Live news updates: Scott Morrison says Australia not considering ‘lethal military assistance’ for Ukraine; 36 Covid deaths



7.23pm EST

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7.09pm EST

19:09

Major construction company Probuild goes into administration

Probuild, one of Australia’s largest construction companies, has gone into administration, putting at risk hundreds of jobs and also a series of major projects from CSL’s new headquarters and a big one for Victoria police.

In a statement this morning, Deloitte said 18 related companies within the WBHO Australia group had been placed into voluntary administration, effective 10pm AEDT on Wednesday.

“WBHOA has been a major contributor to the construction sector and the broader economy, including as a direct and indirect employer,” Sal Algeri, leader of Deloitte’s (optimistically named) Turnaround and Restructuring unit, said:


The Covid-19 pandemic has created challenging trading conditions for many businesses, and for WBHOA, which has also been impacted by certain loss-making projects …

Our immediate focus will be to undertake an urgent assessment of the entities’ financial positions and work with key stakeholders to stabilise the business and projects where possible.

Deloitte said the company directly employs approximately 750 people and has annual revenues of more than $1.4bn.

Reporting has focused on several big projects that went awry, including one in Queen St, Brisbane that left a $45m loss, according to the Australian.

The South African-based owners, Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon, told the Johannesburg stock exchange yesterday that it was “discontinuing financial assistance”.

In a statement, it said:


The Australian construction environment has also become increasingly competitive and contractual, in our view, the potential risk on large mega-building projects outweighs the current margins available.

The statement went on to blame Australia’s pandemic response for its woes:


The Australian government’s hard-line approach of managing Covid-19 through a combination of border restrictions, snap lockdowns and mandatory work-from-home regulations for many sectors, has had a considerable impact on property markets as well as other industries such as the leisure industry.

The impact of lockdown restrictions on the retail, hotel and leisure and commercial office sectors of building markets have created high levels of business uncertainty in Australia and have significantly reduced demand and delayed the award of new projects in these key sectors of the construction industry.

Fair to say that Probuild’s transition to Antibuild hasn’t helped the local stock market, with shares off about 2% so far today.

Qantas, which reported a $1.3bn half-yearly loss, is pacing those falls. Of course, those Russia/Ukraine tensions are likely to be the main source of the dim mood.

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7.07pm EST

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6.56pm EST

18:56

The Morrison government has awarded over half a million dollars in funding for the installation of fibre-to-the-premises NBN to a single business in the electorate of the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, despite the government having previously argued against taxpayer-funded fibre upgrades.

Fruit and vegetable grower Costa Group, which on Tuesday reported a 2021 yearly net profit after tax of $64m, is listed in documents provided to Senate estimates as the sole beneficiary of a planned upgrade from satellite NBN services to a full fibre-to-the-premises service. The upgrade is for the company’s tomato glasshouse facility in Guyra, in the New England electorate, as part of the federal government’s regional connectivity program.

NBN Co will switch the business over at a cost of $520,018, with the company needing to install fibre along the New England Highway to connect Costa’s facility.

You can read the full report below:

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6.48pm EST

18:48

Queensland records eight Covid deaths and 6,094 new infections

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6.24pm EST

18:24

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