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🗞️ Skipping dinner?
More than one in three Australians aged 14 to 29 now admit to skipping dinner altogether, with nearly as many buying the ingredients then ordering in anyway.
Sophie Ng & Pick & Scroll News
August 17, 2026
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Good morning. More than one in three Australians aged 14 to 29 now admit to skipping dinner altogether, with nearly as many buying the ingredients then ordering in anyway.
Researchers put it down to convenience rather than laziness, pointing to a generation raised on one-tap delivery apps where the payment is so frictionless you barely feel it.
But the habit does add up, and ordering in a few nights a week is an expensive way to eat for the generation already facing the toughest on rent and groceries.
All the headlines and more below...
COLES AND WOOLWORTHS TRIAL FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH AMID RETAIL CRIME WAVE
Coles and Woolworths have run early trials of facial recognition technology as both consider deploying it to address rising crime and violent incidents in stores, particularly in Victoria.
The trials are part of wider efforts across retail to assess how the technology might protect staff from theft and violence. Both supermarkets have already spent tens of millions of dollars on measures including exit gates, cameras monitoring self-service bagging areas and body-cameras for employees.
Facial recognition is more contentious than those other tools. Coles and Woolworths are proceeding only after Wesfarmers successfully challenged a ruling from the privacy commissioner that the technology constituted an invasion of customer privacy. Wesfarmers-owned Bunnings, which had been testing facial recognition in its stores, is now expanding the rollout.
AUSTRALIAN NEWS
Australia’s big 4 banks reported 12% to 20% falls in new home loan applications since the May federal budget as smaller lenders cut variable rates to lure borrowers. LINK
Sydney Airport has experienced 3 on-the-ground near misses in 3 weeks as investigations and mounting delays. LINK
Australians are now holding on to mobile phones for an average of 3.4 years as AI data centre driven chip shortages have pushed up device prices that Apple has compared to a 100-year flood. AFR
Australia is facing a long-term shortage of detached houses as construction has fallen from 979.9 to 480.8 completions per 100,000 adults and fewer than 10% of older owner-occupiers downsize. LINK
ASIC has warned that deepfake videos of Anthony Albanese and other celebrities are increasingly being used to promote phony investment opportunities that have duped Australians out of US$7.4M. LINK
The federal government’s home battery subsidy scheme has driven installation of more than 500,000 batteries as spending reached about US$4.3B and tighter May rules cut recent demand. AFR
Australian private credit funds have delivered average returns of 5.6% in the year to June 30 as some managers exceeded 10% after fees, compared with 1.7% from Australian bond funds. AFR
WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG BOOM DRIVES SUPPLEMENT SALES SURGE FOR KIRIN'S HEALTH EMPIRE
The Australian executive running Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings' health products arm says the uptake of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is turbocharging demand for vitamins, probiotics and fibre supplements used to manage digestive side effects.
Alastair Symington, head of Kirin Health Science, which owns Blackmores and BioCeuticals, says the company is seeing a surge in sales of products that address poor digestion and malnutrition - common issues for people on GLP-1s. Probiotics and fibre supplements in particular are seeing increased uptake as users manage gut disruption caused by the drugs.
The $2B acquisition of Canadian vitamins giant Jamieson Wellness last week pushes Kirin into North America for the first time, adding to its existing footprint across South-East Asia, China and Japan. Symington says the broader shift toward preventive health and wellness is also lifting the category globally, not just among GLP-1 users.
COMPANY NEWS
Airtasker has launched a ChatGPT plugin and MCP server that let users create, list and assign jobs entirely within chat. LINK
OpenAI and Anthropic are cutting prices on models such as GPT-5.6 Luna and Claude Opus 5 as cheaper Chinese rivals gain ground and average costs fall about 25%. LINK AFR
KPMG deputy general counsel said that unnamed partners misled him and limited his investigation into alleged misuse of confidential client files. LINK
Meta has been accused of running Facebook and Instagram ads for outlawed offshore online casinos targeting millions of Australians as legal loopholes leave the regulator unable to act. LINK
Suncorp has used census-based data on customers’ ancestry, religion and yoghurt consumption to help price home and car insurance policies. AFR
Canva has cut its internal 409A valuation by 20% to $43.9B. LINK
Telstra has tied 5% of its 2027 executive short-term incentives to measurable “AI impact” across 11 projects as it seeks returns from a US$100M-per-year Accenture AI deal. LINK
Nick Scali has taken some systems offline after a major cybersecurity incident, forcing manual processing of orders and deliveries at the US$1.43B furniture maker and causing customer delays. LINK
Suncorp lifted its motor insurance gross written premium 5.7% in 6 months entirely through price hikes as customer volumes fell 0.1%. LINK
Baby Bunting reported a 17.5% year-on-year rise in full-year profit. LINK
QBE Insurance Group reported a US$1.03B net profit after tax for the 6 months to 30 June, up 0.97% year-on-year. LINK
Anthropic has told prospective investors its Q2 2026 revenue surged at least 14-fold to more than US$11.5B and delivered positive adjusted operating income as it challenges OpenAI. LINK
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ONE MORE SCROLL
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TRIVIA
Bonnie Tyler had her farewell over the weekend after she passed away on the 8th of July.
Here is a trivia all about Bonnie:
What is her most played song?
Where was she born?
What decade was she born?
What was Bonnie Tyler's birth name?
Bonnie Tyler famously recorded "Holding Out for a Hero" for the soundtrack of which iconic 1984 dance-musical film?
Answers below
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ANSWERS
1. Total Eclipse of the Heart
2. Wales
3. 50's (1951)
4. Gaynor Hopkins
5. Footloose
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