Having served as editor, columnist, and chief reporter across NZ, Australia, Hong Kong, and the US, Mark has worked at top business publications such as the AFR, Money Magazine, In the Black, The New Daily, Insto, Australian Mining Monthly and more.

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In addition to being Australian’s single biggest asset, the family home - the cornerstone to establishing financial independence – also offers retirees equity they can potentially tap into without having to sell. But with the interest rates now getting close to double, reverse mortgages facilities – which lets homeowners borrow against the equity in their house – have largely fallen out of favour.



However, the Federal Government’s often overlooked Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) currently presents some mouthwatering opportunities for retirees and prominent West Australian financial adviser Wayne Leggett, principal of Paramount Financial Solutions explained to Azzet what they are.

Asset: How can Australians quality for the Home Equity Access Scheme?

Wayne Leggett (WL): To quality, you must be of age pension age and hold equity in Australian equity in your own name. Importantly, you don’t need to be an age pension recipient, don’t need to own a property outright and can even use property that is not your primary place of residence.

Azzet: How are applications made and what sort of payments does the scheme offer?

WL: Applications are made via Services Australia and are calculated on the equity offered as security,

Govt's Home Equity Access Scheme is gift horse: adviser

The billionaire chairman of Harvey Norman Gerry Harvey is proposing a government inquiry into the operations of ultra-cheap retailers Shein and Temu.

As well as accusing the two Chinese online discount stores of frequently selling unbranded merchandise from unknown manufacturers of dubious quality, Harvey claims Shein and Temu are “pariahs” that are killing off local businesses.

“There should be a government inquiry into it as to what ramifications are there and whether they should or shouldn’t do something about it,” said Harvey who has amassed as estimated fortune of $3.39 billion from his electrical good and furniture chain.

“It’s a real worry, do you let it just go or not, I think it’s worth an investigation.”

In addition to the pressure local businesses were already facing from U.S. giant retail Amazon, Harvey said the onslaught of Shein and Temu presented a very difficult situation for Australian retailers to combat.

Since beginning operations in Australia in 2022 and 2023 respectively, Harvey also claims Shein and Temu offer little benefit to the Australian economy by neither paying tax nor employing Aussies.

Harvey warned shoppers that online pictures of heavily discounted products may not accurately repr

Harvey calls for enquiry into China's Shein, Temu

If the noise leading up to the United States President-elect’s entrée into the Oval Office is anything to go by, Trump 2.0 has serious implications for both the U.S. and global economy.



Having examined a baseline Donald Trump scenario, including tariff hikes, extension of the Trump 2017 tax cuts, curbs on immigration and broad deregulation of Biden era requirements, Goldman Sachs foresees a potent cocktail of favourable and adverse supply and demand shocks.

While Trump's tariff plans are a major source of uncertainty and downside risk, the broker believes investors who stay riveted on the economy’s fundamentals will reap the benefits.

Goldman's baseline Trump scenario is based on the following five factors.Trump's tariff hikes would place upward prerssure on US prices

Tariff hikes: While Trump’s initial tariffs target China, he quickly pivots to bilateral negotiations with other countries, including Mexico, Canada, the European Union and Japan. While Trump threatens tariffs if his negotiating demands aren’t met, Goldman expects the US effective tariff rate will be forthcoming. As a rule of thumb, the broker assumes the U.S. effective tariff rate will rise by roughly 5 percentage points (ppt) in 2025, including 10-1

Tariffs the boogeyman behind Trump 2.0: Goldman Sachs

Due to underlying strength in its retail and wholesale broking business, shares in Bell Financial Group (ASX: BFG) were up around 2% heading into lunch (AEDT) following an expected 26% increase in full year profit to A$30.7 million, which the broker announced this morning.

Unaudited revenue for FY24 jumped 12% to $276 million.

Revenue in the Retail and Wholesale broking business was up 12% on FY 2023 to $177.8 million, with profit after tax up 115% to $9.2 million.



Revenues (normalised) in the Technology &amp; Platforms and the Products &amp; Services businesses were up 8% on FY 2023 to $85.8 million, with profit after tax up 16% to $21.5 million.Based on Morningstar’s numbers, Bell Financial is trading close to fair value at $1.36As a diversified financial services business, Bell operates a traditional stockbroking business (retail, institutional and corporate), and a range of financial product offerings including margin lending, portfolio administration, trade execution, clearing and settlement, and cash management.Bell Financial is best known for its belldirect trading platformLate last year, Bell announced interest in acquiring low-cost investing app SelfWealth (ASX:SWF) for around $58 million.

The company expe

Major profit jump for Bell Financial on broking business

Weak underlying demand from China amid an economic slowdown and rising costs contributed to a 1% fall in Rio Tinto’s (ASX: RIO) fourth-quarter Pilbara iron ore operations.

The miner exported 85.7 million tons of iron ore for the three months to Dec 31 - taking total annual shipments to 328.6 million tonnes - in line with 2025 production guidance of between 323 to 338 million tonnes which remains unchanged.

Due to inflation being at the higher end of the miner’s expectations and lower production, 2024 Pilbara iron ore unit cash costs are expected to have come in at the higher range of US$21.75 - US$23.50 per tonne guidance.





Shipments of copper jumped 26% in the fourth quarter to 202,000 tonnes. Reflecting the ramp-up of its You Tolgoi underground mine and increased production from the Escondida mine, mined copper production of 697,000 tonnes (on a consolidated basis) in 2024 was 13% higher than 2023.



2024 copper unit costs are expected to be unchanged at 140 to 160 US cents/lb guidance. Meanwhile, quarterly bauxite production rose 2% from the previous year and aluminium eased 1%. Despite the flat growth in iron ore production, Rio Tinto posted a 3% increase in sales volumes in the December quarter and produc

Rio Tinto's Q4 production hit by weak China demand

In a move to outlaw exploitation under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) the outgoing U.S. Biden administration yesterday added 37 companies to what is known as its Entity List for their alleged links to forced labour practises in the country’s Xinjiang region.

The latest additions to the U.S. administration’s forced labour blacklist brings the total to 144. This marks the largest ever expansion of the list since the UFLPA took effect in 2021.



The law was originally drafted as a response to what the Biden administration claimed was "systematic" use of forced labours of religious and ethnic minorities in China's Xinjiang province.

As a result, goods wholly or partially made by these firms in this region will be restricted from entering the U.S.

While the 37 newly banned companies include a handful businesses in the solar energy, real estate and mining sectors, 26 companies are in the cotton industry including their parent company Huafu Fashion — one of the world's largest textile manufacturers. It’s understood that the Xinjiang province supplies around 20% of the world's cotton.

Another company affected includes Zijin Mining Group and its subsidiaries.

Through the action, "we again demonstrate our

US adds more China firms to its exploitation ban list

Assuming markets remain positive in the wake of Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House, Beta Shares believes Australians could end 2025 holding in excess of $300 billion in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).



While Beta Shares has always been bullish on the market outlook for ETFs, the Australian fund manager admits to seriously underestimating the scale of net flows by some margin, with previous forecast barely exceeding $200 billion in funds under management (FUM).

However, given that ETFs still only account for approximately 4% of the managed funds industry in Australia - a figure that is low compared to many other international markets - Betashares chief executive Alex Vynokur expect investor adoption of ETFs to accelerate further.

The global pandemic brought with it a silver lining for ETFs with FUM increasing from $40bn to $130bn between July 2019 to July 2021. Best estimates suggest the top four ETF issuers including Vanguard, Betashares, iShares and VanEck account for 96.4% of net fund flow.

Offshore and low-cost

Overall, Australian investors tipped a record $33.5 billion into ETFs in 2024, $17 billion of which made its way into international equity ETFs. For example, Vanguard’s MSCI Index International S

Beta Shares predicts over $300bn in ETFs for Australians

The Federal Government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) has taken a $200 million equity stake in the Gina Rinehart-backed Arafura Rare Earths (ASX: ARU) planned facility at Nolans 135km north of Alice Springs.

The new $200m investment is subject to Arafura raising the remaining private funds necessary to construct the Nolans facility.

Based on government projections, the Nolans facility – which will account for roughly 4% of global demand from 2032 - will produce around 4,400 tonnes annually of neodymium and praseodymium over its proposed 38-year lifespan.

The industry and science minister, Ed Husic expects this investment to create a sovereign supply of these critical minerals, mined and refined onshore, plus new export opportunities.

Initial estimates suggest the Nolan project will support 600 positions during construction and 350 once it is established and running.

Arafura’s CEO, Darryl Cuzzubbo, believes the government’s investment decision demonstrates the importance of the Nolans project to Australia’s “rare earths downstream processing capabilities and building resilience in a global supply chain”.

Arafura’s share price soared following an announcement last March that the commonwealth had t

Govt adds $200m to Rinehart-backed Nolans RE project

Ingenia Communities (ASX: INA) found itself on the top of leaderboard going to the close on Tuesday following a major upgrade to the retirement homes investor/developer’s earnings.

The affordable housing developer's share price was up 15% to $5.20 on the back of news it now expects its FY25 earnings to rise 20-23% to $162-$65 million, up from the previously expected 10-15% growth of $148-$155 million.Ingenia Communities share price is up 14% over one year.Underlying earnings per share (EPS) is also expected to come in between 29-30 cents, up almost a fifth (at the midpoint) of the previous forecast.

CEO John Carfi attributes the improved earnings update to returns from the group’s development activity and operational simplification which is driving efficiency and returns.

Also contributing to the improved outlook, added 

Carfi, were the Group’s 1-, 3- and 5-year plan - already yielding results – plus a lower interest cost due to lower drawn debt and an increase in the Group’s hedged debt position.

“Changes to the Group’s operating model aimed at improving productivity have delivered ongoing cost benefits with savings exceeding original expectations as the group moves into the second half,” said Carfi.

“The develo

Affordable housing developer turns top ASX performer

Uncertainty in equity markets and concerns about a Trump Administration’s economic policies are underpinning gold’s safe haven asset status and have created a bullish outlook for the precious metal gold in 2025.

Fuelled by some robust central bank purchases, interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve and safe-haven demand, the gold price rose to the highest levels in around four weeks recently to US$2,700 per ounce, and State Street Global Advisors expect the price to push even higher.

State Street believes lingering fears of high inflation returning, spiralling government debt, regional wars and the uncertainty associated with Donald Trump’s presidency, would only encourage gold buying as a way to protect wealth.

What also contributed to recent upward momentum in the gold price is continued buying by some of the world’s largest central banks. More recently, China’s central bank expanded its gold reserves in December to 73.29 million fine troy ounces, from 72.96 million in the previous month.

Gold could hit US$3100 this year

In light of all these dynamics, the world’s fourth-largest asset manager isn’t ruling out the gold price hitting US$3100.



“We don’t see this changing and expect the secular demand tre

Future cash bonanza tipped for gold stock shareholders

Having served as editor, columnist, and chief reporter across NZ, Australia, Hong Kong, and the US, Mark has worked at top business publications such as the AFR, Money Magazine, In the Black, The New Daily, Insto, Australian Mining Monthly and more. | Azzet™

Mark Story

Govt's Home Equity Access Scheme is gift horse: adviser

Harvey calls for enquiry into China's Shein, Temu

Tariffs the boogeyman behind Trump 2.0: Goldman Sachs

Major profit jump for Bell Financial on broking business

Rio Tinto's Q4 production hit by weak China demand

US adds more China firms to its exploitation ban list

Beta Shares predicts over $300bn in ETFs for Australians

Govt adds $200m to Rinehart-backed Nolans RE project

Affordable housing developer turns top ASX performer

Future cash bonanza tipped for gold stock shareholders

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