The year that changed everything for Australian wine
In the conference room upstairs, I was surrounded by dozens of people in business suits, listening to Len Evans, chair of Wine Australia, launch a document called Strategy 2025. It was a bold vision. 'By the year 2025, the Australian wine industry will achieve $4.5 billion in annual sales by being the world's most influential and profitable supplier of branded wines, pioneering wine as a universal first choice lifestyle beverage.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Australians warned against renting bank details to crime networks
The AFP is warning people not to rent out their bank accounts. The AFP is warning people not to rent out their bank accounts. Credit: istock Australians have been warned against some think is a 'harmless crime', by becoming 'money mules' and renting out their bank details to criminals. In its latest warning the Australian Federal Police said many Australians were knowingly or unknowingly becoming money mules for criminals who used their bank accounts to move illicit money into a personal account to make the funds appear legitimate. According to the Australian Banking Association, the major banks made moves to shut down almost 13,000 suspected accounts in the 2024 financial year, up from the 9000 accounts they had discovered in the previous year. Camera Icon Australians are being warned against giving their details out to criminals, scammer generic. Credit: istock The big increase was largely due to an increase in detection capabilities and greater intelligence sharing between the banks and law enforcement. These mules are paid anywhere between $200 to $500 plus a commission, which is usually 10 per cent on any money moved through the account. ABA chief executive Anna Bligh said mule accounts were a key part of a scammer's business model and banks were focused on identifying, investigating and shutting them down. 'Renting or selling your bank account may seem harmless, but you may be unwittingly helping a scammer to rip-off a family member or someone else you know,' she said. 'Don't let criminals cash in on your bank account. 'There's a good chance you're being recruited to hide the profits of criminal activity.' According to the AFP, criminals are targeting Australians through social media, messaging or gaming platforms, chat forums, online advertisements and even in face-to-face meetings. Camera Icon 13,000 accounts are under investigation from the major banks iStock Credit: istock These individuals will then be recruited by money laundered in three main ways. •Employment scams – these are designed to exploit job seekers by offering what seems like quick and easy money for little work. Applicants are asked to have an Australian bank account to transfer funds and are promised a commission for their work. •Threat scams – scammers contact victims threatening criminal charges and arrest unless they transfer and receive funds. •Romance scams – scammers build a relationship online and then request the victim to transfer money to other accounts, typically overseas, using their personal bank account. From here the criminal networks are increasingly telling these money mules to move the funds into a cryptocurrency exchange or ATM and global money transfer apps to make it harder to detect. AFP Detective Superintendent Marie Andersson said it was illegal to rent, buy or sell bank account details. 'Your account may be housing money derived from scams, extortion, drug trafficking and terrorism,' Ms Andersson said 'If a criminal has access to your bank accounts and personal details, they may use this information to commit other crimes, potentially implicating you in their illegal activities.' Money laundering is a serious criminal offence with charges carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment in Australia.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Australians warned against renting bank details to crime networks
Australians have been warned against some think is a 'harmless crime', by becoming 'money mules' and renting out their bank details to criminals. In its latest warning the Australian Federal Police said many Australians were knowingly or unknowingly becoming money mules for criminals who used their bank accounts to move illicit money into a personal account to make the funds appear legitimate. According to the Australian Banking Association, the major banks made moves to shut down almost 13,000 suspected accounts in the 2024 financial year, up from the 9000 accounts they had discovered in the previous year. The big increase was largely due to an increase in detection capabilities and greater intelligence sharing between the banks and law enforcement. These mules are paid anywhere between $200 to $500 plus a commission, which is usually 10 per cent on any money moved through the account. ABA chief executive Anna Bligh said mule accounts were a key part of a scammer's business model and banks were focused on identifying, investigating and shutting them down. 'Renting or selling your bank account may seem harmless, but you may be unwittingly helping a scammer to rip-off a family member or someone else you know,' she said. 'Don't let criminals cash in on your bank account. 'There's a good chance you're being recruited to hide the profits of criminal activity.' According to the AFP, criminals are targeting Australians through social media, messaging or gaming platforms, chat forums, online advertisements and even in face-to-face meetings. These individuals will then be recruited by money laundered in three main ways. •Employment scams – these are designed to exploit job seekers by offering what seems like quick and easy money for little work. Applicants are asked to have an Australian bank account to transfer funds and are promised a commission for their work. •Threat scams – scammers contact victims threatening criminal charges and arrest unless they transfer and receive funds. •Romance scams – scammers build a relationship online and then request the victim to transfer money to other accounts, typically overseas, using their personal bank account. From here the criminal networks are increasingly telling these money mules to move the funds into a cryptocurrency exchange or ATM and global money transfer apps to make it harder to detect. AFP Detective Superintendent Marie Andersson said it was illegal to rent, buy or sell bank account details. 'Your account may be housing money derived from scams, extortion, drug trafficking and terrorism,' Ms Andersson said 'If a criminal has access to your bank accounts and personal details, they may use this information to commit other crimes, potentially implicating you in their illegal activities.'
Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
Restaurants, building firm insolvencies remain high
Insolvencies remain trending higher among the food and beverage sector, CreditorWatch says. (Dan Peled/AAP PHOTOS) Insolvencies remain trending higher among the food and beverage sector, CreditorWatch says. (Dan Peled/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP The level of Australian businesses going under appears to be stabilising, but firms are still becoming insolvent at record-high numbers. Restaurants and construction firms remain hardest hit in CreditorWatch's monthly Business Risk Index, which found more than 14,000 businesses went bust in the 2024-25 financial year. But income tax cuts and government cost of living measures have helped the rate of insolvencies plateau, CreditorWatch said. And with defaulted payments falling 6.5 per cent in June, there is some hope the overall health of businesses is on the up. "It's a promising signal business cash flow pressures may be easing, but with insolvencies still running 33 per cent above 2024/25 levels, and particularly elevated in hospitality and construction, I'm not getting too excited just yet," CreditorWatch CEO Patrick Coghlan said. "We'll continue to monitor for early signs of sustained recovery, but the next six months will be critical for determining whether insolvency rates begin to fall or remain stubbornly high." Businesses were struggling to stay afloat in typically stable sectors such as health care and education, showing the breadth of the economic strain, Mr Coghlan said. Hospitality businesses remain under the pump, with one in 10 closing in the year to June 2025. While insolvencies have plateaued generally, they remain trending higher among the food and beverage sector. Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association CEO Wes Lambert said it was no longer a case of if a hospitality business would close, but rather which one would shut it doors. "It's a real threat for many businesses in the hospitality industry, especially those in CBDs with work-from-home now fully enshrined into employment culture, and with tourism remaining at levels not seen since 2016," he told AAP. "Demand is low while wages, rents, utilities, insurance and other expenses are between 30 and 50 per cent higher than they were before COVID-19." Mr Lambert said Australia needed to attract more tourists, and needed genuine discussion about the cost pressures on industries such as hospitality. A quarter of all business that became insolvent in 2024/25 were in the construction sector. But given the large overall number of construction businesses, less than one per cent of all of them became insolvent. CreditorWatch labelled a rise in education and healthcare insolvencies "somewhat unusual" given both sectors are largely underpinned by government funding. Education was hit by immigration and foreign student policies, they found. The 14,716 business insolvencies recorded in 2024/25 was a massive 33 per cent jump year-on-year.
