Author: roymorgansocial

Plibersek praised nature positive deal with Pocock and Greens as critical before PM scrapped it, documents reveal

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Original article by Dan Jervis-Bardy
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 30-Jan-25

A draft Senate program shows that a bill to establish a federal environmental protection agency is listed for debate next Thursday. Documents released via freedom of information laws confirm that Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek reached a written agreement with the Greens and independent senator David Pocock to amend the EPA legislation in late November. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese intervened to put the deal on hold less than 24 hours later. The proposed EPA is part of the federal government’s so-called ‘nature positive’ environmental reforms. Shadow environment minister Jonno Duniam has called for the proposed laws to be scrapped, and says Plibersek and Albanese must state their real intentions regarding the legislation.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

PM, the dodgy foreign student college, the degustation dinner – and Dan Andrews

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Original article by Damon Johnston
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 30-Jan-25

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is under scrutiny following revelations that he attended a private dinner with members of the Indian-Australian business community at a Toorak mansion in November. They included the Barkly International College’s founder Rupinder Brar, who is seeking to overturn the Australian Skills Quality Authority’s decision to deregister the Melbourne-based private vocational education provider. Barkly is primarily focused on Indian students, and some of the guests at the dinner have indicated that visas are among the issues that were discussed. The guest listed included former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, BARKLY INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE

ACCI warns of need for cap on spending

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Original article by Sarah Ison
The Australian – Page: 6 : 30-Jan-25

The Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry will call for federal government spending to be capped at 25 per cent of GDP. The ACCI’s pre-election Agenda for Business policy blueprint will also advocate tax reform, the abolition of stamp duty and changing the definition of a small business to 25 employees or less, compared with the current threshold of 15 employees. CEO Andrew McKellar will use a speech on Thursday to argue that rising government spending is pushing up interest rates and adversely affecting productivity. Data released in late 2024 shows that government spending has risen to a record high of almost 28 per cent of GDP.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence virtually unchanged at 86.0 for Australia Day long weekend

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 30-Jan-25

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was virtually unchanged at 86.0 in the week to 26 January. Consumer Confidence is now 3.5 points above the same week a year ago (82.5), and 3.1 points above the 2024 weekly average of 82.9. A look at Consumer Confidence by State shows increases in the two largest States of New South Wales and Victoria, but declines elsewhere in Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia. Now 20% of Australians (down 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 48% (unchanged) say their families are ‘worse off’. Looking forward, 34% (unchanged) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 29% (down 2ppts) expect to be ‘worse off’. Now 10% (up 1ppt) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months, while 27% (unchanged) expect ‘bad times’. Meanwhile, 25% (unchanged) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while 47% (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

Sigma shareholders tick $34bn chemist deal

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Original article by Cameron England
The Australian – Page: 16 : 30-Jan-25

More than 97 per cent of votes cast at a meeting of Sigma Healthcare shareholders on Wednesday were in favour of the proposed $34bn merger with Chemist Warehouse. Shareholders of the privately-owned Chemist Warehouse subsequently backed the deal later in the day at a pub in Melbourne’s north. Sigma’s chairman Michael Sammells says the merger is expected to generate about $60m worth of synergies, but he notes that there will be a lot of integration work given that the two companies are very different organisations. The merged group is slated to list on the sharemarket in mid-February.

CORPORATES
SIGMA HEALTHCARE LIMITED – ASX SIG, CHEMIST WAREHOUSE

‘Don’t panic over DeepSeek national security threat’

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Original article by Tom McIlroy, Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 30-Jan-25

Former Australian Signals Directorate executive Simeon Gilding has downplayed concerns about the national security implications of China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot. Gilding contends that Chinese-made electric vehicles are a bigger security concern, given that they "suck up data" and send it back to China, where it could potentially be accessed by the Communist Party. He adds that it is too soon to consider banning DeepSeek in Australia, but says this could change if China’s security services start trying to imbed the technology into critical infrastructure and services.

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AUSTRALIAN SIGNALS DIRECTORATE

Risk of mortgage stress up again in December after Reserve Bank again decided not to cut interest rates

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 30-Jan-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 1,595,000 mortgage holders (27.9) were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in December 2024. This represents a second straight monthly increase since October but is still 2.4% lower than the June figures prior to the Stage 3 income tax cuts. Modelling by Roy Morgan shows that the number of mortgages ‘At Risk’ will fall by 26,000 in February 2025 to 1,569,000 (27.4% of mortgage holders) if the Reserve Bank drops interest rates to 4.10% at its first board meeting for the year. The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has increased by 788,000 since May 2022, when the RBA began a cycle of interest rate increases. Meanwhile, the number of mortgage holders considered to be ‘Extremely At Risk’ of mortgage stress is now numbered 973,000 (17.4% of mortgage holders), which is significantly above the long-term average over the last 10 years of 14.6%. These are the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source Survey, based on in-depth interviews conducted with more than 60,000 Australians each year, including over 10,000 owner-occupied mortgage-holders.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Van bomb targeted at synagogue

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Original article by Alexi Demetriadi
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 30-Jan-25

The Joint Counter Terrorism Team has been deployed to investigate a suspected plot to target Jewish Australians, after NSW police discovered a caravan packed with explosives in the north-west Sydney suburb of Dural. A note identifying a Jewish target – which is said to be a Sydney synagogue – was found in the caravan, and Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Hudson estimates that the explosives were sufficient to create a blast zone radius of 40 metres. NSW police found the caravan 10 days ago, and argue that publicly disclosing the incident may have compromised their investigation; it was only revealed after being leaked to the media on Wednesday. Meanwhile, police have confirmed that the owner of the caravan is in custody, although he has not yet been charged with any offence.

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NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE FORCE, NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET

ANZ-Roy Morgan Inflation Expectations increased to 5.2% in mid-January – up from 4.8% for the month of December

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Jan-25

The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan Inflation Expectations were 5.2% for the week of 13-19 January 2025. This figure is above the average for last year of 4.9%, and up 0.4% points from the month of December. A look at monthly Inflation Expectations for December 2024 shows the measure at 4.8% for the month – up 0.1% points from previous three months of September to November, but below the average for last year of 4.9%. Looking back over the last year, weekly Inflation Expectations have moved in a narrow band of 4.5% to 5.3% since the start of 2024 and averaged 4.9%. The data for the Inflation Expectations series is drawn from the Roy Morgan Single Source, which has interviewed an average of around 5,200 Australians aged 14+ per month over the last decade.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Labor axes aspirational 15 per cent super guarantee goal

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Original article by Sarah Ison
The Australian – Page: 4 : 29-Jan-25

The superannuation guarantee is scheduled to increase to 12 per cent in July, and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones says the federal government has no plans to further increase it. However, Labor’s national platform in 2023 included setting a ‘pathway’ to increasing the super guarantee to 15 per cent once the initial target of 12 per cent has been reached. Jones says the policy platform is merely a set of principles rather than binding commitments, and Labor has no plans to further increase the super guarantee.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY