The billionaire chairman of Premier Investments has made a series of jaw-dropping allegations involving the Smiggle boss who was fired for alleged serious misconduct a year ago.

Solomon Lew said that John Cheston – now the CEO of jewellery chain Lovisa – encouraged a culture of drinking and gambling with staff and returning to work intoxicated, saying there was an ongoing investigation.

Rebekah Giles, Mr Cheston’s legal representative, denied the allegations and suggested they were motivated by bitterness that he had left Premier.

“To the extent that this latest rant is about Mr Cheston, it is simply untrue,” she said in a statement.

Lovisa has also been approached for comment.

Premier Investment’s Just Group fired Mr Cheston in September 2024, three months after he gave his required year-long notice that he was leaving to head Lovisa.

Premier’s Just Group subsidiary had alleged “serious misconduct” on the part of Mr Cheston but was not more specific until Thursday, when Mr Lew detailed the allegations during a call with reporters as Premier announced its full-year earnings.

“People were being paid to be at work, doing other things, and not being at work, and being absent from their jobs, and spending time being intoxicated and gambling with staff in the organisation,” Mr Lew said.

This happened during office hours, and head office staff would return to work intoxicated, Mr Lew alleged.

He suggested “people were being bullied, sexual harassment, etcetera, that was never reported, interference by the CEO to that (human resources) department, and there’s a long list of situations.”

Mr Lew said he was “appalled that this was going on for some years and I never knew about it”.

Pressed on whether anyone other than Mr Cheston had been fired for alleged misconduct, Mr Lew said he wasn’t certain but believed other people had left the company.

“There are people who were dragged into this mob, obviously, over a period of time, quite a few people who are no longer with the company,” he said.

“If you were to ask me whether those practices are going on today, I’m going to say no.”

Mr Lew said that Premier had not paid Mr Cheston any further renumeration after firing him, clawing back $5.2 million.

Ms Giles said Mr Cheston resigned 18 months ago and put the company behind him.

“The truth is Mr Cheston declined Premier’s offer to lead a separately listed Smiggle business and instead resigned to accept a CEO role for another publicly-listed retail company,” she said.

“That decision appears to be what Premier is unable to move past.

“Mr Cheston has moved on and Premier should do the same.”

A back-to-school stationery chain, Smiggle has 296 stores, about half of which are in Australia, and about 80 head office staff.

Mr Lew said Smiggle still didn’t have a permanent CEO because Premier was being “very very particular” about finding a replacement.

Mr Lew’s comments largely overshadowed Premier’s 2024/25 earnings results.

Premier Investments said it made $831.3 million in revenue in the 52 weeks to July 26, up 1.2 per cent from a year ago.

Sleepwear chain Peter Alexander’s 2024/25 sales were a record $548 million, up 7.7 per cent from a year ago, with sales around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day particularly strong.

Premier said its statutory profit was up 31.1 per cent to $338.2 million, when including the divestment of its clothing stores Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans, Dotti and Jacqui E to Myer in January.

Its underlying profit from continuing operations – excluding the apparel brands divestment and costs associated with Peter Alexander’s entry into the UK market – was down 14.9 per cent to $220.3 million.

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A prominent Liberal conservative has rejected suggestions he’s angling for the party leadership after a series of inflammatory social media posts.

Liberals have privately expressed frustrations at being forced to talk about themselves rather than attack Labor or build voter support, fearing they’re losing more momentum after a dire May election result.

“The vast majority of the party room want to focus on a bad government that’s failing the Australian people, not internal conversations,” one MP said.

Distractions include speculation Western Australian MP Andrew Hastie is angling for the party leadership after publicly pushing for net-zero emissions goals to be dropped and migration to be curbed.

Among a series of social media posts linking immigration to housing shortages, Mr Hastie said: “We’re starting to feel like strangers in our own home.”

He has garnered support from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who was removed from the shadow ministry for failing to support Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and not apologising for comments singling out the Indian community.

Despite previously declaring his wish to one day lead the Liberal Party, Mr Hastie threw his support behind Ms Ley on Thursday.

“I support Sussan. Anyone who’s speculating otherwise is being mischievous,” he told 2GB Sydney.

But Mr Hastie again described net-zero targets as a “con job” despite his party being yet to formalise its stance on maintaining its support for the climate objective.

“The climate is changing. I don’t dispute that,” he said.

“Whether or not we can do anything about it by killing our country is another question altogether.”

Some Liberals and Nationals fear bleeding votes to minor, right-wing parties such as One Nation, which want climate action abandoned, with the net-zero by 2050 objective becoming a totemic issue for coalition conservatives.

Mr Hastie has threatened to resign from the opposition front bench if the emissions policy is retained, although he did not make the same stand under former leader Peter Dutton.

Moderate senator Maria Kovacic told AAP the “the sensible and credible thing to do” was for the coalition to form proper policies that could be taken to the next election “as a legitimate alternative government”.

She noted a recent ASEAN inter-parliamentary assembly, made up of representatives of Southeast Asian nations, featured a “clear focus on decisive action as to emissions reduction, the renewable energy transition and regional energy security”.

Several Liberals have also distanced themselves from Mr Hastie’s most recent comments about immigration.

Independent MP Allegra Spender criticised his rhetoric and pointed to the anti-migration “Rivers of Blood” speech given at a 1968 conservative conference in Britain by white nationalist Enoch Powell, who claimed white Brits were “made strangers in their own country”.

“Is Hastie, who has said he wishes to lead the Liberal Party and the country, harking back to Enoch Powell because he is ignorant of history or is he using Powell’s words deliberately?” she said.

“I don’t know, but we must be very careful in this debate.”

Opposition immigration spokesman Paul Scarr, a more moderate voice on the issue within the Liberal Party, dismissed any suggestion of racism.

“I completely reject that notion,” he told ABC Radio, although he didn’t back Mr Hastie’s rhetoric when pressed on the social media post.

“We’re all Australians. Anyone who comes to this country from anywhere in the world, whatever their ethnicity, whatever their country of origin, they take that citizenship pledge,” Senator Scarr said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke called for Mr Hastie to provide specifics about where migration cuts would be made as he defended Australia’s multiculturalism.

Thousands of satellites will replace two Australia sent into space to connect some of its farthest-flung communities.

But an increasing reliance on mercurial overseas providers for satellite connectivity has prompted some concerns.

The corporation operating Australia’s national broadband network has announced plans to replace its existing SkyMuster satellite internet services with low-earth orbit satellites from web services giant Amazon’s Project Kuiper, planned to launch locally in mid-2026.

SkyMuster was state-of-the-art technology when it launched in 2016 and remained fit for purpose, NBN Co health and agriculture executive manager Robert Hardie said.

But the partnership with Amazon will give Australian netizens broader access to cutting-edge technology, with faster internet speeds expected.

“Satellite telecommunications has advanced more in the last three years than it has in the last 30 years,” Mr Hardie told AAP on Thursday.

Fixed wireless broadband via satellite requires additional equipment, meaning disruptions like power outages can disconnect users.

But direct-to-device connections are coming, allowing ordinary smartphones to connect to low-earth orbit satellites.

It’s a fundamental transformation, Space Industry Association of Australia chief executive Dan Lloyd says.

“Particularly important for services like triple zero, and unfortunately very recently we’ve seen the tragic consequences of triple zero not functioning.”

Optus has come under fire for failures to connect triple-zero calls, with multiple deaths linked to the outage.

There was existing capability for triple zero to operate via satellite since 2022, but it currently supported text only, Mr Lloyd said.

He also raised concerns over sovereignty in Australia’s satellite strategy.

“We will be relying on best efforts from international US constellations.”

The NBN project will partner with Amazon, but Australian consumers, as well as major telcos, have also embraced rival provider Starlink.

“Starlink has a track record of turning off services whenever something happens that (founder) Elon Musk doesn’t like,” Mr Lloyd said.

Mr Musk also owns social media platform X, which has opposed Australia’s proposed ban on social media access for children under 16.

The company cited “serious concerns” over the ban, “including its compatibility with other regulations and laws, including international human rights treaties to which Australia is a signatory” in a submission to a senate inquiry.

“I’m very concerned that we’re essentially betting that US constellations will continue to make available a service that I think is going to be absolutely essential to Australians very, very shortly,” Mr Lloyd said.

Government policies targeting a universal outdoor mobile coverage obligation may require local telcos to ensure direct-to-device services.

“But they have no ability to force the US networks to ensure service and continuity,” Mr Lloyd told the National Farmers’ Federation’s AgXchange conference.

Negotiations were continuing, but Mr Hardie said NBN understood the importance of data sovereignty and privacy.

“We’re very keen to ensure that we can route traffic through Australia so that we maintain some degree of data proprietary,” he said.

This AAP article was made possible by support from Landcare Australia and the National Farmers’ Federation.

Thousands of Australians who lost their retirement savings when investment fund Shield collapsed will be reimbursed by Macquarie, which oversaw investments in the failed superannuation scheme.

Macquarie accepted fault in the debacle for failing to place Shield on a watch list for heightened monitoring, despite overseeing $321 million in investments to the fund through its wrap platform.

Around 3000 clients, who have been unable to access their funds since February 2024, will be compensated in full.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission also commenced Federal Court proceedings against Macquarie, which has admitted it contravened the Corporations Act.

It failed to act efficiently, honestly and fairly because it knew Shield was a new fund with no track record, but still allowed people to invest in it and did not put it on a watchlist for heightened monitoring, said ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court.

“Macquarie was aware of liquidity risks. Macquarie was aware that there were potential conflicts in the fund,” Ms Court told reporters on Thursday.

“This is an extremely important outcome from our perspective. It stems the significant losses that have threatened the retirement savings of thousands of Australians.”

Of the $480 million in funds invested in Shield from 2022 until ASIC shut the scheme down in 2024, $321 million was facilitated through a super wrap platform hosted by the financial services conglomerate’s subsidiary Macquarie Investment Management.

Super wrap platforms allow mum and dad investors to choose from a wide variety of investment options hosted by a trusted financial provider.

But concerns have been raised that the model has led to confusion among investors, who believed they were investing in the platform’s host, rather than from a range of more speculative vehicles.

The collapse of Shield, as well as the recent failure of First Guardian, has raised further questions about the oversight of the system.

At least 5800 total investors put their money in Shield, while another 6000-odd were affected by the First Guardian Collapse.

ASIC continues to investigate First Guardian, as well as Shield’s responsible entity Keystone Asset Management, superannuation trustees, lead generators, financial advisers, and the research house which rated Shield.

Macquarie said the payment spared investors from a likely multi-year wait as the complex liquidation process to recover funds plays out.

“The approach of providing immediate certainty and an improved outcome for investors benefits all parties,” it said in a statement.

Although Macquarie failed its trustee obligations, ASIC is not seeking a civil penalty against the Millionaires’ Factory because the company proactively came forward to reimburse investors, which was the regulator’s primary concern, Ms Court said.

Macquarie promised to make all payments in full by Tuesday.

Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino welcomed the news that investors would be reimbursed in full and said Treasury was working with ASIC to implement reforms to better protect consumers.

“We are seeing failings at every step of the value chain, including from lead generators, financial advisors, superannuation trustees, auditors, managed investment schemes and research houses,” he said.

Global leaders have taken note of Australia’s world-first ban on social media for teenagers, instilling confidence in a bereaved mum that other nations will enact change.

Emma Mason drew a standing ovation after joining Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to spruik the ban on the world stage at a United Nations event in New York.

The Bathurst woman spoke at the UN in front of an image of her daughter Tilly, 15, who took her own life after being bullied online.

She said she was encouraged the ban had drawn the attention of leaders such as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who has indicated the bloc will be watching how the reform turns out.

“There were leaders there that were really listening and telling me personally that they were going back to their nation to enact change,” she told Nine’s Today program on Thursday.

“I’m really confident.

“There are 226 million children across the world aged between 13 and 15, and it’s my view that we need to stop monetising children and we need to protect them.”

Mr Albanese described her address as “moving and powerful” and said it epitomised his discussions with other bereaved parents.

“If I, as Australian prime minister, could pluck out AOs (Orders of Australia) as I walk around … I would have walked up on stage here and given Emma one on the spot,” he said.

The incoming ban will restrict under-16s from accessing instant messaging and multimedia apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat from December 10.

Ms von der Leyen said she was “inspired” by Australia’s “bold” move to introduce the ban.

“You are the first to give this a try,” Ms von der Leyen said.

“We in the EU will be watching and learning from you as you implement your world-first and world-leading social media ban.

“Our next generation needs us to step up, and to be daring and give this a go.”

Ms von der Leyen said many European countries were pushing for similar laws, and that as a mother of seven and a grandmother of five, she shared the view that they should be enacted.

Questions remain over how wide-reaching Australia’s ban will be, as gaming and streaming platforms such as Roblox and Discord have been recommended to the eSafety Commissioner to be included.

Communications Minister Annika Wells said it was up to the commissioner to decide whether the tools and behaviours on platforms like Roblox were considered harmful.

“The purpose here is to reduce the harms to kids online, no matter which platform that is,” Ms Wells told ABC TV on Thursday.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask platforms … reaping huge commercial benefit from users in Australia, to demonstrate that they are doing what they can to protect kids online.”

The ban has faced backlash from social media companies, with US billionaire Elon Musk’s X calling for it to be delayed over “serious concerns” about its lawfulness.

Events on the social media ban coincided with the prime minister’s last full day in the US for the UN meeting.

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Future job growth may be at risk in Australia’s resource industry, with a state’s controversial royalties scheme coming under fire.

The nation’s resources workforce bounced back strongly with almost 100 major mining and energy projects expected to begin between late 2025 and 2030, Resources and Energy Workforce Forecast said.

Valued at $129.5 billion, the projects are expected to create demand for 22,279 new operating-phase jobs.

But it is down from 2024’s forecast of 108 projects and 27,070 jobs, and the lowest five-year outlook in more than half a decade.

“Heightened climate activism, shifting policy settings, extended approval timelines and mounting red tape are all adding uncertainty to long-term planning and risk delaying critical developments,” Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association’s Steve Knott said.

Queensland’s coal royalties scheme was also highlighted amid calls for the state government to change the tiered system following job cuts and mine closures.

The outlook for projects and jobs fell in Western Australia and NSW but Queensland’s forecast showed relative strength, with 17 projects expected to generate 4412 new jobs by 2030.

The rebound put Queensland back in line with its 2023 forecast but Mr Knott warned that gains could be short-lived.

“Our report shows Queensland’s pipeline is recovering after last year’s slump, but the state faces a growing risk of job losses in its existing coal industry,” he said.

“The royalty regime, among the highest in the world, is eroding investor confidence and putting long-term coal operations at risk.”

Under the royalties scheme, higher revenues are generated for the state government during boom periods of high coal prices but less is taken from miners when market conditions deteriorate.

Calls for royalty reforms got louder after BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, Anglo American and QCoal blamed the scheme when it announced recent job cuts totalling 1200, with two mines either closed or mothballed.

Winding back production contracts or projects could cost thousands of jobs and weaken an important revenue stream for funding services and infrastructure, Mr Knott said.

Coal remains Queensland’s strongest driver of investment, with five projects requiring more than 1900 new workers by 2030, the report said.

Copper and silica are next in line, with four projects across both commodities forecast to create 1230 jobs – led by Evolution Mining’s Ernest Henry Mine Extension.

The report also showed Australia’s project pipeline continued to diversify, with 21 alumina, graphite, phosphate and mineral sands projects requiring around 3000 workers.

Energy sector investment also remains healthy, but it was slightly down on 2024”s report, with 16 planned major projects worth $78.6bn in capex and forecast to require 2854 new production-related employees by 2030.

The resources and energy industry directly employed 317,400 people in May.

This was a solid rebound of 10.4 per cent or nearly 30,000 employees from the dip in May 2024, in which direct employment dropped to 287,600.

Australia’s world-first social media age ban is being promoted to other nations during a jam-packed final day at the United Nations General Assembly.

Anthony Albanese is trying to build an international coalition to clamp down on children’s access to apps such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

He has been joined by parents who have campaigned for the tougher social media laws, at an event for world leaders in New York City.

On his last full day in the United States, Mr Albanese will again address the United Nations, meet his Sri Lankan counterpart, speak at two climate events and potentially sit down with Turkey’s strongman leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“This will be a really important meeting,” Mr Albanese said of the social media event.

“The globe is looking at this and this isn’t something that’s confined to just Australia,” he told reporters in New York earlier in the week.

Europe is considering introducing similar laws, to bar children under 16 from social media.

But Australia’s age restrictions could cause friction with the US, where many major online platforms are based.

The White House has raised concerns about other laws cracking down on tech giants’ use of Australian news content.

The issue could be discussed when Mr Albanese sits down with US President Donald Trump, having secured a meeting for October after months of back-and-forth.

The Oval Office talks were announced after Mr Albanese briefly met the president at a reception for world leaders on Wednesday.. 

The pair posed for a selfie, which Mr Albanese posted on social media. 

The meeting in October would be significant but potentially risky, given the tongue-lashing other world leaders have received during White House talks, Australian Strategic Policy Institute Senior Fellow Mark Watson said.

“Anything other than abject humiliation would be a success,” he told AAP.

Mr Watson, who spent 33 years at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including a stint in Australia’s US embassy, said the prime minister would likely seek reassurances from Mr Trump on the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

The US is reviewing the three-country agreement, which includes the UK, to ensure it is in keeping with Mr Trump’s “America First” agenda.

The United States expects to finalise trade deals with more Southeast Asian countries in the coming months, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says.

Greer was speaking in Kuala Lumpur at the start of a meeting with economic ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, amid concerns within the export-reliant bloc over the impact of US tariffs on their economies. 

Tariff rates have been set at 19 per cent and 20 per cent for most of the region. 

Laos and Myanmar have been hit with a 40 per cent rate, while Singapore has a 10 per cent tariff.

Greer said talks with respective countries on the levies had been progressing well, resulting in some deals being announced while others will be finalised “in the coming months or even weeks, for some”.

The United States has said it had reached agreements with Indonesia and Vietnam on tariffs, though the countries say they are still finalising terms. 

Vietnam, the world’s sixth-largest exporter to the United States, risks losing $US25 billion ($A38 billion) annually as a result of the 20 per cent tariff imposed on its goods, which would make it the worst-hit economy in the region, according to estimates released by the United Nations Development Programme. 

In a joint statement dated on Tuesday, ASEAN economic ministers noted “adverse impact and uncertainty” arising from the tariff landscape and warned of slower regional trade performance in the second half of 2025, due to the front-loading of exports before the tariffs’ imposition in the earlier part of the year.

The ministers also expressed concern over rising protectionism and unilateral trade measures, which they say “pose significant risks to the multilateral trading system and the stability of global supply chains”.

In his remarks, Greer said the United States welcomed trade with ASEAN but it must be “balanced and reciprocal”.

“We believe that there are many areas where our interests align, and we can work together to achieve shared goals of bringing reciprocity and balance to the global trading system,” he said.

Wednesday marked Greer’s first meeting with the ASEAN bloc, whose members have largely engaged in separate negotiations with the United States on the issue of tariffs.

But the grouping might be driven to take a more unified position amid risks of steeper sectoral tariffs on industries such as semiconductors, a significant contributor to economies such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. 

US President Donald Trump said in August he would set a tariff of about 100 per cent on semiconductors, but it would not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the United States or have committed to do so.

A tax policy pitting state against state is being reviewed to ensure value for money.

The carve-up of revenue from the goods and services tax has been a sticking point between states ever since the Morrison government gave Western Australia a special deal in 2018.

The mining powerhouse gets much more GST income than it would under other ways of dividing the money. Other states claim the arrangement is unfair and now the federal Productivity Commission has been brought in.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the commission’s inquiry will look at whether the current policy is good value.

“This work will ensure we have the best possible system to pay for the schools, hospitals and essential services Australians need and deserve,” he said in a statement.

The commission has been asked to investigate whether the current rules are financially sustainable for state and commonwealth governments, and whether alternatives would deliver a better result.

It will deliver its final report by the end of 2026, with an interim report due by late August.

Under the 2018 reforms, all states are guaranteed 75 cents from every dollar of GST. 

WA was the only jurisdiction to benefit from the changes, and has since received $24 billion more than it would have otherwise.

Other states were given a guarantee they would not be left worse-off, costing the federal government tens of billions of dollars more.

WA’s government is now setting up a task force to defend its GST share, dubbed the “fairness fighter” team.

State Treasurer Rita Saffioti said she would push hard to keep the existing arrangements, claiming the WA economy helped subsidised the rest of the nation.

“Without that (GST) deal, Western Australia would not be able to afford the economic infrastructure or policies that continue to drive our economy and also drive new projects,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

“We know there are some economic commentators over east who want to pull down this deal,” she said.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has long complained about the Morrison government’s changes, describing the current arrangements as a “weird system that no one can understand, let alone explain, much less support”.

“We will argue strongly that the entire federation will be better off if we can fix a busted system,” he said in a statement.

All low-emissions power options, including nuclear, should be on the table to capture what the head of a data centre company views as an AI-fuelled data storage opportunity for Australia.

NEXTDC chief executive officer Craig Scroggie says artificial intelligence and cloud computing are driving massive demand for data centres and Australia is well-placed to be a regional heavyweight if it can solve the “energy trilemma”.

“We need clean power, we need firm power, we need cheap power,” he said at The Australian Energy Nation Forum.

“In order for a modern economy to thrive, we have to solve the energy trilemma.”

The electricity-intensity of training and deploying AI models has been well-documented and was flagged as a challenge by the nation’s independent climate body, the Climate Change Authority, in its advice to the federal government on new emissions reduction targets.

Data centres could account for more than 10 per cent of Australia’s electricity use by 2035, Bloomberg modelling has projected.

Mr Scroggie believes Australia has the land and renewables resources to pursue a bigger data centre industry and should keep the door open to “everything” to power them without burdening climate goals, including nuclear power.

“I would look to my customer to give me advice,” he said, referring to the big tech companies pursuing nuclear energy, including a deal signed by Microsoft to restart the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.

Nuclear power energy has been banned in Australia since the late 1990s.

The federal opposition took a plan to build seven plants to the last election, which they lost to Labor in a convincing defeat.

Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres represented the government at the forum, where he spruiked plans to clean up industry under recently-announced national targets to slash emissions by 62-70 per cent by 2035.

“Industrial products like iron and steel, made using Australian energy processed here in Australia, are delivering emissions reductions for our industrial partners,” he said on Wednesday.

“That is an unmissable Australian opportunity.”

Senator Ayres would not be drawn on the future of power prices for businesses and households under a grid dominated by renewables.

“What the government does here matters in terms of the shape of the market in the future, and we’ve had 30 years of backwards and forwards,” he said.

Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien, formerly the opposition’s energy and climate spokesperson, took aim at the economic modelling underpinning the 2035 climate targets. 

He said the federal government had not adequately weighed up the costs of acting to cut emissions against the economic burden of of floods, fires and other impacts of unchecked climate change.

“Either the Labor Party hasn’t done that, or they’ve done it, and it’s so bad that they won’t show the Australian people.”

The opposition remains in internal turmoil on climate policy, with some members pushing to ditch net zero entirely.