Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
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])...
70% Chance of El Nino Extreme Weather Event in 2014: Australian Meteorologists
Apr 8 2014 // The chance of an El Nino weather event developing in 2014 now exceeds 70 percent, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said on Tuesday, raising the prospect of damaging floods and droughts across the globe. Global cocoa...
Arthur J. Gallagher to Buy Australian Wesfarmers’ Insurance Brokerage
Apr 6 2014 // Perth, Australia-based conglomerate Wesfarmers has agreed to sell the insurance brokerage and premium funding operations of its Insurance division to subsidiaries of U.S.-based broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. for...
How Robots, Drones Are Transforming Mining and Mine Safety
Apr 4 2014 // Mines without miners? Not quite. Still, a technology boom in robots, drones, driverless trucks and pilotless trains is beginning to reshape one of the world’s most labor-intensive industries, portending automation of...
Malaysia Jet Search Shifts, as New Lead Shows It Flew Shorter Distance
Mar 28 2014 // The three-week hunt for Malaysian Air Flight 370 focused on a new area in the Indian Ocean today after radar data indicated the plane probably flew a shorter distance than earlier estimated. The new lead was based on...
Global Insurance Organization’s G-20 Delegates Stress Social, Economic Role
Mar 21 2014 // In a series of meetings this week with the Australian G-20 Presidency, the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA) has called on the G-20 to “ensure that all international regulatory reform initiatives...
Analysis of Possible Plane Debris Slowed by Vast Size of Satellite Data
Mar 21 2014 // Delays in identifying satellite images that may show debris of a missing Malaysian plane in the southern Indian Ocean were due to the vast amounts of data that needed to be analyzed, Australian authorities and the U.S....
Norwegian Ship Reaches Location of Possible Malaysian Plane Debris
Mar 20 2014 // Norwegian car carrier Hoegh St. Petersburg has reached the area in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia where two floating objects, suspected to be debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner, were spotted, the...
El Nino Could Strike as Early as Summer Says U.S. Forecaster CPC
Mar 7 2014 // The much-feared El Nino phenomenon, the warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific which can trigger drought in Southeast Asia and Australia and floods in South America, could strike the Northern Hemisphere as...
MacDonald to Head Miller’s New Combined P&C Team
Feb 27 2014 // UK specialist insurance and reinsurance broker Miller Insurance Services LLP announced that it is combining its property and casualty specialists into one business area headed by Ken MacDonald. Miller said the new...
