ABC axes flagship roles for digital

Original article by Steve Jackson
The Australian – Page: 7 : 25-Jun-20

About 70 jobs in the ABC’s news division will be cut under the five-year plan, as the public broadcaster shifts its focus to digital on on-demand content. This will result in a significant reduction in original reporting produced by its current affairs programs. The ABC’s news analysis and investigations teams will also be scaled back, while the position of chief economics correspondent is expected to be axed. ABC News director Gaven Morris has confirmed that fewer new episodes of ‘Australian Story’ and ‘Foreign Correspondent’ will be produced due to the budget cuts.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

APRA probes super fund pain

Original article by Gerard Cockburn
The Australian – Page: 16 : 25-Jun-20

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will increase its oversight of the nation’s superannuation funds in response to the coronavirus pandemic. APRA will require super funds to provide it with a range of data on both a monthly and quarterly basis for the duration of the health crisis. Amongst other things, APRA is concerned about the impact of the federal government’s early access scheme is having on super funds, with almost $16bn having been withdrawn to date.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

Premium consumers offer a glimmer of hope to struggling car industry – Porsche tops the list

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 24-Jun-20

The latest analysis of Roy Morgan’s automotive buying intentions data shows that Australia’s premium consumers are set to drive new vehicle sales in the next four years. According to Roy Morgan data a new economic order of premium consumers (NEOs) could breathe life into the nation’s struggling car industry. One-in-seven NEOs (14.9%) intended to buy a new vehicle in the next four years during the March 2020 quarter – 54% above the comparable figure for all Australians (9.6%). Notably, the top 50% of NEOs – known as Super NEOs – are almost 80% more likely than the average Australian to buy a new car in the next 4 years. Conversely, Australia’s 10 million traditional consumers are 30% less likely than the population to buy a new car in the next 4 years. Aspiring NEOs, with the NEO mindset but not the buying power, are more likely than Traditionals, but less likely than NEOs, to be planning to buy a car in the next four years.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Moody’s sticks to AAA rating

Original article by John Kehoe, Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 6 : 24-Jun-20

Moody’s Investors Service expects the Australian economy to contract by five per cent in 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Moody’s notes that the fall in GDP growth will be lower than many other developed nations, and it expects Australia to return to positive growth in 2021. Moody’s has also affirmed Australia’s AAA credit rating; rivals S&P Global Ratings and Fitch have previously placed the nation’s credit rating on negative outlook, but Australia is only one of 10 nations that have an AAA rating from all three agencies. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has described this as an "expression of confidence" in the federal government’s handling of the health crisis.

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MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE INCORPORATED, S&P GLOBAL RATINGS, FITCH RATINGS LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Wage growth tipped to crash as job market struggles

Original article by Shane Wright
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 24-Jun-20

ANZ Bank economists Catherine Birch and Bansi Madhavani forecast that Australia’s nominal wage growth will slow to a record low of just 0.7 per cent in the first half of 2021. They warn that wages growth could fall to around zero during some quarters, and note that Australia had lower growth in wages than the US and New Zealand prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Birch and Madhavani add that the unemployment rate is artificially low due to the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme.

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AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

‘Gushing cash’: iron ore miners a yield hunter favourite

Original article by William McInnes
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 29 : 24-Jun-20

The price of iron ore has risen by nearly 40 per cent since the start of 2020, and it peaked at more than $US100 a tonne in May amid supply disruptions in Brazil. Dion Hershan of Yarra Capital Management and Peter Gardner of Plato Investment Management are both bullish about BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group. They cite factors such as the major iron ore producers’ strong cash flows and high dividend yields. However, Romano Sala Tenna of Katana Asset Management says they do not offer compelling value, although he says the sector is still appealing compared with the rest of the market.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG, YARRA CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, PLATO INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED, KATANA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED

Young and lowly paid most vulnerable: RBA

Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 24-Jun-20

Research from the Reserve Bank of Australia has found that most households had sufficient wealth at the onset of the coronavirus-induced recession to ride out a temporary fall in income. However, only about half of younger Australians had enough liquid assets such as savings to pay their expenses for three months. A similar percentage of workers in sectors that were hardest hit by coronavirus lockdown measures had limited capacity to meet their expenses at the start of the recession. The RBA research is based of the findings of the Household and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey in 2018.

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RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Directors take pay cut as ABC jobs axed

Original article by Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: 7 : 24-Jun-20

The ABC will release its five-year plan on 24 June, which will include up to 250 redundancies across its operations. Meanwhile, an ABC spokesman has advised that the Remuneration Tribunal has approved the public broadcaster’s proposal to temporarily reduce the salaries of its nine-member board by 10 per cent during the second half of 2020. The ABC’s five-year plan was originally slated to be released in March, but it was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. REMUNERATION TRIBUNAL

AFL restarts with the edge over NRL for TV viewers

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 24-Jun-20

The latest data from Roy Morgan shows that over 7.4 million Australians aged 14+ (36%) watch AFL matches on TV. Significantly more Australians watch the AFL on TV than watch Sydney-based rival the NRL (6 million), although both have declined in recent years. A year ago over 7.5 million Australians said they watched the AFL on TV and this number has dropped by over 100,000 for the latest research conducted in the 12 months to March 2020. The AFL is more popular with both genders than the NRL. More than 4.2 million men watch the AFL on TV compared to 3.6 million that watch the NRL; over 3.2 million women watch the AFL on TV compared to almost 2.4 million that watch the NRL. TV viewership of the AFL is strongest amongst older Australians. Over 40% of Australians aged 50+ watch the AFL on TV, including 1.97 million aged 50-64 and 1.71 million aged 65+. Meanwhile, 2.78 million people watch the AFL Women’s competition on TV, up from 2.42 million a year ago – an increase of 360,000. There have been increases for both genders and across all age groups. This new data comes from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE

Movement at Taronga Zoo slow to pick-up since June 1 opening

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 24-Jun-20

A special analysis of movement data at Taronga Zoo shows visitation picking up since the re-opening of the Sydney landmark on 1 June, but still well below the levels seen during the early part of the year, particularly in February and early March. Taronga Zoo closed its doors to visitors on March 25 as COVID-19 restrictions were introduced across New South Wales, and it remained closed throughout April and May. Movement at the Zoo had already dropped significantly in the week before the closure as Australians began practicing social distancing. Roy Morgan has partnered with leading technological innovator UberMedia to aggregate data from tens of thousands of mobile devices to assess the movements of Australians as we emerge from the restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of devices – a good proxy for visitors – at Taronga Zoo was negligible during the period of closure to visitors but picked up slowly during the first three weeks of June.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, TARONGA ZOO