Press Releases

Chapel street in Prahran, where many of the shops are left vacant in a street which was once thriving.Every major city in Australia has the equivalent of Melbourne’s Chapel Street – a famous inner-city strip shopping centre that is struggling and where the landlords are demanding what are now uneconomic rents, forcing long standing retailers to close down.By forcing closures, the landlords are destroying the value in the street as a shopping destination. Often the landlords are families that have owned the property for a long time and have not grasped that the game has changed.On the surface the closed shops are sign that the retail sector is struggling as illustrated by this week’s economic data. The landlords have experienced downturns before, so they hang on hoping for a change. But look deeper and we are seeing a fundamental change in the habits of the next generation.Inner city areas like…

Established in November 2018, AFCA provides fair, independent and effective external dispute resolution for small businesses and consumers.We are a one-stop-shop for consumers and small businesses with complaints about financial firms, including banks, credit providers, insurance companies, financial and investment advisers and superannuation funds.This is a free service for small businesses and consumers to access.AFCA replaces the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Credit and Investments Ombudsman and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.AFCA’s capacity to deal with small business complaints is significantly greater than predecessor schemes.We define a small business as having fewer than 100 employees (an increase from 20 employees), and we can consider complaints about small business credit facilities up to $5 million (previously $2 millionImportantly, the amount of compensation we can award per claim for such complaints has more than tripled, to $1 million ($2 million for primary producers). Different thresholds apply for other financial products and services.For most matters, a…

Each week, NACS brings you a round up news and information on cannabis and CBD to help you stay updated on the fast-moving products and their legality. Here are the topics in the news for the week of Feb. 16 to Feb. 22:U.S. Federal Activity· Federal Lawmakers Push FDA to Allow CBD-Infused Food Products. A bipartisan group of members of Congress is asking the Food and Drug Administration to provide a legal pathway for food products infused with CBD. In a letter, the lawmakers sought guidance on existing pathways for food products that contain CBD, whether the FDA has had any role in recent enforcement actions in states like New York and Ohio, and when the agency will hold a public hearing on the regulation of products containing CBD. (Source: Marijuana Moment)U.S. State and Local Activity· California Reports Over $300 Million in Revenue on Legal Cannabis in First Year. The…

Amazon plans to launch a chain of grocery stores across the US later this year, according to a Friday report. The as-yet-unnamed chain will be distinct from Amazon’s upscale Whole Foods Market brand, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Prices are expected to be lower, and product lines wider than those carried by organic-obsessed Whole Foods. The Journal’s report, which has Amazon’s newest grocery venture opening its first store in Los Angles, follows by days the e-commerce giant’s killing the 365 brand by Whole Foods chain. The three-year-old 365 chain — also designed for cost-conscious shoppers — will see its nine outlets converted into regular Whole Foods stores by the end of the year. “Whole Foods prices have been trending down, so it didn’t make a lot of sense to keep the brands separate,” said Loop Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba. A potentially more appealing model is…

New independent research released this week demonstrates significant – and increasing – support among voting Australians for the legalisation of e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco, and as a tool to help people quit smoking.The research, commissioned by the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS), involved surveying approximately 3,400 Australians of voting age across all states and territories.A follow-up of the research initially undertaken in September 2016, which was the most comprehensive ever undertaken in Australia on e-cigarettes, the new research measures the level of support for legalisation, the main drivers of support, and whether Australians feel strongly enough about the issue for it to influence their vote.The results are clear if not surprising: the majority (58%) of Australians believe e-cigarettes should be legalised on the basis that they have the potential to help people cut down and quit.Approximately 60% of non-smokers would support legalising e-cigarettes on the…