O75 Public Administration

Telstra offers affected staff 14 days’ leave pay

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 12-Mar-20

The ACTU has urged the federal government to underwrite two weeks’ paid leave for all permanent, casual and contract workers who are directly affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The proposal has been rejected by employers’ group and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter. Meanwhile, Telstra has advised that all employees whose jobs mean they cannot work from home – such as technicians and store staff – will receive 14 days of paid leave if they are forced to self-isolate or must care for children due to the closure of schools or child-care centres. Less than 10 per cent of Telstra staff cannot work from home.

CORPORATES
ACTU, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS, SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS

Health minister says Australia cannot predict how many will die from coronavirus

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Original article by Melissa Davey
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 12-Mar-20

The global death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 4,607; more than 125,000 people worldwide have been diagnosed with the respiratory illness, including 129 in Australia. Meanwhile, Health Minister Greg Hunt stresses that it is too soon to predict the mortality rate in Australia or the number of people who will become infected. Some projections have suggested that up to 400,000 Australians could die, but virology experts argue that there is still not enough data for accurate modelling of the virus’s likely impact.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH

Over 2.4 million Australians looking for work following summer of bushfires along Australia’s east coast

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Mar-20

The latest data for the Roy Morgan employment series shows that 12,913,000 Australians were employed in February 2020, up 739,000 from a year ago. The rise was driven by a significant increase in full-time employment of 514,000 over the last year (to 8,673,000), and an increase of 225,000 in part-time employment (to 4,105,000). The figures also show that 1,174,000 Australians (8.3% of the workforce) were unemployed in February, down 118,000 on a year ago, with the unemployment rate falling 1.3%. An additional 1,269,000 Australians (9% of the workforce) were under-employed, working part-time and looking for more work, up 113,000 (or 0.4%) over the last year. In total, 2,443,000 Australians (17.3% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in February, down 5,000 on a year ago. Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 8.3% for February is higher than the current ABS estimate for January of 5.3%. Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that more Australians are working than ever before and 67.1% of Australians of working age are now in the workforce – up 2% points on a year ago and a two-and-a-half year high.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

PM’s cash splash to save jobs

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Original article by Simon Benson, Geoff Chambers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 12-Mar-20

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is confident that all necessary legislation for the federal government’s economic stimulus package will be passed in the last sitting week of Parliament prior to the Budget in May. The package will cost almost $18bn in total, in addition to the government’s $2.4bn health plan in response to the coronavirus. Small and medium enterprises will be a focus of the package; they will receive a cash payout of between $2,000 and $25,000, plus a wage subsidy to ensure that they continue to employ apprentices. The threshold for the instant asset write-off will be increased from $30,000 to $150,000. The stimulus package will rule out a Budget surplus for 2019-20.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Fast cash to calm virus storm

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Original article by Simon Benson, Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 10-Mar-20

Cabinet’s expenditure review committee is set to approve the federal government’s economic stimulus package within days. Prime Minister Scott Morrison will use a speech on 10 March to argue that the stimulus must be targeted and position both the domestic economy and the federal budget to rebound when the coronavirus crisis is over. He will also urge large companies to support their employees, customers and suppliers, and to ensure that small businesses are paid promptly. National Australia Bank’s chief economist Alan Oster says the package must be worth at least $10bn and should include measures such as a business investment allowance and income tax cuts.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB

Lockheed refuses to lock in locals for subs

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 2 : 10-Mar-20

Lockheed Martin will provide the AN/BYG-1 combat control system for Australia’s new fleet of submarines. The entire submarine project is expected to cost $80 billion, with the combat system tipped to account for around 40 per cent of its cost. France’s Naval Group stated in February that it would commit to giving 60 per cent of the work on the submarines’ design and construction to Australian firms, but Lockheed Martin is unwilling to give a similar commitment in terms of the percentage of work that Australian firms might secure for the combat system.

CORPORATES
LOCKHEED MARTIN AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NAVAL GROUP

Flash crash pushes Aussie to an 11-year low

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Original article by William McInnes
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 33 : 10-Mar-20

The Australian dollar fell by 4.6 per cent to an intra-day low of $US0.6312 during a 20-minute period in local trading on 9 March. It was the currency’s lowest level since early March 2009, as growing concern about the coronavirus weighed on financial markets. Sean Callow of Westpac says the sell-off appears to have been driven by Japanese investors exiting their Australian dollar positions, with the ‘flash crash’ coinciding with a rally in the yen against the greenback. The Australian dollar rebounded to around $US0.6550 late in the local trading session.

CORPORATES
WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC

RBA may need $30b in bonds for a shot at QE, says Deutsche Bank

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Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 10-Mar-20

Deutsche Bank economist Phil O’Donaghoe does not expect quantitative easing to be necessary in response to the coronavirus. He says another official interest rate cut in April and the federal government’s stimulus package should result in a 2019-20 Budget deficit of about 1.2 per cent of GDP. However, O’Donaghoe warns that if the Reserve Bank of Australia does resort to quantitative easing, it would need to purchase up to $30bn worth of bonds to generate the same macroeconomic stimulus as a rate cut of 25 basis points.

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RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, DEUTSCHE BANK AG

$150bn shares rout as oil crunch sparks panic

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 10-Mar-20

The Australian sharemarket has recorded its biggest one-day fall since the global financial crisis. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 shed 455.6 points or 7.3 per cent to close at 5,760.6 points on 9 March. The local market has now lost 19.6 per cent in less than three weeks. Asian markets were also heavily sold down. Mining and energy stocks have been amongst the hardest hit, with BHP falling 14 per cent and Oil Search down 35 per cent after a big fall in the crude oil price.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX ALL ORDINARIES INDEX, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH

Job sharing: Why Australian businesses should rethink full-time work

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Original article by Killian Plastow
The New Daily – Page: Online : 6-Mar-20

Job sharing has traditionally involved two people with similar skills splitting a full-time job in half. However, the University of New South Wales has called for this arrangement to be revised because of the changing nature of work. It states that future arrangements should allow job-sharing employees to work unequal hours, for senior staff to share jobs with junior colleagues, and for the ‘senior’ work partner to be in charge of decision making. With underemployment being a growing problem in Australia in recent years, Professor Rosalind Dixon from the UNSW says these new job-sharing arrangements would help both those who are working too hard and those who are underemployed.

CORPORATES
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES