Stakeholder Engagement

At the September 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping proclaimed the “collective rise of the Global South” as a defining feature of today’s geopolitical transformation. While emphasising China’s leadership, Xi underscored that Beijing would not abandon the interests of developing countries—a message aimed at rallying emerging economies around an alternative to the U.S.-led liberal order. That same gathering saw India, Brazil, and South Africa join China, Russia, and others in a BRICS+ framework that signalled a clear desire for a multipolar world.

When a major bank locked customers out of their accounts for seven weeks, public outrage would have been immediate. Australians rely on their superannuation funds in a way similar to bank accounts—yet industry super fund HESTA recently did just that. From mid-April until early June, over one million HESTA members were unable to access online account services while the fund switched administrators. HESTA insisted the outage would deliver “a better experience” in the long run. But for many members—with bills to pay, mortgages to settle, or urgent expenses to meet—that rationale rang hollow. The seven-week outage forced consumers to scramble for workarounds, in some cases risking financial stress.

Santos has officially received federal approval to begin production at the controversial Barossa offshore gasfield, located off the coast of the Northern Territory. The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) has accepted the company’s environment plan for production operations, effectively removing the last regulatory hurdle for the project.

Rachel Reeves will fly to Washington next week to meet her American counterpart for the first time, as the British government intensifies efforts to secure a UK-US trade deal.