect on pay rises. It is designed to hold directors accountable for executive salaries and bonuses. That is because if shareholders vote against a company's remuneration report two years in a row, the entire company board can face re-election. While salaries at the very top end of town have been (relatively) constrained in recent years, the bosses of smaller listed companies are enjoying increasingly generous paydays. The highest-paid Australian-based chief executive was Lovisa boss Victor Herrero. The jewellery chain has a market capitalisation of $3.6 billion. In comparison, the Commonwealth Bank's market value is around $302 billion. CEO pay at smaller listed companies has increased over time, with the median climbing from $1.74 million in 2014 to $2.2 million in 2024. "The trend in small companies is interesting, so we'll have to do further work on this," said Mr John. Most chief executives received a bonus in 2024, with just five of the 142 eligible leaders missing out altogether, with most tied to company performance. Those left without a bonus were Tony Lombardo from Lendlease, Credit Corp's Tom Beregi, Mark Allison from Elders, Jamie Pherous from Corporate Travel Management, and Julian Fowles from Karoon Energy. The median CEO bonus was paid at just under 66 per cent of the maximum, which is in line with the long-term trend. "There is a concern among investors that in some places these are becoming a given or an expectation," said Mr John. "What we see is that the fixed rate of pay, which is the very basic salary of a CEO, hasn't changed much, but they're still getting very significant bonuses, up to 60-70 per cent of their entitlement is being paid, so they're getting quite significant incentives to work harder," said Ms Bird.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Property prices tipped to hit record highs in 2025-26, bringing pain for buyers and a boom for sellers
Australian property prices are set to jump even higher in the coming year, which is more bad news for first-home hopefuls. But higher prices will help sellers boost profits from the sale of properties, as they capitalise on the current interest rate-cutting cycle. Two new reports released today reflect the interests of two very different groups of people in Australia. According to Domain's latest Price Forecast Report, Sydney and Melbourne prices will lead the charge in the next 12 months. The median house price in Sydney is forecast to jump by another 7 per cent in 2025-26, to a staggering $1.83 million by June 2026. It means the typical house price in Sydney will rise by $112,000, which is more than the average full-time worker earns before tax ($103,000). The median house price in Melbourne is tipped to rise by 6 per cent, after two years of downturns, to $1.1 million. Property prices in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, once hotspots for affordability, are showing signs of cooling, but not nearly enough to ease the pressure on first home buyers. Nicola Powell, Domain's chief of research and economics, says the forecast price rises will be a "reality check for many people." "If you're trying to break into the property market, the next year could be your toughest challenge yet," she warned. "While interest rate cuts and government support may offer some help, they're also likely to keep prices rising, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, where the market is more sensitive to rate changes. "Growth will slow compared to past cycles, but affordability is still a major barrier, with housing costs consuming a large portion of household income," she said. It will be a similar story for unit price growth. Domain said affordability constraints and first-home buyer incentives will likely push more buyers toward units, where prices are cheaper than the detached housing market, and unit prices will hit record highs in most capital cities. It says lower interest rates help to boost property prices because they improve the borrowing power of Australians. It says the Reserve Bank has already cut the cash rate by 50 basis points this year, and the market is pricing in an additional 80 basis points of cuts by mid-2026. However, it says strong housing demand could also ease a little over the next 12 months, because population growth is expected to slow down. The median unit price in Sydney is forecast to jump by 6 per cent in 2025-26 (up $53,000 in 12 months) to $889,000, which will be a record high. In Brisbane, the median unit price is tipped to jump by 5 per cent (up $31,000) to $701,000, also a record high. Similarly, Perth will see the median unit price jump 6 per cent (up $33,000) to $552,000, and Adelaide will see the median unit price rise by 3 per cent (up $18,000) to $586,000. Domain's report does not include property prices in Hobart. Meanwhile, Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) has released its latest Pain & Gain report, which views properties from the perspective of people who are interested in making a "profit." It analysed 86,000 resales in the March quarter and found 94.9 per cent of property resales "delivered a profit" for the sellers, with a median nominal gain of $305,000. That was down slightly from $310,000 in the previous quarter, marking the first financial quarter since March 2023 that median nominal gains have fallen. But Eliza Owen, Cotality's head of research, said the results reflected a housing market in transition, with profitability set to rise further after the RBA's February and May rate cuts, which have reignited demand and lifted values 1.3 per cent in the three months to May. "Although profitability held steady in early 2025, we're seeing clear signs of renewed momentum," Ms Owen said. "With rate reductions now flowing through to buyer demand and value growth, we expect stronger resale returns in the months ahead." Cotality's report says regional hotspots such as Noosa, Busselton, Grant, and the Sunshine Coast delivered some of the biggest profit uplifts in Australia in the March quarter. In those markets, median resale profits surpassed $400,000 in the quarter, "a staggering increase compared to five years ago." It says houses also continued to outperform units nationally in the March quarter, with 97.2 per cent of house resales delivering a profit, compared to 90.1 per cent of unit sales. "The difference in returns was striking over the March quarter, with the median gain on houses at $355,000, around 73 per cent higher than the $205,000 median gain for units," the report says. "Interestingly, despite the wide gap in gains, the median loss was nearly identical. The median loss was $45,000 for houses and $44,000 for units."
The Australian
3 hours ago
- The Australian
ITM on tail of Reynolds Range antimony
ITM identifies up to 12.35g/t gold and 5.4% antimony in historical drilling Results add to project's gold and antimony prospectivity with new structures emerging Mapping and sampling planned ahead of drilling Special Report: iTech Minerals has identified gold and antimony in data from historical drilling and rock chips at Falchion prospect of its Reynolds Range project in the NT. The project area is part of the ~42km-long Stafford Gold Trend with 50km of strike coincident with the Trans-Tanami regional structure. Previous gold exploration at Reynolds Range in the 1990s was conducted primarily by Poseidon Gold, Exodus Minerals, North Flinders Mines, Normandy and Newmont. Historical drill holes at Falchion were on the hunt for gold and not routinely analysed for antimony. But now, the company has revealed historical mineralisation over a strike of 400m and this is open to the east. Notable results include: 22m at 2.20g/t gold and 2.3% antimony and 8m at 1.3g/t Au including 2m at 12.35g/t Au and 5.4% Sb; 24m at 2.75g/t Au; 10m at 1.29g/t Au; and 7m at 1.4g/t Au. A review of the controls on gold and antimony mineralisation has identified multiple prospective structures in the surrounding region and this new geological interpretation allows for expanded gold prospectivity at Falchion and surrounding prospects. iTech Minerals (ASX:ITM) plans to test targets down dip of existing mineralisation, extensions of mineralisation to the west and underneath mineralised rock chips missed by historical drilling as well as exploring along strike of the northern gold zone to the east. Watch: iTech joins forces with powerhouse SQM 18km of prospective gold/antimony structures Notably, the geological review found chargeability anomalies caused by high concentrations of sulphides (including pyrrhotite) associated with gold-antimony mineralisation and defined by gradient array induced polarisation. The company also found a subtle magnetic anomaly due to high concentrations of magnetic pyrrhotite associated with gold-antimony mineralisation. ITM has now identified more than 18km of prospective structures coincident with a regional 6.5km-long antimony in lag soil anomaly. 'A review of historical drilling at the Falchion gold-antimony prospect has identified up to 400m of mineralised strike just 1.4km from the 800m-long Sabre gold antimony prospect to the east,' managing director Mike Schwarz said. 'Importantly the Falchion prospect remains open at depth and to the east. 'Up to 18km of prospective structures have been identified in the region based on similarities to the Falchion and Sabre prospects.' Mapping and sampling of the newly identified prospective structures is planned to help narrow down targets with potential for economic mineralisation for drill testing. Drilling is expected to commence in the second half of 2025. This article was developed in collaboration with iTech Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
