Australian defence crews will get an early chance to work on a US nuclear submarine ahead of its first deployment as part of the AUKUS agreement.

The USS Colorado, a 10-year-old Virginia-class submarine, will make its new home at Western Australia’s HMAS Stirling as part of its official rotation from late 2027, Defence Minister Richard Marles revealed in a joint statement with his US and British counterparts on Tuesday.

The submarine arrived early at the WA base on Tuesday, to allow Australian crews to gain skills maintaining the nuclear vessel.

It is the latest vessel to be used as part of the US Submarine Maintenance Period, which aims to ramp up efforts for AUKUS before the vessels start official work.

Six submarines have visited HMAS Stirling as part of the program, with the Colorado the third to undergo maintenance in the past 12 months.

But Colorado’s arrival in Australia will be controversial because of outrage sparked in June over revelations the US would deliver lesser equipment than first promised.

Original AUKUS plans had Canberra receiving two used vessels and a brand new Virginia-class submarine before building one of its own in Adelaide.

The fact Washington would now send second-hand vessels was described as “trash” by Tasmanian independent senator and army veteran Jacqui Lambie.

But ministers and top military brass at the time insisted used subs were the best option.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the time assured the public AUKUS was going “full-steam ahead” despite tweaks to the mega-money deal, which US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reiterated on Tuesday along with Mr Marles and UK Secretary of State Wes Streeting.

Colorado is a “fast-attack” submarine, reaching more than 46km/h, compared to Australia Collins-class subs’ underwater top speed of 37km/h.

While second-hand, the Virginia class is Washington’s most advanced line of attack submersibles.

The higher-speed, longer-range vessels are needed to help Australia defend its sea trade, Mr Marles has said.

“The selection of USS Colorado … is a decisive step in strengthening collective deterrence in the Pacific,” the joint statement read.

Mr Marles will come face-to-face with Mr Hegseth on Wednesday and Thursday at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting in the Philippines.

“ASEAN sits at the core of Australia’s vision for a peaceful, stable and prosperous region, where all countries are free to exercise their sovereignty,” Mr Marles said.

“I welcome the opportunity to deepen defence relationships with some of Australia’s key partners in the region.”

Australia’s nuclear subs will be conventionally armed, but the US has maintained a policy of ambiguity about whether assets rotating through the country are carrying nuclear weapons.

Being nuclear-powered means its range is effectively limited only by its crew’s need for food and water.

Tuesday’s statement says the AUKUS rotation arrangement will abide with all relevant non-proliferation treaties.

Greens leader David Shoebridge said the presence of US nuclear submarines in WA would put Perth at risk from attack.

“This is not making us safe. This is making us a target in whatever erratic decision this or a future US president will make about war,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“This is proof positive we need to end AUKUS.”

Federal MPs are under fire for reverting to sledging and verbal attacks following calls to turn the temperature down after a colleague was severely injured in an alleged attack.

Concerns for the safety of parliamentarians have prompted some Labor MPs to propose the use of duress alarms as a security options.

Daily reviews are taking place into MP safety after independent MP Helen Haines was struck repeatedly by a four-wheel drive outside her Wangaratta office.

Dr Haines has lost both her legs and remains in a serious but stable condition in a Melbourne hospital.

Police are examining the motive of the alleged attack.

Politicians reverted to usual sledging during Question Time on Tuesday, despite urgent calls to turn the political temperature down in the week following the incident.

MPs from across the political divide paused proceedings on Monday for a full day of tributes to Dr Haines.

Speaker Milton Dick repeatedly called for order in the chamber 24 hours later, reminding MPs to “remember why we’re here”.

“This continual sledging and remarks and ongoing comment is not helpful to democracy, and it’s not even funny,” Mr Dick said.

“People are entitled to their views, but not when ministers are just addressing the house on topics that we should all be supportive of. 

“You can disagree, but not with the snide comments.”

Independent Bradfield MP Nicolette Boele urged parliamentarians to “take a step back” and consider why they so often strayed from respectful debate.

“The quality of behaviour in parliament has become toxic, violent and inflammatory,” Ms Boele said after Question Time.

“We’ve fuelled this fire and now we have to douse it.”

Anthony Albanese told Labor MPs during a party room briefing on Tuesday morning he understood they wanted tighter security whether at the office or at home, with duress alarms one idea floated.

He said the government would fast-track an independent review, with safety and security recommendations a particular focus. 

“You’ve all dedicated so much to the safety of others in the workplace,” Mr Albanese told colleagues.

“I’m determined to make sure we do everything for your safety and the safety of your staff as well.”

However, speaking on Insiders on Sunday, Australian Federal Police chief Krissy Barrett said while duress alarms were effective, a triple-zero call would trigger an immediate police response.

Political violence had largely been avoided in Australia because of a “robust parliamentary system”, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor told a coalition party room meeting.

“The foundation of the Westminster system was to stop violence and wars,” he said.

At least nine MPs will have security crackdowns accelerated for their electorate offices, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher confirmed, after they raised concerns last week.

Security in Parliament House’s public places has also been increased.

Security is handled across several departments: federal police are responsible for assessments and security details, Home Affairs looks after home security and Finance handles offices and transport. 

All three co-ordinate to share information, Finance secretary Matt Yannopoulos told a late-night Senate estimates sitting on Monday.

Senator Gallagher warned the updated protection would not be enough to shield women in the public eye from abuse, urging social media companies to take action when threats are posted on their platforms. 

Her comments came before the government’s Digital Duty of Care bill returned for debate in the lower house.

Under the proposal, social media platforms would be forced to protect users under 18 from content that promotes crime, eating disorders, pornography or misogynistic content, as well as posts that cause distress.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is joining President Donald Trump on the campaign trail for the midterm elections, a highly unusual move for the nation’s top diplomat.

The pair will on Tuesday visit Port Arthur in Texas to show off a newly arrived oil tanker filled with Venezuelan crude to be processed at local refineries, according to a congressional aide and two US officials.

Trump is campaigning in the state in a bid to shore up support for Republican candidates, including US Senate contender Ken Paxton, who is locked in a tight race with Democratic candidate James Talarico. 

It’s not clear whether Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, will take part in any campaign events like rallies. 

But it’s the first time he’s hitting the road with Trump as the president barnstorms the country and his political activities have been limited since becoming secretary of state.

It’s highly unusual for the nation’s top diplomat to participate in political travel and the trip is the latest example of how Trump’s second presidency has blurred the lines between governing and campaigning. 

Attorney General Todd Blanche has already been appearing at rallies alongside Republican candidates. 

The three sources who disclosed Rubio’s plans before they were publicly announced did so on the condition of anonymity.

Rubio previously ran for president in 2016 and is considered a top prospect in 2028 presidential elections, but has not said whether he will run.

Weighing heavily on Republican candidates are high energy costs and voter fatigue over the US and Israel’s nearly eight-month-old war with Iran — one that Trump predicted at the onset would last just weeks.

He once promised to keep the US out of foreign wars and has often labelled the Iran war a “little detour”.

The conflict has spread, with Iran-backed Houthi rebels carrying out a series of attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure and airports. 

A Saudi-led coalition has responded with its own deadly attacks on Houthi-held territory in Yemen. 

And over the weekend, the US State Department said it was reducing staffing at four embassies in the Middle East after receiving intelligence that Iran had stepped up efforts to target American personnel in the region and elsewhere.

Diesel prices continue to hover near all-time highs in the US, creating trouble for Republicans in typically conservative states such as Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Texas who find themselves knotted in competitive races with Democrats.

But despite the enormous ramifications for the global economy, Trump insists the costs of war have been no big deal.

He repeatedly insists that the war’s end is near, only to threaten that a new, intensive round of bombing could very well be in the offing once the election passes — often within the same campaign speech or a single exchange with reporters.

He also argues that elevated fuel prices are a temporary inconvenience worth paying to defang Iran, with its mysterious nuclear program.

“Trump’s messaging on the war is resonating with a shrinking portion of the electorate,” Lehigh University Opinion Observatory director Christopher Borick said.

Only a few elected Republicans have parted ways with Trump over the Iran conflict but some party strategists have been sounding the alarm for months.

Trump, for his part, has insisted that the midterm elections would have no bearing on how he approached the war.

An AP-NORC poll published last week found voters from both major political parties want the next Congress to focus on making life more affordable and end the conflict.

Australia’s share market has overcome a shaky start for a second straight session, after renewed hope in the artificial intelligence trade buoyed copper miners.

The S&P/ASX200 gained 40.2 points on Tuesday, up 0.46 per cent, to 8850.1, as the broader All Ordinaries rose 42.2 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 8968.8.

Mega miners BHP and Rio Tinto offered major support, rallying after copper prices lifted on Anthropic’s initial public offering listing, which would value the AI trailblazer at $US1.5 trillion ($A2.1 trillion).

The IPO helped reinject a little bit of recently absent AI hype, Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda said.

“The areas of Asia that have performed well were tech-sensitive names, and then in the local market some of those AI supply chain trades, namely the big miners,” Mr Rodda told AAP.

The local tech sector largely missed out on the exuberance, up only 0.4 per cent, while local data centre player NextDC clawed back almost four per cent after project delays wiped 40 per cent off the company’s value last week.

There could be further market volatility ahead, as traders brace for more US earnings, multiple central bank decisions, a local inflation print ahead of the US mid-term elections early next week.

“I think it’s still going to be a pretty bumpy ride through that period as as investors digest all that information,” Mr Rodda said.

Adding to broader market confidence, oil prices continued to ease from their pre-weekend peak on hopes the US and Iran could yet find a diplomatic solution to a conflict that has roiled global energy markets.

Woodside, Santos and refinery operators Ampol and Viva still traded higher, but uranium producers topped the energy sector as they tracked with the uplift in minerals stocks.

The heavyweight financials sector eased 0.6 per cent as the major banks ran into a second day of profit-taking, with NAB leading the big four lower.

Consumer discretionaries also lost ground ahead of Wednesday’s crucial September inflation print.

The price growth data will likely decide whether the Reserve Bank will hike the official cash rate next week, or if it has more time to measure the impacts of its four increases so far this year.

In company news, Star Entertainment shares soared 13 per cent after reporting a strong rebound in earnings, however a massive fine over anti-money laundering obligation breaches still looms over the casino group.

Woodside will sell its roughly one-third stake in the Greater Sunrise gas project in East Timor to the state-owned Timor Gap for up to $US200 million ($A284.8 million).

The Australian dollar is buying 70.22 US cents, down from 70.27 US cents on Monday at 5pm.

ON THE ASX:

* The S&P/ASX200 rose 40.2 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 8850.1

* The broader All Ordinaries advanced 42.2 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 8968.8

One Australian dollar trades for:

* 70.22 US cents, from 70.27 US cents on Monday at 5pm AEDT

* 110.75 Japanese yen, from 110.39 Japanese yen

* 62.89 euro cents, from 62.65 euro cents

* 52.67 British pence, from 52.54 pence

* 123.34 NZ cents, from 123.28 NZ cents

Resources credentials appear key to a state government’s fight for survival, as polls show their toughest political opponent surging in mining heartland.

NSW’s Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos on Tuesday opened an international mining expo with a bid to brand NSW as “the mining state”.

She told AAP the government’s track record is clear and said: “We want to show the world NSW is open for business.”

“(We) delivered reforms to ensure NSW remains competitive in the global landscape.”

The government pointed to updated planning, a royalties deferral scheme, a quarter-century coal plan and exploration investments.

During her speech, Ms Houssos also celebrated 2025’s critical minerals deal brokered between the United States and her federal counterparts.

But Premier Chris Minns’ Labor faces strong opposition in mining heartlands just months out from state election.

Both the Greens and One Nation had drastically improved on the previous state election in polling released Tuesday and commissioned by Advent Energy – a fossil fuel exploration company with interests in the region.

Labor and One Nation – which has no current representation on Macquarie St – were tied on 33 per cent of voting intention.

A resurgent Greens (16) also led the combined coalition (14) in the area, according to Pureprofile’s survey.

Mr Minns on Tuesday said the One Nation’s leaders – based in the Hunter – were “polling extraordinarily well” and a political reality.

“The only thing I’d say is that no one’s voted yet … we’ve got a better plan to invest in people, to protect wages and to stop privatisation,” he told Sydney radio 2GB.

One Nation and the federal coalition both took the sword to NSW Labor over an October High Court decision blocking a mine expansion in Muswellbrook.

Both argued emissions frameworks in the state were restricting industry growth.

Grassroots campaigners took Mach Energy’s Mount Pleasant expansion in the Hunter to the High Court because the state’s planning body did not account for emissions created downstream.

Environmentalists’ celebrations, however, were cut short when Mr Minns announced plans for a “one-off intervention” to save jobs.

He feared the ruling would have forced the scaling back of production at the major open-cut mine and put at least 400 jobs on the line.

Greens MP Sue Higginson at the time said the decision showed coal mining giants were writing the government’s laws.

A casino operator facing a potential penalty of hundreds of millions of dollars for historical anti-money laundering breaches has optimistically predicted the “fire is out” for the troubled group.

Star Entertainment Group, which owns casinos in Sydney and the Gold Coast and operates one in Brisbane, has been dealing with a raft of scandals and license suspensions involving years of money laundering, organised crime infiltration and governance failures.

US gaming giant Bally’s Corp took a 38 per cent stake in Star as part of a $300 million rescue package in 2025, allowing its chair, Soo Kim, to step up to the same position at Star nine months ago.

“I didn’t come here to say ‘mission accomplished’,” Mr Kim told the gaming group’s annual general meeting of shareholders on Tuesday.

“I came here to say, the fire is out, and now the rebuilding starts.”

Star’s biggest problem now is its poor treatment of gamblers who spend large amounts of money, Mr Kim believes.

“I continue to be mystified, horrified by how we’ve been treating our VIPs of late,” he said.

“Our ill treatment of our own VIPs is actually so obvious that we know that’s our No. 1 problem, but also No. 1 opportunity.”

Many VIPs simply can’t get through Star’s enhanced due diligence and know-your-customer requirements, Mr Kim argued at the meeting in Sydney.

The casino group has for years been dealing with the regulatory fallout after high rollers with links to organised crime were allowed to launder money at Star’s casinos.

Star has previously blamed mandatory carded play and $5000 cash limits imposed by regulators at The Star Sydney for a drop in revenue.

Since those limits were imposed on October 19, 2024, average daily revenue at the Star Sydney is down 20 per cent, compared to its average revenue from before the reforms were imposed, Star has said.

Mr Kim said that Star could not blame regulators for how it treated VIPs, given that many were choosing to game at Crown resorts instead.

“How could you blame the regulatory rules if the other operator across the way is able to, under the same regulatory construct, welcome these customers?” Mr Kim said.

“I would think that it’s our execution of the rules that is incorrect.”

The vast majority of customers weren’t involved in malfeasance or unwanted behaviour and the company should welcome them, he added.

Star has not been involved with the junket travel operators that led to many of its problems since 2018.

Star Sydney and Star Gold Coast were now cash flow positive while group cash flow was now about $200 million, Mr Kim said, which was “quite a different story than just nine months ago” when it was burning more than $20 million a month.

Star will hear on Wednesday what financial penalty the Federal Court will impose for its historic money-laundering violations.

Financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC requested a $400 million penalty during a June 2025 court hearing, an amount Star has said would send it into administration.

But Mr Kim kept the mood light, joking about reports that this could be both his first and last shareholder meeting if the company was forced into insolvency.

“I was told that our prospects were so grim as a company that we won’t have any more annual meetings,” he said.

“I would like to respectfully disagree – I think there’ll be many, many more.”

Around 2pm, Star shares were changing hands at a five-week high of 14 cents, up 17.4 per cent for the day but down 20.6 per cent since the start of the year.

An Australian blood plasma and vaccine giant under pressure over disappointing earnings and share price performance says not every decision it made was a bad one, as it pointed to a management shake-up.

Melbourne-based CSL, best known for its groundbreaking Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine, recently appointed a high-powered former GSK executive as its first female chief executive.

Deborah Waterhouse, who replaces the former boss ousted in 2025, “ticks all the boxes” needed to repair the damage, outgoing chair Brian McNamee told a shareholders meeting on Tuesday.

Ms Waterhouse, who has a long career in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors, is joining CSL in February from multibillion-dollar global HIV specialist ViiV Healthcare, which she led for 10 years.

Viiv is jointly owned by Japanese pharmaceuticals group Shionogi and UK giant GSK, where she once worked as head of its US vaccine and primary care business and as general manager of its Australia and New Zealand operations.

In August, CSL reported a statutory net loss of $US2.6 billion ($A3.7 billion) for 2025/26, due to writedowns in its Vifor kidney treatment and iron deficiency businesses.

The shock loss compared to a $US3 billion ($A4.3 billion) profit the year before.

Vifor has struggled against generic competition and regulatory shifts since its 2022 acquisition by CSL.

But in the past two years, CSL has disappointed investors with earnings downgrades, prompting a multibillion-dollar cut in its market value, which recently drove a plan to shed about 3000 jobs.

Shareholders peppered the board with questions about the share price, which tumbled by about 70 per cent from $310 in July 2024 to a nine-year low of about $90 in June this year.

It was trading at $194.50 around noon on Tuesday.

“We can’t just pack our bags and go home,” Mr McNamee said.

“We’ve refreshed the board, we’ve refreshed management, and I think we’ve done what a company would do when it accepts that.

“Vifor as a business is actually a business we still like; we still like the iron (deficiency) franchise because it’s very cash generative … not every decision was bad.”

Interim chief executive Gordon Naylor, who will replace the retiring Mr McNamee as chair after Ms Waterhouse settles in, was adamant the underlying business was resilient.

“Cash generation remains one of the company’s greatest strengths and provides flexibility to invest in future growth while maintaining a strong balance sheet and returning capital to shareholders,” he told the meeting in Melbourne.

Heading into 2026/27, CSL could deliver savings of $US400 million ($A570 million), Mr Naylor said as he confirmed its forecast for a five per cent rise in annual underlying net profit.

It also maintains its market-leading position in plasma and is looking for ways to improve collection and manufacturing capabilities.

“Reliable plasma supply remains critical to supporting long-term growth in our immunoglobulin franchise and meeting increasing patient demand,” Mr Naylor said.

At the same time, CSL’s vaccine business Seqirus continues to face headwinds in the US, which has a “slightly controversial policy framework”, after health secretary Robert F Kennedy scaled back long-standing immunisation protocols.

“But against that headwind, Seqirus is driven by the quality of its vaccine portfolio and is actually gaining market share and doing quite well,” Mr Naylor said.

Mr McNamee retires at the end of March after more than eight years as chair and after serving as chief executive from 1990 to 2013.

The prime minister has admitted he was wrong about the use of a multi-million-dollar, invite-only grant given to a golf course in his electorate.

The government is spending $6 million on upgrades to the Marrickville Golf Club in Anthony Albanese’s Sydney-based electorate of Grayndler.

It is being done through a $560 million major and local community infrastructure program, used to fund dozens of minor election promises across the country.

In September, Mr Albanese told ABC the grant was partly for fixing a sewerage run-off problem, despite there being no evidence of that from club officials.

But sewerage upgrades were never part of the agreement and had not been completed, Finance Department officials confirmed during a late-night Senate estimates sitting on Monday.

The 84-year-old club did have sewerage issues, as it was not connected to the public sewer system, and a $270,000 grant was awarded by the NSW government last September to fix it.

“I was not correct,” Mr Albanese told parliament during repeated questioning on Tuesday.

“The state government have moved in and is funding the project,” he said.

Before his admission, Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said the prime minister had misled the parliament and needed to correct the record.

It came after Infrastructure Department assistant secretary Jacinta McDonald said during an inquiry earlier in October that the grant was largely for clubhouse upgrades, including stormwater harvesting and storage tanks.

Opposition frontbencher Dan Tehan tried to suspend parliament from its usual timetable on Tuesday morning to force Mr Albanese to apologise.

“This is an opportunity for the prime minister to clear the air,” he said.

The motion failed because the government has the numbers in the House of Representatives to stop it happening.

The prime minister was again asked for clarity in Question Time.

The first time, he said the NSW government “stepped in” and committed its funding after a Commonwealth election promise had already been made, before later conceding he had been incorrect in what he told ABC last month.

“It was an election commitment … that was made,” he told parliament.

The relevant local council was continuing to firm up plans for extensive changes to the club, he said.

The coalition had tried to force Mr Albanese to apologise several times previously, taking up parliamentary time to do so.

Mr Albanese was also criticised over the matter by now-wounded independent MP Helen Haines before her alleged attack.

The prime minister did not respond directly to Dr Haines’ concerns, instead producing documentation of grants she had requested for her electorate.

An inquiry into the federal grants administration is ongoing and expected to report later in 2026.

Backpacker visa cuts may be ushered in without calculating the effect on harvests, with fears Australia’s produce will rot on the ground without key seasonal workers.

The federal agriculture department was consulted on changes to working holiday maker visas, but there has been no modelling on how the reforms will impact harvest volumes, a Senate estimates hearing was told.

“We haven’t done any modelling and we ordinarily wouldn’t … on a matter that is led by another agency,” deputy secretary Matt Lowe told the hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.

Limited workforce data from the horticulture sector was a central challenge in modelling, Mr Lowe said.

Greens Senator Vanessa Bleyer asked whether the visa cuts could be compared to workforce shortages during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when produce was “rotting in the ground”.

The NT government has said the changes would leave the Top End mango harvest without 1000 workers and 70 per cent of the crop would be left to rot on trees.

The WA premier has also written to the federal government, expressing concern about how the changes will effect the state’s remote communities and its tourism and hospitality sectors.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced changes to be rolled out over the next year, reducing the cap on second-year visas from 57,000 to 45,000 and cutting third-year visas from 31,000 to 5000.

Backpackers will enter a ballot for the chance to remain in Australia for more than a year, meaning there will be about 38,000 fewer second and third-year backpackers than in 2026.

Labor Senator Anthony Chisholm said the COVID-19 comparison was not fair, with the government’s projections still sitting above pre-pandemic levels.

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, which allows businesses to hire workers from Pacific countries and Timor-Leste, successfully boosted the sector, Senator Chisholm said. 

“We are in ongoing discussion with Minister Burke’s office, and so is industry, about how these changes are implemented to ensure we can manage this as best as possible,” he told the hearing.

The National Farmers Federation has called on the government to revert to regular visa processing, with the PALM scheme not suitable for every business.

“Backpackers provide a mobile workforce for short and intensive seasonal windows,” president Hamish McIntyre said in early October.

“Farmers cannot be told simply to switch programs when those programs have different purposes, requirements and operating models.”

The coalition has promised to scrap the caps on working holiday maker visas, but fees would be increased for those looking to stay longer than one year in Australia.

Exemptions would apply for those who carry out work in regional areas.

Australia’s biggest debt collector is looking to grow both its collections and consumer lending arms, as rising living costs push more people to take out unsecured, high interest rate credit.

Credit Corp Group, which buys bad debts from other companies at a discount before collecting them, posted a record $105.5 million net profit in 2025/26 and is on track for another standout result this year.

The listed business, which also loans to people struggling to access credit, is targeting a profit of between $112 million and $120 million in the current financial year.

“Our leadership and focus has us on track for another record result,” chief executive Thomas Beregi told shareholders at the group’s annual meeting in Sydney.

Credit Corp’s purchase of one of HSBC’s run-off credit card books was a key driver of its likely success this year, while investment in debts in New Zealand was also on the increase.

The company has backed off on a US debt buying spree due to higher costs and is instead looking to improve its operations across the Pacific.

The US, which has a staggering $US18.8 trillion ($A26.8 trillion) in household debt, according to its central bank, remains a key target market for the Australian debt collector.

“Our investment levels will fluctuate dramatically, and there is foreseeably a scenario where investment in debt buying, particularly in the US, increases very dramatically,” Mr Beregi said on Tuesday. 

“Particularly if we hit our metrics in terms of operational improvement this year, and prices do ease, then we could find ourselves investing many hundreds of millions of dollars in the US.”

Household debts in Credit Corp’s target markets of Australia, the US, the United Kingdom and NZ have been soaring as inflation drives up living costs and interest rates rise.

The debts it targets tend to come from banks and utilities companies and are generally unpaid for more than six months.

Credit Corp’s consumer lending businesses, which operate in Australia, NZ and the UK, grew by almost a fifth in the September quarter compared to a year earlier to $108 million.

Its Wallet Wizard product, which offers unsecured loans of up to $8,000 at a massive annual interest rate of 47.8 per cent, accounted for most of Credit Corp’s lending growth, with volumes up 35 per cent on the prior year.

The company says it treats its customers respectfully, and that it ranks highly among financial counsellors and regulators.

“We are more likely to encounter people in hardship, some form of financial hardship or suffering from a vulnerability,” Mr Beregi said.

“So we have to be very responsible and compliant to deliver on our promise to our debt sale clients, other stakeholders, and the community.”

Credit Corp shares were about half a percentage point lower at $14.68 around noon.