Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
El Nino Seen Delayed to End of Year as Australia Stays on Watch
Aug 26 2014 // Australia remains on El Nino watch even as the onset of the weather event that brings drought to the Asia-Pacific region and heavier-than-usual rains to South America may be delayed to the end of the year. Four of seven...
QBE to Sell $750 Million in Shares, Some Assets as Profit Drops
Aug 19 2014 // QBE Insurance Group Ltd. plans to raise about $750 million in a share placement and sell assets including part of its lenders’ mortgage insurance business in Australia after reporting an 18 percent drop in...
Dutch firm Fugro to Lead Australian Subsea Search for Malaysia Airlines Jet
Aug 7 2014 // Dutch oil industry services firm Fugro is to lead Australia’s search of the Indian Ocean seafloor where missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is believed to lie, hoping to solve the mystery of its disappearance five...
El Nino Odds Reduced by Australia as Tropical Pacific Cools
Jul 29 2014 // Australia cut the odds of El Nino, which brings drought to Asia and heavy rain to South America, after parts of the tropical Pacific Ocean cooled. The chance of the pattern developing this year is about 50 percent, the...
QBE Falls Most in 7 Months Amid 18% Profit Decline Forecast
Jul 29 2014 // Australia’s QBE Insurance Group Ltd. slumped the most in seven months after forecasting an 18 percent decline in first-half earnings due to higher claims in Latin America and competition with other insurers. Net...
Record Settlement Reached in Australia Wildfire Class Action Lawsuit
Jul 16 2014 // Survivors of one of Australia’s deadliest wildfires are to be awarded nearly A$500 million (US$467.5 million) in a class action settlement reached Tuesday, the largest such compensation in the nation’s...
Strong El Nino Seen Unlikely by Australia as Pacific Cools
Jul 15 2014 // The odds of a strong El Nino, which brings drought to the Asia-Pacific region and heavy rains to South America, are increasingly unlikely after the tropical Pacific Ocean cooled, according to Australia’s weather...
Australia Sees Limited G20 Appetite on New Climate Change Steps
Jul 3 2014 // Australia, this year’s G20 chair, sees little consensus among the Group of 20 leading economies to take major new steps on climate change, senior official Heather Smith said on Wednesday. Smith, the personal...
Ironshore Calls Off Acquisition of Australia’s Assetinsure
Jun 27 2014 // Bermuda-based Ironshore Inc. announced that its Australian subsidiary’s transaction to acquire all of the shares of Australia’s Assetinsure Holdings Pty Limited, the parent company of Assetinsure Pty Limited,...
IAG Receives Regulatory Approval for Wesfarmers Underwriting Acquisition
Jun 20 2014 // Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) announced that it has received the required regulatory approvals from the Commonwealth Acting Assistant Treasurer for its acquisition of the Wesfarmers insurance underwriting...
Flights Resume to Australian City of Darwin as Indonesian Volcano Calms
Jun 2 2014 // Flights resumed to and from Australia’s northernmost city of Darwin on Sunday after they were suspended for more than a day due to clouds of ash from an Indonesian volcano. Friday’s eruption of Sangeang Api...
Cotter to Head New Allied World Office in Sydney, Australia
May 29 2014 // Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, AG announced the opening of a new branch office of Allied World Assurance Company, Ltd in Sydney, Australia “to further expand distribution networks in the Asia Pacific...
Deep-Sea Search for MH370 Was in Wrong Place, Australia Says
May 29 2014 // A deep-sea hunt for the missing Malaysian passenger jet has focused on the wrong place for nearly two months, officials said today, after a survey of a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean found no trace of wreckage. A zone...
Australia’s Suncorp Plans $462 Million Write-down, Cuts Growth Target
May 27 2014 // Suncorp Group Ltd., Australia’s largest general insurer by market value, plans a A$500 million (US$462 million) write-down at its life insurance unit and cut its growth target for the year to June 2015. The...
Australia Issues Further El Nino Alert as Event Seen Developing
May 6 2014 // Australia issued an El Nino alert on expectations the weather-altering pattern will probably develop as early as July, potentially bringing drought across the Asia- Pacific region and heavier-than-usual rains to South...
Malaysia Jet Search Enters New Phase with Expanded Subsea Hunt
Apr 28 2014 // The hunt for a missing Malaysian passenger jet entered a new phase as an international team abandoned its aerial search for debris and stepped up efforts to find wreckage on the floor of the Indian Ocean. After 52 days,...
Odds of El Nino This Year Increasing, Says U.S. Climate Center
Apr 23 2014 // The odds are increasing that an El Nino weather system will form this year, portending drought for Australia and Asia and a warmer winter in the U.S. Northeast. The U.S. Climate Prediction Center now says there’s a...
Genworth Financial to Raise as Much as $700 Million in Australia Offer
Apr 23 2014 // Genworth Financial Inc. plans to raise as much as $700 million by selling a minority stake in its Australian mortgage guarantor, in what may be the biggest share sale in the country for more than three years. The seller of...
El Nino Seen Starting by July as UN Highlights Risk to Rice
Apr 22 2014 // An El Nino will probably start as soon as July, according to the Australian government forecaster, adding to predictions for the event that can affect weather patterns worldwide and roil farm-commodity prices. All the...
Cyclone Ita Landfall in Queensland as Cat 4; Cat 3 as It Moves Inland: AIR Analysis
Apr 14 2014 // According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, “Tropical Cyclone Ita crossed the north Queensland coast near Cape Flattery between 11:00 and 12:00 UTC (9-10 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time [AEST])...
