News In Brief

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 Oct 12 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.

One In Four Australians Delay Bills

Perth, Oct 12: Nearly a quarter of Australians have missed or delayed a bill in the past year so they could pay their mortgage or rent, new research shows.
A Finder survey of 1,006 Australians, conducted in August 2026, found 23 per cent, or about 2.3 million households, had put housing costs ahead of other bills.
Energy bills were the most common to slip, with 8 per cent delaying an electricity or gas payment. Car insurance and credit card repayments were each delayed by 6 per cent, while home internet, buy now pay later (BNPL) and home insurance payments were each held off by 5 per cent.
Finder money expert Richard Whitten said: “It’s concerning that so many households are in a position where they have to decide which expenses need to wait.”
He urged people under pressure to contact their providers and ask for an extension rather than miss payments without notice.
“Reducing a few regular household bills can create some much-needed breathing room and help stop one missed payment turning into a cycle of late fees, interest or mounting debt,” he said.

WEX and Mastercard Launch Unified Payments

Perth, Oct 12: Payments company WEX and Mastercard have partnered to launch what they say is Asia-Pacific’s first unified fleet payments network, bringing fuel, maintenance, tolling and parking costs into a single payment system.
The partnership aims to simplify fleet management for businesses that currently juggle separate payment systems for each type of vehicle cost. It will also let operators manage traditional fuel, hybrid and electric vehicles under one account with a single consolidated invoice.
Asia-Pacific is the world’s fastest-growing fleet management region. Fleet-card transaction volumes there were estimated at about US$310 billion (A$435 billion) in 2025, or 31 per cent of global volumes, and are projected to grow 14.3 per cent a year until 2030.
“For decades, fleets have used one card for fuel and a patchwork of systems for everything else, leaving fleet managers to stitch it all together,” said Matt Arthur, vice president and general manager, APAC Mobility at WEX.
Mastercard’s Executive Vice President, Commercial and New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific, Anouska Ladds, said: “Transportation is a critical growth engine. It sits at the center of how people and goods move, especially in a diverse region like Asia-Pacific.”
WEX processed more than US$237 billion in total volume across its global platform in 2025.

Regional Workers Face Mental Health Gap

Perth, Oct 13: Regional Australians are taking longer to recover from workplace mental injuries than city workers, according to research commissioned by insurer Allianz Australia.
Allianz’s claims data shows regional workers took an average of 88 days to return to work after a mental injury claim over the past five years, 16 days longer than metropolitan workers. Mental injury claims also made up a larger share of regional claims, at 19 per cent compared with 13.4 per cent in the cities.
A YouGov survey of 1,522 employees for Allianz found nearly a third of regional workers are likely to consider leaving their job within a year, which Allianz estimates is about 703,000 people. Almost one in five said their workplace offered no mental health support.
Workplace stress, bullying and harassment were the leading causes of regional claims.

Bosses Rate AI Rollout Higher

Perth, Oct 13: Australian executives think their organisations are using artificial intelligence far more effectively than their employees do, according to new research from software company Asana.
In a survey of 1,000 Australians, executives scored their organisation’s AI performance at 75 out of 100, while workers gave a score of 58. The gap was widest in large businesses with 1,000 or more staff.
Executives were also much more confident about readiness. Eighty-one per cent said their organisation was ready to expand its use of AI, compared with 48 per cent of workers.
While 94 per cent of respondents reported meaningful AI use at work, only 22 per cent said it was delivering broad, measurable benefits. Many workers also admitted to using AI tools their employer had not approved.
The survey of 300 executives and 700 office workers was conducted for Asana by Dynata between 31 July and 12 August 2026. Scores are based on respondents’ own assessments.

Flinders Opens $10m Genomics Lab

Perth, Oct 13: Flinders University has unveiled a $10 million genomics facility in Adelaide that it says will offer some of the fastest and cheapest large-scale genetic sequencing in the Southern Hemisphere.
The automated laboratory, at the university’s Bedford Park campus, will be able to sequence the equivalent of up to 59,000 human genomes a year. Robots will handle the process from receiving samples to managing the data.
Researchers expect the facility to help explain why people develop certain diseases or respond differently to treatment, and to support the development of hardier crops and livestock.
The lab is a partnership between Flinders, the South Australian Genomics Centre, Bioplatforms Australia and Decode Science, and will be open to researchers nationally.
A competition offering eligible universities and research institutes free sequencing of 5,000 human genomes is expected to open later this year.

WA Home Loan Boom Stalls

Perth, Oct 14: Western Australia’s long run of home loan growth has come to an end, according to the latest index from Perth-based mortgage broker group Australian Finance Group (AFG).
AFG brokers lodged $3.8 billion in WA residential home loans in the September quarter. That was down 10.5 per cent on the previous quarter and 6.2 per cent on the same period last year, the state’s first annual decline after 11 consecutive quarters of growth.
Nationally, AFG brokers lodged 36,720 mortgages worth $26.8 billion, down 12.4 per cent on a year earlier. AFG chief executive David Bailey said the slowdown followed changes in the May federal budget, higher interest rates and falling house prices, though activity picked up through the quarter.
People upgrading to a new home made up a record 46 per cent of lodgements, pushing the average loan to a record of about $730,000. Investor activity eased to 32 per cent, while first home buyers held steady at 12 per cent.