Author: roymorgansocial

Give more help to borrowers: APRA

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 17 : 23-Sep-20

Repayments on more than 900,000 mortgage and business loans were deferred in late March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many borrowers are now facing the six-month anniversary of their deferral, and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has offered lenders a number of suggestions about how to handle customers who are slated to resume repayments. Amongst other things, APRA has suggested that lenders should contact borrowers via a number of channels in the lead-up to the expiry of their deferral period. National Australia Bank CEO Ross McEwan recently indicated that 20 per cent of these customers have failed to respond when it has contacted them regarding the issue.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence up 1.1pts to 93.5 as new cases of COVID-19 continue decline and restrictions ease in Country Victoria

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 23-Sep-20

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rose 1.1pts to 93.5 on the weekend of September 19/20. It is now 16.6pts lower than a year ago (110.1) and just 0.2pts below the 2020 weekly average of 93.7. Consumer Confidence has now increased for three straight weeks and is up 3.3pts since hitting a low of 90.2 in late August. Now 23% (down 2ppts) of Australians say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 35% (up 1ppt) say their families are ‘worse off’ financially. In addition, 34% (unchanged) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, and 19% (down 1ppt) expect to be ‘worse off’ financially. Only 7% (up 1ppt) expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months, while 43% (down 4ppts) expect ‘bad times’. Meanwhile, 35% (down 2ppts) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while 35% (unchanged) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

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

ABC, SBS under threat in regional areas

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Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 18-Sep-20

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor has become involved in a dispute between the nation’s public broadcasters and Regional Broadcasters Australia. The dispute, over maintenance and repair charges for broadcast equipment, has resulted in more than 400 residents in the New South Wales town of Goulburn not being able to access the ABC or SBS. Taylor, whose electorate of Hume covers Goulburn, says many of these residents are elderly and depend on the ABC and SBS for news and information. He has asked the ABC, SBS and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to try to find a solution to the dispute.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS), REGIONAL BROADCASTERS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

BHP moves to protect heritage sites in Pilbara

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Original article by Paul Garvey
The Australian – Page: 15 & 20 : 18-Sep-20

BHP’s Australian head of minerals Edgar Basto has appeared before a parliamentary inquiry into Rio Tinto’s destruction of ancient rock shelters at Juukan Gorge. He said the resources giant is engaging with traditional owners with regard to its $US3.4bn ($4.7bn) South Flank iron ore project in the wake of the incident. BHP was given approval under Western Australia’s Aboriginal Heritage Act to destroy 40 Aboriginal heritage sites just days after Rio Tinto’s blasting at Juukan Gorge in May. However, BHP has already agreed to change its plans for South Flank to protect at least 10 of the sites.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO

FIRB investment fees set to jump on property and business

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Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 18-Sep-20

The federal government has previously reduced to zero the ‘dollar value threshhold’ for foreign bids to be assessed by the Foreign Investment Review Board. It has now adjusted the fees that are applied to foreign investment applications, so as to reflect the costs of reviewing them under the new threshold process. The change will see some fees increased and some reduced; in the case of residential property, all fees will rise, except for properties valued at $38 million or more.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FOREIGN INVESTMENT REVIEW BOARD

Builders slam BCA’s union deal

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 2 : 18-Sep-20

Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn has confirmed reports that she left a meeting of the federal government’s industrial relations working group "in disgust" over revelations that the Business Council of Australia had struck a deal with the ACTU. The proposed deal would allow union enterprise agreements to be approved within 14 days; employers had pushed for all agreements to be approved within this time-frame. Wawn has expressed concern that amongst other things, the fast-tracked process for union agreements will favour large companies over small businesses.

CORPORATES
MASTER BUILDERS AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, ACTU

Facebook will be loser if it bans news: Sims

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Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 & 22 : 18-Sep-20

Facebook and Google would be forced to pay for news content that is posted on their platforms under the mandatory code of conduct proposed by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. Facebook has threatened to ban all news on its platform in response to the code, but ACCC chairman Rod Sims contends that such action could weaken the social media company. Sims has also rejected claims made in public campaigns by Facebook and Google that the proposed code will give news publishers access to their algorithms.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, GOOGLE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

Lack of flexible work is keeping Australian women at home

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Original article by
SBS News – Page: Online : 18-Sep-20

Industries that are disproportionately staffed by women have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus-driven recession, including retail and hospitality. Women have also have had to deal with most of the burden of remote learning and caring for family. Women who were made redundant are finding that a lack of flexible employment is forcing them to choose between returning to work and caring for their family. Adam Gregory, LinkedIn’s senior director for Australia and New Zealand, says the longer that women have to make this "impossible choice", the harder they will have to work in order to get back into the workforce.

CORPORATES
LINKEDIN CORPORATION

Victorian ALP Government support now 51.5% would win a close election with L-NP on 48.5%

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 18-Sep-20

Since the 2018 Victorian State Election Two-party ALP support has dropped 5.8% while L-NP support is up 5.8% according to a special Roy Morgan SMS survey on Victorian voting intention with a cross-section of 1,147 Victorian electors aged 18+ over the last few days. Clear splits have emerged by gender and region in Victoria with women favouring the ALP (57%) cf. L-NP (43%) and Melburnians favouring the ALP (53.5%) cf. L-NP (46.5%) while men favour the L-NP (53.5%) cf. ALP (46.5%) and Country Victorians favour the L-NP (55%) cf. ALP (45%).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF VICTORIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN GREENS

ABS August unemployment estimate ignores the 232,000 Australians who have left the workforce since March, 2020

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Original article by Michele Levine, Gary Morgan, Julian McCrann
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 18-Sep-20

The ABS unemployment estimate for August 2020 claims 922,000 Australians were unemployed (6.8% of the workforce), a surprise drop of 0.7% points on July 2020. However, the ABS claims 232,000 Australians have left the workforce since March – meaning the participation rate dropped from 66% to 64.8% in August. If the ABS participation rate was steady at 66% there would now be 1.18 million unemployed. In addition, within the ABS employment release is a section indicating 151,800 Australians the ABS counts as employed were working zero hours in August and had ‘no work, not enough work available, or were stood down’. If these non-workers are added the adjusted ABS unemployment estimate is 1.33 million – an unemployment rate of 9.7%. Combined with the ABS under-employment estimate of 1.52 million that would be 2.85 million Australians unemployed or under-employed in August – 20.7% of the Australian workforce. This ‘adjusted’ ABS estimate is close to Roy Morgan’s unemployment & under-employment estimate of 22.8% for August released two weeks ago.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS