O75 Public Administration

Boost for L-NP as unemployment and under-employment both down in August following income tax cut and RBA rate cuts

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 16-Sep-19

Latest data for the Roy Morgan employment series shows that 1.18 million Australians (8.7 per cent of the workforce) were unemployed in August, while an additional 950,000 (7.1%) are under-employed. Unemployment has fallen by 2.3% on a year ago, while under-employment is down 0.9%. The workforce, which comprises employed Australians and those who are unemployed and looking for work, rose year-on-year by 57,000 to 13,473,000. Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said the falls in unemployment and under-employment in August are early signs that consecutive RBA interest rate cuts in June and July, as well as the L-NP Government’s income tax cuts, are providing a post-election boost to the economy.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Family of Iran prison detainee Kylie Moore-Gilbert pin hope on DFAT getting out of Iran

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Original article by Samantha Dick
The New Daily – Page: Online : 15-Sep-19

University of Melbourne lecturer Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been named as the third Australian currently being held in Iran’s Evin prison. Pouria Zeraati, who is the editor of Persian language broadcaster Manoto TV, says Moore-Gilbert was arrested in the 2018 summer, and that she is serving a 10-year jail sentence on unknown charges; Moore-Gilbert is understood to be in solitary confinement. Her family says they have been working closely with the Australian government to try to secure her release. Moore-Gilbert had been lecturing on Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute prior to her arrest.

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UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Minister’s direct plea to Iran

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Original article by Ben Packham, Paige Taylor
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 13-Sep-19

Foreign Minister Marise Payne told parliament on 12 September that the federal government is making continued efforts to get three Australians released from jail in Iran. The three are Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Jolie King and Mark Firkin, with King and Firkin arrested for flying a drone over a military installation. As part of the government’s efforts to get the three released, Payne flew to Bangladesh in the week ending 6 September to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE

Luxury car sales lift and follow rising house prices

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Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 13-Sep-19

Luxury car sales rose for the second month in a row in August, while sales for the year to August increased by 0.6 per cent. However, sales of standard cars fell by 10.1 per cent in August. Nonetheless, the increase in luxury car sales for two months in a row, along with a similar increase in Sydney and Melbourne house prices, has sparked hope that the Australian economy might be on the mend, with Commsec chief economist Craig James saying he thinks "the worst is behind us".

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COMMONWEALTH SECURITIES LIMITED

PM lashes Liu security risk claims as racism

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 13-Sep-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told Parliament he is satisfied Gladys Liu is not a national security risk, while claiming those who questioned her fitness to serve in parliament were racist. Liu has been under the spotlight recently over allegations regarding her connections to organisations in China, one of which is Beijing’s propaganda arm, and Labor and Centre Alliance have both called for her to be investigated. Morrison has declined to answer what steps he took to assure himself that Liu was not a security risk, while Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger said he knew nothing about suggestions raised in a newspaper that ASIO had advised the Liberal Party against pre-selecting Liu.

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

From first lady of Labor to the bench

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Original article by Nicola Berkovic
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 12-Sep-19

The New South Wales government announced the appointment of eight new magistrates to the NSW Local Court on 11 September, with one of the new appointees being Janine Lacy. Lacy is the wife of Mark Latham, who was leader of the federal Labor party when it was defeated heavily by the Howard government in 2004. Latham, who now represents One Nation in the NSW Upper House, said the NSW government had made no contact with him in regard to Lacy’s appointment. Latham said he was confident "she’ll do a great job".

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LOCAL COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY ONE NATION PARTY

Business warns about religious freedom bill

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Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 12-Sep-19

The Australian Industry Group has called for the federal government’s proposed religious freedom bill to be overhauled before it is put to a vote in Parliament. Attorney-General Christian Porter has said the bill does not stop companies from imposing ‘reasonable’ conditions on their staff. However, the AI Group contends the bill gives staff too much latitude in terms of using social media to violate company policies, and that the bill poses "significant" commercial challenges to businesses

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THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT

ALP push for carbon target cut

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Original article by Rosie Lewis Greg Brown
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 12-Sep-19

It is understood that Labor may scrap its policy to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, as Labor continues to review its policies in the wake of its surprise election loss in May. It is believed it is considering replacing that policy with one of having zero net emissions by 2050, with some Labor MPs seemingly of the view that it would be clearer than the ’45 per cent by 2030′ target. Opposition assistant climate change spokesman Pat Conroy claims it is vital that Australia be carbonneutral by 2050.

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Liberal MP Gladys Liu says she was not clear in gaffe-ridden interview

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Original article by Rob Harris
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 12-Sep-19

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong has called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to assure Parliament that Gladys Liu is a "fit and proper person" to be there. Liu, who is the Liberal member of Chisholm and who was born in Hong Kong, has been the subject of allegations that she has links to Chinese propaganda units. In an error-ridden interview with Andrew Bolt on Sky on 10 September, Liu said she could not recall being a member of groups with connections to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department. Liu said in a statement on 11 September that she could have chosen her words better, while she said any suggestion that she was not loyal to Australia was "deeply offensive".

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

The wages explanation you won’t hear from Treasury or the RBA

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Original article by David Peetz
The New Daily – Page: Online : 10-Sep-19

Australian nominal wage growth has been under half the OECD average since 2013, according to Jim Stanford from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work. A senior Treasury official recently suggested low wage growth could be due to workers not changing jobs, while Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has contended caps on civil service pay rises might be another factor. A further factor behind low wage growth that neither Lowe or the Treasury official seemed to take into account is the reduction in worker bargaining power that has resulted from the fall in unionisation over recent decades.

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ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE LIMITED, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA