Corporate Travel’s brutal return; trust changes watered down; Uber cuts jobs

Published: September 03, 2026

Corporate Travel’s brutal return; trust changes watered down; Uber cuts jobs

News in brief

The federal government has watered down its proposed tax changes for discretionary trusts after warnings almost half a million businesses could face costly restructures. Existing trusts will be able to avoid the new 30 per cent minimum tax by making fixed distributions to nominated beneficiaries.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has met with US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in Washington, and discussed plans to expand America’s military presence here, with greater co-operation on logistics, exercises, air power, cyber and space.

One of Australia’s best-known startups, Expert360, is being sold to AI recruitment company Swipejobs for around $16 million. Founder Bridget Loudon-Harris and some early investors are expected to receive nothing from the deal.

ING Australia has been hit with a $50 million capital penalty after overstating how much cash it could access during a rush of customer withdrawals. APRA says the problem persisted for years and was “not simply a reporting error”.

Uber is cutting more than 3,000 jobs, or around 10 per cent of its global workforce, after acknowledging it accumulated too many layers of management. Australian employees are among those affected.

Fear-o-meter

Jason Todd, Chief Investment Officer at Ten Cap, on bond yields and equity markets:

"If we'd said at the start of the year that long bond yields would hit multi-decade highs across the developed world while equity markets sat at or near record levels here in Australia, it would have been hard to believe, yet markets have proven remarkably resilient to the move in bond yields, which has been building for three years since coming out of COVID, with US yields running from 1% to 2%, to 3%, to 4%, and now to around 4.75%. I think we're settling into a range-trading environment for long bonds, perhaps 4–6% in the US, and we're now in the middle of that range.

"Is it a concern? Yes. Is it a reason to turn more negative on equities in the near term? No.

"I don't think that bond yields here or in the US are at that level where we need to be negative equities and rotating within equities, but you're probably going to start to ask those questions if it's up another 25 basis points. Bond yields haven't yet reached the tipping point where markets start worrying about growth implications or trigger a real defensive rotation. I'm not saying global equities can keep rising at the same pace, or that Australia won't feel some pressure, but so far the move in bond yields has been reasonably well absorbed by markets."

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On how Australian SMEs can use SMS and WhatsApp to communicate directly with clients, and the importance of customer consent, opting out, and building trust:

“When you're capturing a customer's data, we need to consider that customer and what do they want from us? I mentioned before, a customer could sign up for an appointment reminder, but they're not signing up for marketing. They're not signing up for more collateral from us. So understanding up front what is actually our customer's need here, what do they want from us, is the first starting block there.

Then the compliance rules: customers must opt in to receive notifications from you. Point one, simple. We must give them an avenue to opt out should they wish to stop receiving information from you. That's kind of the bare essentials to any sort of business, any sort of campaign. And we need to get that right because if we get it wrong, then we start losing trust.”

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Corporate Travel Management has made a brutal return to the ASX, with its shares crashing more than 85 per cent after trading resumed for the first time in more than a year.

The company was suspended last August after auditors uncovered serious problems in its accounts. It ultimately revealed it had overcharged customers across the UK, Australia and New Zealand by as much as $272 million, while a forensic review found revenue had been incorrectly recognised.

There are some signs the underlying business has survived better than expected. CTM says it retained 97 per cent of customers and returned to profit in the latest financial year.

Investors, though, have taken an enormous hit. The shares were worth $16.07 before the suspension and reopened below $3, slashing the company’s market value from around $2.35 billion to $460 million.

Greed-o-meter

Market	New hotel rooms	New hotels	Occupancy %
Sydney	493	4	82.1
Perth	36	1	81.2
Hobart	2	0	78.5
Brisbane	617	1	76.3
Adelaide	215	3	76.0
Melbourne	1,135	5	74.2
ACT & Canberra	2	0	72.2
Darwin	97	1	58.6

Source: CoStar / Australian Financial Review. Past 12 months.

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Sydney continues to record the highest hotel occupancy rate among the capitals, at 82.1%, followed closely by Perth. Melbourne has added the most new supply over the past year, with 1,135 rooms across five new hotels, while its occupancy rate sits at 74.2%.

Corporate Travel’s brutal return; trust changes watered down; Uber cuts jobs