O75 Public Administration

Lambie piles pressure on Setka to quit CFMEU

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 25-Jul-19

The federal government’s Ensuring Integrity Bill is slated to be put before the Senate later in 2019. Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has indicated that she may be prepared to vote for the bill if John Setka does not step down as the Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union. Lambie has raised her concerns about Setka with ACTU president Michele O’Neil. The government has amended the bill in response to concerns raised by Labor, but Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick believes that further changes are needed.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, ACTU, CENTRE ALLIANCE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF JOBS AND SMALL BUSINESS, AUSTRALIA. REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS COMMISSION, ONE NATION PARTY

Top bureaucrat’s warning on threat to living standards

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Original article by Simon Benson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 25-Jul-19

The Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet’s outgoing secretary Martin Parkinson says Australia’s productivity growth has fallen below global standards. He warns that growth in Australia’s living standards will decline over the next decade unless action is taken to boost productivity. Parkinson adds that political instability and policy uncertainty may have contributed to the fall in productivity over the last decade.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

PM’s next quiet revolution

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Original article by Simon Benson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 25-Jul-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed plans for a major overhaul of the federal public service, which will include a push for cultural and organisational change. Amongst other things, the reforms will result in increased accountability for senior public servants. The sweeping reforms will coincide with the departure of Martin Parkinson, who will retire as secretary of the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet in August. Parkinson stresses that he has a good personal and professional relationship with Morrison.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

CFMEU slapped with $65m in penalties

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 24-Jul-19

The federal government has released data showing that the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime & ­Energy Union has incurred about $65m worth of legal costs and court fines for breaching workplace laws since 2004. This includes court penalties totalling $28.6m in Victoria, with the bulk of these penalties having been incurred in cases involving controversial state secretary John Setka. The government’s Ensuring Integrity Bill will be put before the lower house on 24 July, and is aimed at making it easier to deregister unions and other registered organisations.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ELECTRICAL TRADES UNION, ACTU, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence up to 116.3

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 24-Jul-19

ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence rose 0.3% to 116.3 in the week ended 21 July. The financial and economic conditions subcomponents were positive, implying the detail was better than the headline suggested. Households’ views towards current financial conditions rose 2.8%, while views towards future financial conditions were up 0.3%; both indices are comfortably above their respective long-term average. Consumers’ views toward current economic conditions rose 3.4% and views toward future economic conditions rose 1%. The ‘time to buy a household item’ index was the only subindex that fell, dropping 4.4%. The four-week moving average for inflation expectations was flat at 4.0%, though weekly inflation expectations rose for the third consecutive week.

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

Today 2 million Foxtel subscribers are set to gain access to Netflix

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 24-Jul-19

New research from Roy Morgan shows 13.355 million Australians now have access to either Netflix or Foxtel via a household subscription to either service equivalent to nearly two-thirds (64.4%) of all Australians aged 14+. Of the 13.355 million subscribers a majority of over two-fifths (62.6%) only have Netflix access, a further 23% (3 million) have access to both and 2 million (14.4%) only have Foxtel access. Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says the tie-up between Subscription TV giants Foxtel and Netflix set to be announced today carries opportunities for both: "Enabling the 5 million Australians with household access to Foxtel to view the streaming service through their Foxtel IQ box is a solid defensive measure for Foxtel to help prevent existing subscribers ditching the service to move to cheaper alternatives and provides an extra incentive for new users to sign up. The more Foxtel can be regarded as the ‘gateway’ to video content from the likes of Netflix, and perhaps other rival services in future, the more access Foxtel will gain to detailed user data metrics that will help them tailor their services, and advertising, to individual viewing preferences and the more valuable their service will in turn be to advertisers looking for an audience."

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Donald Trump grants his second state dinner at White House to Scott Morrison

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Original article by
abc.net au – Page: Online : 24-Jul-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will attend a state dinner at the White House on 20 September, as part of an official visit to the US. It will the second state dinner that President Donald Trump has hosted, and the first to be attended by an Australian prime minister since John Howard in 2006. The White House has released a statement saying that the visit will celebrate the "close friendship and shared history" of the two nations.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Ambition fulfilled for Boris Johnson. But what next for Britain?

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Original article by Heather Stewart, Jessica Elgot
The Guardian – Page: Online : 24-Jul-19

Britain’s incoming prime minister Boris Johnson says he is committed to the Brexit deadline of 31 October. Johnson will succeed Theresa May after defeating Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Party’s leadership ballot. Johnson gained 92,153 votes, well clear of Hunt with 46,656 votes. Some MPs have indicated that Johnson has said that he will not call an election before the Brexit deadline, although it is believed that he has not ruled out dissolving parliament before the next general election in 2022.

CORPORATES
GREAT BRITAIN. OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, CONSERVATIVE PARTY (GREAT BRITAIN)

RBA to look past weak GDP in June quarter

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Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 23-Jul-19

Economists expect that annualised GDP growth will be less than that recorded in the March quarter when figures for the June quarter are released. IFM Investors’ chief economist Alex Joiner says the expected weak result could explain why the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to cut interest rates in June and July. The RBA and the federal government are expected to look at other economic data in preference to the June GDP figures when deciding whether further monetary or fiscal stimulus is needed.

CORPORATES
IFM INVESTORS PTY LTD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Super is about unions rather than our retirement

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Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 12 : 23-Jul-19

Australia’s superannuation system is now valued at $2.8 trillion, but parliament has yet to agree on what it is for. The current federal government tried a few years ago to enact a bill that would define the purpose of superannuation, but it was never passed. The main aim of superannuation should be to help people to provide for themselves in retirement, but cynics would suggest that the ‘real’ beneficiaries include fund managers, superannuation and financial planning associations, the union movement and the Labor party. It is little wonder that all these groups want the superannuation guarantee to be increased to 12 per cent, as has been legislated, although some government MPs are now against this idea.

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY