Author: roymorgansocial

Australian real unemployment still ‘stuck’ well above 10% in March

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 10-Apr-15

A Roy Morgan Research survey on Australia’s labour market has found that the real unemployment rate was 10.8 per cent in March 2015. The number of people in the workforce now totals a record 12,670,000 (up 75,000 since March 2014), while the number of people who are underemployed has risen by 31,000 in the last 12 months to 976,000 (7.7 per cent of the workforce). The official unemployment rate was 6.3 per cent in February 2015. Roy Morgan Research executive chairman Gary Morgan says that to stand any chance of re-election in 2016 the Federal Government must undertake tough industrial relations reforms, starting within the abolition of weekend and public holiday penalty rates

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITEDAUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICSRESTAURANT AND CATERING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED

Treasury may go alone on ‘Google tax’

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 10-Apr-15

The Australian Government would like to introduce changes to the taxation system as soon as possible. Treasury deputy secretary Robert Heferen told the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance on 9 April 2015 that the Government should act now rather than wait for the OECD’s action plan on base erosion and profit shifting. The implementation of the OECD plan would be very complicated

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Big airports flunk service: report

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Original article by Larissa Nicholson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 10-Apr-15

The quality of services offered at Australia’s major airports declined in 2014. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission writes in the annual "Airport Monitoring Report" that Brisbane offered "good" service while the service provided by Melbourne, Perth and Sydney airports were "satisfactory". Car parking fees are a significant source of revenue for the airports. Sydney Airport earned more than $A88 million from parking fees in 2013-14

CORPORATES
MELBOURNE AIRPORT, BRISBANE AIRPORT, BRISBANE AIRPORT CORPORATION LIMITED, AUSTRALIA PACIFIC AIRPORTS (MELBOURNE) PTY LTD, SYDNEY AIRPORT – ASX SYD, WESTRALIA AIRPORTS CORPORATION PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA PACIFIC AIRPORTS CORPORATION LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, BOARD OF AIRLINE REPRESENTATIVES OF AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, SINGAPORE AIRLINES LIMITED, VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX VAH, EMIRATES AIRLINES

Haoma Mining protects itself from Atlas Iron’s woes

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Original article by Tess Ingram
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 10-Apr-15

Australian-listed Haoma Mining has put a caveat on two of Atlas Iron’s iron ore tenements in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Haoma holds the exploration rights for non-iron ore minerals, and chairman Gary Morgan says the group wanted to protect its interests should Atlas sell the tenements. Shares in Atlas Iron were placed in a trading halt in early April 2015, pending a review of its operations

CORPORATES
HAOMA MINING NL – ASX HAO, ATLAS IRON LIMITED – ASX AGO, BC IRON LIMITED – ASX BCI

Falling $A bolsters Bookworld’s fight against Amazon

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Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 10-Apr-15

IBISWorld estimates that sales of books online have risen by 26 per cent annually over the last five years, compared with a five per cent-plus annual decline in retail book sales over the same period. Bookworld has benefited from the Australian dollar’s 18 per cent fall against its US counterpart in the last eight months, as it has made the online bookseller’s prices more competitive against offshore rivals. Bookworld now boasts about 1.5 million registered customers

CORPORATES
BOOKWORLD, ANGUS AND ROBERTSON PTY LTD, BORDERS GROUP INCORPORATED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, THE BOOK DEPOSITORY LIMITED, DYMOCKS BOOKSELLERS PTY LTD, IBISWORLD PTY LTD, REDGROUP RETAIL PTY LTD, PEARSON GROUP PLC, RANDOM HOUSE AUSTRALIA, SAP AG, BOOKTOPIA PTY LTD

Retailers locked out of Apple Watch deals

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Original article by Madeleine Heffernan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 10-Apr-15

Telsyte MD Foad Fadaghi estimates that about 300,000 Apple Watches could be sold in just one week. The product will be available to pre-order in Australia from 10 April 2015, and it will be sold exclusively in Apple stores and via the Apple website from 24 April. However, it is uncertain as to when or if other retailers will stock the smartwatch

CORPORATES
APPLE INCORPORATED, TELSYTE PTY LTD, MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR, DAVID JONES LIMITED, DICK SMITH HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX DSH, JB HI-FI LIMITED – ASX JBH, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW

Writer of accidental ‘dick’ text sacked

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 10-Apr-15

The Fair Work Commission has rejected an unfair dismissal claim brought by a woman who was sacked for insulting her employer. Louise Nesbitt inadvertently sent a derogatory text message to Dragon Mountain Gold chairman and MD Rob Garder, in which she called him a "complete dick". She had meant to send the message to her daughter’s boyfriend, who was to undertake plumbing work in the company’s office

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, DRAGON MOUNTAIN GOLD LIMITED – ASX DMG

Business confidence in March shows tentative improvement

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 9-Apr-15

A Roy Morgan Business Single Source survey has found that Australian business confidence rose by 6.3 per cent to 112.4 in March 2015. Despite the improvement, business confidence remains below its level before the 2013 federal election and the average for the last four years of 117.6. The rise in business confidence occurred across all components of the index, but it stemmed mainly from an increase in the proportion of businesses that believe the next 12 months will be a good time to invest in growing their business

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED

Hockey’s $1b ‘Netflix’ tax

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 5 : 10-Apr-15

Australia’s federal and state Treasurers have struck a deal to extend the application of the GST to items costing less than $A1,000 that are bought online and sourced from offshore. This will include digital versions of books, music and films that are downloaded or streamed from offshore providers. News Corp Australia CEO Julian Clarke recently criticised foreign companies such as Netflix for failing to pay GST, arguing that it gives them an unfair advantage over local rivals in terms of pricing their products

CORPORATES
NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, APPLE INCORPORATED, MICROSOFT CORPORATION, EBAY INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20), ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL RETAILERS ASSOCIATION LIMITED

Oil and gas on U-shape recovery, says AMEC

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Original article by Jenny Wiggins
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 23 : 10-Apr-15

AMEC Foster Wheeler CFO Ian McHoul expects difficult conditions in the oil and gas sector for another 1-2 years. He suggests that the eventual upturn in the sector is more likely to be U-shaped rather than V-shaped. The UK-based engineering group’s growing clean energy business is helping to offset falling demand for oil and gas industry services. The group is interested in Australian acquisitions

CORPORATES
AMEC FOSTER WHEELER PLC, WORLEYPARSONS LIMITED – ASX WOR, KBR INCORPORATED, FLUOR CORPORATION, AECOM, JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP INCORPORATED, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD