Smart mare Yellow Sam changes ownership for $305k before Group 2 PB Lawrence Stakes at Caulfield
Smart mare Yellow Sam, the winner of eight of 19 starts, was sold for $305,000 via an Inglis online auction earlier this week.
Yellow Sam attracted the hefty price as a racing and breeding proposition partly because of her win in the Group 3 Vamos Stakes at Hobart in February last year.
The six-year-old also finished third at her last appearance in the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield on July 26.
The purchaser, Dodmark Thoroughbreds, indicated the six-year-old would remain in the care of trainer Lindsey Smith.
Yellow Sam has been specked from $21 to $17 in PB Lawrence Stakes betting.
Yellow Sam fetched the second highest price in the online sale behind speedy mare Cleo Cat, who fetched $355,000.
Leviathan owners Yulong, bidding under the name Walnut Farm, bought the Tom Dabernig-trained Cleo Cat, who is spelling after her last-start fourth in the Group 3 Monash Stakes at Caulfield on July 12.
Caste.
Caste won the Group 2 Queen of the South Stakes in South Australia in 2023 but has not raced since finishing fifth in the Listed Seymour Cup last October.
Fisherman's Beach.
Fisherman's Beach finished eighth at The Valley last Saturday.
The Williams family also sold the former Joseph O'Brien-trained import Rosso for $45,000.
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News.com.au
14 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Living standards to fall as RBA warns on growth
Australians' living standards will fall and there's very little the central bank can do about it. According to the Reserve Bank's statement on monetary policy, there will be lower pay rises, weak consumer spending, falling business profits and an overall drop in living standards over the medium term. The central bank put the issue squarely on Australia's lack of productivity and points out it is powerless to stop it. 'Lower productivity growth means slower growth in business revenues, household incomes and ultimately demand,' the RBA's quarterly statement on monetary policy said. Despite the grim outlook, the RBA boss Michele Bullock was quick to point out there was little the central bank could do to fix these issues, even as she announced last Tuesday that the board was cutting interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.60 per cent. '(The) productivity slowdown is a matter for the government that they are taking on,' Ms Bullock said. 'They're looking at what they can do.' Ms Bullock said businesses were also looking at the issue. 'There's nothing the Reserve Bank can do,' she continued. 'All the Reserve Bank can do is make sure we have low and stable inflation, and if we have full employment, both of those things are very stable environments for businesses to think about how they might improve productivity, how they might produce more for the same amount of labour and capital input.' The RBA's call comes just days ahead of Treasurer Jim Chalmers' much-hyped economic roundtable Economists, unions, business people and politicians will all head to Canberra next week for a three-day discussion aimed at lifting Australia's falling productivity. Why does it matter? Simply put, productivity matters because it improves living standards, leads to economic growth and a greater economy. Productivity is the measure of how efficiently resources such as time, effort and materials are used to produce a given output. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia's long-term productivity has slumped. In 2003-2004, productivity grew at 1.8 per cent a year; in 2022-2023, it was down to just 0.9 per cent a year. Under this grim reality, Australians' living standards are falling. To put a dollar figure on it, the Productivity Commission estimated that full-time workers would be $14,000 a year worse off by 2035 if Australia couldn't rediscover its previous growth and continued on its current trend. Separate RBA research found the slump in productivity came at the same time as a lack of competition in business, costing every Aussie about $3000 in today's dollars. Australians remain in the dark Despite having a wide-ranging impact on their lives, most Australians are unaware of what the government is doing or trying to achieve with its productivity roundtable. According to Amplify and YouGov polling, three in four Aussies haven't heard of the roundtable and a further 60 per cent are not confident it would lead to meaningful change. Amplify chief executive Georgina Harrisson said this issue hits every Australian household, but too often governments propose solutions that pit different parts of the community against each other. 'This roundtable can't just be a talkfest limited to the Canberra bubble – not when the issue is being felt in every Australian home,' she said. 'Australians are doing it tough, with rising bills, higher housing costs and lower productivity. 'The government can't afford to waste this moment on words alone; we need action that delivers real wins in people's pockets.' Ms Harrisson said the government needed to do far more to bring the voices of everyday Australians into the discussion. 'When the community don't trust or feel understood by their political representatives, it is more important than ever to be reaching out and letting them in to the conversations that affect them most,' she said. Four things to lift productivity Meanwhile, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver says there are four key ways the government can lift productivity. He believes too much regulation, the current tax system, a lack of competition and government overspending is all holding Australia back. Dr Oliver said productivity is the 'secret sauce' that enables strong growth in real wages, living standards and profits while, at the same time, keeping inflation low. 'So hopefully, the Roundtable will kick off a process of economic reform that will boost the ability of the economy to produce goods and services with the aim of boosting long-term living standards,' he said. Dr Oliver said the government should lift productivity through removing red tape, tax reform, increasing competition and having government spending capped at 25 per cent of GDP. It is currently 28 per cent. 'Combined it should free up the supply side of the economy to make it easier for the economy to supply goods and services for any given level of hours worked by Australian workers,' he told NewsWire. 'For example, it should enable us to build more homes and allow businesses to produce more.' As part of the roundtable, the economist said there needs to be a rebalance away from income taxes to a broader GST, while compensating those on a lower income, and removing nuisance taxes like stamp duty, would be key to getting Australia's productivity back on track. 'This sounds politically difficult but if combined with an adjustment to income tax scales to offset the regressive nature of the GST, some measures to cap property tax concessions (like cutting the overly generous capital gains tax discount) and better tax gas exports a broad consensus could be reached,' he said. Dr Oliver also proposed keeping government spending below 25 per cent of GDP as it would ensure budget stability and boost productivity by not having the government taking more than required when it comes to workers. 'The reality of course is that everyone has their wish list and expectations running into the Roundtable appear to be running too high. It's likely just the start of long process through which (hopefully) the government will pick the best options and make some compromises,' he said. NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine said stronger business investment and less regulation was required to help lift Australia's ailing productivity. 'The vast amount of job growth in our country in the last 10 years has been in the public sector, not the private sector,' he said at the Australian Banking Association annual conference in Sydney. 'When I speak to our business customers, they say it's just too hard to start, scale and grow a business. We need to fix that and reduce red tape to create more jobs in the private sector.'
SBS Australia
an hour ago
- SBS Australia
Shirley always wanted to run a clothing factory. She says this Australian fashion giant killed her dream
Following the collapse of Australian fashion retailer Mosaic Brands, and its much-loved labels such as Katies and Noni B, Dateline meets the suppliers who say they lost nearly everything. Watch Part Two of the two-part investigation, The Cost of Doing Business, on Tuesday 19 August at 9.30pm on SBS or live on SBS On Demand . Watch Part One now on SBS On Demand . The Cost Of Doing Business: Part 1 Shirley Lu had always adored fashion and dreamed of one day running her own factory in Shenzen, China. When she had the chance to work with Australian retail giant Mosaic Brands, she was thrilled. Mosaic owned 10 labels including Rivers, Katies, Noni B and Millers after a period of expansion between 2014 and 2018. By 2019, the company had 1,400 stores, employed 7,000 people and worked with hundreds of suppliers in Australia and overseas. "I thought Mosaic was a very famous company in Australia," she told Dateline. However in September 2023, her first invoice went unpaid. "I saw my shoes for sale on Rivers' official website but when my payment was due, no one got back to me … From September through October, I contacted them every single day by phone and email. But no one answered me." By March 2024, she says she received US$40,000 (around $62,000) after being put on a payment plan by Mosaic, but it wasn't enough to cover her expenses. "They took my goods but refused to pay. I was so miserable and broken, because I had to pay for the workers' wages." Fashion supplier Shirley Lu was initially excited to work with an Australian company the size of Mosaic Brands. Source: SBS Shirley borrowed money from her sister to cover some of her costs, but her sister was later diagnosed with breast cancer and needed the money back. "I told them, I need this money for my loved ones to survive … but they didn't reply." "We all felt that our world had come crashing down." Mosaic Brands in financial trouble The company had been reporting mostly modest profits to the ASX and in 2022, CEO Scott Evans took home a salary package of over $2 million. Noni B stores across Australia have closed down after the label's owner Mosaic Brands went into administration in October 2024. Insolvent trading is when a company is unable to pay existing debts while taking on new ones. It is illegal in Australia because of the harm it can inflict on unsuspecting businesses. However, Mosaic was using a legal protection called 'safe harbour', which enables a company to keep trading while its directors take steps to rescue the business. In recent years, the retail climate in Australia has been hit by a perfect storm of COVID-19, cost of living pressures and the rise of online shopping. This year alone, 800 Australian retailers have gone bust. According to the report to creditors, Mosaic used safe harbour protection on and off for a period of four and half years. While in safe harbour, a publicly-listed company doesn't have to disclose their insolvency to shareholders or suppliers. 'A kind of blackmail' Harry Wang also says he didn't know that Mosaic Brands was in financial trouble. He first began making shoes for Rivers from his factory in Xiamen, China, back in 2012. He says when Mosaic acquired the Australian brand in 2018, things changed. But he says it wasn't until 2022 that he stopped getting paid on time for the goods he supplied. Harry Wang says Mosaic Brands now owes him US$6.2 million (around $9.5 million). Source: SBS Harry says he felt pressured to continue to supply goods or he would face loss of sales claims or non-payment for the goods he had already supplied. "We have no choice. We'd be pushed to deliver the goods. Otherwise, we really don't have any payment … So we have to keep on supplying them," he told Dateline. "That's a trick for all the suppliers … a kind of blackmail." Harry says he was also issued with US$4.5 million (around $6.9 million) worth of loss of sales claims due to reported delivery delays or faulty goods from 2022 to 2024. Harry settled these claims at the time with Mosaic, but alleges they were excessive. He says Mosaic Brands now owes him US$6.2 million (around $9.5 million): US$4.2 million (around $6.5 million) in unpaid invoices accrued between 2022 and 2024, and US$2 million (around $3 million) in stock that he's already made, including 80,000 pairs of shoes stocked in his warehouse that may never be delivered. Harry's office staff has been reduced from 15 to four, while one of the factories he works with is in 'a state of shutdown'. Harry says the stress has placed a huge strain on his marriage and family life. "This is a very, very big lesson for all the Chinese suppliers … Don't trust anybody. That's the lesson we got," he says. "All of our wealth, after all our hard work, was suddenly wiped out by them. "I'm so sad." This is a very, very big lesson for all the Chinese suppliers … Don't trust anybody. Harry Wang Mosaic 'deeply disappointed and upset' When Mosaic entered administration in October 2024, its 10 labels and then-650 stores closed for good. Among the company's losses, Mosaic owed an estimated $US50 million (around $77 million) to suppliers in China, according to the Mosaic Brand creditor list from 8 November. Suppliers in China, Bangladesh and Australia are coming together to demand answers and call for a public inquiry into the actions of Mosaic Brands. Former Mosaic Brands CEO Scott Evans declined Dateline's request for an interview and did not provide any detailed answers to questions we put to him. Through his lawyers, he said: "Given the current circumstances of the company it is difficult ... to provide substantive comments." "Based on some of the questions and propositions that have been put to me, there seems to be material misinformation about the company, which I believe will be clarified in the fullness of time." Scott Evans when he was CEO of Noni B in 2014. Source: AAP / Dean Lewins He added that during his 10 years as CEO he "had the privilege of working alongside literally thousands of hardworking team members ...and suppliers". And that he was "deeply disappointed and upset to see Mosaic Brands enter administration". No adverse findings have been laid against any Mosaic Brands directors. 'More likely to get bitten by a shark' As the Mosaic Brands administration process unfolds, Professor Jason Harris, an insolvency expert at The University of Sydney Law School, warns that suppliers are unlikely to get any money back. Nor is the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) likely to take action, he adds. "You're more likely to get bitten by a shark on George St in Sydney than you are to be prosecuted for insolvent training," he told Dateline. "The problem we have in Australia is there are so few cases where ASIC is taking action, or where liquidators have the funding to take action, that the bad guys out there know they're likely to get away with it. "More than 90 per cent of companies that go into liquidation give nothing to unsecured creditors. "There's all the laws we need to address this poor behaviour. What we don't have is effective enforcement of those laws." Harris adds that Mosaic Brands' use of safe harbour could be the first real test case for this law. While there is no time limit or expiry on the use of safe harbour, it relies on company directors and their advisers knowing when a business can't be saved. Harris says while it's hard to comment on Mosaic's specific situation without being across all the information, four years "stretches credulity". "If you're still having the same problems four and a half years later, then clearly it's not working... "Where were the gatekeepers?" A release issued on behalf of the Mosaic Brands board of directors last year, in response to previous reports the company had been using safe harbour protections, said its directors take their duties seriously, and did seek advice on the applicability and compliance with the safe harbour provisions. ASIC did not respond to Dateline's specific questions, but says it continues to monitor the administration of Mosaic Brands. Ongoing struggles Meanwhile, Dateline has spoken to 50 suppliers across Australia, China, Bangladesh and India who all say the way Mosaic Brands conducted business was unethical. In Shenzen, Shirley is still struggling to rebuild her life. To pay back her sister and cover her costs, she mortgaged her home. But she says Mosaic still owes her US$60,000 (around $92,000). Her dreams of growing her business and one day owning her own factory are now shattered. "I had delivered the products on time, on quality, to Mosaic," she says. "But I never imagined that they would cheat with my goods and not pay me." * Some of the debts referenced by suppliers in this story are disputed, with creditors' debts to be finalised as part of the administration process.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Stock Tips: Which picks are as ‘safe as houses' this week? Maybe… houses?
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