Ed Harry collapses with 498 jobs at risk, Brexit deal rejected, and more top news

The news Australian professionals are talking about now, curated by LinkedIn’s editors. Join the conversation in the comments below.

Ed Harry has been placed in voluntary administration, putting nearly 500 jobs at risk and all stock on sale. It could become the latest Australian retailer to close, following Laura Ashley, Roger David, Marcs and Pumpkin Patch late last year. Ed Harry managing director David Clark said the business had been facing stiff competition for some time, and that directors had been exploring funding options that would enable it to compete and grow, “however to this point have been unsuccessful.”

The British Parliament has officially voted against a Brexit deal, weeks before the country is due to leave the EU on March 29. MPs voted against the deal 432 to 202. After the vote, Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn called the vote "catastrophic" and tabled a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister. A no-deal Brexit puts Australian businesses trading to the UK in jeopardy, with reports of importers already stockpiling goods (paywall).

DFO shopping centres are on notice after a pilots’ group found its Essendon mall was built dangerously close to an airport. Five people died in 2017 when a light aircraft crashed into the shopping centre. While the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found pilot error was to blame, the Australian Federation of Air Pilots found the mall was also built closer to a runway than recommended under safety guidelines. Captain Marcus Diamond said other airport malls could also be unsafe, saying: "There’s more risk, and we need to know how that was justified.”

New statistics from air travel group OAG have confirmed what Australian businesses travelers already know -- delays are a major issue at the country’s airports. In November, an average of 25.1% of flights arrived late at Australian airports, and 23.6% of flights were delayed (paywall). These delays were worst at Melbourne and Sydney, inevitability causing headaches for regular travellers on the busy flight corridor between Australia’s two busiest cities. The most punctual airport was Mackay in Queensland.

A global love affair with online shopping and Netflix has prompted Australian telco Telstra to invest in more undersea cables to keep up with demand. Telstra said the investment in cables between the US and Asia (paywall) would increase the capacity it could offer businesses and government customers in the region. The move would make Telstra the largest provider of undersea cable capacity in Asia-Pacific as demand for online shopping, streaming services and cloud computing increased.

Idea of the Day: We need to utilise technology to bridge the digital divide and create economic opportunity globally, says Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine.

“How we resolve these issues today will shape the world we live in tomorrow: widespread broadband coverage will enable freelancers and telecommuters to work wherever they want.”

— Ben Collins and Cayla Dengate

This article has been changed. Earlier: An unsafe NSW apartment block is prompting concern about safety standards across the construction industry.