分类： business

One of Australia’s biggest independent digital media companies, Mamamia, has ushered in a new era of leadership with the appointment of 28-year-old Luca Lavigne — the son of founder Mia Freedman — as its newest chief executive officer.

Founded by Freedman in her own living room back in 2007, Mamamia has grown from a small personal project into one of the nation’s most prominent independent media voices focused on women’s content. Lavigne’s rise to the top role is not a sudden handout: he has worked his way up through every tier of the company over the past decade, starting his tenure as an 18-year-old intern straight out of school. After cutting his teeth across multiple departments, he stepped into the chief operating officer role just two years ago, and has now been promoted to the top spot vacated by outgoing CEO Nat Harvey, who departed Mamamia to take up a new leadership position at Southern Cross Media Group.

The announcement of Lavigne’s appointment was made public during a recent episode of the Mumbrella podcast, where the new CEO opened up about his career trajectory, his connection to the company’s founding team, and his plans for the future. In a candid conversation, Lavigne first paid warm tribute to his predecessor, praising Harvey’s unmatched ability to inspire teams across the organization.

“CEO really stands for chief energy officer, and Nat is the best example of that,” Lavigne said. “I’ve never met anyone who can get up in front of a group of people and inspire them as Nat can, and I’m going to miss that about her hugely.”

Ahead of inevitable public and media scrutiny over his family ties to the company’s leadership — Freedman is his mother, and his father Jason Lavigne also serves as a company director — Lavigne was open about how he first joined the company, while pushing back against assumptions that his promotion was unearned. He acknowledged that his family connection gave him the initial foot in the door a decade ago, but emphasized that Mamamia’s culture does not allow leaders to rest on their family connections.

“Let’s be honest about how I got in the door here 10 years ago, the co-founders and I go back a long time. We’ve known each other a while, I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by pretending otherwise,” he joked. “What I do know is that Mamamia is not a place that you can coast.”

Outgoing CEO Harvey also publicly defended Lavigne’s appointment, noting that his decade of hands-on experience, relentless work ethic, and proven contributions to the business leave no question about his suitability for the role. “There will be nobody in this business, certainly over the last 12 months, that would question Luca’s work ethic or contribution or ability to do the job,” she said.

Reflecting on his rapid career progression, Lavigne noted that taking on senior roles earlier than the industry average has become a pattern for him: after starting at 18, he is now taking on the CEO role at 28, and just recently welcomed newborn twins, bringing his total number of children to three. “I found my first grey hair the other day, which I think says a lot about where I’m at in my life,” he joked. “I’ve also just had newborn twins, I’ve got three kids at home. So it seems to be a pattern in my life that I seem to do things a little early.”

Well-known Australian finance commentator Scott Pape, popularly known as the Barefoot Investor, has issued a sharp warning to Australian superannuation holders against making impulsive portfolio changes in response to viral market crash warnings, using a striking analogy to drive his point home. Pape’s comments came after a 42-year-old superannuation member, identified only as James, reached out for guidance following a high-profile podcast appearance from veteran investor Jeremy Grantham.

Grantham, the British billionaire co-founder of global asset management firm GMO who built his reputation for correctly predicting both the 2000 dot-com collapse and the 2008 global financial crisis, recently appeared on *The Diary of a CEO* podcast. In that episode, titled “Billionaire’s WARNING: I’m SELLING. The Crash Is Already Here!”, Grantham doubled down on his long-held claim that the U.S. stock market is currently the largest investment bubble in American history. He predicted a catastrophic 70% downturn, dismissed cryptocurrency as worthless, and drew parallels between the ongoing artificial intelligence boom and the unsustainable dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.

Alarmed by Grantham’s warnings, James told Pape he planned to reallocate his superannuation and personal investment holdings away from U.S. and Australian equities over fears of an imminent market collapse. Pape responded by acknowledging that he does not fault James for feeling anxious, but made clear he found the podcast itself reckless. Pape compared the clickbait-driven warning to a married man mindlessly swiping through dating app Tinder: a provocative act designed to spark unnecessary dissatisfaction with a stable, long-term arrangement in favor of a riskier, more glamorous alternative.

“That podcast felt like the financial version of a married bloke on Tinder,” Pape wrote in his latest advisory post. “The whole thing is designed to make you restless and think ‘Maybe I should ditch my boring old index funds for some sexy emerging markets.’” He went on to dismiss the strategy of timing the market based on crash predictions as a “rubbish way to invest your money.”

Notably, Pape conceded that he actually agrees with much of Grantham’s core analysis: U.S. and Australian equities do show signs of significant overvaluation right now. Where he disagrees sharply is with the advice for ordinary retail investors to sell their holdings and exit the market in anticipation of a crash. Pape pointed out that profiting from a market crash requires being correct not once, but twice: an investor must sell before the downturn hits, then correctly time their re-entry to buy back in at the bottom. That kind of consistent market timing is notoriously difficult even for professional investors, he argued.

As evidence, Pape noted that Grantham has been labeling the U.S. stock market a bubble since 2021. In the years since his first warning, the S&P 500 has still surged more than 100%, leaving investors who followed his early advice out of the market and missing out on massive gains.

For ordinary long-term investors like James, who is 42 and has decades of contributing to and growing his superannuation before retirement, Pape advocated for a “married to your portfolio” approach. He explained that he committed to his own diversified holdings years ago, vowing to stick with them through both market booms and corrections. Historical data, he noted, consistently shows that equities deliver stronger long-term returns than any other major asset class, even with periodic steep crashes.

“Every crash has eventually been followed by new highs,” Pape said. “So I keep a few months’ cash in the bank and accept that happily ever after only exists in fairy tales.” His advice to James and other anxious Australian superannuation holders is straightforward: stay committed to a diversified long-term equity portfolio, keep a cash buffer to avoid being forced to sell during a downturn, and avoid the hype-driven “spicy dating apps” of viral market crash predictions.

Once a rising competitor to global athletic wear leaders Lululemon, Nike, and Adidas, Australian activewear brand Stax has left behind more than $6.7 million in unpaid debts after its sudden collapse this year, new regulatory filings have confirmed. The brand’s rapid downward spiral began in June, when National Australia Bank pushed the retailer into receivership amid growing financial pressure. In a last-ditch effort to keep the business operating, founders Don Robertson and Matilda Murray sold off the company’s retail store network and their personal luxury vehicles, including a Lamborghini and a Porsche, the effort ultimately failed. By mid-July, Stax formally entered voluntary administration, bringing its decade-long growth story to an abrupt end.

New documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the country’s corporate regulator, have laid bare the full scale of the company’s unpaid obligations ahead of its collapse. Of the total $6.7 million debt, more than $450,000 is owed directly to former Stax employees. One single staff member is owed nearly $78,600 in unpaid wages and entitlements, which break down into $89,209 in unused annual leave, $31,343 in long service leave, $63,556 in unpaid superannuation contributions, and $128,683 in promised redundancy payments across the entire workforce.

Beyond unpaid staff wages, unsecured creditors hold almost $6.3 million in outstanding claims from the failed retailer. Major domestic and international entities are among those waiting for repayment. Shopping centre operator Scentre Group, which manages Australia’s Westfield shopping centre portfolio, is owed more than $500,000 in unpaid rent for Stax outlets across New South Wales, including locations in Miranda, Liverpool and central Sydney. Other major retail landlords Highpoint, Karrinyup and Pacific Fair also hold unpaid claims, alongside contractors Affective Building Services and Flow Logistics. Google Australia is owed roughly $500,000 for digital advertising and business services provided to the brand. Two Chinese manufacturers — Jiaxing Sky Air Sports and Ningbo Mingna Garments — hold the largest individual claims, owed more than $1 million and $1.9 million respectively in unpaid production fees. The Australian Taxation Office is also outstanding $123,858 in business activity statement payments.

The current debt figures are drawn from director filings submitted to ASIC, and administrators note that final totals may shift once liquidators deliver their conclusive report in the coming weeks.

Last week, the Stax founders broke their months-long silence on the collapse in a public statement posted to social media, acknowledging widespread customer anger over unfilled orders. “First and foremost, we’re truly sorry for this and for not communicating earlier,” the pair wrote. “Stax was built over more than a decade with an incredible community and knowing that so many of our customers have been impacted is something we carry every day.” They added that with the business now under the control of receivers, customers with outstanding orders will need to follow the formal insolvency process to seek resolutions. “I know that doesn’t change the frustration or disappointment so many of you are feeling,” the statement said. “If you placed an order and haven’t received it, we completely understand why you’re upset.”

Founded in 2015 and formally registered in Western Australia in 2017, Stax grew from a small grassroots startup to become a major player in the highly competitive Australian activewear market. At its peak of operations, the brand recorded more than $30 million in annual turnover and employed a workforce of 160 people across its retail and head office operations.

Australia’s property market is shifting in unexpected ways, with two mid-sized capital cities outpacing the country’s traditional high-price hubs to top a new forecast of suburbs poised to hit a $1 million average house price within the next 12 months.

Leading national real estate network Ray White Group conducted the targeted analysis to identify upcoming seven-figure suburbs, setting specific criteria for inclusion: neighborhoods must hold at least 2,500 existing homes, currently have an average property value between $900,000 and $1 million, and record enough annual price growth to cross the $1 million threshold in the coming year. Analysts also filtered out suburbs where investor ownership exceeds 19 percent to focus on owner-occupier focused markets.

Contrary to long-held market expectations that link million-dollar price tags almost exclusively to Sydney and Melbourne, the final list is overwhelmingly dominated by suburbs from Perth and Adelaide. Nine of the 13 identified suburbs are located across Perth’s growing outer corridors, including High Wycombe, Marangaroo, Yangebup, Forrestfield-Wattle Grove, Wanneroo-Sinagra, Huntingdale-Southern River, Ballajura, Casuarina-Wandi and Hocking-Pearsall. Three Adelaide suburbs made the cut: Shadow Park-Trott Park, McLaren Vale and Golden Grove, while Darwin’s Howard Springs rounded out the ranking.

Atom Go Tian, an economist with Ray White Group, explained that two key factors are driving the unexpected result. First, Perth and Adelaide are simply playing catch-up after years of lagging behind the east coast’s major property markets. Second, post-pandemic shifts in work and lifestyle priorities have reshaped where homebuyers are choosing to put down roots.

“With far more flexible remote working arrangements now standard across many industries, there is far less pressure for Australians to live in the expensive major hubs of Sydney and Melbourne,” Go Tian noted. He added that the absence of Sydney and Melbourne suburbs from the list is not a sign of stagnation: most suburbs in those cities have already crossed the $1 million average price threshold, while any remaining affordable pockets tend to have higher investor ownership that excludes them from the study’s criteria.

Go Tian also explained the geographic pattern within the two leading cities: inner-city suburbs in both Perth and Adelaide have already hit seven-figure price points, so growth is now pushing outward into historically affordable outer suburban areas. That trend is visible in Perth’s sprawling outer growth corridors and Adelaide’s southern and northern suburban belts, where all three of the city’s ranked suburbs are located.

Western Australian property experts say Perth’s strong showing on the list comes as no surprise, pointing to years of consistent incremental growth that has put the market on this trajectory. Suzanne Brown, president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA), described the growth across Perth’s broader suburban areas as “incredible” in recent years.

“Perth has offered really strong property value for buyers in recent years – we have a beautiful state with a high quality of life that more people are discovering,” Brown said. She noted that Perth’s market hit a historic low point more than a decade ago, and has been steadily catching up to other capital city markets ever since. Brown also pointed to Western Australia’s long-term political stability as a draw for buyers, contrasting it with frequent changes to property tax and policy in other states like Victoria that have created uncertainty for local homeowners and investors.

Brown echoed Go Tian’s observation that the Covid-19 pandemic unlocked permanent shifts in where Australians want to live. “Perth and Adelaide are both fantastic places to call home, and since the pandemic, more people have the flexibility to choose that,” she said. “If your role allows remote work, you don’t have to live in Melbourne to work for a Melbourne-based company anymore.”

For homebuyers and investors watching the Australian market, the forecast signals a broader rebalancing of property prices across the country, as more affordable lifestyle-focused capital cities gain traction with a new generation of buyers reshaping market trends.

One of Australia’s most iconic and visually recognizable hospitality venues has hit the market for the second time in less than 12 months, this time with a dramatically reduced asking price that signals a shift in the property’s sales strategy.

Nestled in Table Top, a small community just outside the regional city of Albury in New South Wales, the Ettamogah Pub stands out as one of the country’s most unusual and beloved tourist landmarks. Its one-of-a-kind cartoon-inspired design has drawn generations of visitors: the venue features deliberately uneven, wonky walls, a curved bull-nosed veranda, and a fully restored 1927 Chevrolet vintage truck permanently mounted atop its bright red roof – features that have turned it into a must-stop destination for road-trippers and cartoon fans across the nation.

The story of the pub stretches back more than six decades. The original Ettamogah Pub cartoon concept was created by Ken Maynard, a former police officer turned cartoonist. The gag comic ran for nearly 50 years, featuring regularly in the weekly Australasian Post from the 1960s until the publication ceased operations in 2002, after making its first debut in 1959. When the pub was constructed in 1987 as a purpose-built tourist attraction, developers brought Maynard’s whimsical drawings to life, integrating all the iconic cartoon details into the venue’s architecture to match his vision of a quirky, outback-style community pub.

The property first went up for sale in late 2025 with an ambitious $50 million price tag that included all intellectual property and global branding rights for the Ettamogah Pub concept. That offering failed to attract a buyer willing to meet the asking price, leading the current owner to restructure the sale. Now, the freehold going concern of the venue is back on the market with an asking price of just $7.5 million, a figure that reflects the narrower scope of the current listing.

“The owner is focusing on selling the hotel and he’s probably seeking interest of seven and a half-million dollars,” Leon Alaban, the listing agent from global real estate services firm Savills, told Commercial Real Estate in an interview.

The 4.81-hectare freehold site included in the current listing covers more than just the original public bar. The property also features a separate dedicated dining bar, multiple vacant retail shop spaces, and a large recreational oval, giving new owners room to expand or redevelop the venue to meet modern tourist demand.