Author: roymorgansocial

ATO targets legal privilege

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 6 : 9-Oct-18

The Australian Taxation Office is questioning the use of legal professional privilege by companies and their advisers. Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan stated in March that the ATO’s views of what constitutes professional privilege seem to differ from those held by taxpayers and their advisers. Deputy commissioner Mark Konza has stated that when he sought to audit the tax affairs of one company, every document he sought access to was claimed to be the subject of professional privilege. The ATO may seek to impose tax promoter penalties on large accounting firms like KPMG and PwC over their role in the promotion of schemes that seek to avoid tax.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS AUSTRALIA (INTERNATIONAL) PTY LTD, ERNST AND YOUNG, DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU LIMITED, GLENCORE PLC, APPLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, MICROSOFT AUSTRALIA, CHEVRON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Scott Morrison: No issue with nuclear power but it doesn’t stack up

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Original article by Ben Potter
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 9-Oct-18

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has questioned the merits of nuclear power from an investment perspective. While Morrison says he does not have any issues with nuclear energy, he argues that there is a stronger investment case for Hydro Tasmania’s proposed pumped hydro project. Several nuclear power projects in the US and the UK have been marred by cost blowouts, while a recent report by Deloitte noted that the all-in cost of nuclear power has risen over the last eight years. In contrast, there has been a sharp fall in the cost of solar and wind power.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU LIMITED, SOUTHERN COMPANY, EDF ENERGY PLC, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SCIENTIST

Labor, Coalition square off in Reef election

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Original article by Ben Potter
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 9-Oct-18

Labor’s acting energy spokesperson, Penny Wong, has claimed that the federal government has given up on trying to tackle climate change. Wong was commenting on the release of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report which warned that coral reefs would be wiped out by global warming of two degrees celsius. Wong said Labor is committed to its 45 per cent emissions reduction target, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he is confident Australia can easily meet its Paris emissions reduction target.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, WHITEHAVEN COAL LIMITED – ASX WHC, NEW HOPE CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX NHC, YANCOAL AUSTRALIA LIMITED – ASX YAL, INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY, UNITED NATIONS

Opera House’s Everest promotion ‘probably illegal’: trust

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Original article by Deborah Cornwall
The Australian – Page: 5 : 9-Oct-18

The New South Wales Government’s decision to allow advertising for the Everest horse race to be projected onto the Sydney Opera House’s sails continues to attract scrutiny. The NSW Heritage Trust’s conservation director Graham Quint suggests that the ads may be in breach of both the NSW Heritage Act and the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act. He says the Heritage Act has clear guidelines for the projection of colours and images on the Opera House sails.

CORPORATES
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, NEW SOUTH WALES HERITAGE TRUST, NSW RACING PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Banks tumble over advice compo fears

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Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 17 & 20 : 9-Oct-18

The ANZ Bank has advised that its full-year accounts for 2017-18 will include charges totalling $739m in the second half. Amongst other things, ANZ has advised of $374m in charges to compensate customers who paid fees for services they had not received, while its costs associated with the financial services royal commission are expected to total $55m. The major banks will shortly come under scrutiny by the House of Representatives economics committee for the first time since the inquiry began.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIA. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STANDING COMMITTEE ON ECONOMICS, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, STANDARD AND POOR’S FINANCIAL SERVICES LLC, MLC LIMITED, MAURICE BLACKBURN PTY LTD, SLATER AND GORDON LIMITED – ASX SGH

China’s coal clamps no surprise, says Yancoal

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 9-Oct-18

James Rickards, Yancoal Australia’s general manager of investor relations, does not expect coal prices to be significantly affected by China’s move to reduce thermal coal imports. He argues that it had been widely anticipated, as the Chinese government tends to curb coal imports every year in order to support local producers. Meanwhile, Lachlan Shaw of UBS says Chinese demand for thermal coal is likely to remain strong during the upcoming northern winter.

CORPORATES
YANCOAL AUSTRALIA LIMITED – ASX YAL, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE

IPCC coal call not for us: PM

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Original article by Graham Lloyd
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 9-Oct-18

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that coal-fired power generation would need to be almost completely phased out worldwide by 2050 if global warming is to be limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The IPCC’s special report argues that meeting this target would require global net human carbon ­dioxide emissions to be reduced to zero by 2050. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia is not bound by any of the report’s conclusions, while Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says removing coal from the nation’s energy mix would result in power blackouts on the east coast.

CORPORATES
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, GLOBAL CARBON PROJECT, CSIRO, GLOBAL CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE INSTITUTE LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INCORPORATED

What Glencore doesn’t want the taxman to see

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 36 & 37 : 9-Oct-18

Mining company Glencore has lodged proceedings in the High Court against the Australian Taxation Office. Glencore wants to the court to direct that the ATO give up copies of what are known as the Paradise Papers, which relate to files belonging to Bermuda-based law firm Appleby. Of concern to Glencore is information in the files relating to what has been dubbed Project Everest, which outlined a 2014 corporate restructure which saw Glencore relocate $30 billion worth of resource assets away from the "Australian tax net".

CORPORATES
GLENCORE PLC, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS, KING AND WOOD MALLESONS, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, APPLEBY

6000-point level the next test of new down leg

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 28 : 9-Oct-18

The Australian sharemarket’s 1.4 per cent fall on 8 October was its largest single-day loss since late March, with blue-chip stocks in particular retreating. The bearish investor sentiment also weighed on the Australian dollar, which fell to its lowest level in 2.5 years in local trading. Charting suggests that the S&P/ASX 200 could fall below 6,000 points in coming days, although the earnings outlook means it would be unlikely to remain below this level for very long.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, STANDARD AND POOR’S 500 INDEX, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, CSL LIMITED – ASX CSL, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, ARISTOCRAT LEISURE LIMITED – ASX ALL, TREASURY WINE ESTATES LIMITED – ASX TWE, NORSK HYDRO AS, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO, COCHLEAR LIMITED – ASX COH, RESMED INCORPORATED – ASX RMD, INVOCARE LIMITED – ASX IVC, NUFARM LIMITED – ASX NUF, ANSELL LIMITED – ASX ANN, GOLDMAN SACHS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, PEOPLE’S BANK OF CHINA

ALP launches fair go policy manifesto

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 8-Oct-18

Labor released a five-point plan that it will take to the next federal election at a rally in south-western Sydney on 7 October. The rally included speeches from Opposition leader Bill Shorten and deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, and was held on the same day as latest opinion polls showed that the federal government could lose up to 19 seats on the mainland at the next election. Shorten said that if Labor is elected, it would be the first time that Australia would have a government with 50 per cent female representation. He also stated that Labor is targeting 50 per cent of power to be generated from renewable energy by 2030.

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