Hello! It’s Rebecca here with your final Australia Briefing of 2024. And what a year it’s been. From the re-election of Donald Trump and the ongoing slowdown in China, to the blockbuster IPOs and corporate scandals closer to home -- 2024 will go down as one for the ages. 

Before we all revert to the sanctity of our beach towels, I thought I’d load you up with a selection of my favorite pieces from Bloomberg’s Australia newsroom this year. A stockpile of stories, videos and podcasts to help you while away those days by the pool, at the campsite, or wherever the onset of summer takes you...   

Read this…

Is ‘Bluey’ Ending? Disney’s Worried Biggest Kids Show Ever Is at Risk — Essential reading for anyone with a kid, or honestly, a pulse. Did you know that Americans watched 731 million hours of Bluey in 2023, more than NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy, Gilmore Girls or that perennial of the broadcast, cable and streaming eras, Friends? That’s almost as much as my kids.  

Australia Has a Top Pension Program. Why Are Many Retirees Still Struggling? — It's official: Australia’s retirement system is the envy of the wealthy world. So why aren’t we all diving Scrooge McDuck-style into a vat of cash? 

Malaria Rates Surge After Mosquito Net Changes Complicate Global Fight — Travel to the depths of Siar Village, Papua New Guinea with our reporters as they explain why the world is losing its fight against malaria. 

World’s Top Retailer Is Now Trying to Save Air New Zealand — We report a lot on the former CEO of this airline, you may know him as the New Zealand PM. But what do you know about the new one? 

Investing for the Ultra-Rich: Family Offices Are Booming in Perth, Australia — Twiggy lives there, and so does Gina — but those two reasonably well-off citizens aside, why is Perth a magnet for family offices? 

Watch this… 

Psychedelics Are Now Legal in Australia—With a Catch — Back in March, Bloomberg reporters Keira Wright and Michelle Cortez dived into the fascinating story of how an opera singer and her former banker husband managed to persuade Australia’s pharmaceutical regulators to clear  MDMA and psilocybin (often known as mushrooms) for medical use. 

It’s an enthralling tale, which we captured in this Bloomberg Originals documentary:  

WATCH: Psychedelics Are Now Legal in Australia — But There’s a Catch 

You can watch more Bloomberg Originals docs, series and interviews on our website, or YouTube channel. 

… and listen to these

We launched The Bloomberg Australia Podcast in September, just in time for crypto to go nuts, Albo to take on Big Tech and ANZ to nab a new CEO.

Each week, we seek to bring you Bloomberg’s unique take on the business, finance and economics stories that matter to Australia and the world through conversations with our fantastic reporters. 

These are some of our most popular episodes so far:  

• When Will Sydney and Melbourne House Prices Fall?
• How Australia Will Navigate US-China Tensions in New Trump Era
• Inside Blood and Iron Giant CSL
  
  And don’t miss this episode of Bloomberg’s Big Take podcast on why our world-renowned super system is still falling short. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/podcasts/series/bloomberg-australia

We’ll be back...

Australia Briefing will return from Jan. 6, serving up the local analysis you want with the global context you need. 

Until then, why not listen to the entire catalogue of The Bloomberg Australia Podcast on Apple, Spotify, on YouTube. Fresh episodes coming January 16. Don’t forget to subscribe!  

Happy holidays from all of us at Bloomberg News.

- Rebecca Jones, Bloomberg Managing Editor for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.