O75 Public Administration

PM defiant in escalating China row

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Original article by Laura Tingle
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 11-Dec-17

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made it clear on the weekend of 10-11 December that he thinks China has been trying to interfere in Australian politics. Some China analysts have suggested that Turnbull might have been wiser to voice his concerns over the issue in private rather than in public, and that he might have been trying to use the issue to score domestic political points. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop believes that the relationship between Australia and China is strong enough to survive the current controversy.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF IMMIGRATION AND BORDER PROTECTION, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION, CHINA. MINISTRY OF COMMERCE

Unions to urge ALP to ease anti-strike rules

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 6 : 8-Dec-17

ACTU secretary Sally McManus has warned that a landmark High Court ruling will make it more difficult for unions to take protected industrial action. The court ruled that lawful industrial action during enterprise bargaining negotiations is not permissible if previous orders of the Fair Work Commission had been breached during the bargaining process. McManus says Australia’s rules on the right to strike are "complex and onerous", and she argues that reforms are needed to make them consistent with the International Labour Organisation’s standards. The ACTU will lobby the Australian Labor Party to pursue changes to the right-to-strike regime.

CORPORATES
ACTU, HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION-FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL, MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES, VICTORIAN INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER TERMINAL PTY LTD, MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA, SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA, VICTORIAN TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, CALTEX AUSTRALIA LIMITED – ASX CTX

Top CEOs admit public trust deficit

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Original article by James Thomson, Michael Smith, Tony Boyd
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 9 : 8-Dec-17

CEOs such as Coca Amatil CEO Alison Watkins say big business needs to do a better job of explaining its contribution to the economy to the general public. Origin Energy CEO Frank Calabria contends that the average Australian has tuned out to both government and big business, while departing Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev says it is important that big business is willing to acknowledge its mistakes. APA Group CEO Michael Cormack says the federal government should stop using big business as a scapegoat for its own mistakes.

CORPORATES
COCA-COLA AMATIL LIMITED – ASX CCL, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, APA GROUP – ASX APA, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, ENERGYAUSTRALIA PTY LTD, SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO

Nation uplifted as marriage bill passes

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Original article by Geoff Chambers, Joe Kelly, Rachel Baxendale
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 8-Dec-17

Same-sex marriage will be legalised in Australia after the private members’ bill of Liberal senator Dean Smith was passed by the House of Representatives on 7 December. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has described it as a "unifying day" for Australians, and he expects the first same-sex marriages to occur in early January. Three Coalition MPs voted against the bill, while Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison are among seven who are believed to have abstained from voting. Several proposed amendments to the bill regarding religious freedom were rejected by the lower house. The bill was passed by the Senate in late November.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, LIBERAL-NATIONAL PARTY OF QUEENSLAND, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF IMMIGRATION AND BORDER PROTECTION

2.394m Australians unemployed or under-employed in November

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 8-Dec-17

A Roy Morgan survey shows that 1.288 million Australians were unemployed (9.8% of the workforce) in November 2017, an increase of 89,000 (up 0.6%) on a year ago. In addition, 1.106 million Australians (8.4% of the workforce) were under-employed, working part-time and looking for more work, a rise of 6,000 in a year. In total, 2.394 million Australians were unemployed or under-employed in November. The figures also show that 11,886,000 Australians were employed in November – an increase of 39,000 over the past year. The Roy Morgan real unemployment figures are substantially higher than the current ABS estimate of 5.4% for October. Roy Morgan executive chairman Gary Morgan says it has now been more than two years, or 26 straight months, that more than two million Australians have been unemployed or under-employed. It is this "slack" in the Australian labour market that is responsible for the low wage growth mentioned by the RBA this week in their Statement explaining their decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 1.5%.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Budget surplus to be brief: PBO

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Original article by David Uren
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 8-Dec-17

Treasurer Scott Morrison has downplayed modelling by the Parliamentary Budget Office which suggests that productivity will need to increase in order to ensure that a Budget surplus is sustained. The Federal Government has forecast that it will post surpluses equivalent to 0.3 per cent of GDP from 2020-21, although this is based on expectations that productivity growth will remain at the long-term average of 1.6 per cent. However, growth in productivity has averaged just 1.35 per cent over the last decade, and the PBO’s analysis has found that the Budget will be "broadly balanced" by 2027-28 unless productivity growth improves.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICE, AUSTRALIA. PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Indonesians are far more confident than their Australian neighbours

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 8-Dec-17

Consumer Confidence in Australia and its largest neighbour Indonesia has diverged massively since the height of the Australian mining boom in 2010-11. Indonesian Consumer Confidence soared following the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09, and while the ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence Rating improved significantly it has never reached the heights of its northern neighbour. In October 2017 Roy Morgan Indonesian Consumer Confidence was at 153.8, more than 40pts above the figure for ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence for the same month of 113.3, although Australian Consumer Confidence has improved slightly over the past few weeks and is now at 115.8. However, in the years 2007-2010 Consumer Confidence in Australia and Indonesia was relatively similar and Australian Consumer Confidence was in fact higher throughout 2007, only dipping below Indonesian Consumer Confidence in mid-2008 as it reached a quarterly low of 94.4 in the December 2008 quarter.

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

High Court removes strike protections in landmark ruling

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 7-Dec-17

A landmark ruling of the High Court of Australia has major implications for unions regarding negotiations over enterprise bargaining agreements. The court ruled that unions are not permitted to take protected industrial action while EBA negotiations are underway if the union had previously breached an order of the Fair Work Commission regarding that bargaining. The Australian Workers’ Union had argued that unions are only required to comply with current rather than past orders of the FWC. The ruling could potentially result in the AWU being required to pay significant damages to Esso over strike action at the Longford gas plant in Victoria in 2015.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION-FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL, MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES, HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, ESSO AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN MINES AND METALS ASSOCIATION (INCORPORATED)

First Greens MP to hold ALP to account

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Original article by Sarah Elks
The Australian – Page: 4 : 7-Dec-17

The Australian Labor Party is set to be returned to office in Queensland after securing the 47 seats it needs to form government. The Liberal-National Party has won 39 seats to date, but Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls has yet to concede defeat. Katter’s Australian Party has won three seats in state parliament, while Michael Berkman will become the state’s first Greens MP. Berkman has indicated that he will seek to revoke Adani’s licence to develop the Carmichael coal mine.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL-NATIONAL PARTY OF QUEENSLAND, KATTER’S AUSTRALIAN PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, ONE NATION PARTY, ADANI MINING PTY LTD, ELECTORAL COMMISSION OF QUEENSLAND

PM seeks more scalps as Labor refers duals

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Original article by David Crowe
The Australian – Page: 1 & 7 : 7-Dec-17

The High Court will determine whether Australian Labor Party MPs David Feeney and Katy Gallagher are eligible to be in federal parliament due to dual citizenship concerns. Labor advised on 6 December that it will refer the matter to the court, and it is facing growing pressure over three of its other MPs. The Federal Government is seeking the support of crossbenchers in the lower house to also refer Justine Keay, Susan Lamb and Josh Wilson to the court. Labor in turn believes that a number of Coalition MPs should be referred to the High Court.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, NICK XENOPHON TEAM, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET