O75 Public Administration

Citizens detaining fellow citizens a bridge too far: jurists

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Original article by Damon Johnson, Rachel Baxendale
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 23-Sep-20

A group of barristers and retired judges have written an open letter to the Victorian government expressing concern about the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) and Other Acts Amendment Bill. They have urged the state’s upper house to reject the bill outright or push for changes to it, warning that the powers that would be given to ‘authorised officers’ to arrest and detain people would be "unprecedented, excessive and open to abuse". Amongst other things, the bill would allow people to be detained indefinitely if it is suspected that they could potentially breach COVID-19 restrictions. Key crossbenchers have signalled that they will reject the bill, which has already passed the lower house.

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REASON PARTY

NBN push for fibre to the home

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 11 : 23-Sep-20

The federal government has forecast that a major upgrade of the national broadband network will boost GDP by $6.4bn a year by 2024. The $4.5bn upgrade project is also expected to generate about 25,000 jobs over coming years as more businesses and households gain fast internet access. NBN Co will allocate $3.5bn to rolling out high-speed fibre cables to nearly 10 million households and businesses, which will be given the option of taking up a fibre-to-the-premises connection. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher says it was always the Coalition’s intention to upgrade the NBN to full fibre when the initial rollout was completed.

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NBN CO LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

States take tentative steps to reopen borders

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Original article by Tom Burton, Finbar O’Mallon
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 23-Sep-20

The South Australian government has advised that New South Wales residents will be able to visit the state again, with border restrictions to be lifted from midnight on 23 September. The Queensland government will in turn expand its "border bubble" with NSW from 1 October, which will allow people in an additional five local government areas in northern NSW to travel to Queensland with a permit. NSW recorded two new coronavirus cases on 22 September, and the state has had no mystery cases for five consecutive days.

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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’.

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

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.

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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.

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MASTER BUILDERS AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, ACTU

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.

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LINKEDIN CORPORATION

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.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

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%).

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

Time to get back to work: PM

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Original article by Geoff Chambers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 18-Sep-20

The federal government will introduce stricter mutual obligation rules for JobSeeker recipients as part of its push to get more people into the workforce. The unemployed will have to apply for up to eight jobs a month from 28 September; this had been reduced to just four jobs per month in August, compared with 20 prior to the coronavirus pandemic. However, mutual obligation requirements will remain suspended in Victoria for the time being. The government will also require JobSeeker recipients to accept any offer of ‘suitable work’, while the ‘work-for-the-dole’ program will resume.

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