O75 Public Administration

Real unemployment at 10.3% as L-NP starts new term in Government

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 6-Jun-19

The latest data for the Roy Morgan employment series shows that 11,926,000 Australians were employed in May 2019, down 219,0000 over the past year. The fall in employment was driven by a significant decrease in part-time employment of 375,000 over the past year (to 3,911,000); full-time employment was up by 156,000 (to 8,015,000). The figures also show that 1,369,000 Australians (10.3% of the workforce) were unemployed in May, up 53,000 on a year ago, and the unemployment rate was up by 0.5%. An additional 1,223,000 Australians (9.2% of the workforce) were under-employed, working part-time and looking for more work, a decrease of 28,000 in a year (down 0.1%). In total, 2,592,000 Australians (19.5% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in May, an increase of 25,000 in a year (up 0.4%). Roy Morgan’s real unemployment figure of 10.3% for May is significantly higher than the current ABS estimate for April 2019 of 5.2%. Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the first priority for the re-elected Coalition government is to pass the promised income tax cuts as soon as Parliament resumes. Other legislative priorities should include tackling the ‘cash economy’ which undermines law-abiding businesses, reducing the penalty rates for businesses opening on weekends and public holidays, and cutting the regulatory ‘red tape’ that discourages businesses from hiring new workers.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

Odds of trade accord ‘less than 50pc’: Rudd

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Original article by Mark Ludlow
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 5-Jun-19

Asia Society Policy Institute president and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd says the US and China still have a strategic and economic interest in securing a trade deal. However, Rudd estimates that there is now less than a 50 per cent chance of a trade deal, down from 90 per cent earlier in the year. Rudd added that the US-China trade dispute will be a "particularly challenging time" for Australia’s relationship with China.

CORPORATES
ASIA SOCIETY POLICY INSTITUTE, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

Antitrust woes mount for tech giants

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Original article by Cecilia Kang, David Streitfeld, Annie Karni
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 5-Jun-19

US lawmakers will investigate major digital platforms for possible breaches of anti-trust laws. The House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee will undertake hearings on the issue over the next 18 months, which could lead to a formal investigation by regulators. The Federal Trade Commission would be given the task of investigating possible anti-competitive behaviour by Facebook and Amazon, while Google and Apple would be subject to scrutiny by the Department of Justice. The investigation could potentially result in changes to anti-trust laws.

CORPORATES
UNITED STATES. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, APPLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, UNITED STATES. DEPT OF JUSTICE

GDP forecasts upgraded on record trade surplus

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Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 5-Jun-19

Australia has posted a current account deficit of just $2.9bn for the March quarter, compared with $7.2bn in the previous three months. The trade surplus has risen to a record $13.6bn, with the value of goods and services exports rising by $4.24bn and imports falling by $514m. The trade surplus was bolstered by higher iron ore prices, although iron ore export volumes fell during the quarter. National Australia Bank and BIS Oxford Economics have upgraded their GDP growth forecasts for the March quarter.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, BIS OXFORD ECONOMICS PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

PM: trade war threatens world

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Original article by Jacquelin Magnay
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 5-Jun-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the US-China trade war could undermine the global trading system, with consequences for the living standards of people throughout the world Morrison, who is in the UK to attend services to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day, also said that Britain and Australia have a role to play in the implementation of changes to the World Trade Organization. He added that Australia will continue to have close ties with Britain in the post-Brexit era.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, GREAT BRITAIN. OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Sanjeev Gupta urges Canberra to underwrite energy plan

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Original article by Perry Williams
The Australian – Page: Online : 4-Jun-19

British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta says it is important to have new and competitive sources of power generation before ‘legacy generation’ is phased out. Gupta wants the re-elected Coalition government to expand the scope of its underwriting generation scheme, which Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims first proposed in 2018 as a way of encouraging new sources of power generation. Gupta, who rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration in 2017, wants to build electric cars in Australia.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, LIBERTY HOUSE GROUP, SIMEC

Minimum wage nowhere near keeping pace with rents

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Original article by Killian Plastow
The New Daily – Page: Online : 4-Jun-19

The Fair Work Commission cited a fall in inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index, as the reason for a smaller increase in the minimum wage in 2019 than in 2018. Anglicare executive director Kasy Chambers notes that the CPI is based on a ‘basket of goods’ that does not include rent or housing costs. She says the CPI has only increased by 63 per cent since 1998, while housing costs have risen by 300 per cent over the same period. Australian Bureau of Statistics chief economist Bruce Hockman notes that there are other data sets that examine the sort of housing costs that Anglicare is referring to, but that the CPI was not intended to measure them.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, ANGLICARE AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

Albanese’s team mulls Coalition’s full tax cut agenda

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Original article by Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: Online : 4-Jun-19

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has indicated that Labor would be open to briefly reconvening parliament in June to pass the first stage of the Coalition’s proposed income tax cuts. He adds that Labor will consider the second and third stages on their merits. Labor is unlikely to decide whether to support the full package at its first post-election shadow cabinet meeting on 4 June. Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers says Labor will review its tax policies in the wake of the election loss, but notes that a range of tax concessions cost a lot of money that could be better used elsewhere.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Watchdog to get tough over worker rip-offs

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 5 : 3-Jun-19

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker says the agency will make greater use of enforcement tools as part of its crackdown on employers that underpay their staff. Parker adds that businesses which self-report non-compliance to the FWO should also expected to face penalties, noting that there has been an increase in self-reporting in recent times. Meanwhile, Parker has identified sectors such as fast-food restaurants, cafes, horticulture and franchising as priorities for the FWO in 2019-20.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN

Bruised Labor in race to embrace coal

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Original article by Rosie Lewis, Charlie Peel
The Australian – Page: 4 : 3-Jun-19

Shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon has also taken on the resources portfolio in Labor’s post-election reshuffle. Fitzgibbon has stressed that Labor will continue to support the mining and exporting of coal, adding that Labor will support all mining projects that meet environmental hurdles and do not require taxpayer subsidies. There was a swing of more than 14 per cent against Fitzgibbon in the seat of Hunter, in which coal mining is a key industry.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ADANI MINING PTY LTD