O75 Public Administration

Joyce warns PM: Nats to cross floor

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Original article by Dennis Shanahan, Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 7-Feb-20

The National Party remains divided in the wake of Barnaby Joyce’s failed bid to oust party leader Michael McCormack. Joyce and two other Nationals MPs have threatened to vote against Coalition bills after opponents of McCormack missed out on portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle. The rebel Nationals are in a position to block Coalition legislation, given that the government has a majority of just two seats in the lower house. Joyce has also criticised a proposal to change the party’s rules governing leadership spills.

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NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Over 15.6 million Australians read magazines in print or online

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 7-Feb-20

Roy Morgan has released the Australian Magazine Readership report for the 12 months to December 2019. A total of 15,644,000 Australians aged 14+ (75.1%) now read magazines in print or online, down 0.6 per cent from a year ago. Readership of print magazines was almost 13.1 million Australians aged 14+ (62.8 per cent), down 3.8% from a year ago. The free ‘Coles Magazine’ remains the most widely-read print magazine, with a readership of 4,573,000 (down 4.8%), while ‘Better Homes & Gardens’ remains the most widely-read paid magazine with a print readership of 1,698,000 million (up 8.4 per cent). Meanwhile, Taste.com.au remains the best-read magazine title across print and digital formats, with a total cross-platform audience of more than 3.1 million (down 2.6 per cent). These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 50,422 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to December 2019.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

First full year since Nine purchase of Fairfax sees audience increases for SMH, The Age and Australian Financial Review

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 7-Feb-20

Roy Morgan has released the latest readership results for Australian newspapers, for the 12 months to December 2019. Now 15.5 million Australians aged 14+ (74.6%) read or access newspapers in an average seven-day period via print or online; this audience increases to 16.6 million (79.7%) when one considers news portals such as news.com.au and the Huffington Post. The standout performer over the past year is again ‘The Australian Financial Review’, which increased its total cross-platform readership by 14.1 per cent to 1,642,000; this was driven by a substantial increase in its digital audience (up 19.9 per cent to 1,402,000). ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ is still Australia’s most widely-read masthead, with a cross-platform audience of 4,303,000, which is up 4.1 per cent on a year ago. Meanwhile, ‘Good Weekend’ remains Australia’s most widely-read newspaper inserted magazine, with print readership of 819,000 (down 21.6 per cent over the last year). These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 50,422 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to December 2019.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Darwin next stop for China evacuees

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Original article by Amos Aikman, Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 7 : 7-Feb-20

The global death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 563, and more than 28,000 people have been diagnosed with the respiratory illness, including 15 in Australia. Meanwhile, the federal government is looking at using Inpex’s former workers’ camp near Darwin to quarantine people returning from China. It is part of a contingency plan in the event that the Christmas Island facility reaches capacity. Some 273 Australian citizens and permanent residents who have been evacuated from Wuhan are currently in quarantine on Christmas Island.

CORPORATES
INPEX CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

Senate to investigate key figures in sports rorts

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Original article by Rob Harris
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 6-Feb-20

The Senate has passed Labor’s motion to hold an inquiry into the so-called sports rorts scandal. Amongst other things, the probe will seek the release of a report into the affair by top bureaucrat Phil Gaetjens. It cleared former cabinet minister Bridget McKenzie of any wrongdoing over the allocation of sports grants, but found that she had breach ministerial standards over her failure to declare her membership of a shooting club that received a grant. Shadow sports minister Don Farrell says McKenzie’s former staffers may want to appear before the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Fire inquiry accepts climate link: Morrison

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 6-Feb-20

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised that former defence force chief Mark Binskin will head the federal government’s bushfires royal commission. Morrison says the inquiry will proceed on the basis that climate change is real and contributed to the scale and severity of the bushfires. National Party leader Michael McCormack says that while human activity has contributed to climate change, it is the role of scientists to determine the extent of this. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in turn has pointed to arson as one of the causes of the bushfires.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

Greens want coal levy to fund more paid firefighters

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Original article by Judith Ireland
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 6-Feb-20

Greens leader Adam Bandt has proposed the introduction of a levy on coal, gas and oil producers. The levy would be priced at $1 per tonne of carbon dioxide and would raise about $1.5bn a year. Most of the proceeds would be used to hire nearly 16,000 additional paid firefighters in metropolitan and rural areas. Bandt says the nation’s firefighters are exhausted by the intensity and duration of the bushfire season. The Australia Institute also called for a levy on fossil fuel producers in late 2019, as part of its proposal for a National Climate Disaster Fund.

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AUSTRALIAN GREENS, THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE LIMITED

RBA optimism boosts dollar

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 17 & 27 : 6-Feb-20

The odds of an official interest rate cut in the near-term have lengthened, with financial market pricing now implying that rates will be on hold until September. Meanwhile, the Australian dollar rebounded from its recent four-month low in response to a speech by Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe on 5 February. He said the bushfires will have little impact on Australia’s overall economic growth in 2020, due to expenditure on recovery programs. However, he conceded that GDP growth will fall in the short-term. Lowe added that it is too soon to determine the likely economic impact of the coronavirus.

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RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Mines, hotels to host evacuees

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Original article by Geoff Chambers, Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 7 : 6-Feb-20

The death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 492, and more than 24,000 people have now contracted the respiratory illness, including 14 in Australia. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned that more Australian citizens and permanent residents will probably need to be evacuated from China. He adds that the federal government may quarantine future evacuees in hotels and mining camps if the Christmas Island facility reaches capacity. Meanwhile, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has told his state counterparts that the virus’s impact on the domestic economy could exceed that of the SARS outbreak in 2003.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Bandt abused PM with deaths claim

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 4 : 5-Feb-20

Adam Bandt has stepped up his attack on the federal government’s environmental credentials after being elected unopposed as the new leader of the Greens. He has claimed that the Coalition’s climate change policy will result in many more deaths than the recent bushfires, as it will result in a 3-degree temperature increase. Bandt also contends that the business models of fossil fuel producers are unsustainable, and he has called for domestic coal-fired power generation and coal exports to be phased out by 2030. Larissa Waters and Nick McKim are the new joint deputy leaders of the Greens.

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AUSTRALIAN GREENS