Author: roymorgansocial

Health department records show some pathology companies rorted Medicare during COVID pandemic, expert says

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Original article by Alison Branley
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 16-Jul-24

Documents obtained under freedom of information laws have revealed that some pathology companies rorted Medicare during the pandemic, with one doctor claiming 21,000 tests in a single day. The documents also reveal cases where pathology companies were operating state-government funded pop-up and drive-through testing clinics, but billing Medicare; the federal government was already half-funding the state centres under a national partnership agreement. Health economist Professor Stephen Duckett says the documents show there was "systematic rorting on a very large scale", which reflects very badly on the pathology sector.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. MEDICARE AUSTRALIA

Qantas: new players can’t survive

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 19 : 16-Jul-24

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson has expressed her sadness at the collapse of Bonza but she said it showed Australia cannot support more domestic airlines, with Hudson speaking on Monday in Perth at the launch of Qantas’s new Perth-Paris route. With the federal government soon to release its white paper on aviation, Hudson says that government regulation of the sector should focus on ensuring it remains sustainable. She said the Australian economy relies on domestic aviation, and that a weak domestic aviation market is not in anyone’s interest.

CORPORATES
QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, BONZA AVIATION PTY LTD

Climate plans of Australian companies would be exempt from private litigation for three years under proposal

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Original article by Adam Morton
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 16-Jul-24

Legislation currently before the Senate aims to expand the amount of information that companies provide about the risk the climate crisis poses to their business and what they intend to do about it. The legislation provides a grace period of three years in terms of certain statements by companies, directors and auditors being subject to legal challenge, unless the company is being accused of criminal behaviour or is the target of action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Although the legislation has been praised for targeting corporate climate responsibility, concerns have been expressed that the exemption will allow polluting companies to avoid public scrutiny for longer

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AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION

Aussie Broadband’s budget Buddy chases lost customers

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Original article by Jenny Wiggins
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 19 : 16-Jul-24

Shares in Aussie Broadband fell by 14 per cent to trade at $3.06 on Monday after the telco announced that its 2024-25 financial year earnings would be between $125 million and $135 million, some $10 million less than its previous forecast. Aussie Broadband launched a new cheap internet brand called Buddy Telco on Monday, with group MD Phillip Britt hoping it will win back some of the customers it has lost to rival Superloop after Aussie Broadband lost a wholesale contract with Origin Energy to Superloop.

CORPORATES
AUSSIE BROADBAND LIMITED – ASX ABB, SUPERLOOP LIMITED – ASX SLC, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG

CSL wins global H5 avian flu vaccine contracts as outbreak risk rises

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Original article by Tom Burton
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 16-Jul-24

CSL has secured a deal to supply 4.8 million vials of its avian influence vaccine to the US. The European Union has in turn agreed to buy 650,000 doses, with an option to buy an additional 40 million shots. Jonathan Anderson from CSL’s Seqirus subsidiary says the zoonotic vaccines can be given to high-risk groups in the US and the EU, such as poultry, dairy and healthcare workers. CSL’s deals come amid growing global concern about the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has spread to every continent except Australia. Three different strains of the less severe H7 strain of bird flu has been detected in Australia.

CORPORATES
CSL LIMITED – ASX CSL, SEQIRUS PTY LTD

Roy Morgan Poll: Federal Election is ‘too close to call’: L-NP 50.5% cf. ALP 49.5%

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 16-Jul-24

If a Federal Election were held now the result would be a hung parliament and ‘too close to call’ with the Coalition on 50.5% cf. ALP 49.5% on a two-party preferred basis. The ALP or Coalition would require the support of minor parties and independents to form a minority government, the latest Roy Morgan survey finds. Primary support for the Coalition dropped 2% to 37.5% this week while the ALP increased 2.5% to 31%. Support for the Greens was down 1% to 12.5%. Support for One Nation was unchanged at 5%, support for Other Parties was up 0.5% to 5% and support for Independents was unchanged at 9%.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, MORGAN POLL, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, ONE NATION PARTY

Born-again Trump: Miracle Donald pivots to political peacemaker

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Original article by Cameron Stewart, Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 16-Jul-24

Former US president Donald Trump says God prevented him from being assassinated in Pennsylvania, adding that the doctor who treated his wounded ear in hospital described his survival as a ‘miracle’. Trump will address the Republican Party’s national convention in Milwaukee this week, where he will be formally nominated as its presidential candidate. Trump says it will be a "whole different speech now", and rather than largely targeting the policies of President Joe Biden, it will aim to bring the nation together; Trump adds that he has been given the chance to unite America. Biden has in turn used a presidential address from the Oval Office to call for the nation to "stand together", contending that there is no place for violence of any kind in America.

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UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, REPUBLICAN PARTY (UNITED STATES)

Albanese poised to move against CFMEU

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 16-Jul-24

The federal government will consider a range of options to address the CFMEU. Cabinet minister Bill Shorten has indicated that these include deregistering the CFMEU or appointing external administrators to the militant union. Shorten had previously appointed administrators to ‘clean out’ the Health Services Union during his tenure as industrial relations minister in the Gillard government. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says "all options are on the table" regarding the CFMEU; he contends that the recent resignation of Victorian state secretary John Setka should be just the beginning of the cleaning up process.

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CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY AND MARITIME EMPLOYEES UNION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, HEALTH SERVICES UNION OF AUSTRALIA

Secret Service faces review as top sniper claims this guy had help

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Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 16-Jul-24

US President Joe Biden has ordered an independent review of the Secret Service in the wake of the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday. The investigation will focus on how Thomas Matthew Crook was able to get close enough to shoot at Trump with an assault-style rifle, with one of Crook’s shots appearing to hit Trump on the ear. Meanwhile, Canadian Special Operations sniper Dallas Alexander, whose team holds the world record for the longest confirmed sniper kill, contends that Crook could not have been able to get in a position to shoot at Trump in broad daylight from a rooftop just a couple of hundred metres away without getting help from "somewhere within an agency organisation or government".

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UNITED STATES. SECRET SERVICE

Liontown finally moves to send lithium to China

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 16-Jul-24

Australian-listed lithium producer Liontown Resources has previously refused to strike offtake deals with Chinese companies. However, Liontown has reach a 10-month deal to supply 100,000 tonnes of spodumene to Shenzhen Stock Exchange-listed Sinomine; this deal will help Liontown to get through a period when its Kathleen Valley project in Western Australia is likely to be operating at a loss. Liontown CEO Tony Ottaviano recently acknowledged that it cannot ignore the "biggest market in the world", given that China accounts for 80 per cent of global demand for lithium.

CORPORATES
LIONTOWN RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX LTR, SINOMINE RESOURCE GROUP LIMITED, SHENZHEN STOCK EXCHANGE