Author: roymorgansocial

Negative gearing change can win support: Greens

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 28-Feb-24

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told a meeting of Labor’s caucus that legislation to establish the Help to Buy shared equity scheme for home buyers is expected to be passed by the lower house this week. However, the said the bill is likely to be blocked in the Senate by the Liberal Party and the Greens. Meanwhile, the Greens have signalled that they are open to a compromise on negative gearing in return for supporting the Help to Buy scheme. The party has proposed restricting negative gearing to existing investment properties, and progressively scrapping the regime for people who buy additional properties.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Female-focused businesses among worst for pay equity

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Jenna Clarke, Sarah Ison
The Australian – Page: 5 : 28-Feb-24

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s landmark report shows that there is a significant gender pay gap at some companies whose products are primarily targeted at women. The report shows that the national median gender pay gap is 14 per cent; however, the gender pay gap is 44.5 per cent at bikini brand Seafolly and 36.3 per cent at female-focused activewear label Lorna Jane. Likewise, the gender pay gap at jewellery retailer Lovisa is 26.4 per cent. Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley says it is unacceptable that some big-name brands make profits off the products they market to women while not having pay parity in their own workforces.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. WORKPLACE GENDER EQUALITY AGENCY, SEAFOLLY, LORNA JANE EXERCISE WEAR PTY LTD, LOVISA HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX LOV, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Vaccine ruling just tip of the iceberg

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Ellie Dudley, Lydia Lynch
The Australian – Page: 3 : 28-Feb-24

The Supreme Court of Queensland has ruled that the state government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for frontline workers such as police officers and paramedics was unlawful. More than 70 such workers pursued legal action against the government, contending amongst other things that requiring them to be vaccinated at the peak of the pandemic was a breach of their human rights. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says the frontline workers had been "vindicated", while legal experts believe that the Queensland ruling may set a precedent for similar cases in other states.

CORPORATES
SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND, ONE NATION PARTY

‘Every taxpayer wins’: PM hails stage three victory

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 28-Feb-24

The federal government’s changes to the legislated stage-three personal income tax were passed by the Senate with bipartisan support on Tuesday night. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese contends that 84 per cent of Australians will get a bigger tax cut than they would have via the original version of the former Coalition government’s tax package. The government can be expected to capitalise on the stage-three changes in the final days of campaigning for the Dunkley by-election; Albanese says the changes are a win for "every single taxpayer" in the Melbourne electorate.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Tabcorp to pull form guide from three News Corp papers

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 28-Feb-24

News Corp Australia may cease publishing racing form guides in the print editions of its metropolitan mastheads in Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin. Tabcorp currently sponsors the form guides, and the wagering group has indicated that it wants to redirect this expenditure elsewhere; however, sources have indicated that it is likely to keep spending the same amount at News Corp. Tabcorp will also continue to sponsor the form guides in News Corp’s newspapers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Meanwhile, News Corp may be open to deals for non-wagering companies to sponsor its form guides in Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, TABCORP HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX TAH

More pain for nickel, lithium as deluge bites

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Cecile Lefort
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 28-Feb-24

The price of nickel fell by 44 per cent in 2023, and Sam Berridge of Perennial Value Management believes that it may not rebound for some time. He notes that Indonesia is continuing to ramp up its production of low-cost nickel, while the growing use of lithium ferrous phosphate in battery technology will reduce demand for the use of nickel in electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Vivek Dhar from the Commonwealth Bank says economic activity in China will be the key driver of the outlook for nickel, given that the nation accounts for 40-60 per cent of base metal demand. However, Berridge thinks the lithium price may have bottomed, after falling by 85 per cent in 2023.

CORPORATES
PERENNIAL VALUE MANAGEMENT LIMITED, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence virtually unchanged at 83.2 in late February

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 28-Feb-24

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was virtually unchanged at 83.2 in the week to 25 February; the index has now spent a record 56 straight weeks below the mark of 85. Consumer Confidence is now 3.2 points above the same week a year ago (80.0), but 0.4 points below the 2024 weekly average of 83.6. Consumer Confidence was up in Victoria and Western Australia, down in Queensland and South Australia, and virtually unchanged in New South Wales. Now 20% of Australians (unchanged) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 53% (up 3ppts) say their families are ‘worse off’. Looking forward, 33% (unchanged) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 32% (down 1ppt) expect to be ‘worse off’. Now 10% (unchanged) of Australians now expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months, while 29% (down 2ppts) expect ‘bad times’. Meanwhile, 20% (down 3ppts) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while 48% (down 2ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

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

Readership of magazines is up 3.6% from a year ago with increases for 12/16 magazine categories

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 28-Feb-24

The Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to December 2023 shows that 11.7 million Australians aged 14+ (53.0%) now read print magazines, up 3.6 per cent on a year ago. This market broadens to 15.1 million Australians aged 14+ (68.6%) who read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app, which is up 0.8% on a year ago. The increases in readership were widespread over the last year, with a large majority of magazine categories (12 in total) increasing their readership. Nine of the top 10 most widely read magazines increased their print readership over the last year, as did 21 out of the top 25. Better Homes & Gardens is still Australia’s most widely read paid magazine, with print readership of 1,832,000 (up 8.5 per cent on a year ago), ahead of The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,299,000 (up 3.3 per cent). These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 64,994 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to December 2023.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Saint-Gobain wins over CSR board in $4.3b takeover

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Simon Evans
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 27-Feb-24

French firm Saint-Gobain has said in a statement that the board of CSR has unanimously recommended that shareholders of the building products firm accept its $4.3 billion takeover bid, with the two firms having signed a scheme implementation deed. CSR chairman John Gillam said that the two companies had been in discussions since early January, when CSR had rejected a lower bid by Saint-Gobain. Saint-Gobain stated that it expected to achieve $60 million in synergies by the third year of its ownership of CSR, of which $50 million would come from the cost side.

CORPORATES
CSR LIMITED – ASX CSR, SAINT-GOBAIN

Written news reaches an incredible 97 per cent of Australians aged 14+ each month

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

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

The latest readership figures from Roy Morgan show that written news reaches 97% of Australians aged 14+ (21.4 million) each month. The figures for the 12 months to December 2023 reflect the evolving and deepening landscape of news media titles and readership behaviours across print and digital formats. The figures also highlight ongoing affinity in Total News Publishing, as readers across all demographics actively lean into the channel, with 68 million interactions per week. Further analysis of the results reveals that state/territory mastheads are enjoying large readership numbers outside their local markets, due to digital accessibility. Most state/territory mastheads effectively double their reach with inter-state audiences, demonstrating the large national interest in state/territory mastheads and the additional media value home-grown titles can provide advertisers beyond their local markets.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED