Gemma Acton, Seven West Media Journalist Profile

Articles

Gemma Acton: Australia’s small businesses are on life support

May 20, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

There’s a romanticised glamour about entrepreneurship, whether that’s the idea of creating that perfect product that you’ve always wished existed, riding off into the sunset with Elon Musk-esque riches or just having full autonomy over your life and working on your passion project every day. The reality, as most small business owners will tell you, is that it’s frequently a slog.
Gemma Acton | Seven Network Finance Editor

May 7, 2024 | thenightly.com.au | Gemma Acton

Gemma Acton joined the Sydney newsroom of Australia's Seven News as Network Finance Editor in 2017. Over the past 18 years, she pursued both creative and financial educational and career opportunities at institutions including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, PIMCO, the Lauder Institute at the Wharton School and UCL. Her most recent role was as an anchor and correspondent for CNBC Europe based out of London.
Gemma Acton: The cracks appearing in our healthcare system

May 6, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

I’ll always remember the date the UK’s National Health Service launched as it coincided with my grandmother’s 21st birthday — July 5, 1948. Given she was a devoted nurse throughout a long career that included stints making her way through a bombed-out London to care for courageous returned soldiers, sailors and airmen, it seemed to me a very fitting coincidence.
Gemma Acton: Australia’s record high fuel prices push EVs up grid

Apr 22, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

Records are not what they used to be. It seems every couple of days I’m reporting on record high gold, cocoa or coffee prices. Of more direct impact to our daily lives, we’ve also recently seen record high insolvencies for Australian businesses and all-time high rents for tenants in every main Australian city bar Canberra (where they’re just $5 a week below the peak).
Gemma Acton: Even at $5.50, my daily cup of coffee is a bargain

Apr 8, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

They say the simple things in life are often the best and with good reason. A spectacular sunset, an invigorating bike ride with the kids or getting stuck into a page-turning novel on a wintry night in can all fill up your cup to the brim. While some of these luxuries are free, others are increasingly striking me as surprisingly good value in a world of aggressive price rises.
Gemma Acton: Shrinkflation is back and costing you big

Mar 25, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

I can stop blaming my toddler. It seems a key reason we’re running through paper towel at an alarming rate in our household is not because cleaning is her favourite activity, but because there’s actually less of it in each roll. Heard this story before? A few months ago? Early last year? You’re right, we’re here again, already.
Gemma Acton: Bad news, folks, we are in a happiness crisis

Mar 11, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

Bad news, folks. We are in a happiness crisis. I mean “we” in the widely inclusive royal sense. That sobering pronouncement comes to us from Arthur C. Brooks, a subject matter expert and teacher of a Harvard Business School course entitled Happiness. Mr Brooks was referring specifically to the US, but the phenomena driving the descent in our contentment since 1990 are present in Australia, too.
Channel 7 star Gemma Acton reveals the baby surprise she didn’t see coming

Mar 9, 2024 | 7news.com.au | Gemma Acton

Welcome to our regular column series written by some of your favourite Channel 7 stars. This week, 7NEWS presenter Gemma Acton reflects on daughters, sisters — and the importance of having a supportive sisterhood to rely on. I had always pictured myself as a mum of boys.
Gemma Acton: Life’s good ... but really only for the lucky few of us

Feb 26, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

New year, new you? Not so fast, according to NAB, whose latest quarterly well-being survey indicates we haven’t felt this down since COVID first broke out four years ago. That incidentally, was an all-time survey low.
Gemma Acton: Reserve Bank Australia’s plain-speaking new era

Feb 12, 2024 | thewest.com.au | Gemma Acton

Newly anointed governor Michele Bullock was barely four months into the job when she had the unenviable task of delivering the Reserve Bank’s first post-decision press conference last Tuesday. Central bankers have infamously got themselves trapped in webs of their own wordsmithing on many occasions. The Bank of Japan’s chief Haruhiko Kuroda dug himself into a deep hole in 2013 by inaccurately proclaiming about the country’s downturn: “I can assure you it will be a very short and sharp recession.”