Latest news with #AustralianFinancialReview
9 News
16 hours ago
- Business
- 9 News
Aussie company cracks $300 billion mark to set new record
1 of 12 Attribution: Getty One Australian company has made history, becoming the first ASX-listed entity to be valued at more than $300 billion. The company is now worth, according to the Australian Financial Review, about 12 per cent of the entire ASX. But there are plenty of competitors that would like to take its place on top of the pile. These are the top 10 most highly-valued ASX-listed companies.
Sky News AU
2 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Brittany Higgins announces return to the workforce after four years as she seeks her 'own identity' outside of media interest
Brittany Higgins is returning to the workforce four years after the ex-political staffer quit parliament, joining the same company currently employing her husband. Ms Higgins, 30, has been appointed public affairs director at independent public relations agency Third Hemisphere, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported on Wednesday. It comes after the former Liberal Party media adviser's husband David Sharaz also joined the boutique Sydney agency as a director in April. Ms Higgins' will head strategic advocacy and reputation management for target clients and oversee stakeholder engagement, media relations, and public affairs initiatives aimed at moulding public perception and change. Her female-focused clients include non-profit organisations, women's advocacy and support groups, and female leaders at large organisations. The clients represent an extension of Ms Higgins' advocacy for workplace safety, gender-based violence, and cultural reform in politics. Third Hemisphere founder and CEO Hannah Moreno is also a rape survivor, and her social justice advocacy helped convince Ms Higgins to join the firm. 'There was this general feeling of 'how long do I have to be the story for?' At what point do I get to put it to rest and actually get on the tools and be a working person again, and have my own identity outside this narrative of Brittany Higgins,' the former parliamentary staffer told the AFR. 'Who I was was really founded in my work. I was the most intense person back in the day – the first one in and the last one out – I had no work-life balance, and it was exactly how I liked it. 'To lose that was really quite tough. To start to reclaim that sense of identity feels good.' Ms Higgins, who in March welcomed her first child with Mr Sharaz, a boy named Freddie, said she has a "brand reputation" to uphold and did not want to associate herself with an "untoward" new workplace corporately. Instead, the first-time mother wished to join a team she believed in and one that believed in her, too. Alongside her career in government, Ms Higgins helped advance feminism and influence national legislative reform. In 2021, she was appointed as the inaugural Visiting Fellow at The Australian National University's Global Institute for Women's Leadership. Her lobbying was key to prompting Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner's historic review of parliamentary workplace culture. The review led to the federal government's commitment to implement the full slate of recommendations of the Set The Standard report. Reflecting on her efforts to the AFR, Ms Higgins said she's passionate about advocacy, but "it's not forever" nor a "self-sustaining career." She said she aspires to follow in the footsteps of gender equality advocate Sam Mostyn, social activist Tanya Hosch and business executive Christine Holgate and hopes her new role is the first step. "To feel sidelined and forever be living in your trauma is really reductive,' she said. Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz, 33, will work from home full-time as they navigate being parents to three-month-old Freddie. Mr Sharaz previously worked as a journalist and media advisor and it is understood his role at Third Hemisphere entails boosting the agency's political media engagement. The ex-reporter proposed to Ms Higgins at Byron Bay on New Year's Eve in 2022, months after the former political staffer was paid compensation after Bruce Lehrmann raped her in Parliament House. Ms Higgins received a $2.4 million payout from the Commonwealth in 2022. The newlyweds were previously living in France in a home purchased by Ms Higgins to start afresh following intense media coverage in Australia. However, they listed their chateau in the south of France and returned to Australia, where they have set up a home in Melbourne.
AU Financial Review
2 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Can the Murray cod finally hook Australia an aquaculture giant?
For a country that was built on the sheep's back, it is passing strange that there aren't any true agribusiness giants on the ASX. Treasury Wine Estates perhaps comes closest with its premium brand, Penfolds, although even that is increasingly produced in China and France. There are plenty of contenders. The Australian Financial Review reported earlier this year that the billionaire behind medical imaging software business Pro Medicus had spent years buying up fish and oyster plays in the hope of recreating the success of the two big salmon producers – Huon Aquaculture and Tassal – once listed on the ASX and now in the hands of Brazil's JBS and Canada's Cooke Seafood respectively.
9 News
3 days ago
- Business
- 9 News
Google's new AI tool creates the most realistic videos yet
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here BREAKING Major Sydney tunnel closed after crane truck rolls over Google's new AI video generator Veo 3 - announced just last month - is causing shockwaves online with its photorealistic content. The AI video generator can create eight-second videos within moments after receiving a prompt. Content like short films, fake street interviews, sci-fi, action and other prompts are appearing all over social media; you may have seen them already without even knowing it's AI. Google's own prompt of an "old sailor" showcases just how impressive the quality of the AI is. (Google) Google's "state-of-the-art video generation model" claims it stands out from other AI video generators due to its innovations that were "designed for greater control". Notably, the tool now produces realistic soundscapes featuring audio and dialogue and can be fine-tuned to keep consistent characters in different video clips. Users can also precisely adjust framing and movement. Veo 3 can even use videos of yourself as a reference point for animating facial expressions and emotions. The tool has been available through Google's paid AI plans and is accessible through its AI chatbot Gemini and new creative tool Flow. The technology is set to cause an even greater shift within the creative industry as filmmakers experiment with the technology . Some social media users noted the "uncanny" nature of the AI videos. (Google) AI and its future use were the topic of the Australian Financial Review 's AI summit held today, with Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Melanie Silva saying the technology will be critical to lift Australia's productivity. "Everything we know of can be faster and easier," she told the AFR summit. "If we put a productivity lens around it and think about how Australia might solve the 10-year productivity slump that we are in, this is by far one of the biggest solutions." Google's senior vice president for research, labs, technology and society James Manyika said Australia would need to capitalise on opportunities provided by AI. "It's fundamentally important in our minds to have a very vibrant research and AI ecosystem," Manyika told the summit. "I think Australia has a great starting point." "The CSIRO is an extraordinary entity ... but more may actually be needed." Technology Artificial Intelligence Google Tech World CONTACT US Property News: 'Stressful': Perth mum's dilemma after rental mix-up.
Herald Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- Herald Sun
TikTok's advertising push as under-16 social media ban looms
Don't miss out on the headlines from Social. Followed categories will be added to My News. TikTok is pushing the app's benefits for teens into as many faces as it can as the under-16 social media ban looms at the end of this year. The social media giant took out sprawling ads in the Australian Financial Review last week, covering 4½ full pages with marketing, promoting the platform's utility for getting teens to read, engage with education and even cast a lure. The newspaper ads, along with a big spend on billboards and bus shelters, comes as the under-16 social media ban is just six months away. Advertisements in the May 26 edition of the AFR claim TikTok serves up 10 million videos in its science, technology, engineering, and maths feed. Another of the full-page ads extols the benefits of the massively popular 'bookTok' – TikTok's literary community. The third subject-specific ad claims Australian teenagers are 'getting outside', inspired by the platform's fishing content. A TikTok Australia spokesman said the company had also invested in billboard and bus shelter ads recently but was unable to provide numbers or details. In six months', any Australian under the age of 16 will be banned from all social media; YouTube has been granted an exemption on educational grounds, drawing the ire of the other platforms. How the social media ban will work is still up in the air. The federal government has been sitting on a report since January concerning Australians' attitudes toward age assurance technologies. A British company has been tasked with trialling which technologies could be used to implement the world first, under-16 ban. On Friday, that UK firm revealed a report on its findings had been pushed back to July. Originally published as TikTok's advertising push as under-16 social media ban looms
