Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs.
Below are snippets of all the media releases we received from Sept 28 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.
Grand Final Weekend Sparks Spending Surge
Perth, Sept 30: Australians spent up big online hosting AFL Grand Final watch parties, Adobe Digital Insights data shows.
Over the 25–27 September weekend, online spending on beer rose 29% and snacks and drinks 16%. TV sales jumped 43% above August averages, and team merchandise traffic rose 47% on last year.
The morning after cost fans too, with spending on cleaning supplies up 32%.
Searches for pre-game headliner Kylie Minogue rose 530% year on year, while AI image prompts about the Fremantle Dockers jumped 819% in Grand Final week.
Regional Buyers Embrace GWM Utes
Perth, Oct 1: Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) is gaining ground in regional Australia, according to new buyer data from vehicle sourcing service Auto Fetch.
Nearly 40 per cent of the GWM vehicles Auto Fetch has sourced since mid-2025 were Cannon utes or Tank 4×4 wagons, rather than the SUVs the brand is best known for. Sales went through dealers in Ballarat, Townsville, Northam, the Illawarra and Toowoomba.
GWM plans to nearly double its local range to 16 models by the end of 2027 as it aims for a place among Australia’s five best-selling brands. New diesel, hybrid and plug-in hybrid utes are central to that push, along with a V8 engine due next year.
Auto Fetch co-founder Ryan Toppin said the figures reflect what buyers are actually choosing.
“GWM is in the middle of a very aggressive product push, but out in regional, rural and remote areas, people don’t care much about a brand’s global strategy. Buyers here care about performance, reliability and price is a factor now too, due to increased cost of living,” he said.
“Our numbers say GWM’s ute range is already doing real work outside the cities, not just picking up sales in the suburbs. People out here aren’t waiting to be convinced about Chinese brands, our numbers show they’ve already decided. The doubts everyone talks about aren’t showing up in what people are actually driving away with.”
Auto Fetch works with around 200 buyers a month across more than 100 dealers nationally.
Retail Jobs Surge as Vacancies Fall
Perth, Oct 1: Australian job vacancies fell 0.9 per cent to 325,000 in the three months to August 2026, their second straight quarterly decline, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released today.
Retail bucked the trend ahead of Christmas, with vacancies up 24.5 per cent, followed by financial and insurance services, up 14.1 per cent. Wholesale trade fell 18 per cent and professional, scientific and technical services dropped 17.3 per cent.
Private sector vacancies fell 2 per cent, while public sector vacancies rose 7.8 per cent. The ACT recorded the steepest state decline, down 21.9 per cent, while South Australia rose 5.8 per cent.
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