The government is weighing up a broader range of reform options than usual in the lead up to the budget as the treasurer braces for worsening inflation data.

Jim Chalmers has expanded on recent comments framing the upcoming May budget as his most ambitious yet, telling a Business Council dinner on Tuesday he was confident of landing “something meaningful” with the business community’s help.

The government’s influential expenditure review committee, which is responsible for deciding what’s in and what’s out of the federal budget and includes Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, met for hours on Tuesday and will meet again on Wednesday.

“We are absolutely full tilt now working through a broader than usual range of options,” Dr Chalmers said.

Treasury has been drawing up a number of reforms that align with the treasurer’s stated principles of improving intergenerational equity, encouraging investment and simplifying the tax system.

Reported options include cutting property-investor tax concessions, beefing up the levy on windfall gas profits,and axing an expensive tax break for electric vehicles.

Rather than a choice between resilience or reform, Dr Chalmers said the budget will be about both resilience and reform.

Australia was well prepared for the inflation and growth challenges the war in the Middle East would throw up, he said.

“But we will be buffeted.”

Headline inflation was already running at 3.8 per cent over the year to January and is expected to climb even further from the Reserve Bank’s two to three per cent target band, as soaring oil costs result in second order price increases across the economy.

ANZ Bank economist Adelaide Timbrell forecast inflation to peak at 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, before falling to 2.6 per cent by the end of 2027.

“Thereafter, we forecast some disinflation from the impacts of lower real incomes growth and higher interest rates on demand,” she said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will reveal February inflation data on Wednesday, which will give a final snapshot of the inflation picture before the outbreak of war.

Dr Chalmers flagged a substantial productivity package to make it easier to build, invest and get compliance costs down, building on the work the government has already done since the August 2025 economic reform roundtable.

But opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said Labor had done nothing to cut red tape and make it easier to build new homes.

In a separate speech to the Business Council, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will tout new analysis that shows the average Australian will be $35,000 worse off over the next decade in lost national income if current productivity projections are borne out.

“That would be more than a lost decade of productivity under Labor,” he will say.

“There’s a critical reason for Australia’s economic slowdown: the Albanese Government has been shifting Australia away from a free-enterprise economy and towards a government-directed economy.”

Much of the blame lies with regulator “quangos”, which have become overbearing and seen their remits expand under Labor, Mr Taylor will say.

ABC staff are striking for the first time in 20 years after the majority voted down the national broadcaster’s latest pay offer.

Staff are protesting against short-term contracts and limited career progression, along with a lacklustre pay deal with a below-inflation increase.

The strike has forced ABC’s flagship news programs including Radio National Breakfast off air, instead playing pre-programmed shows and BBC content.

Journalists have been advised not to speak to the media ahead of the strike, which begins at 11am AEDT on Wednesday.

Large gatherings are expected outside ABC offices nationwide, including in Melbourne and Sydney, during the 24-hour strike.

The Community and Public Sector Union and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance are representing staff taking action at the ABC.

“We’ve been in bargaining for a long time now with the ABC and what we want to see is a pay off that reflects cost-of-living pressures and actually respects the really important work that the ABC do,” CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly told AAP.

“ABC plays such an important role in our society and in Australian storytelling and it’s really important ABC management come to the table.”

About 60 per cent of ABC staff rejected management’s offer that included a 10 per cent pay rise across three years.

The unions are also demanding greater night-shift penalty rates, reproductive health leave, and rules relating to artificial intelligence.

“Experienced journalists and media workers are being asked to do more with less – with fewer opportunities for pay progression, less certainty about their future, and growing workloads,” MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley said. 

It will be the organisation’s first major strike since 2006.

ABC managing director Hugh Marks said the deal was financially responsible and competitive for the industry.

“The average tenure of an ABC staff member is more than 10 years, which is three times the economy average … over 90 per cent of ABC staff are ongoing employees,” Mr Marks said.

“The pay offer reflects the maximum level the ABC can sustainably provide and is balanced when looking across all the factors that we need to consider.”

More than 4400 people work at the ABC, including 2000 in news, the largest division.

The ABC has been contacted for comment.

Prosecco producers are “popping corks” in celebration of a long-awaited free trade deal that slashes tariffs on key goods, but it has drawn fierce backlash from farmers.

After almost a decade of negotiations, Australia and the European Union have struck an agreement that will expand trade across a range of areas.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Canberra to sign the agreement alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, saying on Tuesday it was a fair deal “that delivers for your businesses and one that delivers for ours”.

Australia will remove a five per cent tariff on imports of European products, which hits car makers such as BMW and Mercedes along with producers of goods such as fashion products, food and drinks.

EU tariffs will be removed on imports of a wide range of Australian goods, including critical minerals, manufactured items and many dairy products.

Despite pressure from European winemakers, Australian producers will be allowed to keep using the term “prosecco” for domestic sales, but they will have to phase out the term over the next decade for exports.

Katherine Brown, a fourth-generation winemaker with Brown Brothers, said she would be “popping corks and celebrating” after years of anxiously waiting for negotiations to finalise. 

“It’s fantastic that we’ve been told the prosecco name for that grape variety will retain domestically in Australia,” she told AAP. 

“The name will phase out for export markets, but 95 per cent of Australian prosecco is drunk in Australia anyway, so we have to look at this as a major win.”

Ms Brown said the deal gave Australian prosecco a future as growers were hesitant to plant the grape during prolonged negotiations which “left the industry in limbo”.

“It now gives us a really strong stance to put further investment into it, put in more prosecco vineyards and keep enjoying this amazing drop,” she said. 

“The fact we got to retain the name in Australia is the main part of the fight we’ve been fighting.”

Domestic manufacturers will retain the rights to describe their products as parmesan and kransky, but other cheese names such as feta, romano and gruyere will eventually be phased out.

Farmers and rice growers are among those left furious by the agreement, with some saying it delivers no commercially meaningful market access despite an increase in quotas. 

After years of pushing for expanded export quotas, the nation’s red meat industry denounced the deal, labelling it the worst free trade agreement the nation had signed.

Market access for an additional 30,600 tonnes of beef and 25,000 tonnes of sheep meat per year fell far below the minimum amounts offered to competitor nations such as New Zealand.

Sheep Producers Australia chief executive Bonnie Skinner said the deal, for sheep meat, is largely unchanged from the one Australia rejected in 2023.

“The increase in access is small and critically, it does not unlock real commercial opportunities,” she said. 

“For a premium market like the EU, this falls short of what was needed.”

An additional 8500 tonnes of rice was granted, which has left SunRice Group chief executive Paul Serra “incredibly disappointed”.

He said Australian rice growers “are already facing mounting pressures from water buybacks and continued dry conditions in southern NSW”. 

“The government’s failure to deliver meaningful EU market access for Australian rice is a significant shortfall in the FTA,” he said.

A sandbagged and already-saturated outback town is back on major flood alert as it continues a rollercoaster ride through consecutive storms.

Katherine locals were ready to breathe a sigh of relief after the Northern Territory town of 10,000 residents looked set to dodge major damage from former tropical cyclone Narelle.

But they face another anxious wait after the flood level warning for the nearby Katherine River was upped from moderate to major on Tuesday.

Katherine is bracing in the aftermath of ex-cyclone Narelle, which also has Western Australia on edge as it continues its tour of northern Australia.

The flood peak is expected on Wednesday, with levels to remain high for about 24 hours.

The town is still reeling from houses and businesses being inundated earlier in March in the worst flooding in almost 30 years.

Then came ex-cyclone Narelle which dumped more rain on saturated catchments.

Katherine residents would be feeling concerned with the latest flood level predictions, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said on Tuesday.

“This has been a huge rollercoaster for them … everyone is prepared, and that’s the important thing – people know what to expect.”

Katherine has backed itself to deal with the latest flooding threat, with locals feeling better prepared following a huge sandbagging operation and establishment of a field hospital.

Vicki Maddox, manager of Katherine’s Big4 Breeze holiday park, said their clean-up was on hold until the latest threat passed.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen and we’re not going to go and do all that again because that was so hard,” she told AAP on Tuesday.

The park’s 12 cabins, bunkhouse, safari tents and office went under in the last flood and all the ruined bedding and furniture had to be thrown out ahead of a repaint.

Ms Finocchiaro conceded weary Territorians were “done with the wet season”, however more wild weather could be ahead with another low looming in the Arafura Sea.

Hundreds were forced to evacuate when Narelle hit the NT coast on Sunday, with about 6500 people losing power, water or both.

The township of Adelaide River, south of Darwin, had five houses inundated and the Daly River community was totally submerged.

Hundreds of Daly River people who evacuated to Darwin have been relocated from the showgrounds to more comfortable accommodation at Batchelor, south of the NT capital.

Evacuees from the Gulf of Carpentaria community of Numbulwar were returning home on Tuesday.

The system, which weakened to below cyclone strength after making landfall in the NT, caused much less damage than expected.

It crossed into WA’s Kimberley region on Monday, sweeping past the remote town of Wyndham and the Indigenous community of Kalumburu as it tracked southwest.

“We were up to our ankles at one point later in the afternoon, but as always, water around here subsides very quickly,” Kalumburu Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Kim Holm told AAP.

Waterways around the coastal town rose overnight, but there was no wind damage to any homes ensuring it was business as usual for the community’s 300 residents, Ms Holm said. 

“We’ve got lots of kids having great fun in the muddy puddles,” she said.

The system was forecast to cross the coast north of Broome into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday and “almost immediately start re-intensifying”, the Bureau of Meteorology said. 

The storm could become a category four cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 279km/h, by Thursday as it tracks along the WA coast past Broome and the Pilbara region.

The tropical cyclone is then forecast to curve back towards the WA coast, potentially impacting as far south as Perth on the weekend.

Narelle crossed the coast in far north Queensland on Friday as a severe category four, knocking out power and communications.

However it caused minimal damage as it passed Cape York Peninsula, with power fully restored on Tuesday to the 2000-plus people affected.

Teachers are dipping into their own pockets for school supplies and working side jobs as an election-year pay battle turns ugly.

Unionised teachers, principals and other public school educators walked off the job across Victoria on Tuesday in search of better pay, with Tasmanian staff from the sector also taking industrial action.

All 1600 Victorian public schools were open but roughly 500 were significantly disrupted, with classes not running and children told to stay home if possible.

Police estimated about 35,000 people turned up for a Melbourne rally and march to the front steps of the Victorian parliament.

Victoria’s teachers union and state Labor government remain far apart on a pay deal after an offer of 18.5 per cent increase over four years was rejected.

The union wants a 35 per cent increase over the same period, along with measures to address excessive workloads and ongoing staffing shortages.

Members of the red-bathed crowd held homemade placards reading “Little Miss Underpaid”, “stop the funding con job” and “Allan government, re-do and resubmit” with a photo of Premier Jacinta Allan in a dunce hat.

Entry-level teachers in Victoria are paid $16,500 less than those in the Northern Territory, the best-paid across the country.

Brogan, a primary school teacher on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, said she and some single-mother colleagues were working through school holidays, either for fun or extra money on the side.

Staff at her school were spending their own cash on supplies and resources for student lessons as the budget wasn’t enough to cover costs.

“It could be something like glittery pens, or smelly markers or it could be stamps or ink – they all run out,” the grade one teacher, whose full name is not being used because she was not authorised by her employer to speak publicly, told AAP.

“It might be a small amount when you’re purchasing it but over the course of the year, it adds up.”

Emma De Klerk, a teacher from Aitken Primary School in Melbourne’s north, said the strike’s purpose went far beyond achieving a fair pay rise.

“We’re not here for us, we’re here for our students to get what they need and deserve,” she said.

Maddy Butler, who brought her two primary school children along to the rally, said the state government wasn’t spending enough on education.

“If we want the best outcomes for our children, we need to be giving our public schools the best funding and we need to be paying our teachers properly,” the Vic Parents for Public Schools organiser said.

The 24-hour teacher strike is Victoria’s first in more than 13 years and comes eight months out from the state election.

If the government doesn’t “do the right thing”, the education union warned more strikes were imminent.

“We’re going to stop work over multiple weeks, on multiple days in individual areas of the state,” Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly said.

“For the premier and for the education minister to call Victoria the education state, it’s a complete joke.”

Education Minister Ben Carroll said the government’s initial offer equated to $2.6 billion in extra wages and would immediately lift educators’ pay by up to $11,000.

The government met with the union on Monday but did not table a revised offer and remains opposed to doubling the number of non-teaching days from five to 10.

“We did everything we can to avoid today,” Mr Carroll told reporters.

Public schools were also closed in Tasmania’s northwest on Tuesday, the first of three days of teachers striking in parts of the state for improved pay and conditions.

Stop-work action will be move to the state’s north on Wednesday, followed by the south including Hobart on Thursday.

Tasmanian educators have asked for a 15.6 per cent pay rise over three years, along with a separate 5.95 per cent increase to achieve pay parity with other jurisdictions.

Australian consumers are the least confident they’ve been since records began, as high oil prices threaten to worsen the housing crisis by pushing up building costs.

Motorists have already been feeling under the pump from petrol price increases. 

But now second-order effects have started to filter through to sectors such as construction and aviation, exacerbating the Reserve Bank’s fears of a sustained break-out in inflation.

Consumer confidence fell 5.4 points to 63.1 last week, a long-running survey by ANZ and Roy Morgan reported on Tuesday.

It was the lowest level since the index began in 1973, ANZ economist Sophia Angala said.

“The impacts of the Middle East conflict on oil prices and the economic outlook are likely behind the drop, along with the RBA’s decision last week to increase the cash rate to 4.1 per cent,” she said.

Worryingly for the central bank, inflation expectations climbed to 6.9 per cent – higher than at the peak of the post-COVID inflation spike.

Following the RBA’s decision to raise interest rates earlier in March, governor Michele Bullock said it was critical inflation expectations stayed anchored.

But that will be harder to achieve the longer the war drags on.

Westpac senior economist Pat Bustamante said underlying inflation was expected to return to just above three per cent by the end of the year, assuming a ceasefire in the Middle East allows oil and gas to flow through the region once more.

“But the longer it runs on, the greater the risk that inflation remains sticky,” he said.

“We know that there’s a lot of industries, construction for instance, that’s quite energy intensive.”

Builders have been hit by price hikes across a range of construction materials, from concrete to steel reinforcing bar and PVC pipes.

More than a dozen suppliers cited rising fuel costs behind decisions to raise prices by up to 20 per cent in emails sent to construction customers and seen by AAP.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil convened a meeting of construction industry leaders on Tuesday to discuss the impact of the supply chain disruptions on housing supply and construction costs.

“What’s happening in the Middle East isn’t abstract; it’s clearly having real impacts here in Australia, and we’re staying closely engaged with industry to understand how we can support them to build more homes for Australians,” she said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it was also stepping up its monitoring of airlines, with airfares set to increase as a result of rising jet fuel costs and the closure of routes through the Middle East.

“While market conditions will ultimately determine the cost of flying, we are closely monitoring price movements, market behaviour and the airlines’ representations to consumers, and will act if there is behaviour that contravenes competition and consumer laws,” commissioner Anna Brakey said.

Australia and Europe will step up co-operation on defence, security and scientific research as part of long-awaited deals inked alongside a new trade agreement.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen became the first female world leader to address Australian parliament, urging governments to come together to counter a new age of global threats.

“Today’s world shows that security threats are no longer restrained by distance but are enabled by technology,” she said.

“Malicious actors are able to reach into our borders without ever leaving their own. Europe, like Australia, does not choose how threats come to us, but we all suffer their fallout.”

While much of the focus was on the landmark Australia-Europe free trade agreement, Ms von der Leyen and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also signed other pacts on defence and research co-operation.

Officials are yet to outline exactly what the new defence agreement will involve, but it will likely include more frequent joint exercises between Australia and European nations and greater co-operation on cybersecurity.

The pact is not on the same level as a recent treaty struck with Papua New Guinea which requires both nations to come to the aid of the other if attacked, government sources say.

In a bid to bolster scientific co-operation, Australia will also sign up to Horizon Europe, the EU’s $155 billion research and innovation program.

Once Australia formally joined, companies would be able to access funding and guidance from researchers around the world, likely from 2027, Mr Albanese said.

“This is the largest research organisation in the world, bar none,” he told reporters after announcing the deal.

“Our new commitments reflect our shared commitment to security and prosperity and our shared understanding that each depends on the other.”

The deal would deepen longstanding research co-operation between the two sides, Ms von der Leyen added.

“It will link our brightest minds with long-term, well-funded programs so that they can be working together to generate the ideas and the products our society needs,” she said.

Australian universities have backed the move, declaring it would strengthen local research and build up critical industries.

“In a more uncertain and competitive global environment, strong international partnerships are more important than ever to protect Australia’s interests and keep us at the forefront of discovery,” Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said in a statement.

Ferdos had mixed emotions when Australia granted Iran’s soccer players asylum – relief at their safety but confused at her own visa application being in limbo for 14 years.

The 23-year-old Iranian refugee was sent to Nauru when she was 10, and spent five years in detention with her family before she was transferred to Australia in 2018 with her brother, when they were unwell. 

She completed high school in Australia and works as an employment caseworker, but her own situation remains volatile. 

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke granted a handful of women from Iran’s soccer team asylum when they were in Australia for the Asian Cup earlier in March, for fear they would be persecuted back home for failing to sing the national anthem before a match.

“I was really, really happy that Australians really gave that opportunity to such beautiful woman to stay here and feel safe,” Ferdos told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

“It was really hard for me to understand how the government has this power to do so in less than 48 hours, but for us, it’s been years and decades.”

There are about 700 Iranians found to be refugees who remain in limbo, according to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

“It’s time that Australia shows them the protection that they deserve,” the centre’s deputy CEO Jana Favero said alongside Ferdos, whose surname is not being used for safety reasons because she has family in Iran.

Advocates for Afghan refugees have also pointed at a double standard over the quick processing of the players.

Ghairat Jawahiri had his humanitarian visa application rejected after years of waiting, despite being in hiding with his family in Pakistan in fear of being deported back to face the Taliban’s wrath.

He helped NATO forces track the terrorist organisation’s camps in the mountains during the Afghan war and was captured and tortured when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021 before fleeing to Pakistan.

His daughter Namja worked in the human rights and women’s rights sector as an activist, making her return to Afghanistan too risky as the Taliban brutally cracks down on women’s rights.

The Taliban believes she co-operated with the Afghan government and international forces during 2001 and 2021 because of her numerous media interviews and human rights projects with international organisations during the Afghanistan war, she said. 

Rural Australians for Refugees national president Marie Sellstrom, who is helping the family, offered to resettle them in Shepparton.

“While I am pleased the Iranian women have received support this puts to nonsense the response of the Australian government to the Jawahiri family that ‘Australia does not have the capacity to accommodate them’,” she said. 

“Rural communities can support the Jawahiri family immediately, they were and are in just as much danger if not more than the Iranian women.

“The difference is they are not popular sporting identities.”

Ms Sellstrom also pointed to Farzana, who remains in hiding in Iran after she was rejected from joining her family in Shepparton because she was 24 and not 22.

She aged out of being able to be included in her father’s family reunion visa by the time his application was put through, Ms Sellstrom said.

Afghan women’s rights organisation Azadi-e Zan has made representations to the offices of multiple minsters, outlining a list of high-risk women and families. 

Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster told a parliamentary hearing in February the department could identify “individuals who might need to be taken out of the queue because of particular circumstances” when representations are made by a minister.

“For example, that might be where we have families where daughters are about to reach an age where they wouldn’t be able to travel with their families, and if we processed them in the normal way there would be a perverse outcome,” she said. 

Ms Favero said the system needed reform as organisations couldn’t be expected to make a case-by-case representation for hundreds of cases.

There are more than 300,000 refugee and humanitarian visa applications, including more than 270,000 that are offshore, which amounts to unprecedented demand due to increasing global instability, according to Home Affairs.

A national crackdown on electric bikes has gathered speed as multiple states slam the brakes on illegal, high-powered mobility devices amid safety concerns.

Queensland has become the latest government to rein in e‑scooters and e‑bikes, banning children aged under 16 from using the devices under what’s been called nation-leading laws.

In reforms to be introduced in parliament this week, riders over 16 must be medically fit to drive and hold at least a learner’s licence.

Queensland Police will be granted more powers to randomly breath test riders, and seize and destroy illegally used devices.

Parents will be held liable if they allow underage children to ride, while retailers and shared‑scheme operators face fines if they enable unlawful use. 

A 10km/h speed limit will also apply on shared footpaths to better protect pedestrians. 

A six‑month transition period will allow some devices to be made compliant, but most are already illegal.

“There will be penalties for riders of all ages that will be tough but fair,” Queensland Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg said on Tuesday.

“This is about protecting community safety – we want to facilitate the legal and safe use of e‑mobility devices, while cracking down on unsafe and illegal use.”

In Queensland alone, more than 6000 hospitalisations were linked to e‑mobility devices between 2022 and 2025. 

Queensland is the latest to crackdown on e-bikes after Western Australia and Tasmania placed restrictions on under 16s using the devices, with NSW currently weighing up an age limit.

Police and transport officers would be given new powers to seize illegal e-bikes to be crushed under legislation introduced to NSW Parliament on Tuesday.

If an e-bike is performing like a conventional motorbike in terms of power or speed, then it could be destroyed under the laws, which mirror those in place in WA, the government says.

“We don’t want to discourage safe and healthy e-bike use, but we do want to discourage dangerous and illegal e-motorbike use,” NSW Transport Minister John Graham said.

“This legislation gives police and transport officers the powers they need to efficiently and permanently remove these devices from our streets.”

NSW will become the first state to roll out roadside “dyno units”, which measure whether an e-bike can go faster than the 25km/h speed limit.

The new crushing powers would apply to all devices that breach the standards, even if bought in error, Mr Graham said.

The legislative crackdown aligns with a heavier police response to dangerous e-bike use on the state’s roads.

Fines were issued to 170 people in Sydney over two days last week as NSW Police carried out a compliance operation focused on schools, business districts and beaches.

Five riders tested positive for drugs and 21 traffic charges were laid during the operation, the state highway patrol commander said.

“While e-bikes are a great mode of transport when ridden safely … police have seen an increase in illegal or anti-social e-bike rider behaviour,” Superintendent Anthony Boyd said.

E-bikes were involved in the deaths of a dozen people in 2025, including several children.

A major Australian department store operator is planning a big expansion of its e-commerce product categories when it launches a new marketplace platform in the coming months.

Myer’s new, curated marketplace will go live in May, powered by Paris- and Boston-based e-commerce and dropshipping provider Mirakl, which is also behind the marketplaces of Bunnings and Country Road Group.

The retailer’s existing e-commerce platform launched in 2017, to allow outside merchants to sell products on myer.com.au.

In the first half of fiscal 2026, marketplace sales were up by 9.3 per cent.

Myer recently added Samsung as a marketplace partner, executive chair Olivia Wirth told an earnings briefing on Tuesday.

“This is an area that we haven’t played in before,” she said. 

“Back in the day, many years ago, we used to have a greater assortment of electrical items and telecom items.

“We don’t (now). So this gives us a way to participate in the market.”

The marketplace leverages the group’s popular Myer One loyalty program, which has 5.1 million active members, according to Ms Wirth, who is the former head of the Qantas loyalty program. 

Myers’ marketplace opened the way to add large and bulky items to its product range, such as prams and cots to sit alongside its baby clothes offering or mattresses with its towels and sheets and bedding, Ms Wirth said.

“Our brand has strength in the home category, so marketplace allows us to work with different partners in a different way and really build out that overall assortment and truly own homes, a broader category,” she said.

When it comes to Christmas trees, Myer’s marketplace allows it to sell them for as low as $89.

“If we didn’t have marketplace as an offering, we wouldn’t have been able to participate at the lower end, and we actually saw customers trade up,” Ms Worth said.

Myer keeps a careful eye on customer behaviour as soon as they enter its website, she added.

In the six months to January 24, the group’s total sales were up 24.5 per cent to $2.28 billion, after it acquired five clothing labels from Premier Investments.

The integration of the brands – Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans, Dottie and Jacqui E – is progressing well.

Excluding the apparel brands acquisition, Myer sales were up 2.1 per cent, compared to the same period a year ago.

Myer made a statutory net profit of $40.3 million, up 32.8 per cent after including the contribution from apparel brands.

For the first seven weeks in the second half of the year, sales were up 1.7 per cent from the previous corresponding period.

Myer will pay a fully franked dividend of 1.5 cents per share, fully franked.

Around midday, its shares were down 3.4 per cent to 28 cents.