Blackmores chief to take wheel at Australia Post … Census 2016 data shows incomes up … Pauline Hanson to take over fish and chip shop

By Dominic Powell and Emma Koehn. 

The chief of ASX-listed vitamins company Blackmores Christine Holgate will take over from outgoing Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour from October.

The ABC reports the Australia Post board was impressed with Holgate’s track record in leading a business into Asia, which aligned well with its own future strategy in the Asian region.

Holgate has been chief executive of the Blackmores business since 2008 and has overseen the company’s expansion into the Chinese market.

She will earn $1.375 million a year in her new role, with potential bonuses of up to $1.375 million.

Earlier this year Australia Post was hit with criticism after it was revealed outgoing chief executive Ahmed Fahour’s pay packet was worth $5.6 million.

“Typical” Aussie customers revealed

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its initial findings from the 2016 Census, giving business owners a snapshot into the identities of their “typical” customers.

Looking at the country overall, the typical Australian according to ABS data is a 38 year old English-speaking Female born in Australia, married with two children.

The median weekly income for a household has increased since the 2011 census, up from $1234 to $1438, with the personal weekly income also increasing to an average of $662.

New South Wales remains the most heavily populated state, containing seven million of Australia’s 24.4 million people, but it is not growing at the fastest rate. The Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, and Western Australia all grew 11% since 2011, where NSW just grew 8.1%.

Seven out of ten Australians live in capital cities, with Darwin, Melbourne and Perth being the fastest-growing.

Pauline Hanson to “massage the heart of Central Queensland” with fish and chips

One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson has announced she will be undertaking a “Gordon Ramsey [sic] style” takeover of a struggling fish and chip shop in Causeway Lake, Queensland on Saturday in an effort to bring attention to the “stagnant” Central Queensland economy.

“Never in my experience have I seen the Central Queensland region with so many empty stores, the talk of other stores closing down and business owners uncertain of their futures,” Hanson said in a statement.

“So when I heard about a small Fish & Chip shop at Causeway Lake, where a young mum of 3, Erin Robins was doing it tough, I decided to see what I could do to help.”

Hanson has invited locals along with “Federal colleagues and business mates” to the shop to help “massage the heart of Central Queensland” and put a focus back on business confidence.

An ex-fish and chip shop owner herself, Hanson says she will be showing the Causeway Lake shop owner how to make an “authentic Pauline Hanson homemade potato scallop”.

“Fish and chip shops need a point of difference that people will drive miles to eat at and I believe everyone will want to try a Pauline Hanson potato scallop,” she said.

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