‘Culture of dependency' lifts spending to highest level since WWII
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is the chief culprit, accounting for $52 billion in costs and making Australia among the biggest government spenders on disability in the world.
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News.com.au
17 hours ago
- News.com.au
Why hundreds of women are lining up in Sydney
An event that dates back to World War II is still drawing a huge crowd, as shoppers compete to get designer items from Hermes and Burberry for 10 per cent of the retail price. The Peter Pan Op Shop event, which has been running for 85 years, kicked off on Thursday and will be held until July 27 in Sydney. Videos from the event show hundreds of people lining up, wrapping around the block, before doors even opened on Thursday. Inside, clips showed hundreds of women digging through racks hoping to score a designer item they could cherish forever. Items on the racks include a mint green Christian Dior suit, which typically retails for more than $3000, selling for just $300. There was a Burberry suit worth $2000 being sold for $300 and a Louis Vuitton dress, valued at $1800, selling for $320. A fashion show kicked off the event before doors officially opened on Thursday, and hundreds of people have come through so far — and the interest doesn't appear to be slowing down. The same goes for the event itself, which seems to get bigger every year since it started in 1941. It began during a time when clothes were rationed, and women would put on a fashion show to model clothes they were looking to offload. Vicki Barrack, 62, is a volunteer on the Peter Pan Op Shop Committee and began her experience with the event as a shopper at the age of 28. 'I owned my own modelling agency at the time and I was just starting out and wanted to look fabulous but didn't have the money so I went to the op shops,' she told 'I'm an ex-model, so when I went to the op shops people used to follow us around asking, 'can we have what you don't want because you have such a good eye'. So we would help other people shopping and give recommendations on what they should try and buy.' Ms Barrack was then approached to be on the committee and helped set up the day. She said one of her favourite things about the event was the timeless treasures that could be found — and revealed she still has items she purchased from the first event she went to. Ms Barrack believes the event draws such a huge crowd every year because of the endless unknown possibilities. She said the committee was looking for younger volunteers to join, to keep the event going and bring fresh ideas, especially when it comes to social media. 'As our committee ages we need to keep reinvigorating and getting young people equally as excited about fashion and sustainable,' Ms Barrack said. 'If you have any kind of a love or interest in fashion, come to one of these and see what's available. 'Learn from different generations of other fashion lovers – you'll learn a lot. There are labels you may not have even heard of and they can explain the history of these garments and where they came from. 'There was a hat that came in yesterday that was from the queen's milliner — there's history people can learn.' Peter Pan Op Shop is run by Barnardos Australia, an organisation designed to help end child abuse and neglect by supporting families to keep children safe and at home. All the money raised is donating to their causes, such as Beyond Barbed Wire. Ms Barrack said when she first started on the committee, she remembered asking what was done with the money. 'She explained Beyond Barbed Wire to me, and I said 'Shouldn't we be taking clothes out to the women in the prisons and help them put outfits together so when they leave jail they have clothes to wear?'' Ms Barrack recalled. 'I organised for the committee to take clothes and we got names and sizing and a description of the women and we put together outfits for the women. That made everyone a lot more in touch with what we were doing — it helped the kids in the system with Bernardo's.'
AU Financial Review
5 days ago
- AU Financial Review
‘Culture of dependency' lifts spending to highest level since WWII
The federal and state government spending splurge has hit the highest level since the end of World War II, due to a massive ramp-up in outlays on disability support, aged care and childcare. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is the chief culprit, accounting for $52 billion in costs and making Australia among the biggest government spenders on disability in the world.
West Australian
6 days ago
- West Australian
WA Mt Palmer mine shines for Kula, Aurumin with one-ounce gold hits
Kula Gold and Aurumin Limited have continued to resurrect a forgotten gem in Western Australia's Southern Cross Goldfields after hauling in another series of dazzling drill hits at the historic Mt Palmer mine. The share price of Kula, which owns 80 per cent of the project, rocketed nearly 30 per cent to 0.009 cents on the back of the blockbuster drill results. The rise was fuelled by a surge of investor interest that saw close to 25 million shares change hands on the company's biggest trading day in a month. The latest stage two reverse circulation drilling campaign delivered some serious eye candy for gold bugs, with a standout shallow intercept of 3 metres at 35.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 17m, including 1m at a whopping 83.6g/t. Other hits include 3m grading 29.7g/t gold from 37m, 2m at 18.1g/t gold from 23m and 18m at 1.9g/t gold from 22m, including a 7m section running at 9.4g/t. The company says the sizzling grades - many from depths of less than 40m - and Mt Palmer's strong geological fundamentals are building an early case for a low-cost, high-return open-pit operation at the site. According to management, the results are also just the tonic to support aggressive ongoing exploration efforts to delineate the longer-term development potential of a mine that once produced 150,000 ounces at 15.9g/t before World War II halted production. Notably, the company believes that using a photon assay could be the secret to uncovering nuggety historically under-reported high-grade zones at the project. The game-changing technique can analyse 10 times more samples than traditional fire assay without destroying coarse gold in the process. Across the project, the results are stacking up. Previous hits include 18m at 4.4g/t from surface, with a 2m punch of 31.3g/t, and 7m at 7.7g/t gold also starting from surface. Kula says beyond the spectacular grades, the geological stars are also starting to align. Drilling has tapped into high-grade mineralisation, dubbed the New Lode beneath historic workings, where rich gold appears to be concentrated in fold closures. These can be classic structural traps for juicy mineralisation. New zones to the east of the old pit, such as the West Lode and Busey Shoot, are also emerging to offer a pipeline of fresh targets. The company says these lodes remain poorly tested, but early drilling hints at a solid upside. Kula's structural consultant Model Earth has now remapped the mine's intricate geology, revealing stretched and shear-folded quartz veins broken into segments, which vary significantly between each hotspot but appear to control the plunge orientations of the gold mineralisation. Mt Palmer sits in gold-rich real estate, a little north of the previously mined 600,000-ounce Nevoria gold deposit and east of the Chinese-owned 2.4-million-ounce Marvel Loch mine. With its latest results now in hand, Kula is busy putting the finishing touches on a diamond drilling campaign aimed at twinning high-grade reverse circulation intercepts to firm up structural models and refine future drill targeting. If these results keep coming, helped along with a healthy dose of modern assay technology, Kula might be on to more than a few lost ounces. From a dusty relic of WA's mining past, Mt Palmer is starting to look more like a golden opportunity in the making. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
