Author: roymorgansocial

Julian Assange wins temporary reprieve in case against extradition to US

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Original article by Haroon Siddique
The Guardian – Page: Online : 27-Mar-24

Amnesty International and the National Union of Journalists have urged the US government to abandon its efforts to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The British High Court has ruled that Assange will be entitled to appeal against his extradition to the US unless the Biden administration provides an assurance by mid-April that he will not face the death penalty if he stands trial and is convicted on espionage charges. The court has also sought an assurance from the US government that Assange will be able to rely upon the first amendment if his case goes to trial in the US.

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WIKILEAKS, HIGH COURT OF ENGLAND AND WALES, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS

Inflation Expectations in late March are at 5.1% – up slightly from the month of February (5.0%)

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 27-Mar-24

The latest weekly Inflation Expectations are at 5.1% for the week of March 18-24. This figure is in line with the average over the last 15 weeks of surveying since early December – also of 5.1% – and up slightly from the month of February. A look at the monthly Inflation Expectations for February 2024 shows the measure at 5.0% for the month, a decrease of 0.1% points on January (5.1%). The figure of 5.0% for the month of February was the lowest monthly inflation figure since January 2022 (4.9%). Looking back over the last few months, since mid-December 2023 weekly Inflation Expectations have moved in a narrow band of 4.8% to 5.3%. After February ended, Inflation Expectations dipped in early March, but have now recovered and have moved higher in late March. A likely driver of this week’s increase in Inflation Expectations is the recent strength in the retail price of petrol which is now over $2 per litre. The data for the Inflation Expectations series is drawn from the Roy Morgan Single Source, which has interviewed an average of around 5,100 Australians aged 14+ per month over the last decade, and includes interviews with 5,998 Australians aged 14+ in February 2024.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence up 1.4pts to 83.1 in late March in the week the RBA left interest rates unchanged

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 27-Mar-24

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rose 1.4pts to 83.1 in the week to 24 March. However, the index has now spent a record 60 straight weeks below the mark of 85. Consumer Confidence is now 6.5 points above the same week a year ago (76.6), and virtually identical to the 2024 weekly average of 83.0. Consumer Confidence was up in New South Wales and Victoria, down in Western Australia, and virtually unchanged in Queensland and South Australia. Now 21% of Australians (up 3ppts) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 52% (unchanged) say their families are ‘worse off’. Looking forward, 34% (up 2ppts) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 31% (down 1ppt) expect to be ‘worse off’. Now 10% (unchanged) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months, while 32% (up 1ppt) expect ‘bad times’. Meanwhile, 21% (up 1ppt) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while 50% (up 1ppt) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

Crown keeps licence but will never be too big to fail

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Original article by Gus McCubbing
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 : 27-Mar-24

The Victorian Gambling & Casino Control Commission has ruled that Crown Resorts is entitled to retain its exclusive casino licence in Melbourne. The VGCCC’s chair Fran Thorn says it is satsified that the systemic failings of Crown’s Melbourne casino are a thing of the past. However, she has put the private equity-owned company on notice that it will continue to be under scrutiny and will face the "full extent of the law" if it reverts to the conduct that prompted a royal commission and the appointment of a special monitor to oversee its operations for the last two years. Crown’s casino licence in Melbourne had been at risk in the wake of revelations that it had breached anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.

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CROWN RESORTS LIMITED, VICTORIAN GAMBLING AND CASINO CONTROL COMMISSION

Lew unveils ambitous Premier overhaul

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Original article by Eli Greenblat
The Australian – Page: 13 & 16 : 27-Mar-24

Premier Investments has posted a 2023-24 interim net profit of $177.2m, which is 1.7 per cent higher than previously. Sales rose by 2.9 per cent to $890m, while shareholders will receive a record half-year dividend of $0.63 per share. Meanwhile, chairman Solomon Lew has revealed plans to spin off the Smiggle stationery brand and the Peter Alexander sleepwear business into separately-listed companies in 2025. The proposed demerger of the two flagship plans follows a review of Premier Investments’ assets that was commissioned last year.

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PREMIER INVESTMENTS LIMITED – ASX PMV, SMIGGLE PTY LTD, PETER ALEXANDER SLEEPWEAR PTY LTD

Tough visa rules to ban countries

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Original article by Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 27-Mar-24

The House of Representatives has passed legislation that targets failed asylum-seekers who refuse to co-operate with immigration authorities regarding their removal from Australia. The legislation allows them to be jailed for up to five years and specifies that fears of persecution if they are returned to their home country will not be regarded as a reasonable excuse for their lack of co-operation. The government will also have the power to block visa applications from all citizens of countries that refuse to refuse to accept the return of failed asylum seekers. The legislation was passed with the support of the Coalition, although it has forced Labor to agree to a Senate inquiry into the bill.

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Mine prospecting booms as explorers look past China dip

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Original article by Elouise Fowler
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 27-Mar-24

Data from advisory firm BDO Australias shows that resources companies in the pre-revenue stage spent a total of $1.01bn on exploration in the December quarter. This was the highest level of exploration expenditure in the final three months of a calendar year in the last decade. Meanwhile, exploration companies raised a total of $2.68bn from investors during the quarter, which is 32 per cent higher than the previous three months.

CORPORATES
BDO AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Mortgage stress continued to increase in February to a new record high of 1.63 million; despite no RBA rate rise

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 27-Mar-24

New research from Roy Morgan shows that a record 1,629,000 mortgage holders (31.4%) were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the three months to February 2024. This was an increase of 20,000 (+0.4%) on the record high number in January 2024 (1,609,000), despite the Reserve Bank board electing to leave interest rates unchanged at 4.35% at its February meeting. However, the proportion of mortgage holders ‘At Risk’ is still well below the record high of 35.6% reached during the Global Financial Crisis because of the larger size of the mortgage market today. The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has increased by 822,000 since May 2022, when the RBA began a cycle of interest rate increases. Meanwhile, the number of mortgage holders considered ‘Extremely At Risk’ of mortgage stress is now numbered at 987,000 (19.7% of mortgage holders), which is significantly above the long-term average over the last 10 years of 14.3%. These are the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source Survey, based on in-depth interviews conducted with over 60,000 Australians each year, including over 10,000 owner-occupied mortgage-holders.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Scams galore on Meta

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Original article by Jared Lynch
Herald Sun – Page: 2 : 26-Mar-24

Data from US-based mobile security firm Zimperium shows that scams are more prevalent on Facebook and other Meta-owned social media platforms than rivals such as X and Reddit. Zimperium has detected 99,690 scams on Meta’s platforms – which also include WhatsApp and Instagram – since October; this included 53,275 on Facebook alone. In contrast, Zimperium detected 11,612 scams on Telegram, a total of 3,344 on X and just 148 on Reddit.

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ZIMPERIUM, META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM LLC, WHATSAPP INCORPORATED, X INCORPORATED, TELEGRAM, REDDIT

Utes win big reprieve on emissions

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Original article by Phillip Coorey, Jacob Greber
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 26-Mar-24

The federal government’s revised fuel-efficiency standards for new vehicles were approved by cabinet on Monday. The changes follow consultation with the car industry, amid concerns that popular vehicles such as utes and SUVs could have been forced out of the Australian market under the original version of the National Vehicles Emissions Scheme. The scheme will impose annual emissions caps on small passenger cars and light commercial vehicles such as utes. However, heavy SUVs that use the same chassis and drivetrain as a ute will now be classified as light commercial vehicles; they were previously to have been classified as passenger vehicles, which would have attracted much stricter emissions caps.

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